"Now he also faces an uproar once again in his own party. Democratic infighting was on full display on Sunday, undercutting efforts to project unity ahead of what many in the party privately believe will be an electoral wipeout. And liberal leaders who hoped to realize their longtime policy goals and campaign on the initiatives in the social spending plan were furious.... Rather than seeking to defuse hostilities as some Democrats had hoped, the White House lashed out at Manchin... [saying] that if he walks away from the talks, he would be breaking his word to Biden.... Democrats on Sunday began contemplating the far-reaching consequences. The social spending bill would make historic investments in curtailing global warming, expanding Medicare benefits and offering access to prekindergarten for all American children, among other things. Now there are new questions about how or even if Biden will be able to deliver on any of those fronts, all at a moment when the president and his party had initially hoped to reflect on a productive year and gear up for the midterms. In particular, the possibility of no legislative action on climate change sent a shudder through a party...."
From
"From charm offensive to scorched earth: How Biden’s fragile alliance with Manchin unraveled" (WaPo).
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
Posts
107 comments:
That dig from Psaki, that if Manchin flipped to walk away, he might flip again, showed a lot of emotional intelligence on the part of the Democrats.
Why did they hope for so much? Because they are ignorant, blind, and stupid. And that's no way to go through life.
So now Schumer says that they are going to do the vote next year anyway. I think that this is about Sinema saying that Manchin was not the only Democrat who opposed BBB, and that she was not the only other Democrat who opposed it. Schumer is going to force the kiddies to vote for it or face the awesome wrath of the white left and their twitter brownshirts.
Confusion to the enemy!
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
1. Trump won in 2016 and shocked the entire DC establishment to its core. The establishment spent 4 years unable to process it and blindly lashing out.
2. The establishment (left) fully misread WHY Trump happened, perceived Trump as something alien and dangerous versus establishment Republican "Party of No" politics.
3. Upon taking power in 2021, the left pressed wildly unpopular and Trump reactionary goals, including open borders, defund the police, and Build Back Better. No vision required, "return to our old timey ways" opposition to Trump was enough.
4. Bernie Sanders and the Squad revealed the cognitive limitations of hard partisans regarding Trump and any debate at all. Witness his nutty "math" that only Manchin and Sinema stood in the way of his plans for a minority ideology global transformation (i.e., 48 of 100 senators deserve to act unimpeded with BBB).
5. Democrats lost big in Virginia and were humiliated in New Jersey. Moderate and rational Democrats regained their ability to influence the conversation over the blind partisans and reactionaries. However, the Trump destroyed the credibility of many on the left for the rest of their careers.
"Go to Chinatowns, eat out, don't be a racist or allow Trump's anti-Chinese hate regarding COVID-19 to continue" said Pelosi and several New York politicians in early 2020 against Trump. So now only wishful thinking and utopian buffoonery is possible.
Why did they think they'd won the support?
Well, as someone tweeted:
"This whole fight over the Biden agenda seems like a behavioral psychology case study. Progressive Dems anchored their expectations when they thought the 2020 elections were going to be a big win -- and when they weren't, struggled to alter expectations"
https://twitter.com/JimPethokoukis/status/1472593941170212865
In particular, the possibility of no legislative action on climate change sent a shudder through a party...."
Let me finish that sentence: "through a party that had green graft and grifters lined up and ready to destroy whatever remaining shreds of the economy Slow Joe had somehow overlooked."
Stopping more federal spending on the CAGW scam is one of the greatest legislative victories ever for the GOP.
He’ll hath no scorn to match a Democrat dream to socialize America be blocked by one of their own.
Democrats feel they are entitled to fundamentally transform America despite majorities opposing it. But that’s not democracy. That is an insurgency against the very heart of our cherished democracy.
Frankly, none of these bills that throw in everything but the kitchen sink should be allowed to pass. The different provisions should be taken and voted on one by one so the American taxpayer can really see what their representatives are supporting or opposing.
If the Biden Team were smart (I know, wishful thinking!), at some point after realizing Joe Manchin had serious problems with BBB, they could have broken that very messy bill into smaller pieces and passed much of it that way. In the "old" days, wasn't that the way things were done, as opposed to these gigantic, unknowable bills? Of course, there's less chance to hide things in smaller, more focused, bills.
Why don't snakes join hands?
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?"
They stole an election and then wrote press releases patting themselves on the back.
And they believed those press releases were the truth.
They could spend a billion trillion dollars and they STILL wouldn't change the climate.
Pelosi may have made a big mistake passing BBB and HR1 through the House. Every Dem representative voted for
them. Republicans can campaign on the negative aspects of the bills while Democrats cannot point to any positive results.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?" They were living in the bubble and the bubble burst.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?"
Lots of reasons. This was overdetermined. Progs always hope. 50-50 is a mandate. They got the ACA through with tricks--why not BBB? Once new polices are locked in, the goalposts move and GOP resistance is futile. After 2022, the left may not get another chance soon; better go for BBB broke now. And Joe M seemed eminently bribable.
"Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?"
Assumes fact not in evidence. They didn't need to think they'd "won the support"; they simply seized the apparent opportunity to realize their actual goals. They slightly miscalculated, but it was and is a close-run thing. Acting on a 1 in 3 chance to get a very big prize is quite rational.
The dream of an all-powerful state, at once "caring" and vicious, has taken hold in the Democratic party. If not this time, they will be back again and again until the dream is realized. If you can convince yourself that the socialist underpinnings of the Green New Deal are actually about "climate change" you can probably convince yourself that you are part of a mighty vanguard, saving the world from itself. Having misread the electorate and misdiagnosed all manner of problems, they no longer care for the electorate's opinions and they are angry with anyone who sees a different set of actual problems. But then, utopians rarely concern themselves with troubles that will be inflicted on others but never on themselves.
Democrats today are testing Adam Smith's warning that "There is a great deal of ruin in a nation."
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"
The right questions to ask…
My working theory: The left’s destruction of mainstream media into liberal propaganda has allowed them to get away with the largest political scams in America’s history. They feel empowered…nee, entitled to something as minor as a multi trillion dollar spending bill.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?"
Of the 50 Democrats in the Senate, only two are realistic. This explains why the 48, who live in a phantasy land, had unrealistic expectations.
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?
because they knew it was their Only chance.
If you start with a 10 seat majority in the House, and a freakin' TIE in the Senate...
You Know that THAT is As Good As You'll Get.
Without HR-1, in 2022 they Lose Congress... BIG TIME
So, as slim as their position was in 2020; it was only going to get worse.
IF they were going to get things, they'd get them THIS YEAR;
and if you're going to go; why Not GO FOR BROKE?
Biden is stunningly bad at this. Like really, really bad. The left would have voted for whatever Manchin agreed to.
If you can't even get 50 Senators to agree to a bill, you probably have a bad bill.
Pelosi, too. She made her moderates vote for a bill that was unpopular and had no chance of passing. And now they will lose the House for it.
It's strange, it's almost like the U.S. Senate was designed to check the radicalness of the House of Representatives.
Oh, wait...
Joe Manchin is not holding up Biden's legislation. Fifty-one senators from at least half of the states in the nation are. When did the Repblican senators' votes stop counting?
The 'WSJ' and others are playing it as Manchin having 'saved' Biden and the Ds, and this now allows them to 'pivot' to something more palatable.
What that is I don't know...
The implication seems to be that Biden is a cypher, a zero, a nothing. If he really were moderate lunchbox Joe who could reach across the aisle and work with the other party -- if that were a firm, solid core of character in the man -- the country wouldn't be in the position it is now. Instead, Biden is a pliable vehicle for ideologues and interest groups to put their own agendas forward. But we knew -- or should have known -- all that when he got in. I guess we can blame Georgia for putting him in and giving him two unexpected Senate wins that emboldened his party.
“ Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
Because progressives do not live in Realville.
The article assumes premises that can only be assumed as 'good' if living in a fantasy world.
"The social spending bill would make historic investments in curtailing global warming, expanding Medicare benefits and offering access to prekindergarten for all American children, among other things."
As if the planet gives a shit about a power-grabbing, money-sucking bill passed by an out of control political party acting as if it had a mandate in the last election. This would do nothing to change the climate in any direction, but it would make the population poorer and less independent. And after all, isn't that the goal?
Expanding Medicare benefits- because nothing says hurry up with bankruptcy already like spending trillions when you are in debt to the tune of hundreds of trillions.
Access to prekindergarten for all American children. Because we need to get into the heads of your kids even earlier so you don't have a chance at actual parenting.
But even with all that in this short sentence they offered, the most menacing phrase was among other things. When your government has plans for you, and there are more than can be easily listed, you should run.
1. Manchin is doing fellow Senators a great favor by taking the heat for the failure (how can one Senator). Sinema’s opposition seems to have been forgotten and there are potentially five other Democrat Senators (Kelly and Hassan being the most prominent) who are potential no’s.
2. Trying to accomplish this Prog wet dream without LBJ like majorities was a fools errand to begin with. If Biden were of sound mind he would fire those on his staff who were pushing this.
3. I have never liked Schumer but never thought he was incompetent. I stand corrected. A competent Majority Leader would have known the votes weren’t there for BBB and reset Prog’s and White House’s expectations months ago. He shoulders much of the blame for the debacle this became.
4. The biggest weakness that the Progs have is that can’t read the room. The delusion is almost awe inspiring. These are the type of people who think it’s a good idea to pull out a karaoke machine at a wake.
1. Manchin is doing fellow Senators a great favor by taking the heat for the failure (how can one Senator). Sinema’s opposition seems to have been forgotten and there are potentially five other Democrat Senators (Kelly and Hassan being the most prominent) who are potential no’s.
2. Trying to accomplish this Prog wet dream without LBJ like majorities was a fools errand to begin with. If Biden were of sound mind he would fire those on his staff who were pushing this.
3. I have never liked Schumer but never thought he was incompetent. I stand corrected. A competent Majority Leader would have known the votes weren’t there for BBB and reset Prog’s and White House’s expectations months ago. He shoulders much of the blame for the debacle this became.
4. The biggest weakness that the Progs have is that can’t read the room. The delusion is almost awe inspiring. These are the type of people who think it’s a good idea to pull out a karaoke machine at a wake.
"Democrats on Sunday began contemplating the far-reaching consequences. The social spending bill would make historic investments in curtailing global warming, "
Historic investments, not historic results. Their own climate models say it's a spit in the ocean. These peoples measure "success" by how much money they spend.
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?
As if to make the case for voter ID, turns out it's dang near impossible to cheat a roll-call vote.
Because:
1. They are in an operational mode of cramming transformative changes down their political opponents' throats, and, in theory, a razor thin majority is sufficient.
2. Transforming the country without support from Rs is even better in their eyes than bipartisanship, so extreme goals are the best goals.
3. They expect the MSM to provide sufficient propaganda to give reluctant Ds cover to pass legislation their constituents would oppose if given full disclosure.
4. Being in touch with reality has never been the strong suit of leftists.
DNC corporate bureaucracy clusterfuck
“Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"? “
They knew that they had stolen the election, stolen the Presidency and at least three Senate seats, and that they will reap the consequences in a bit over ten months from now. There is a good chance that this is their last chance for this amount of power for the next decade. They had their last opportunity, during the first two years under Obama, and got both ObamaCare, permanently screwing up our healthcare system, along with fabulous wealth through their Porkulus bill. So, seeing that this was their only chance, they are tripling down on Porkulus, while trying for the equivalent of Obamacare II, throwing in every progressive wet dream they could think of. Then reality struck - even with the three stolen Senate seats, they only have a working majority there with the vote of their feckless VP. Reportedly, Manchin is just the one taking the heat here, and that at least a half dozen of his red state colleagues are silently urging him on, including our three Dem Senators (Tester from MT, and Sinema and Kelly from AZ).
Boy, Senator Sinema seems to be flying under the radar as Manchin seems to take all the heat (and garner the glory). Has Sinema secretly caved, or does she have an arrangement with Manchin to take turns being a lightning rod, or is she fine with yielding the spotlight (how feminine)?
Manchin exposed the flagrant Biden lie that the BBB bill was paid for, won’t add to the debt. That’s a greater sin than going back on his word to Biden, if that’s even true.
My longstanding theory is that their goal was to get three things in the first year: mass vaccinations to "beat" COVID, an Afghanistan withdrawal on Sept 11, and BBB. This would give Biden three major "accomplishments" which could be used to cement his legacy, allowing him to step aside for health reasons and still be praised as a transformational president. Instead, the Afghanistan withdrawal was a debacle, the administration has utterly bungled COVID and the vaccine rollout, and now BBB is dead. Hence why all of a sudden the left-wing media is starting to change their song regarding COVID, in-person schooling, returning to the office, etc.; they need to give Biden some sort of win, so they'll try to claim victory over COVID and move on.
The breakdown comes at an especially difficult moment for Biden,
You have to read a lot further to realize this isn't about Joe's mental health.
From "From charm offensive to scorched earth: How Biden’s fragile alliance with Manchin unraveled" (WaPo).
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
I think it is pretty hilarious that Ann thinks she will learn anything from this article.
There are dozens of publications out there that have actual quotes and discussion of how the talks broke down. There are sources out there that have actual information on the issues at hand.
But Ann goes to the WAPO and NYT's.
This is why readers of this blog go to the comments for their information by the way. The posts are a place to start. But the sources are to blatantly dishonest and are really just low hanging fruit.
I am pointing this out as someone who likes this space and wants it to continue. The last week or so with delayed comments and weak sourcing has been pretty boring.
Hey?
Remember how things like inflation and job losses, didn't Matter to the rich liberals;
'cause Biden's stock market was GOING SO GREAT?
I wonder where those comments are Now?
Leaders lead. Losers lash out.
Of course, the response of the lefties is foam-flecked bug-eyed rabies. The Somalian, in particular, asserts that American democracy is on life support and that failure to pass the giveaway bill would bring on authoritarians taking power. That’s so odd because there is no more authoritarian characters on the political landscape than the lefties and their Twitter mobs.
- Krumhorn
My preferred adjectives: brilliant/awesome
Does this article repeat the trope that Manchin is the "one" Senator standing in the way of the BBB (not just one of 51)? Or have they now abandoned that claim in order to showcase the equally preposterous assertion that Manchin's opposition represents a betrayal of the people who elected him?
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
They didn't.
What they thought was "we stole 2020. Now we must make the best of it, because the voters are going to nuke us at every possible chance from now on."
This wasn't about "America supports us", this was "America doesn't support us, so let's bully our way to whatever we can get."
Hopefully, the answer is "they can't get anything else"
Biden is a weak, ineffectual president and his presidency has been an abysmal failure so far. He is not in charge of anything of consequence. The radical progressives are running the show and Joe Manchin knows this. Sen. Manchin realizes the disaster the BBB scheme will be. More pork in D.C., more money wasted on harmful social programs, and fake climate change programs that will hurt the economy and the country. The crooked lawmakers in D.C. will see their bank accounts continue to increase while the average American will struggle with more taxes and fewer opportunities to advance. There is a small group in the Democratic Party who want to transform this country into their idea of a utopian society. The Squad consisting of minority women, hate the white population in America and want to do everything they can to divide the country and therefore, gain more power for themselves. These people are dangerous and must not be allowed to take over our government. I do not trust most people who are running the country and I believe that they are harming us for their own individual greedy gains. Biden, Pelosi, et al are perfect examples of politicians using their office to gain wealth while legislating. They don’t give a shit about the average American. Their main interest is their power and bank account. All honest Americans will admit that Biden is a disaster for our country. He doesn’t have a clue how to solve any of our problems., But, he is a genius at making the problems worse. F**k Joe Biden!
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?"
I'm going to go out on a limb here and try to answer. Hubris. And next comes nemesis.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?"
Because Twitter and the media they read offer no perspective.
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?
It was their last chance. Communism doesn't happen by itself, you know.
It is puzzling that this administration felt it had the mandate to undertake such an expansion of government. I think they took a page from Obama's health insurance fiasco as an example of what you can do by ramming something down the peoples' throat.
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
Because they’re delusional.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
Because they always do. It's a strategy.
1) Get elected by razor thin margin.
2) Whip your caucus to pass enormous far reaching transformational bill
3) Get wiped out in next Congressional election (remember Bart Stupak? me neither)
4) Watch the next congress fail to repeal said transformational bill
5) Trust press allies to hide/ignore flaws to rehabilitate despised bill over time
6) Wait out a few years in wilderness while bill provisions entrench within establishment
7) Demagogue successors in messaging unity with press
8) Claw way back to power
9) Repeat 2 to ratchet the country further leftward.
The untold story of 2021 was Pelosi's ability to get 99% of her cacaus to support everything she does. She has a 51% majority, and yet has passed the most radical legislation in the last 50 years, and conducted a phony 2 hour impeachment. with a narrow 10 vote margin. She had no mandate, since every Republican in 2020 was re-elected and she lost 20 seats. But that hasn't stopped her.
The Democrats have an agenda, they have party discipline, and if you give them the power, they will use it to the fullest extent possible. Meanwhile, the Republicans are more intersted in screwing over their base, then doing anything else. CHeney is helping Pelosi destroy Trump and any Republican Congressman who helped Trump, yet Kevin McCarthy can't even discipline her.
They let the Bernie "progressives" into the driver's seat and they drove Thelma & Louise style towards the finish line. Maybe that wasn't a good strategy.
On the other hand, the WSJ editorial page says that Biden just rescued the Democrats.
Who to believe?
I don't like the Democrats, so I guess I'll believe Wapoo.
When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles. Scream and shout.
If Biden had governed in the way he promised when he ran, Joe Manchin might now be under pressure from his constituents. As it is, Biden and the Dem controllers have not been centrists, more closely resembling the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as they promote scarcity, disease, fear and invasion. Locusts So Good; Borders So Bad, Taiwan So Nowhere, Never Say Uighur, I Love Mandates, Masks are for the Little People (including the kids), Naturally the left using their hallowed Projection Principle are claiming that Manchin (supported by 60% of West Virginia) has deserted his constituents. And similarly as the Eternal Party majestically heads for the iceberg, we'll hear more and more often that anyone who disagrees with the Tiny Noisy Meanie Minority is part of a tiny, noisy, meanie minority.
It’s important to ask who “they” are. I think we’re talking about a fairly small group of powerful Democratic leaders: Schumer, Pelosi, Biden, Klain (Biden’s chief of staff), and a few others. I think they had different motives. Schumer was afraid of being primaried by AOC. Pelosi was afraid of losing her speakership to a progressive revolt. Biden was susceptible to flattery (“you can be the next FDR or LBJ”). Not sure what Klain was thinking when he pushed Biden off the cliff but obviously his political judgment was terrible. Oh well, coulda, woulda, shoulda.
"From charm offensive to scorched earth" sounds like something they'd write about Trump.
Except the next sentence would contain a comparison to Hitler.
Chuck Shumer has no power over Joe Manchin. He realizes he is only one phone call away from not being Senate Majority Leader. Being from West "by God" Virginia, he could care less about what any Yankee carpetbaggers or latte sippin' coastal elites think.
My favorite comments out of the Democrats are along the lines that Sen. Manchin is just one Senator & he's blocking democracy in action by his obstinacy.
Uhhh, guys, the reason the BBB bill is having trouble passing is because there are 50 senators beside Manchin against it. You know, the Republican senators...
It was reported that last week Manchin gave the WH his version of acceptable components of a $1.7T BBB bill and it appears WH viewed his appearance on Fox yesterday as inconsistent.
What was the nature of Biden's "fragile alliance" with Manchin? This implies Manchin agreed to work with Biden, which requires deal-making and cooperative compromise. Has Manchin compromised with Biden in any way?
A press conference is an "especially difficult moment" Biden.
Surely the Democrats were counting on history repeating itself with another Jim Jeffords style GOP -to- Dem defection.
Rule No. 10.
Be Prepared to Walk Away from the Table Without a Deal
Looks as though Manchin read the book. As I commented elsewhere, West Virginia has three congressional districts, and the most left-leaning is still R+20. His constituents come first.
Fun fact. The West Virginia 3rd District is coal-mining country. It used to be not just solid blue but incandescent blue. It’s a mark of the impact of Obama’s War on Coal (which Hillary Clinton pledged to continue and Joe Biden has continued) that this district is now rated R+27.
Insofar as Manchin's move (or rather his failure to move) has stymied the Greens in their suicidal effort to decarbonize the US economy, it is an unmitigated triumph and blessing.
These morons really don't understand --nor do they want to understand-- how this climate crap has become utterly ruinous.
(It's my sketchy understanding that, without BBB, we cannot define, much less keep, our commitments under the Paris Accord to reduce our carbon footprint. That was some monstrously compendious piece of legislation and, like Obamacare, much too lengthy, turgid and hastily-written ever to be analyzed and debated before being rammed through).
Over the past few months, I've become convinced that one of the worst things that happened to Joe Biden was the Dems winning both Ga Senate seats. He could have actually governed from the center, like Clinton in 1995-96.
I don’t understand the scorched earth approach to Manchin, unless they have already concluded a Jim Jeffords-like switch is inevitable. Schumer talking tough just makes me laugh. Doesn’t he realize he can wake up as minority leader any day for any number of reasons? Hubris is such an ugly look for a party in as much internal turmoil as the Democrats are.
Thing is, by all accounts Manchin is providing cover for 4-7 other Democratic senators who wouldn't vote for the bill. Manchin has been pretty straight all along with what he would and wouldn't vote for.
"Investment...expanding...access..." exactly how the DNC would describe these. Journalists are supposed to do more than repeat partisan talking points.
Biden doesn't look like a man struggling with much of anything. He is just sort of there.
A reminder of what was in this so-called "social spending" bill, as passed by the House:
The most expensive category was money for "climate-related provisions", which is to say, a pile of money marked for industry and large investors; the major consumer-facing item was to subsidize purchases made by the well-off (electric cars).
The second-most-expensive was a "universal" subsidy for "certified" pre-K and child care programs. The "certificiation" requirements were such that they would cover the versions of those services the wealthy and upper middle class buy, while excluding the inexpensive versions of those services that the less well-off buy.
The third-most-expensive item in BBB, as it was passed by the House, was the SALT tax cut, a tax cut that would go 52% to the top 2%, 48% to the next 18%, and 0% to the bottom 80% of Americans.
Those three items combined for $1.23 trillion of the $1.85 trillion BBB bill.
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
They drank too much voter fraud.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support 'to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals'?"
It's been reported that Bernie Sanders' price for dropping out of the presidential race to make way for Biden was leadership support of a social spending bill that he would draft.
Schumer et al. are thus bound by the deal to go through the motions, but have been relying on everyone from the Senate Parliamentarian to Joe Manchin to diminish if not defeat Bernie's baby.
Why? Because they can.
Any other explanation must first accept this Democrat Party self-granted, but inalienable (according to them), right to power.
You'd think that after Obamacare and two dead-end impeachments, they've have figured out that trying to push through legislation over the objections of half the country, with only a bare majority, is only going to end in tears for them either before or after.
And so much for the myth of Biden the moderate bridge-building centrist. You'd think that a man who spent thirty years in the legislature would have a barn full of horses to trade for any policy outcome he cared to pursue. But here we are. Four decades in politics, and apparently he doesn't have a single favor he can call in.
Joe Manchin finally got sick of hearing how Joe Biden tied an onion to his belt as he desegregated black churches and put out forest fires with his blonde leg hairs.
"historic investments in curtailing global warming"
i.e. ineffective grifting.
"Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate? Why did they think they'd won the support "to realize [the liberal leaders'] longtime policy goals"?
They know very well that they don't have the popular support to make the changes they want to make. They also see the train wreck coming in November. So they are desperate to push through what they can before they lose this "moment" in history. A younger and more lucid Biden would have told them what bad idea that was. To bad we don't have that Biden.
They hoped for so much for the same reason they think a single senator and not the majority stopped BBB: delusion and illogic. It's why they must never control the majority.
In what way has Biden tried "to fight rising inflation and supply-chain problems?" His only struggle, a losing one, is to persuade Americans not to care about inflation.
He's tried to fight the pandemic, but failed. (But a lot of other leaders have failed too.)
Even if a version of BBB passes, creating pre-K and child-care slots will take time, especially with new federal rules. The Democrats would raise expectations they can't meet, especially for middle-class parents who would wait for years to qualify. Politically, the Dems may do better by telling mid-term voters they'd have wonderful free pre-K and child care if not for the Republicans. And Joe Manchin.
But aren't Senators representatives of the people of the state and not a lackey to The Party? Maybe there's a memo I missed.
Modern Democrats have not been known for reaching across the aisle. They actively spurned Republican outreach.
“Whose struggle . . were . .”? Can’t the WaPo “journalists” speak English? And I don’t think “maelstrom” means what the author thinks it means.
Because they only care about achieving their goals. That's all. Even knowing that the public would not support them at the polls next year, they just had to get this done. All of it. They learned well from Obama and Obamacare. They just didn't think that Manchin would bail on them.
Why did they hope for so much when they had a 50-50 Senate?
Because they had the tie-breaking vote in Harris, and because they assumed all the D's would vote for whatever, and that they'd have no trouble getting a few RINOs to tag along. Fait accompli.
"Stopping more federal spending on the CAGW scam is one of the greatest legislative victories ever for the GOP."
This is sarcasm, correct?
Howard: "DNC corporate bureaucracy clusterfuck"
Wrong again, as usual.
DNC/RNC corporate bureaucracy clusterf***.
Readering: "It was reported that last week Manchin gave the WH his version of acceptable components of a $1.7T BBB bill and it appears WH viewed his appearance on Fox yesterday as inconsistent."
LOL
Pathetic. "It was reported" eh? Yeah, I'll bet it was.
Reality: the $1.7T bill is the $3.5T bill....with a couple of accounting caveats that the newest democratical payoffs to their pals will be sunsetted after 1 to 3 years....(wink wink).
Spoiler: no they won't.
It's the same $3.5T bill and everyone knows it.
And the $3.5T bill is really the $5T+ bill that the democraticals really wanted but knew they could not lead with.
No matter how easy it is for the democraticals to fool dunces like readering, plenty of people are on to the scam....just not readering et al. Because, you know, dunces.
Now, be on the lookout for the Usual Republican Suspects to get wined and dined in DC and come out for this monstrosity next spring.
Yes, I'm looking at you Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, etc.
The biggest single money item in this bill is an increase in the ceiling for the State and Local Tax Deduction. It opens the borders and tries to make child care an extension of administratively bloated school systems that don't actually educate any one. Based on this bill, the Democrats' goal is apparently a Scandanavian welfare state without Scandanavian tax levels while maintaining vast inequalities of income between the college educated and the people who provide them services.
This is sarcasm, correct?
If the Democrats actually cared about CAGW, they would push nuclear. They don't want to solve the problem, they just want to prance around feeling good about themselves and throw money to the grifters. And, of course, maybe it isn't a problem anyway.
Progs always hope.
Don't confuse will to power with hope.
>>I'm going to go out on a limb here and try to answer. Hubris. And next comes nemesis.
Good start, but you left out the "atis," which is a sort of blindness to the consequences of the initial hubris that leads to more acts of hubris; the atis comes between the initial hubris and the nemesis and leads to initial acts of hubris. And, after all that, there's the "tisis," i.e., the punishment and destruction that ultimately comes from the hubris in the end. Think of Oedipus all along the line here, the supreme example of dramatic irony.
The tisis has always been my favorite.
--gpm
I've been following Congressional politics since 1960, and what strikes me as weird(!) is the idea that ALL members of a party should vote one way, and NO member of the other party should vote the other way. ONE Democrat doesn't vote for Biden's program, and that's a crisis? How many Democrats voted against Reagan's program? How may Republicans didn't vote for it?
Pure democracy is 51 percent... it is called the tyranny of the majority. As a result our institutions were designed so 51 percent WAS NOT ENOUGH. And it is also why the Senate as 2 senators from each state, no matter how small or big in population. It is also why it takes 2/3 majority to override a veto.
We know that with 51 percent you can have a hard core and bamboozle just enough to get 51 percent on your side and if allowed to ram through legislation they can turn a country into a basket case (as the Democrats are TRYING to do!)
Hence we have a system of checks and balances. And that includes the filibuster (which thanks to Sen. Reid they just about destroyed it.)
So they, like AOC's screeching, want to ignore the rules of the senate and house, drop the filibuster, and allow just a 51 percent to rule EVERYTHING (and at the same time allow aliens, including illegal ones, to vote!)
Happy days are here again!
Why did they hope for so much? I think much of it is because of Joe Biden.
Biden is a deeply mediocre man, who was brushed aside twice when seeking the presidency. His only talents are corruptly enriching his family, and getting reelected in the safe state of Delaware. And then came Trump.
Trump is the most hated and feared man in America, among Democrats. Any Democrat was going to have a good shot at winning, by being “not Trump!” But it’s humiliating to be the guy who won because of whom he wasn’t.
Then someone whispered in his ear that he could be JRB, the third great progressive president, ranking with FDR and LBJ! And Biden was vain enough, and senile enough, to believe that. So he drank the kool-aid, and signed on to a dubious agenda.
A great politician like Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson could pull it off. Biden probably couldn’t have done it when his brain worked properly. But his brain isn’t working right.
On that last, I feel quite sincerely sorry for him. I have some of the same problems, in milder form.
He’s in over his head, and like other accidental and desperate Presidents (Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson come to mind), he’s going to be remembered as a placeholder for a real president.
Manchin is a creature totally foreign to most politicians. He has, apparently, stated his objections clearly and forcefully for months. The pols on the left gave hm part of what he wanted. Tiny bit by tiny bit. They likely offered to throw a few billion to West Virginia (hey, it worked for Robert Byrd).
What they failed to understand, and still fail to understand, is that he was honestly telling the left why he was opposed to the bill. They never understood he is a man of his word. They could never guess it wasn't just a play for a bit more graft.
I also think that is why he will not switch parties and throw the Senate leadership to Mitch.
”It's strange, it's almost like the U.S. Senate was designed to check the radicalness of the House of Representatives.”
Yes…they wanted to ensure the people did not claim too much democracy for themselves. They were afraid and contemptuous of the rabble even then.
Mr Wibble said...
My longstanding theory is that their goal was to get three things in the first year: mass vaccinations to "beat" COVID, an Afghanistan withdrawal on Sept 11, and BBB. This would give Biden three major "accomplishments" which could be used to cement his legacy, allowing him to step aside for health reasons and still be praised as a transformational president. Instead, the Afghanistan withdrawal was a debacle, the administration has utterly bungled COVID and the vaccine rollout, and now BBB is dead. Hence why all of a sudden the left-wing media is starting to change their song regarding COVID, in-person schooling, returning to the office, etc.; they need to give Biden some sort of win, so they'll try to claim victory over COVID and move on.
12/20/21, 8:39 AM
^^^^THIS^^^^
Why wouldn't they hope for so much with a 50-50 Senate? They got near unanimity within the party on Obamacare 12 years ago and were able to buy off the Blue Dogs last time, why wouldn't they expect all the members of the party to do as they're told or respond to bribes?
They are encountering a problem with Manchin they don't know how to deal with just the same as they are encountering a problem with their Covid policies - people whose NO means NO, and who only dig in their heels the more they are pressured. There is no backup plan in either case because they're used to pressure tactics working.
This, like anything else, has nothing to do with Biden. From Manchin's own mouth it was White House staffers trying to roll him that finally sent him over the edge.
Manchin didn't do the right thing out of principle and is no hero.
A younger and more lucid Biden would have told them what bad idea that was.
Are you certain of that? I remember him being dubbed the stupidest man on Capitol Hill when I was but a teenager, and I’ve got grandkids.
R C Belaire said...
If the Biden Team were smart (I know, wishful thinking!), at some point after realizing Joe Manchin had serious problems with BBB, they could have broken that very messy bill into smaller pieces and passed much of it that way.
No, actually they can't, which is why it's one big bill.
If they put "we must give lots of money to illegal aliens" up for a straight vote, it would lose, because most Americans would oppose that as a single provision.
it's only by hiding they things they want among the "goodies" they're going to "give" that they can get Democrat politicians (who want to be re-elected) to vote for their crap.
Manchin said "look, I'll vote for $1.5 trillion that doesn't engage my constituents." The "Progressives" said "enraging your constituents is the point. We'll make pretend cuts to get close to your numbers."
So Manchin said FOAD.
As the Democrat Senator most willing to piss off the rest of the Party (because that's how he keeps his voters), he has to occasionally say "no" and make it stick, otherwise his position is worthless.
So he's going to say "no" on this, make it stick, and they charge teh Dems more for any future "yes" votes, because he's established he will go "no"
The Godfather said...
I've been following Congressional politics since 1960, and what strikes me as weird(!) is the idea that ALL members of a party should vote one way, and NO member of the other party should vote the other way.
It's really quite funny. Southern Democrats were getting in the way of the Left's desires, so the "academic consensus" started to be that "everything would be better if politicians just voted their Party line".
And the Left got what they wanted. Now politicians mainly just vote the Party line.
What they were too stupid to realize was that a large number of "Democrats" were getting elected solely because voters expected they would not vote the Party line.
When the voters were disabused of that notion during the first two years of Clinton's first term, the Democrats lost those politicians, and the idiot "academics" couldn't understand why
Robert Cook: "Yes…they wanted to ensure the people did not claim too much democracy for themselves. They were afraid and contemptuous of the rabble even then."
The Founding Fathers, who were not marxists so I understand Cookies angst towards them, were students of history and knew precisely how the pure democracy would play out so they designed a constitutional republic instead.
Cookie is simply angry that CA and NY can't become autocracy central for the entire nation....though with their media/establishment deep staters/high tech controllers they are certainly getting closer.
Robert Cook said...
”It's strange, it's almost like the U.S. Senate was designed to check the radicalness of the House of Representatives.”
Yes…they wanted to ensure the people did not claim too much democracy for themselves. They were afraid and contemptuous of the rabble even then.
It's strange, but I don't remember Cookie spending 2017 and 2018 being upset that some Republican Senators got in the way fo Trump bills.
it's almost like Cookie doesn't even know what a principle is, let alone have any
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