To the dismay of a large swath of Senate Democrats, they may only manage to extend the enhanced child tax credit another year in the reconciliation bill. Many are still fighting that possibility in favor of a longer run.
Everything about Dems always has to be viewed the lens of defeat, right?
Yeah, it’s fucking annoying as hell. And of course, will contribute to voters not being motivated to vote. We have an election next month here in VA.
The senate is a broken institution as all this legislative twisting and writhing to get overwhelmingly popular legislation through demonstrates but by the same token there is not much point in excessive political calculation: push for everything you can get and publicize the hell out of the positives.
And right there is the problem: Dems cannot market themselves. They know damn well the Media Whores are not going to help, but they often insist on sitting patiently and saying, “Well, uh, you know, uh, Chuck, that characterization of policies is, uh, well, it’s just incorrect…” and by that point, eyes are glassed over and the viewer has moved on.
What I would not give for a Rod Steiger in “Mars Attacks!” approach: “You have to nuke 'em and nuke 'em now!!”
I would love to see a situation where Joe and Kyrsten have to sit that and listen to a presentation on Child Tax Credit, and what happens at $150K vs $60K. How many people who get all kinds of assistance that don’t work vs those who do.
I want to watch a tag team of Warren, Brown from the Senate and AOC, with Katie Porter and her white board from the House give both Joe and Kyrsten an education.
Did we not read the same article?
“ I can tell you that as an immigrant with a single parent, struggling to make ends meet, if my mother could have gotten even $20 a month for each of the three kids, we would not have run out of money at the end of the month, which we regularly did,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told TPM. “That’s what this is for millions of families in our country.”
“Nothing’s politically impossible when corporate interests beckon and Republicans do their bidding,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told TPM. “But I think so many families will say, ‘how dare you take this?’”
That’s good solid messaging about what’s in the bill (not just the top line cost) and a demonstration of dems willingness to fight.
The article itself, was also super useful in repeating the actual cutoffs for each version of the credit (i.e. people with 400k salaries are not getting the credit)
Now, if the Dems gave as much of a shit about all the other folks scraping by in life.
First dude up at the townhall last night was a guy with two kids, griping about childcare costs because he wants more kids but, y’know, there’s the mortgage and all that.
So he’s already got two, owns a house, has a nice job and everything. Meanwhile there are tons of people out there barely scraping by and figuring out how to pay their next rent check (which is money down the drain, no equity building for them).
And shit-all for assistance being proposed by the Dems for them.
Gee, here’s a concept: How about passing the voting bills to protect democracy and — wait for it — prevent a wholly gerrymandered Rethugliklan takeover.
And how, exactly, do you suggest that the Senate Dems get those bills past the inevitable GQP filibuster?
Kill the filibuster once and for all. (Little joke there.)
And how does that happen?
I guess you didn’t get my joke. Too subtle?
BTW I have no faith in Congress to do anything for “the people” anymore. Unless, of course, you count corporations who, I’ve been told, are people too.
Let me sum up this whole problem with one short comment, fuck Joe Manchin.
While I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good this is barely good. It is imperative that Ds pick up at least two senate seats next year to cancel out Manchenema. More would be even better.
Everybody, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, everybody, in Washington DC believes we are going to lose the Congress in 2022. The belief is based on history. It is becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Dear Democratic Asshats, if you lose both houses of Congress, nothing you put into law will matter.
Negativity encourages lazy thinking, especially if the premise of the Democratic Party is positive actions to help people.
The thing is…it also looks so much more authoritative. for the NaySayers
For Boo Birds
For BeltWay Boys
TFG is not on the ballot next year. His cult comes out for him; remember what happened in 2018. Ds can’t count on it happening again so work, and good candidates, are necessary.
My Mom is now a faceboot loon gop. Years ago, the gop floated a mandatory 10% savings plan for poor people. My Mom thought it was a great idea to force those lazy (almost certainly Black) bastards to save.
We were dirt poor when I was growing up and didn’t reach lower middle class till I was almost out of high school. I asked my Mom where she’d have gotten that 10% from, given that every dime of both paychecks were spent before they hit the bank. She had no answer.