President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

The reason it is in one bill is so they can pass it without a 60-vote quorum and avoid a filibuster.

 

I was thinking about that, but then I remembered this is the Senate. The reason all the Build Back Better stuff was in one big clump was because they need to pass it through reconciliation, as there's no way they'd get 17 votes from the Fuck You Caucus. Now we can try and put people feet to the fire on that over and over again if you want, but that's pretty much futility multiplied.

That said, we'll see what they might be able to pull off in the new year.

For all the people who want to string Manchin up, I think it's worth noting that he's the only thing keeping Mitch McConnell from being Senate Majority Leader. The difference here is not between doing everything liberals want and everything Joe Manchin is OK with, it's between everything Joe Manchin is OK with and everything Mitch McConnell is OK with, which I guarantee you is nothing. Stop fucking up winnable Senate elections and you wouldn't have this problem.

The Democrats are demanding a purity of policy that simply won't fly with enough people to win a majority of anything. A great example of this is in my home state. In the Iron Range, they want to build two copper-nickel mines, and the environmental lobby is totally against it, and they probably should be. It's nearly impossible to do in a clean way and one of the mine projects is basically across the street from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The problem is that there's really no other way than mining to make a living up there. So what happens is that the chief voice against it is Betty McCollum, the Congresswoman who represents St. Paul. Meanwhile the Congressman up here rambles about how liberals are trying to ruin "our way of life," and it resonates because McCollum is appearing to be more interested in protecting these folks backyards for the sake of her suburban constituents' yuppie canoe trips rather than making it possible to earn a living wage up there. McCollum's probably right but these kinds of issues kill rural Democrats over and over.

 

Which is great and all, but it isn't happening. I'm not seeing anything that leads me to believe that Manchin and Sinema are going to change their votes come January. The Dems have a choice of passing the most attractive parts piecemeal and hanging voting other parts down around the necks of the GOP or not passing any of it all together.

The Dems simply do not react with the sort of party lockstep discipline that McConnell enforces on the R's.

They need to run better and more viable candidates, quit running ideologically pure candidates that can't win. If they win more seats they can do things the way they want to. Until they do, it's find a way to pass your priorities or they don't pass at all.

 

I think Dan's point is that the GOP will simply respond to breaking up the bill into parts by filibustering all of the parts.

 

Dems should take the component parts of the BBB and introduce them as the "Donald J. Trump Helps _____ Act" and dare GOP Senators to vote against them.

 

Welp.

 

Warren's case is more troubling because Mass has an R governor, RINO or no.

 

I was listening to the radio this week and there was a story about the Dems being unhappy with their "messaging." I've been hearing this crud for years. They never had a problem with their "messaging" until Fox News went online. And I don't expect anything from the Dems until party leadership undergoes generational change. The leadership came of age in a different time and is still fighting World War III with World War II weapons and strategies. The Republicans in the House and Senate - a good chunk of them - may be nuts and extremists, but they DO reflect the party's voters - the Dems leadership reflects the party of the 70s and 80s (when most of them first got to DC) and they have never adapted and instead pine for the "old days." Fun fact: The Dems in the 70s and 80s lost A LOT OF ELECTIONS and only gained a foothold in DC thanks to Watergate. All of the over 70 crowd should retire, they are out of step with the party's voters - demographically, generationally and philosophically.

 

My guess is she caught it either in DC (where she works) or in either Reagan National or Logan. Senators travel a lot. That's why they don't like to work on Fridays, the poor dears.

 

Dems are most popular when they don't get anything done?

President Biden Job Approval Reuters/Ipsos Approve 48, Disapprove 46 Approve +2

 

Reuters is the only poll that has had Biden above water in the last 3 months. One might use the same grain of salt one takes Rasmussen with.

 

Mass is a special election state, not an appointment by governor, so it would be a temporary issue to overcome