Biden infrastructure/tax increase megathread

[Person Man]

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1443215941270179842

Terrible. The optimist in me says she probably knows she's backed herself into a corner and wants a way out while still saving face, and it's up to Biden etc. to give that to her.

The pessimist in me says she's just torpedoing it for spite.

What? So they can both be Millard Fillmore 2.0?

[Torie]

I am not buying the spin that Sinema is the evil ice queen of Narnia, and Manchin is Aslan, who will be there in a pinch for the lovable furry denizens, at all. The idea is that AZ is a Biden state, so put the screws on Sinema, and with her then "pacified" after a suitable time on the rack adding an inch to her height, then woo Manchin, who cannot be threatened politically, and the Dems know it.

I was born at night, but not last night. If Sinema means it that she does not want to raise taxes to pay for the "investments" in the reconciliation bill, this really does seem dead. Manchin is into pay fors, and more about trimming back the cost of the expenditures. I also don't see Manchin falling in love with front loading the spending side either. That is an accounting gimmick, that won't fool canny old Joe.

Khanna and Pelosi are displaying really high stress levels. Pelosi in particular was wound up really tight.

[R.P. McM]

Obama got slaughtered with his watered down health care bill. Imagine how bad the Dems will do if all they have to show is a watered down infrastructure bill after all the effort which came with getting them elected.

Some "moderates" in this thread are content with achieving as little as possible while in power. What do they even stand for? Is it just a game between blue vs. red for them? Do they fetishize third way politics so much they find doing nothing to be exciting?

Well, they used to take great satisfaction in the notion that their opinions were inherently more prudent and sophisticated. Unfortunately, the past two decades have been very unkind to that perspective. From Iraq to Trump, they've been wrong about essentially everything. So now, at this point, I think the "moderate" sensibility is little more than an involuntary reflex. Which is how they now find themselves aligned with ~10 petulant obstructionists against the Biden agenda and ~90% of the Democratic Party.

[Mr.Phips]

Gut feeling now is that neither bill will pass. Zero evidence for days that Sinema is negotiating in good faith, and without that the progressives are whipping against the "bipartisan" bill. McCarthy couldn't bring his caucus behind helping the American people during a Democratic presidency if he wanted to.

I agree.  If it’s any consolation, it’s not like either of these bills would have helped Dems in 2022 anyway.  Nobody would feel any of the benefits by then.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Gut feeling now is that neither bill will pass. Zero evidence for days that Sinema is negotiating in good faith, and without that the progressives are whipping against the "bipartisan" bill. McCarthy couldn't bring his caucus behind helping the American people during a Democratic presidency if he wanted to.

I agree.  If it’s any consolation, it’s not like either of these bills would have helped Dems in 2022 anyway.  Nobody would feel any of the benefits by then.

It's not a consolation, because the whole point is to cram all the policy needed until the next trifecta into like four total reconciliation bills. The point of this is to prematurely govern for 2027, not to win in 2022.

[roxas11]

Gut feeling now is that neither bill will pass. Zero evidence for days that Sinema is negotiating in good faith, and without that the progressives are whipping against the "bipartisan" bill. McCarthy couldn't bring his caucus behind helping the American people during a Democratic presidency if he wanted to.

I agree.  If it’s any consolation, it’s not like either of these bills would have helped Dems in 2022 anyway.  Nobody would feel any of the benefits by then.

I don't know how much it will help them, but you better believe it will hurt them if they tell voters in 2022 that they actually failed to pass popular pieces of legislation despite having full control of the government

This is not an Obamacare situation where the tea party backlash against Obama made the idea of health care reform more unpopular with the American people by the time he had actually signed his bill into law.

In this case infrastructure it still very popular and so is even a lot of the items in the reconciliation bill. I'm not saying passing these bills will dramatically improve the Dems chances, but there is no doubt in my mind that failing to pass anything will make the situation for them far worse in 2022

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The D's can pass legislation, but th D's can't pass a 3.5 T dollar spending bill without lifting the Debt Ceiling and second of all Sinema and Manchin has not agreed on a final number they're opposes to 3.5 T dollars want 1 5T we're already 29T on Stimulus in the hole

This is a Health care proposal not a Stimulus but the borrowing we did didn't just go to UBI payments the 300 dollars that Rs and D's have received extra on their Federal unemployment checks

We already have Medical a state insurance program and Seniors and Disabled qualify for Medicare and Medicaid dual coverage

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

The D's can pass legislation, but th D's can't pass a 3.5 T dollar spending bill without lifting the Debt Ceiling and second of all Sinema and Manchin has not agreed on a final number they're opposes to 3.5 T dollars want 1 5T we're already 29T on Stimulus in the hole

This is a Health care proposal not a Stimulus but the borrowing we did didn't just go to UBI payments the 300 dollars that Rs and D's have received extra on their Federal unemployment checks

We already have Medical a state insurance program and Seniors and Disabled qualify for Medicare and Medicaid dual coverage

https://twitter.com/alaynatreene/status/1443325239832858635?s=19

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/heatherscope/status/1443305931815653378

[Pyro]

https://twitter.com/alaynatreene/status/1443325239832858635?s=19

The worst is when these conserva-Dem hacks feign an interest in fiscal responsibility while in reality they're simply acting in accordance with their corporate doners. If he was sincere in his concern for the "brutal fiscal reality our nation faces" he would be adamantly opposed to the military budget increase ($8T over 10 years), and be strongly in favor of the tax increases laid out in the reconciliation bill.

[Not Me, Us]

Progressives can't cave. If the coporatists won't play ball, then kill their precious "bipartisan" bill. 2022 is going to be a blood bath, and if Democrats can't pass this popular, important reconciliation bill, then they deserve every bit of what's coming.

[MillennialModerate]

Remember when I said I’d throw anyone on this board $100 if DC statehood passed.

Yikes how low has the bar fallen? Because I think I’d do the same if the reconciliation bill passed because guess what? It’s simply not passing.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Remember when I said I’d throw anyone on this board $100 if DC statehood passed.

Yikes how low has the bar fallen? Because I think I’d do the same if the reconciliation bill passed because guess what? It’s simply not passing.

So are you ready to admit that ‘Maverick’ is not, in fact, a positive quality in legislators? Or at least that being independent for the sake of it is counter-productive

[KaiserDave]

While this Manchin statement is horrible, I don’t think this tells us anything new

Let’s wait for the dust to settle

It could go horribly wrong but we don’t know that

[7,052,770]

Remember when I said I’d throw anyone on this board $100 if DC statehood passed.

The Democratic leadership is paying a real price for dragging their feet on that. It's not like everyone told them so. Oh wait...

Lesson learned, I hope.

[emailking]

Remember when I said I’d throw anyone on this board $100 if DC statehood passed.

The Democratic leadership is paying a real price for dragging their feet on that. It's not like everyone told them so. Oh wait...

Lesson learned, I hope.

Are you still at 95% chance it passes and 100% if no one dies?

[7,052,770]

Remember when I said I’d throw anyone on this board $100 if DC statehood passed.

The Democratic leadership is paying a real price for dragging their feet on that. It's not like everyone told them so. Oh wait...

Lesson learned, I hope.

Are you still at 95% chance it passes and 100% if no one dies?

No, I'm higher than that.

(I mean, clearly Sinema has gone rogue, so who knows. Worse case scenario they bring it to the floor and dare her to curtsy again.)

[Matty]

Somebody needs to ask Manchin and sinema one thing

“Why are you in govt if you don’t anything to happen?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Remember when I said I’d throw anyone on this board $100 if DC statehood passed.

The Democratic leadership is paying a real price for dragging their feet on that. It's not like everyone told them so. Oh wait...

Lesson learned, I hope.

Are you still at 95% chance it passes and 100% if no one dies?

No, I'm higher than that.

(I mean, clearly Sinema has gone rogue, so who knows. Worse case scenario they bring it to the floor and dare her to curtsy again.)

My comments above speak volumes, Rs on the Senate floor said to Expand Medicare not infrastructure at a time of a Pandemic and raiding taxes is not a time in a Pandemic and the Medicare Expansion doesn't even take effect til 2028 anyways

It should pass but Biden said himself he doesn't want to end the Filibuster on the Debt Ceiling but Rs are obstructing VR next

[KaiserDave]

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1443333561742884865?s=20

Does he enjoy this or something?

[R.P. McM]

Progressives can't cave. If the coporatists won't play ball, then kill their precious "bipartisan" bill. 2022 is going to be a blood bath, and if Democrats can't pass this popular, important reconciliation bill, then they deserve every bit of what's coming.

Thankfully, it'll be the centrist/corporatist wing of the party that gets annihilated.

[KaiserDave]

Manchin is talking about of both sides of his mouth, I wish he'd just shut up.

[7,052,770]

Manchin's not going to f*** president Biden over in the end. He's going to try to lower the 3.5T some, claim credit for it, and then vote for both bills.

Sinema ... I hope that's ultimately true about her too, but unlike Manchin who seems to be throwing suggestions out there, she's just stonewalling as every other Democrat in both Houses of Congress gets more and more apoplectic.

[R.P. McM]

Manchin's not going to f*** president Biden over in the end. He's going to try to lower the 3.5T some, claim credit for it, and then vote for both bills.

Sinema ... I hope that's ultimately true about her too, but unlike Manchin who seems to be throwing suggestions out there, she's just stonewalling as every other Democrat in both Houses of Congress gets more and more apoplectic.

I think this interview with Ro Khanna strongly supports the theory that Manchin is engaged in a bit of political theater, whereas Sinema is genuinely a flaky, backstabbing, contrarian moron:

[Matty]

Manchin just said reconciliation bill is DOA if it doesn’t include Hyde amendment