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

joe manchin will force the republicans to talk/filibuster for 5 more years, until they back down

unfortunately, we haven't had a recent enough mass shooting event for universal background checks to pass. we have had some mass shooting events, rather, but they didn't up the game enough. will probably take a 3-digit slaughter for anything to move

we can't help it! we forgot again!!

for a second i thought that read "3-digit slammer" and lold darkly

Universal background checks have ~70% support with gun owners IIRC.

^^ pretty sure that's true ... granted, some of that could be related to racism, but ...

the majority leader controls what gets a vote, schumer will definitely put this bill up.

the question is if the bill actually does have enough bipartisan support to beat the filibuster.

― caek or daeth (voodoo chili), Thursday, March 11, 2021 11:04 AM (twenty-six minutes ago)

well yes, this is what I meant

Great new Reuters analysis:

"Biden’s $1.9 trillion bill was crafted without GOP input and passed without a single GOP vote. Nevertheless, GOP-leaning states are due to get a disproportionate share of many of its benefits."https://t.co/Q9BZbdmzrl

Reupping this piece/thread: https://t.co/nIu323Jmyp

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 11, 2021

quite a change from "it might be good politically if people in blue states die from the coronavirus"

will the voters in those states be grateful, though?
already seeing the right wing wheels turning, blaming inflation and rising commodity prices on the Biden admin

hard to argue with money in your pocket

The plan is remarkably popular with the citizens of red states.

i'm glad that there are policy people out there thinking about the important questions, like, how should we try to fend off the upcoming diabolical plans of rightwing turds?

Eleventh-hour changes to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan take square aim at one idea that’s been percolating in GOP legislatures around the country: using funds for states to finance deep tax cuts.

Over the past month, lawmakers in Kansas, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, and other states have all suggested that $350 billion in aid to state and local governments could be used to finance state tax cuts.

Mississippi and West Virginia are pushing outright elimination of the state income tax, with legislators around the country tying the push to the Biden stimulus bill.

“You would be looking at a very large tax cut for businesses that are trying to reopen in this state, which I think would be very stimulus in nature,” Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson (R) said in a March 2 press conference.

But last-minute legislative maneuvering in the Senate may have rendered that impossible.

The American Rescue Plan now stipulates that states receiving the money cannot use it to “offset a reduction” in tax revenue due to any law passed during the time that the funds are available — from now until 2024.

That provision aims to ban the stimulus money from financing new tax cuts.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/biden-rescue-bill-aims-to-cut-off-gop-push-for-state-tax-cuts

barf at "very stimulus in nature"

what is the word you all like? stimulus? this is the most stimulus of all

"a large tax cut would be very stimulating, verrrryyy stimulating indeed"

is it me or is the GOP unusually...quiet in the last few days? Dr. Seuss comments aside. I don't remember such quiescence in 2009.

i think they're loud, but they're scattered. they have no message right now. their loudest and most dominating voices are complete idiots and are all over the map. people like mcconnell who normally run the death star are also the enemies of trump, so

There is a GOP senator from my home state who tweeted this:

Independent restaurant operators have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief.

This funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.https://t.co/Ob4pRb9Xh4

— Senator Roger Wicker (@SenatorWicker) March 10, 2021

...despite voting no against the relief bill.

He was promptly dragged into a ratio oblivion.

he's been posturing for the last 24 hours

My dumb governor and one of my two dumb senators wrote this dumb thing for Fox News pretending that Red States are the actual victims in all of this: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/blackburn-lee-biden-covid-bailout-red-states-blue-state-payday

Which the Reuters analysis obviously undercuts. They only get to their alleged harm of $164 million by focusing on specific aid that is being distributed based on unemployment rates rather than straight per capita — which a reasonable person would interpret as "giving it to people who need it most" rather than "a Blue State payday!" They also don't mention that TN is literally leaving $1.4 billion on the table by refusing to expand Medicaid. So this is what they're left grasping at, basically. Entirely invented grievances. (Not that either of them is going to turn down the $6.1 billion Tennessee is getting under the bill.)

Just thinking about the Tea Party already springing up less than two months into the Obama administration fighting the completely inadequate tepid stimulus.

This is way bigger and there haven't even been any dark money TV ads!

Didn't the Tea Party spring up (as most Right Wing things do) over something that wasn't even real: a bailout for people with subprime mortgages?

"TEA" was an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already".

lol

I don’t write yahoo headlines, but this story shows the impact progressives are having. This is the most significant bill for working people in 50 yrs. celebrate the fact that the progressive agenda is enormously popular. Then get right back to work. There’s a lot more to do. https://t.co/QNE0s6yjIx

— Jane O'Meara Sanders (@janeosanders) March 11, 2021

(the headline is "Biden's stimulus shows he's governing like Bernie")

haha. i mean you got to keep the home fire burning iykwim

"TEA" was an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already".

― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain)

it was, and i'm sure every single one of them would want lower taxes, but i think we all know that they just wanted to be called the tea party and when someone said "hey guys, Taxed Enough Already!" they all just were like "hoooray, our destiny hath manifested!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHbjenBMLno

Republicans are "concerned" that Biden's address tonight--it's not like March 11 has any actual significance--amounts to taking a victory lap. I was going to bring up all of Trump's victory laps, but they weren't really that, were they? He did regularly start jumping up and down before the starter's gun had even gone off.

more like victory pants

He'll be on for an hour, apparently; I want him to spend 15-20 minutes reading off a list of every way in which the average person will benefit from this bill, and then spend the next 40-45 minutes reading out the names of every Senator and Representative who voted against it. I know he won't, but that would be the best possible use of that hour.

The current GOP talking point is essentially: "Yes, of course I voted against this monstrous, bloated, marxist bill from hell, but here are the parts I would have voted for if only given the chance.."

clemenza at 4:19 11 Mar 21

Republicans are "concerned" that Biden's address tonight--it's not like March 11 has any actual significance--amounts to taking a victory lap. 


to quote an old D.C. axiom: tough titty assholes!

They also knew is was gonna pass, so it's a win-win: voting against "excessive federal spending" while knowing damn well that your state and constituents will benefit from it.

impressed that someone is keeping this account going after the... incident

🐾 Woof! Our dad @POTUS signed the American Rescue Plan! Stimulus checks will hit bank pawccounts as early as this weekend, hoomans are being vaccinated pawcross the country. This is a #Major win for Americans. We are keeping our pawmise to #BuildBarkBetter. Happy day! pic.twitter.com/aEryePO9ap

— The Oval Pawffice® 🇺🇸 Fans (@TheOvalPawffice) March 11, 2021

🐾 Pawf course we were not there, we pawhtoshopped pawurselves - poorly we might add - in @MegHays46’s photo because we were in the room in spirit for this historic moment. Woof! #DOTUS

— The Oval Pawffice® 🇺🇸 Fans (@TheOvalPawffice) March 11, 2021

Kinda yiffy

They're working from home, pandemic style.

anyone who gives them money should lose the right to vote

i wish i were not aware of these tweets

impawsible to forget

Every day as a facet of my job, I am subjected to the groaningly-punny names of animal shelters and rescues across the country. So I feel like I'm in an authoritative enough position to say that those tweets are almost inexcusably terrible.

pawhtoshopped

Good Biden speech so far.

In a FB group we started mocking him the first couple minutes.....then shut up.

Boy, I thought that was great.

I did too

he does look a lot like bob barker though

I thought the first 10 minutes or so was very moving. He maybe repeated himself a bit towards the end, but that first part--"the details of everyday life"--I'm going to play it tomorrow for a grade 4/5 class.

Flipping through channels, I heard that gallon of angry oatmeal named Tucker Carlson say, "How DARE you, President Biden, tell us whom to spend Fourth of July with?!"

Totally on-brand that Tucker Carlson hates his immediate family