Biden infrastructure/tax increase megathread

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Good for him. I personally think that Democrats should run a campaign of infrastructure and stimulus checks for the midterms since both of those were popular and Republicans hate all of them.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

"These talks had been a long shot to begin with,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Axios. "Manchin informed us in the last meeting that reconciliation is probably the route he’s going down."

"We do not have any meeting scheduled that I know of, not at this point."

....

Last Wednesday, in their most recent — and potentially final — bipartisan meeting, Manchin revealed just how far along he was with Schumer.

Once the senators processed what Manchin told them — and read his public comments — many of them concluded that the bipartisan talks were actually over.

Axios article link

This is great to see. It is from Republican Senators so it could be wrong. I do think everyone wants a deal, Manchin has some stuff he agrees with the Democrats on. I really hope this helps the US achieve its emissions reduction targets. Democrats have to know that they will definitely lose without passing a major bill, and more importantly, they are unlikely to have another chance for years. From the sound of it, Manchin's deal with Schumer could pass the Senate-he may have agreed to keep most Trump tax cuts but use a 15% minimum corporate tax rate, so Sinema could agree to it too. I just hope they can fit it in time-wise, the gun talks should take a back seat to this.

We'll see what happens. Spending trillions right now isn't a good idea but some provisions are good.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

"Limiting prescription drug prices will actually raise prescription drug prices because generics won't have an incentive to undercut the prices of patented drugs if the patented drug prices aren't astronomical enough" sure is an interesting framing, Senator Marshall.

My father works in the pharma industry and apparently the people there honestly don't give a sh**t about the drug negotiations. People underestimate how much orphan drugs cost. If you sell one dose out at $100,000 then you can accept a 50% cut in other revenue. Stocks also make up the difference.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

43 GOP Senators voted against reducing insulin prices. The Democrats will of course refuse to press this because 'when they go low we go high'.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

It's extraordinary what the Democrats have been able to accomplish with such historically thin majorities in government. Compare their record to the very few achievements the Republicans were able to get from 2017 to 2019 despite having more comfortable numbers in the House and Senate and you get a very stark contrast in competence between the two parties.

From 2017-19:

- We passed the most major tax reform bill since 1986
- Passed Deregulation Bills
- Passed the First Step Act
- Passed VA Reform
- Passed a Bill to tackle the Opioid Crises

The first two of those are bad ideas, and as far as I can tell the opioid crisis continued to get worse under Trump's administration, whatever the merits of that bill.

Yes and conservatives like me think the first two bills  were great just like liberals like you think this bill is good .

All true conservatives should support the repeal of the Tax Cuts and Inflation Act (aka: welfare for corporations). Trillions of dollars down the drain, I'm tired of fiscal conservatives getting scammed by businesses who want a handout.

Corporate Tax increases will be passed on to the consumer so no

Company A gets a tax cut so they have, say, 10% more revenue. But, they already send 25% of their revenue into stock buybacks. So they could reduce costs, but instead that just bankrupts the government by giving them more and more money to give to themselves.

Look at Costco. They sell things at how much they need to be a functioning business. They are much cheaper, and the executives still made a lot of money (as it should be).

There's a difference between Capitalism and Martin Skhreli.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Yes and conservatives like me think the first two bills  were great just like liberals like you think this bill is good .

All true conservatives should support the repeal of the Tax Cuts and Inflation Act (aka: welfare for corporations). Trillions of dollars down the drain, I'm tired of fiscal conservatives getting scammed by businesses who want a handout.

Corporate Tax increases will be passed on to the consumer so no

It's irrelevant where it's passed on. As conservatives, our #1 priority should be balancing the budget to pay down the debt. Anything more than that is no more than welfare.

You should have told President Trump that in 2017.

But that makes the far-right's dream world of Cyberpunk2077 harder to achieve!

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

So it's official, every single Republican senator has now voted against reducing inflation.

This bill will do the opposite

There is no economic argument for this. You can certainly claim that it doesn't do much to reduce inflation and it's a politically motivated name, which I agree with (but still support the bill because it does some very basic important things like invest in clean energy independence and reduce the cost of medicine). But it doesn't have any real inflationary measures. It reduces demand and slightly increases supply.

It is a politically motivated name and the fact is inflation really could get worse unless we actually significantly increase aggregate supply or decrease aggregate demand by such a level that it would take a a pretty bad recession to do so .

Imo what needed to be done was :

- We should have created an onshoring tax credit or just pass an border adjustment tax . This would be to bring back supply chains domestically  

- We should have expanded the QBI deduction as that would help small businesses expand which would also mean an increase in aggregate supply

- We need to ramp up energy production including the use of traditional sources

- Pass more bills like CHIPS for other related critical industries (I backed BIF and CHIPS)

Deficits don't help with inflation. The issue with both the Biden and Trump relief bills was that they were throwing money at things, which resulted in a bunch of the money just sitting there or being misused. The IRA is legislation that is what we should have done in the first place.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Is there anyone that still doubts that Nancy Pelosi is the greatest speaker of the house in American history?

I personally think it's time for someone younger. However, she's a master in getting votes and in fundraising.

She definitely deserves credit for this, as does Schumer for getting Manchin back on board. Even if liberals and progressives didn't get anything they wanted. Still a big win for Biden and the Democrats when they were in dare need for one.

That one point is where I disagree. If there's a miracle and Democrats can hold the House, she should have a fifth term if she wants it. I certainly don't expect it, and I don't think she does either. I feel like she's working on cementing her legacy and it really is an extraordinary one. The age arguments don't really work with her. She's got stamina that would put most to shame. If we get another window to move the Democratic agenda forward, we'll need Pelosi.

I don't want someone too young as the next Speaker/Democratic Leader. I want someone experienced that knows how to do it. I'd like to know who Pelosi herself wants. At the very least, it's clear she does not want Hoyer or Clyburn to succeed her (I think age is the biggest factor with the latter).

I think I remember reading something about Katherine Clark a few years back.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

BTW a little factoid: this now means that Bill Clinton, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, and now Joe Biden have all successfully raised taxes on the rich and/or the largest corporations, something that even many left-wing parties in Europe haven't successfully achieved over the past 35 years

Well we have to keep in mind socialist utopia Europe has 90% tax rates on the rich /s

I still don't understand this idea that parties in the US are far to the right of any in Europe. The average member of the FrP in Norway is probably substantially more racist than the average Democrat.

If you ignore health care, are the Tories really that different than moderate Republicans?