Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on Sunday said that President Biden “agrees with” the reconciliation package’s $3.5 trillion price tag after she reportedly urged him against straying too far from that figure amid centrists putting up a fight over it.
Goodness, I’m not used to so many genuinely new stories on TPM on a Sunday.
More, please!!!
Jayapal is a great communicator. More of her, please.
Also, the tenor is different in all of them (even the Coons story). Not a Gloomin’ one among 'em…
…and, about Jayapal…not all Americans are policy wonks, soooo…explain/explain/explain
0.35 trillion per year is still a lot of cash
Not compared to the Pentagon’s budget.
Or GOP tax cuts for billionaires.
BBB is chump change.
No one ever said Biden did not agree with the number, it is his agenda, but he is aware of the fact that he might not get everything he wants. Grownups usually understand that. Why do people try to create controversy where there is none?
I posted a story earlier today on TPM - other thread - where only 10% of Americans know what’s in the BBB and other bills that Congress is trying to pass (or not, as the case may be).
The messaging is failing yet again, entirely too many stories about the financing and too little about what it is they’re trying to finance.
Yay for the media, who don’t care about content, just controversy.
Not to mention what someone upthread mentioned about how little this really is, compared to a lot of other stuff that passes without so much as a mention.
It’d almost make me think they have some investment in making the administration look ineffective.
Or long for Donnie’s 24/7 controversy and abuse.
Da-liver da letter da sooner da better
Da later da letter da madder da getter…
Get on with it already…
Over in the editorial column Josh summarizes David Schor’s “centrist,” supposedly “pragmatic” advice to Ds: find policies that poll really well and focus on them
The infuriating thing is that Biden’s BBB bill polls really well. Joe Biden–that’s right, Camaro Joe–has the enthusiastic support of progressives. And a tiny handful of “centrist” supposedly “pragmatic” Ds–the kind of Ds that David Schors says should be determining the party’s direction–are instead determined to torpedo Biden’s popular agenda, and thereby bring about the massacre in 2022 that their “centrism” was supposedly going to avoid.
I don’t remember any of them ever commenting yay or nay on TFG’s abysmal numbers.
Of course they didn’t - if they ignore it, it’ll go away. Just like Biden’s improvement.
I guess it was just taken for granted that his abysmal policies wouldn’t excite a groundswell of support among the folks who weren’t benefiting from his term in office.
I suppose a headline based on how many were hoodwinked or haters wouldn’t sell enough copy.
I can suppose that was the line used to justify this species of ‘cenrism;’ although, to me, it seems more intent on finding common cause with, and furthering the agenda of, the Democrats’ opposition.
They really strike me as what might be termed ‘Chamber of Commerce’ Democrats, and their day has passed.
It might be because most people in the US don’t have much direct experience with bargaining. Maybe when negotiating a raise or shopping for a car, although even that has been minimized in recent years with online buying. People are used to fixed prices for things. It’s not like village markets in Central and South America where I used to shop for food when I was working down there, where literally everything has an indeterminate price based on your negotiating skills.
The idea that 3.5 trillion is a starting point for negotiation somehow doesn’t sink in. And of course the media is happy to jump on a narrative that Biden’s agenda has somehow failed if it’s a penny less than that.
96 to 98% of Ds are in agreement but the media line is they are in disarray. WTF
And BBB does so much more for so many more people, makes working and family life better and more rewarding, brings more fairness and health to American life, gives a hint again at the American Dream.