I will get 100,000 disagreements with the idea of Biden replicating what FDR did with Fireside Chats.
Nevertheless, the BeltWay Boys getting to Manufacture Reality into Donald Trump’s new campaign constrains me to at least:
Hope for a Fireside Chat EQUIVALENT for Joseph Biden
Texas pays $400 per month per child for foster care. Eight foster kids should bring in $3,200 monthly. My state of Minnesota pays between $641-$898 per child. My sister is going to adopt her fostercare grandchild and the foster care payments will keep up after the adoption. Then she receives the child tax credit of $250 monthly. If under 6 years old, it’s $300 monthly. I’m sure the Texas family is reaping a nice monthly child tax credit check also.
If the house doesn’t get a commitment from the senate on passing BBB and they send over BIB then BBB is dead. Manchin is not to be trusted. Jayapal has been fishing for a statement from Biden that he has been promised 50 votes for BBB in the senate but I don’t even trust that. Manchin would find a way to throw the president under the bus for his own aspirations and ambitions.
The reality is the senate needs to physically pass BBB before the house sends over BIB. I hope the progressives hold out.
Welfare and socialism for me but not for thee.
More like Trump would have sent out tweets saying “created 5 million jobs - more than any President in history”
Then CNN would fact check him that the 5 million jobs he created isn’t actually a record and then Trump would laugh his ass off in private
No. Next question.
… seriously. They are going to tank it. I hope I’m proven wrong though.
They will also sabotage and destroy Voting Rights. They will hide behind the filibuster. Under no circumstances is that fucker Manchin to be trusted. This is where we are. You give up the leverage by sending BIB to senate and it’s over.
As much as I want to see the House move on these bills, especially the infrastructure bill, I sure as heck would want the CBO analysis first on the BBB bill before being told to vote for it, especially if I was representing a swing district.
None of these Representatives should put themselves - or the Congressional majority - in jeopardy by having voted for a BBB bill that CBO then later determines increases the national debt. It will kill them, and the Democratic Majority, to have done that.
If there is anyone to blame for this delay - and I’m not sure there is - it’s the progressive caucus that keeps insisting on adding more spending. That additional spending might be just what we would like to see, but it is… don’t hold your breath here… additional spending and it has to be paid for.
Since the Tuesday election fiasco, there had been some hope that the “progressive caucus” had learned a lesson about how to lose the country in 9:short months. They may be able to push Joe Biden around - and Nancy Pelosi, too! - but they will find that pushing around Speaker McCarthy will not be so easy.
So, I think Nancy should regain control by canceling the House “holiday”. No one goes home until there’s a vote on each bill.
It’s almost like some people don’t know how legislating works (or they don’t really care). But just look at the stark differences here between the parties and their vision. The Dems are trying to pass a broad swath of truly big and bold packages, addressing infrastructure, climate change, health care, family support, etc. When the GOP held the Executive branch and both houses of Congress, their big initiative was…repeal Obamacare (which failed) and…a tax cut for the wealthy.
The two parties are worlds apart on their vision and ambition for the country. One side has no interest in legislating at all while the other is trying to pick up the slack and pass everything the others won’t even attempt. One side is an empty suit, filled with hate, bigotry and fear. The other side at least has a message of hope and strength, but that vision always gets obscured by nonsense when reported in the media.
As a life long Democrat I can say that I no longer care about BBB or Infrastructure bills. The Democrats have already demonstrated that they are not going to substantially help the average person. They cut all of that out of the BBB. Sure they will give a few cents out as they nibble on the edges of our desperation, but no way will they help.
They have not helped ever since Clinton was in office. Even the ACA kept ridiculously high prescription costs.
It didn’t seem to matter to the moderates for the BIB. The truth is the moderates are much more likely to get swept out in a red-wave election when our base is demoralized by these kind of delay tactic shenanigans.
Regardless of whether it actually does end up increasing the national debt, the GOP is going to try to paint the Dems as if it did. In reality, the public will never know or care if the BBB affects the debt. The debt is not something that will ever directly impact their lives in a tangible way that they can point and say that “The Debt!” was the cause.
But if you can put some more money in people’s pockets, if you can improve their air and water quality, they are liable to maybe take note of that. The debt is certainly something that economists and legislators should take into account, but no voter is truly going to vote for or against someone over “The Debt!” It’s just too abstract to be a real rallying cry. Anyone trying to make that argument in Congress is either a fool or using it as an excuse for their true reasons for opposing a bill.
A lot of people have not been paying all or part of their rent over the past year. The end of the moratorium on evictions comes as we are going into winter. France has long had a ban on wintertime evictions. Is French winter that much harsher?
You are exactly right that the moderates will be swept out of office, but their losses will reduce the Democrats to a sliver of the American electorate and a toothless minority in the Congress. The simple fact is that without the moderates and their swing districts, this country belongs to Donald Trump and his Fascist caucus. Jayapal and AOC will find out that no one cares what they think about anything when they are tagged with having put the Republicans in power, and Donald Trump on the cusp of dictatorship.
It is precisely because of this that everything needs to be done to prevent the Republicans from having easy targets. It is precisely because of this that the progressives should know that you don’t insist on the biggest package of changes at one time ever when you have the smallest majority possible. The hubris represented by their “strategy” will turn to ashes in their mouths. Unfortunately, those ashes wil the the residue of the democracy we once had.
With all deference, I don’t think you are right in saying that in suburban America it won’t hurt Democratic candidates to be defending laws that increase the national debt. More importantly, the Democrats who have to run for election don’t agree with you on that. And by the way, neither does Joe Biden who has tried to immunize Democrats from that charge by promising from the beginning that the bills would not increase the deficit. By the way, I wish you were right!
Well, we know Manchin and sinema, the ones who need to meet with their constituents the most will not be doing that. Not even at the holiday parade.
Their primary job is to legislate. And they have, collectively thus far, failed to complete that task. Keeping them all in office for the holiday may not produce the bill, but it does show the American people that the dems are serious about passing the damn bill.
Manchin and sinema notch another win every day
they delay the passage of the bill. If any dems have a heart attack over the break - all this ends. The window closes.
They are on the backfoot. We are so close. Republicans would say they will stay in session and Get. It. Done. And all of a sudden, just before the planes were supposed to leave there would be a sudden resolution to all those vexing issues.
Why dont dems have the same resolve?
That will matter to Joe Manchin when Biden is at 60%.
I’ve just got to say that the Democratic members of Congress have really impressed me by their ability to keep hanging in there, month after month after month, “agreement” after “agreement” after “agreement” (none of which ultimately get agreed to), and still continue to try to get a bill together that will eventually pass.
I can barely even stand to read the updates on where things stand anymore.
A backhanded complement has seldom been more sincerely delivered nor earned.
If you listen to the noisy Christian Nationalists, the goal is to take back their country. A divided country unites when it is attacked by an external enemy, but when a domestic group is doing the attacking not so much. Manchin embraces division when he says he’d be happy with “zero”, i.e. the Christian Nationalist position on Welfare Queens, Lobster Surfers, and Obama-Phone Owners. All this is code for tossing roughly 20 million people in the workforce to the curb. It is not just racist and un-American, it is very wasteful for a modern advanced economy.
I’m just not, so you know, I cannot accept our economy or basically our society moving toward an entitlement mentality, I’m more of a rewarding, because I can help those who are going to need help if those who can help themselves do so.