The Biden administration made a deal with moderate Democrats Wednesday on the $1,400 direct checks in the COVID-19 stimulus package which has many observers baffled by the political calculus.
Americans needed these checks weeks ago…
Because they can, I guess.
Well. Damn.
Dumb fucking ten-generations-inbred hillbilly wants Republicans to win. He certainly lives up to being as big a fucking moron as most West Virginians I ever met in the service.
Sorry TPM, stop parroting NYT. They are not “moderates”. They are corporatists. Anyone who votes to confirm Bill Barr and Kavanaugh is far from “moderate”. He is a Dominionist.
I made too much to get a Trump check at all, but the expanded UI delivered far more value to me when I was put on 6-month furlough.
I would have barely gotten anything from these Biden checks, but shortening the threshold as they have cuts me off totally. But doing the math, the re-expanded UI would again be far more valuable to me should I be furloughed again or worse.
Keeping the UI amount as-is is the big key, esp. if there’s a pothole and employment drops again. Plus the child credit is huge. Granted I wouldn’t have shrunk the threshold anyway, but you play with the cards you have, and 50 is all the Dems have. It sucks, but the alternative is Majority Leader McTurtle giving all of us $0.
I’m not happy that they’re caving to Manchin. They should’ve dared him not to vote for it. Stupid.
Gonna need his vote again in the future.
Yeah, and they’ll cave again. Would he really have voted against it? I don’t think so.
And then Mitch McConnell says “Hey Joe, become and Independent. Caucus with us Republicans. We will treat you right and your input will be listened too and seen as worthy.” They HAVE to keep Manchin with the party. If, God Willing, we take the Senate in 2022 with a few more seats, then it is a different ballgame, but for now, Manchin has to be happy enough to stay a Democrat.
It appears that Manchin and Sinema are consciously working at cross purposes with the Biden and the Democrats, the question is why?
If the Supreme Court further guts the 1965 voting rights act Sinema reelection will be directly impacted and she’ll lose the next election, if she somehow isn’t aware of that fact she should be.
I honestly don’t know what motivates Manchin to do the seemingly stupid things he repeatedly does, even he must know that there is no compromise with this iteration of the GOP and their take no prisoners, insurrectionist view of America.
Yet both blather on about debate and compromise when there is in reality none to be had.
The Democrats need to end the filibuster if they actually want to get anything done for this country, there is really no other option available other than GOP intransigence and endless whining about issues that don’t matter to the proper running of this country.
Manchin is a good example of a politician stuck in triangulation processes that have been tried and failed.
Good example of bad ideas that are zombies.
When we won Georgia, Joe Scarborough made a comment, something like Congratulations Joe Manchin, the most powerful man in the senate.
I scoffed…🤦🏻
Ok. So they do. This was a pretty ambitious bill, and if the coin landed on its side $15 m/w would’ve been included. Then Manchin might’ve gotten his lb of flesh instead of his oz.
Look, it’s realpolitik. But Manchin is playing the long game. Token to his conserva-dem rep which gets him elected as a D in the reddest of states, BUT more importantly shows Biden there will be much in the fabled, upcoming infrastructure bill (Not to be confused with “Infrastructure WeekTM”) for WV. The Charlestown-Smithers light rail will be a thing of beauty.
But seriously, you can’t call out the Republicans for marching in lockstep, and then begrudge a D senator for using leverage for his constituency.
And, to be honest, I think it’s the wrong play, but I can see Why.
To add: I don’t think Biden has a problem with it. I would bet he saw it coming. Furthermore, I bet he loved hashing this out, as I’ll bet when he was a Senator he had to sit in the Oval and play whatever loosing hand he had for all he could get just like Manchin, but now he’s Joe.
JFC… Many, many, many people who made $80k in 2019 lost their jobs in 2020!!
Why appease these “centrists” with nothing to show for it?
Bad move on the Keynesian economic stimulus merits.
Even worse move on the political merits: Trump gave more people more money! What is 2022 going to look like, you “centrist” fools?!
Manchin needs a comeuppance and every single Dem Senator in the Senate should be working towards setting him up to suffer one ASAP. This was about nothing other than him flexing his newfound power and he needs to pay a price for it…a STEEP price…and be taught a lesson.
Frankly, I don’t blame Biden for just wanting to get it done and get it out there to start helping people. The number of people helped is virtually arbitrary anyway. But I am going to run out of patience real fucking quick if this becomes the new normal…Manchin trying to play Mr. Bigdick just so he can go back to his shithole state and pretend he gave them a big dog in the Senate. Biden needs to remind who the real big dog is, stifle his incessant yipping and force him to expose his throat.
LBJ would have cut Manchin’s balls off.
There is no more certain way to doom the party than to let it be lead by ‘moderates’.
Yes. Families making $160,000+ get nothing. Cry me a river.
They’re not essential workers. Most are voters who were happy to take their tax cuts. Happy to take the generous Covid payments Nancy Pelosi engineered last year. Happy to support Trump in two elections. And happy to tell pollsters that the election was stolen.
There’s no political mystery in this to me. And whining about a minor concession in what Pelosi has called a “spectacular” piece of legislation that will be enacted without a SINGLE Republican vote is childish.