Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

anyway, glad I’m rich and probably won’t ever vote D* in a national election again and all they can do is trip over themselves to make my life easier. cool cool cool.


(*unless you come out 100%, no ifs and buts on M4A, free college, living wage, etc)

*coughs* I told you so *coughs*

Warnock going to be there less time than Douggie Jones

And look, I don't want to hear any more shit about it, I remember the timeline and the way things unfolded and the dems absolutely initially said $2000, none of this 'well but of course they always only meant an additional $1400' because no they didn't, that was the fucking narrative they wove after they'd bandied the $2000 figure around a bit. And a lot of people bought and regurgitated, and I'm sure a lot of those people will buy whatever fuckin' line they're handed this time. 'Well, there was always gonna be some degree of means testing on distributing the $1400, which is again the figure they'd always said, I have no idea where you got $2000'

'bought and regurgitated that line'

This is really the equivalent of shitting your running shorts thirty seconds after the starter pistol fires.

This is really the equivalent of shitting your running shorts thirty seconds after the starter pistol fires.
― Stefan Twerkelle (Old Lunch), Wednesday, March 3, 2021 6:02 PM (twenty seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

... while standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

not my favorite Primitive Radio Gods song.

Small update here: Limiting the benefit results in roughly ~$12 billion in savings, per Dem aide. Whole bill is ~$1.9 trillion

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 3, 2021

well good thing!

fucking infuriating

i know where they can shove that $12 billion in savings: my wallet

12 million fewer adults and 5 million fewer children getting checks, in order to reallocate .00001 percent of the bill to something people will never see or notice (or into the pockets of an ISP they hate)

Well, hey, Biden found something that could bring unity to the ilx politics threads (mostly). So, yay?

a true bridge builder

The Manchin giveth (torturing Neera) and the Manchin taketh away (torturing constituents who don't own coal mines).

Tim Kaine reintroducing his bill to end the post-9/11 military force blank check is good.

I wonder if his leftist son is still cool?

To put it bluntly? If you're above that threshold you should shut the fuck up. If you make more than $75,000 a year, not only should you not get a stimulus check

More proof, if any were needed, that means-testing government benefits turns that benefit program into a wedge issue that creates a political fissure right at the income point and sorts citizens into opposing groups based on an arbitrary measure of 'deserving'.

There are a lot of things to be mad at the Dems about, but those of you convinced that this whole $1400 vs $2000 thing is a big deal are just ... wrong. It's not. The Republicans are NEVER going to run ads anywhere talking about $2,000 checks (have you ever even met a Republican?), and people will be glad to get money just like they were glad to get money last year. Also the Dems tried to pass a $1,400 add-on to the $600 in December, so this isn't new, it's a continuation of what they just tried two months ago. I don't think phasing out faster above $75k matters politically either.

There's lots of things to be mad about! Don't waste time on this.

Well if you don't think it matters I guess it won't to those 12 million people.

Um, who gives a fuck about what ads might get run. It's absolutely fair to be mad that the Dems are lowering the threshold on this. People need money now, not better ad campaigns in 2022.

i really don't agree with you Tipsy. Did we forget 2010 or something?

more angry that the Dems negotiated themselves down. The Republicans were never going to try a reasonable bargain, so this is more the fault of Manchin, Sinema and other more cowardly centrist Dems that took cover

Incredible to think they won’t run ads on failure to deliver on promises. They have hours of footage of Biden (and Warnock) promising $2000 checks if only you’d vote for the Democrats.

Now fewer voters are getting smaller checks. That’s bad politics (and bad policy).

the $2k vs. $1400 checks isn't very likely to matter in many places, but i think it will 100% matter in georgia, where the dems have a vulnerable senate seat and the state leg. is passing voter repression laws by the boatload. people will certainly remember the $500 million worth of ads that bombarded the airwaves in november and december, especially the closing argument which was "we will give you $2000"

more angry that the Dems negotiated themselves down. The Republicans were never going to try a reasonable bargain, so this is more the fault of Manchin, Sinema and other more cowardly centrist Dems that took cover

― Nhex, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 2:14 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think this particular means-test is brought to you by new hampshire senator jeanne shaheen, who just won reelection. apparently she doesn't care much for her co-senator maggie hassan who has a tough fight in 2022.

I don’t know, is this even being made an issue of anywhere else? The only place I see people being mad about this is on ILX. Even on the level of what they promised, I always understood that what they were talking about was the $1400 they tried to add on in December. It never even occurred to me that they were talking about separate $2000 checks on top of the $600, because of the way the whole issue evolved.

If they send out $1400 checks to everybody within the next little while, and they need to do it soon, that will be plenty from a political standpoint. Is it actually enough for people who need it? Definitely not for some people. But there are a lot of other forms of aid in the package too. Rental assistance and other things that are more targeted specifically to people who need it most.

Have you spent much time on Twitter tipsy? I can assure you this is not just ilx mad about this.

Point being, they need to not get bogged down and get this thing passed and signed.

The harsher means testing is national news for fuck’s sake.

IMO, based on how people I know from college have been reacting so entirely anecdotal and by no means scientific or conclusive, his happened largely because well-meaning people who make a lot of money said "I don't need this, I want my senator to put in controls to make sure I don't see it" and senators said "I can do that" and then proceeded to shit directly into their own mouths

It's so fucking dumb, if you don't need the money then GIVE IT AWAY TO SOMEONE OR SOME ORGANIZATION THAT DOES, it's not fucking rocket science and also who cares if some number of rich people get extra money if more non-rich people are also getting money?

It's absolutely fair to be mad that the Dems are lowering the threshold on this.

Yes. You can be mad about this outcome. But you should also remember that the Dems had no trouble passing that higher threshold when it came to a vote. The Dems also passed a $15/hr minimum wage with votes to spare. I speak of the Dems in the House. They, too, are "the Dems" and they didn't lower a fucking thing. They passed good bills.

We all know the problem is a 50-50 senate and a Republican caucus that will vote as a solid bloc against any and every good piece of legislation, throwing it into the laps of senate Democrats to pull all 50 votes they need out of their 50. If they aren't unanimous, it gets shot down.

So, this isn't an overarching problem with "the Dems", but a rare confluence of events that gives any single senator complete veto power over every piece of legislation Congress could pass. I wish posters would stop flinging their ire at "the Dems", as if this were the plan the party had all along.

they need to not get bogged down

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, March 3, 2021 12:23 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

too late for this one afaict

We all know the problem is a 50-50 senate

fixed for you

The money, at this particular moment, is incidental (except to those who really really need the money right now). It's a drop in the bucket in terms of the economic devastation of the past year and that's a whole larger issue that needs to be dealt with ASAP. What matters at this particular moment is the massive unforced error the dems are making with this dumbass goalpost shifting. No, the shit they're pulling isn't going to hit everyone all at once, but it's slowly but surely going to feed the narrative that if they can't live up to this one little promise, they probably can't be relied on for much more. And that's going to sting come 2022 and 2024.

Aimless, I get all that, but as pointed out above, the problem is the centrist Democrats who played a big part in giving up on this.

I wish posters would stop flinging their ire at "the Dems"

They’re a voluntary collective, that’s how blame works. When they fail to deliver on something - for the next two years - it is entirely on the party as a whole, because it will be a Democrat standing in the way.

I wish posters would stop flinging their ire at "the Dems", as if this were the plan the party had all along.

― Judge Roi Behan (Aimless), Wednesday, March 3, 2021 1:27 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is fair in terms of what I and others are literally saying when we simply evoke 'the dems' but I just assume that everyone here knows that it's more complex than that. It's more 'the dems who, instead of publicly trumpeting what garbage Manchin and Sinema are, just seem to be folding like rickety lawn chairs in the face of interparty intransigence'.

'intraparty' rather

When they fail to deliver on something - for the next two years - it is entirely on the party as a whole

You are correct that this is how the blame works. I see it happening here on this thread every few minutes. It drives me up a wall that the party that just drew 80,000,000 votes is now forced to act as stupidly as the single stupidest Democratic senator. Chains being as strong as their weakest link, indeed.

Old Lunch otm. I already have plenty of ire for the Republicans, that goes without saying. I'm extra pissed at the Dems who are caving.

I agree with the ideas that the Dems stand or fall collectively on what gets done. Where I disagree is that sending out $1,400 checks is delivering — it's delivering $1,400 checks. But whatever. Ire away.

I mean I'm just repeating a point others have made but it's delivering to a lot fewer people than promised. And that most definitely matters.

I'm uncharacteristically torn. tipsy's where I was this morning, but I'm in an anti-Biden mood based on the basic point that fewer people will get dough regardless of anticipatory anxiety about attack ads in '22.

idk why ms. shaheen couldn't have waited for the big infrastructure bill that is apparently coming next to sneak in her little kickback for telecoms.

Man, is infrastructure week coming up already?!

american infrastructure makes maeby feel "c-minus"

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/03/973054080/potholes-grid-failures-aging-tunnels-and-bridges-nations-infrastructure-gets-a-c

NEW: President Biden calls Texas and Mississippi decisions to end mask mandates “a big mistake" and criticizes what he views as “Neanderthal thinking” after CDC warned against complacency in the face of emerging coronavirus variants on Monday. https://t.co/rdOcWokNDa

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 3, 2021

fuck u Joe!

lol