The covid bill passed in the House today, and just a few minutes later Merrick Garland was confirmed as attorney general. Finally. Earlier today, Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) was confirmed as the new secretary of housing and urban development. We’re on a roll.
Polls, including a new CNN poll, have found that the covid bill is very popular with the U.S. public. I suspect it will become even more popular as its provisions go into effect and people learn what they all are..
It got not one Republican vote in either the Senate or the House.
Naturally, there are pundits saying that the Democrats are taking a big risk with this bill. At National Journal, for example, veteran pundit Charlie Cook says that by ramming through this huge bill with no input from Republicans, President Biden is killing the possibility of any other bills passing with Republican votes.
“Biden may have, in the early moments of his term, crippled his ability to do grand bargains,” Cook sniffs. “When the histories of the Biden presidency are written, there’s a fair chance that this will be looked upon as a serious error of judgement—one that may plague this administration for a good while.”
Yeah, I remember all the success President Obama had with “grand bargains.” I guess Charlie Cook has forgotten that.
Republicans also are calling the bill a “liberal wish list.” Like that’s a bad thing. Paul Waldman:
Another word for “wish list” is “agenda.” And yes, Democrats have used the American Rescue Plan to advance a good deal of their agenda. That’s what happens when a party gets power: It passes legislation, and that legislation reflects the preferences of its members and their constituents. That Republicans are treating that as somehow unusual or inappropriate is positively bizarre.
That goes along with Republicans’ deeply held belief that no Democratic official is ever legitimately elected.
What Republicans should worry about is that, after years of gridlock, at least some things are going to happen. Lots of people will benefit directly from the covid bill, with more money in their pockets. The rate of vaccination is picking up considerably, and I suspect most of us who are really eager to get vaccinated (I got mine already) will get that accomplished in the next couple of months. Barring further disasters, the economy should be heating up considerably soon.
Meanwhile, Republicans seem to be engaged in nothing else but gutting popular voting provisions in their states. They are not just passing bills that are blatantly aimed at suppressing minority votes; they are putting up obstacles to voting that will suppress their own voters.
Republicans are flogging culture war issues as hard as they can. But they are having a hard time connecting outrage about un-gendered plastic toys to Joe Biden.
The difference between now and 12 years ago — when we were also in the midst of an economic crisis and had just passed a large stimulus bill — couldn’t be more stark. Back then, Republican culture-war rabble-rousing was focused directly on the president, with every one of Barack Obama’s policies shunted through a prism of resentment and White status anxiety. …
… But when the leader of the Democratic Party is Joe Biden, the whole enterprise of linking that cultural anxiety to policy arguments breaks down.
Further, I think a whole lot of people are just exhausted. They’re exhausted with the pandemic, and they’re exhausted after four years of perpetual acrimony blasting out of the White House. Joe Biden is the un-Trump.
Republicans clearly are hoping that 2022 is a rerun of 2010, when perpetual bashing of President Obama and incessant misinformation about the Affordable Care Act gave Republicans a big win in the midterms. It took people a few years to figure out that the Affordable Care Act is a good thing. In states that didn’t accept enhanced Medicaid, a lot of people still haven’t figured that out.
But next year, Republicans may find themselves challenged to explain why they didn’t vote for the American Rescue Plan.
Also today: I’m hearing on MSNBC that there’s a new audio tape of Trump pressuring another Georgia official to give him the election. There’s a real possibility Trump will face credible criminal charges about Georgia, IMO.
Barring further disasters, the economy should be heating up considerably soon.
The rePuknican governors are trying. Opening to 100% capacities with no masks is trying very hard to rekindle the pandemic. American deaths are 'collateral damage' to the rePuke need to make Biden a one term president.
Not only are we on a roll, but after decades of trying for good faith bargaining with the Rs, we're just onto their game, and not accepting their nonsense any more. Ditto for the pearl-clutching DC media.
What a contrast from four years ago, each new bill or appointment is a cause to genuinely feel good, versus feeling like sh-t.
Fat Donnie may face racketeering charges in GA. Just like a real mob boss.
Look, we got a lot of what we've been wanting for decades. We can't let this opportunity go to waste. We've got to squeeze out every last drop of what we've got.
I think the Democrats are ready.
Oh, and someone hand Charlie Cook a fresh drink. He's still sipping at the GOP's 2009 Kool Aid.
Ooh, "Fat Donnie." I like it. It's 100% accurate, it totally sounds like a character from the Sopranos, and Fat Donnie himself would absolutely hate it.
(I actually prefer not to give people disparaging nicknames in general, but for Fat Donnie I'll make an exception. He's earned it.)
Looks the part, too.
The new Covid law doesn't throw money at big business. This has been largely overlooked and it seems to be a huge difference between the Biden and Trump Covid Aid bills. Individuals aren't getting more, but big business is getting less. Biden is trying to target businesses with fewer than 20 employees under new rules with PPP loans.Governments, hospitals, Vaccine distribution and Covid testing are getting funded. I'm willing to be corrected but this looks like aid to the voter class, not the donor class.
So, the Republicans act like petulant children, and Democrats damn well better *remember* that, and not pass bills that Republicans don't like, which is, pretty much, any bill that will improve life for people.
If a liberal opinion writer said that the Republicans were so childish, they'd refrain from voting for good legislation, just because the other side used reconciliation, which hurt their poor fee-fees, we'd be in for a right wing hissy fit for a long time (unless the opinion writer was sacked). Heck, I saw the same argument used for climate change; there are Republicans who *would* take action on climate change, but (dum dum DUUUUUHHHHHH) they'd have to admit they were wrong about it before, and liberals are so *mean*.
Seems to me that a hallmark of adulthood (rather than physical maturity) is the ability to admit you were wrong (at least to yourself!) and follow a better path in the future.
Now, now, be fair! Some of them are also deliberately killing people, by ending pandemic restrictions well before it's safe. Republicans consider killing people perfectly acceptable, so long as you can't pinpoint the *specific* people who die as a result of your actions. See: environmental deregulation, climate change, tobacco, and making cops (and civilians, for that matter) heroes for excessive use of lethal force, to name a few.
(I mean, it's one thing to say "cops have to make split second decisions, and they won't always be right". That's fine, and acceptable. But when a cop makes the wrong decision, maybe they should be kept at a desk. There's probably plenty of would-be cops who *won't* shoot someone needlessly, so why not try to get one of them for non-desk duty, instead?)
Another interesting thing about Cook's comments, he doesn't even consider the counterargument: There was never any chance that the Republicans were going to work constructively with the Democrats anyway, so why bother.
I mean, he doesn't have to agree with that argument, but at least he could notice that it's the most obvious rebuttal to what he's saying and try to explain why it's wrong.
But I guess that's why he has to pretend no one is even saying anything like that. Because it's obviously true and he has no answer.
I really don't see how partisans like Charlie Cook can keep up this lie that the Democrats "rammed" this big bill through with "no input from Republicans." The Republicans had plenty of opportunity to present helpful improvements. They in fact did introduce dozens, if not hundreds, of amendments during the "vote-a-rama." What they aren't being allowed to do is block the bill altogether or delay it for ten months, as they did with ACA. That's why I find Manchin and Sinema's insistence on keeping the filibuster so insane. The filibuster no longer "gives a minority the ability to be heard on matters that are of overriding importance to them." Before 2009, the Senate passed maybe two dozen bills every year by majority vote. How many do they pass now? Three, four? Less? The filibuster is now only a tool to prevent the majority from enacting any part of their policy wishes.
Biden’s COVID Bill Is His First Step Toward an FDR-Style Presidency. “This will appreciably improve the lives of Americans—and position the administration to do even more.”
I had hoped Obama would be FDR, but it took learning from Obama’s mistakes and a big crisis, and let’s face it, an old white guy – to get past the bigotry in this country – to actuate a kind of transformation echoing FDR and the New Deal.
In the face of a pandemic that's killed over half a million Americans, and depression-level economic conditions for millions, all the republicans have on offer are lies, guns and fictional / cartoon characters — Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head, and the latest, Pepe Le Pew. And their own people are starting to notice, like the folk in this video:
‘That’s Some Hogwash Bullsh*t’: Unemployed WV Man Trashes GOP to CNN Reporter for Party’s Unanimous Opposition to Covid Relief Bill
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/thats-some-hogwash-bullsht-unemployed-wv-man-trashes-gop-to-cnn-reporter-for-partys-unanimous-opposition-to-covid-relief-bill/
Heading into the mid terms, it'll be interesting to see how the GOP answers the question, as to why they didn't support covid relief. And how their fighting for the masculinity of a toy versus working to address economic issues was time well spent.
If democrats can get one or two more big ticket items passed — $15/hr minimum, paid family leave, Voting Rights Act, to name a few, republicans are going to be hard pressed to sell themselves, as currently packaged, beyond their shrinking base. Democrats need to remind voters of this, if you want to continue to see solutions to your problems, support us. Otherwise spend your time in Toys R' US or continue to support the GOP.