President Biden announced he has signed off on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. We don’t yet know exactly what’s in it. Greg Sargent writes, “The emerging bipartisan deal, which Biden just endorsed, would spend around $1.2 trillion on roads, bridges and other concrete infrastructure, with around $579 billion or a shade less being new spending. It won’t be paid for with corporate tax hikes (which Republicans despise).” However, he says there are no taxes on gas, either. Other than that, it’s kind of a blur.
The plan is still to go ahead with the reconciliation bill to cover whatever the bipartisan bill leaves out. This is, apparently, to placade Joe Manchin and probably Kyrsten Sinema as well, so that they will be willing to vote for the reconciliation bill. It’s a deal that is part of another deal. But we don’t know if it will work. Sargent again:
The rub for progressives is that once Manchin extracts his pound of flesh, there’s no certainty that the reconciliation package will ever pass. As Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) puts it, progressives must insist on a “guarantee” that it will happen and will be sufficiently ambitious.
What happens if Manchin and other moderates pull their support or insist on something far too small, stabbing the left in the back?
It’s also the case that many progressive legislators probably think the bipartisan deal stinks out loud, so its passage is far from certain. It’ll also be fun to see how many Republicans will refuse to vote for the bipartisan bill, including some who claimed they would. Maybe it won’t survive cloture. But if it does, and if the progressives are persuaded that passage of the bipartisan bill makes the reconciliation bill more viable, perhaps the bipartisan bill will pass.
As for voting rights, here is the latest I’ve heard. Ronald Brownstein writes at The Atlantic,
Advocates are betting that a combination of what might be called inside proof and outside pressure will yield their best chance of persuading the last Democratic holdouts to restrict use of the filibuster that Republicans employed on Tuesday to block consideration of the Democrats’ sweeping voting-rights and political-reform legislation.
The inside proof is a sustained effort to demonstrate to those reluctant Democrats, particularly Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, that no federal voting-rights bill can attract the 10 Republicans currently required to break a filibuster. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, a lead sponsor of the legislation that Republicans filibustered Tuesday, told me that Democrats intend to quickly negotiate a new, slimmed-down bill based on the compromise principles Manchin offered last week—and to task him and Sinema with assessing whether any, much less 10, Republicans will sign on.
Democratic advocates want to bookend these intra-Capitol maneuvers with outside mobilization. An alliance of some 70 progressive groups supporting federal voting-rights legislation earlier this month announced plans for more than 115 upcoming events in 32 states. Some of the organizations have unveiled plans for substantial media buys promoting federal action. “The goal is to have a strong showing for the importance of democracy this summer,” Meagan Hatcher-Mays, the director of democracy policy at the liberal advocacy group Indivisible told reporters in a conference call this week.
Go to the Indivivisible website to see how you can help.
Manchin and Sinema are being tasked with finding the 10 reasonable Republicans to force them to personally confront the reality that there aren’t any, Brownstein says. Seems to me that if they haven’t figured that out already they’re too stupid to be outside an assisted living facility without supervision. It’s more likely they already do know this, and don’t care.
In other news, Rudy Giuliani has had his New York law license revoked. John McAfee, the anti-virus software guy, is dead and appears to have committed suicide. Nancy Pelosi will launch a select House committee to investigate January 6.
The Maricopa County, Arizona, “fraudit” is supposed to be winding down; “results” pending. Do see Inside the ‘shadow reality world’ promoting the lie that the presidential election was stolen at WaPo. An entire, complex ecosphere has formed around the Big Lie, and we can be certain some people are making a lot of money from it even if it doesn’t go anywhere politically.
Update: See also Kate Riga at TPM, Senate Progressives Determined Not To Get Hosed By Moderates On Infrastructure.
Sinema and Manchin
“This morning with great solemnity and sadness I’m announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the January 6th insurrection,” Pelosi said.
I don't want to be nitpicky, and I'm glad the democrats have decided to go forward, because so much time had passed since the GOP refusal, I was concerned whether they were going to go forward with it at all. But with "great solemnity and sadness"?? How about with steadfast determination to get to the bottom of it and hold accountable those involved in the planning of it? Why does democrats going after republicans when they need getting after have to be solemn and sad, as if please excuse us republicans for doing this? Did they conduct the eleventy hundred Benghazi investigations with anything but snarling gleefulness and sarcasm? Not saying I expect that from dems but come on now. Drop them damned butter knife!
There is absolutely nothing Pelosi could say to prevent the republicans from slamming the commission as partisan. They were going to do that anyway. I hope this opening statement isn't a portent of how the commission will be conducted.
A lot to unpack here. So it seems some of the supporters of the popular bill are unhappy with such support so they are willing to argue with their own party and negotiate with the other party to create a bill that will please the other party and prove to be an ineffective bill in the long run so they can say the other party did it and my party was not responsible even though there was no need to negotiate with the other party because there were means of getting the popular bill passed because…….
Can't we be like Great Britain in that the House of Representatives would be the House of Commons and get some governing done, and the Senate be the House of Lords just be upper class twits who are only good for sitting around and saying "What's all this now?" and prepare naughty parties for the upcoming Regatta.
Asking for a friend.
I heard earlier today that SotH Pelosi won't let the House pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Democratic infrastructure bill passes the Senate via reconciliation.
FSM, I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE THAT WOMAN!!!!!
Next up for Rudy: Disbarment!!!!!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Let me be really clear on this: We will not take up a bill in the House until the Senate passes the bipartisan bill and a reconciliation bill. If there is no bipartisan bill, then we’ll just go when the Senate passes a reconciliation bill,” Pelosi said today.
Oh, and POTUS "Handsome" Joe Biden echoed what Pelosi said.
“We believe that once the issues are fully explored at a hearing, Mr. Giuliani will be reinstated as a valued member of the legal profession,”
Yeah, and Elvis has left the building!
He already has a job waiting for him at Four Seasons Landscaping.