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bluewater's JournalDemocrats Float Possible $2.5 Trillion Compromise Reconciliation Framework
Source: Huffington Post
Democratic leaders floated the contours of a $2.5 trillion spending and tax cut reconciliation framework before senators left last week for a brief recess, in hopes that the whole caucus would go along with a slightly smaller price tag.
During a caucus meeting last Thursday with Senate Democrats, leadership pitched a top line of roughly $1.5 trillion in new spending on programs such as child care, housing, climate policies and Medicare expansions, according to presentation slides obtained by HuffPost and top Senate aides familiar with the presentation.
The bill would also provide around $1 trillion in “tax cuts for working families” — including an extension to the boosted child tax credit, Affordable Care Act premium subsidy credits and housing and clean energy tax credits. Overall, the bill’s price tag would be around $2.5 trillion.
Conservative Democrats continue to block the passage of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan, a sweeping proposal that would invest heavily in climate policies, parental benefits, child care and universal pre-K, as well as housing and expansions of both Medicare and Medicaid.
The presentation offers a possible compromise top-line number that leaders, including Biden, have floated for weeks.
“This presentation was Leader Schumer informing Senate Democrats of what President Biden presented to the House Democrats the week prior,” Justin Goodman, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), said.
But even $2.5 trillion is higher than what Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the Senate’s two most conservative Democrats, say they will support. Manchin has floated a $1.5 trillion top-line spending number. Sinema refuses to disclose a top-line number to her Senate colleagues, but she’s reportedly comfortable with a figure under the $2 trillion mark.
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reconciliation-bill-price-tag-white-house_n_61671e35e4b028316c90b6cc
Sounds reasonable to me.
Let's pass both bills asap!
At times I need to check that I am actually reading posts on Democratic Underground.
But the actual investment piece is mainly in the Infrastructure bill, and the BBB bill is mainly an increase in government expenses.
The it being the build Back Better agenda. Note the "scare" quotes around the word "investment".
And when I read this part: "the BBB bill is mainly an increase in government expenses", I cursed out loud.
I never thought that I would have to argue on Democratic Underground that investing in the social safety net to provide more opportunities for working families was indeed an INVESTMENT in America, yet here I am.
I just don't know what else to say or think at this point.
Biden's popularity rises slightly as coronavirus cases fall: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Source: Reuters via MSN
U.S. President Joe Biden’s approval rating has increased somewhat over the past few weeks, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, as coronavirus infection rates slowed.
The latest national public opinion poll, conducted Oct. 6-7, found that 48% of U.S. adults approved of Biden’s performance in office, which is up by 4 percentage points from a similar poll that ran in mid-September.
Meanwhile 47% disapproved of Biden in the latest survey, which is down 3 points from the September poll.
The rise in Biden’s approval has mirrored a recent drop in U.S. coronavirus cases. A Reuters tally shows there are a little more than 100,000 reported cases on average each day, which is 40% of the peak infection rate in January.
The president's standing with the American public recently has been entwined with the state of the U.S. pandemic.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-s-popularity-rises-slightly-as-coronavirus-cases-fall-reuters-ipsos-poll/ar-AAPhYoK?ocid=msedgntp
Substantially higher than the 38% from the Quinnipiac poll.
The polls are what the polls are.
The lagging economy shows that we need to invest more, not less, in the Build Back Better agenda.
The pandemic and the recent delta variant surge have impacted September's job report numbers.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/08/economy/september-jobs-report/index.html
This follows on the heels of August's job report that showed similar lower than expected economic growth.
Clearly, this lagging economy shows that we, as Democrats, need to invest more, not less, in President Biden's Build Back Better agenda to maintain the economic recovery and show voters that our Democratic policies are working to improve their lives.
Efforts to reduce the total amount invested in the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill will slow economic recovery, hurt working families, and damage Democratic prospects in the 2022 midterms.
Indeed.
"Joe Manchin Doesn't Want an 'Entitlement Society.' "
Senator Joe Manchin wants progressives to make a choice. According to Axios, Manchin believes they “need to pick just one of President Biden’s three signature policies” so he’ll sign on to the Build Back Better Act. Paid family medical leave, the expanded child tax credit, child-care subsidies — choose one, Manchin (allegedly) says, and forget the others. Behind this cold-blooded political calculus there are real families. Manchin is worried about them in his own way. “I’ve been very clear when it comes to who we are as a society, who we are as a nation,” he said on Wednesday. “I don’t believe that we should turn our society into an entitlement society. I think we should still be a compassionate, rewarding society.”
Manchin was responding to Senator Bernie Sanders, a key architect of the bill, who’d organized a press conference urging the West Virginia Democrat and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to explain precisely what they dislike about it. That Manchin, a conservative Democrat, and Sanders, a democratic socialist, have little in common ideologically is hardly news. With his rhetoric, however, Manchin did more than distinguish himself from Sanders. He helped distill the debate over the Build Back Better Act into its most basic essence.
The BBBA is, by the standards of American legislation, a sweeping act of social policy. It would significantly ease burdens on American families, for whom access to child care and paid leave have always depended largely on socioeconomic status. Wealthy parents have always been able to afford child care, and the other attendant costs of child-rearing are of no great concern to them. We already live in an entitlement society, and the beneficiaries prosper. Manchin’s own relatives can perhaps testify to this.
What did Bresch do with her position? She helped orchestrate a massive increase in the cost of the EpiPen, which contains medicine that people with severe allergies need to stay alive. Manchin himself proved luckier than the average EpiPen consumer. “Before it became Viatris, Mylan was one of the largest campaign contributors to Manchin’s campaigns in five election cycles, donating around $211,000 to his campaigns since 2009 through PACs and employees,” Open Secrets reported last month. This isn’t welfare, which is what Manchin likely meant when he used the phrase “entitlement society.” But it shows entitlement of another kind. The affairs of the Manchins provide a useful glimpse into the way American society tends to work for the households who lord over it.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/joe-manchin-doesn-e2-80-99t-want-an-e2-80-98entitlement-society-e2-80-99-we-already-live-in-one/ar-AAPfwF7?ocid=uxbndlbing
"Manchin demands progressives pick only 1 of 3 family policy priorities"
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1445914913981931521So, Manchin is making it clear he wants to kill programs regardless even if his bottom line funding number is met.
Is this actually a popular position with moderate and centrist Democrats?
Chuck Grassley Congratulates Korean American Judicial Nominee: 'Your People' Have A Good Work Ethic
Source: Huffington Post
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday told Lucy Koh, a Korean American judicial nominee, that her Korean background reminds him of his daughter-in-law telling him that Koreans have "a hard work ethic" and "can make a lot out of nothing."
"So I congratulate you and your people," Grassley told Koh.
He made his comment to Koh, who is President Joe Biden's nominee to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, at the start of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley is the ranking Republican on the panel.
Koh simply replied, "Thank you."
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chuck-grassley-korean-american-people-lucy-koh_n_615ddc73e4b0896dd1ac1137
And just to spell it out, when a bigot like Grassley praises "your people" for having a great work ethic, it means they feel another ethnic group does not. It's a racism daily double.
But Judge Koh exhibited admirable restraint.
"Because I'm vaccinated, you dumb fuck."
https://twitter.com/FilmThePoliceLA/status/1445566038855217158Priceless moment!
Sinema is making up for lost support among Democrats with Republicans and independents
A poll by Phoenix-based OH Predictive Insights last month found that while Sinema is viewed negatively by nearly a third of Democrats in the state, her approval rating was 46 percent, about the same as her fellow Democratic senator, Mark Kelly. A Bendixen & Amandi International poll earlier this summer found similar results.
“Arizona does have a history of having maverick senators who have challenged their own party from time to time, and Arizona voters have a history of rewarding that,” said Kirk Adams, a former Republican state House speaker and former chief of staff to Gov. Doug Ducey.
“There will be activists in the party and outside groups that will be very upset and will oppose her and will swear that they’re going to take her down in the next election,” he said. “But Kyrsten is always very strategic. I think she understands the state very well, and I think she’s going to be rewarded by those moderate Republican and independent voters.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/05/sinema-arizona-democrats-congress-515108
The polls are what the polls are.
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