Joe Money, Joe Problems: the November 2021 U.S. Politics Thread

Bruce Wayne was behind the Business Plot.

Henry Wallace was Harley Quinn

FDR smoked and liked martinis iirc

they trying to get the bills through tonight, for reals this time?

They share a love of convertibles and trains.

RIP democrats

all the progressives voted no so I'm guessing the bill sucks

that certainly may be true, but I think it's mainly because they insisted on doing reconciliation first and now it's been kicked down the road

I hate that I’m saying this, but …

At least something got done

for reals
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/05/1050012853/the-house-has-passed-the-1-trillion-infrastructure-plan-sending-it-to-bidens-des?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews

Embarrassing to ‘hold the line’ until McAuliffe ate shit and then capitulate.

https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/guess-who-slipped-a-pro-corporate-america-provision-in-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill/

I guess privatization doesn’t really matter that much when the seas are going to boil.

unfortunately it seems like the votes were there even without the progressives

that certainly may be true, but I think it's mainly because they insisted on doing reconciliation first and now it's been kicked down the road

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, November 5, 2021 10:37 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Right, passing the infrastructure bill meant giving away leverage on reconciliation. The "moderates" who have been threatening to torpedo Build Back Better put out a statement committing to vote for it pending a CBO score, which I guess is what convinced Jayapal to go ahead with tonight's vote, but...that's not a guarantee that they actually will.

Yeah, whatever the CBO score is, it will be enough for people who don’t want to do it to call it “irresponsible” and cry about inflation and debt.

https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/guess-who-slipped-a-pro-corporate-america-provision-in-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill/

xp just want to answer the link's question by clicking on the link: portman and manchin. the answer is in the 8th paragraph out of 11.

Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) slipped the requirement for value for money analyses on federally supported transportation loans into the bill in August. Maybe the fact that Manchin has received more campaign contributions from financial firms than any other industry—including from CBRE, a real estate firm actively pushing P3s—has something to do with it.

that's the only important paragraph in the entire piece. just want to shit on the media, real quick

VOTE KLEPTOCRATIC - "Vote with your wallet, we own enough of them to get what we really want and stop what we don't."

What I have concluded about this whole thing is that despite being a middle-aged person with an advanced degree who has lived in the United States my whole life I basically don't understand how Congress works at all. I'm lost. The House passed the bill? So does that mean... it's going to become law? Or is there still another round of Sinema-Manchin wrangling and maybe the whole thing goes down the tubes? And if something passes, is it this, or is it some highly mutated version of this? I feel like I've read 600 articles about provisions that are now not in the bill and I have no clue what's actually in it in the end. (I recognize that to some extent this is my own fault.)

The infrastructure bill becomes law when Biden signs it. To get it to his desk, he and Jayapal and the progressives extracted a written promise from the dickhead conservatives that the latter would offer their support to the second bill should the CBO give them an offer they can't refuse.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/06/us/politics/infrastructure-black-caucus-vote.html

The infrastructure bill becomes law when Biden signs it.

But has the Senate already signed off on this version? So, like, this is the actual bill?

"signs off" isn't the same as a president signing a bill

Right, but I'm saying -- the House and the Senate both have to pass it -- right?

As I understand it, they need reconciliation for the social spending bill, not the infrastructure bill that passed the Senate in August and last night in the House. The infrastructure bill heads for the Senate's desk if no reconciliation's needed.

er, sorry, "conference committee" for the second "reconciliation"

OK so the infrastructure bill that just passed the House is identical to one that passed the Senate so long ago I forgot about it? That makes sense.

This is all tangled, I admit

But has the Senate already signed off on this version? So, like, this is the actual bill?

Yes, the Senate passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill in… August? Maybe early September.

August, yeah

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

One of the worst shitheads who stonewalled the reconciliation bill as 'too expensive' is my rep, Kurt Schrader. I just wrote him yesterday to tell him to eat shit and die, but not in those exact words.

"Consume Excrement And Expire"

As with previous bills of the sort, you know many of these deficit hawks will be at the shovel ceremonies and put their lying mugs in front of the camera's when the projects start like they voted for them to happen.

I don’t know if there’s a shovel ceremony for AT&T execs receiving their yearly bonus.

Government propaganda…for your 5 year old! https://t.co/lKUlomnpq1

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 6, 2021

all of my blood has been curdled

Funny how failure to pass a bill can be front page news for weeks if not months, but when it finally passed I didn't see a single headline because I didn't check the news over the weekend. I guess government dysfunction is more newsworthy than functioning government.

I took a screenshot of Saturday's POLITICO homepage:

https://i.imgur.com/Zss0P6X.jpg

Son of abyss.

Don't go messin'

it stares back at you, iirc

Actually doing anything elicits a yawn. The press loves Dems in disarray discourse cause it feeds into our predjudices.

Disarray, dat array, everything's in array.

I guess government dysfunction is more newsworthy than functioning government.

Passing the BIF because some people panicked because McAuliffe lost isn’t really an example of functioning government, is it? Doing a 180 on political strategy should be the story there.

who did the 180? who was directing the strategy?

there were 6 house democrats, on the day of the vote, saying they'd refuse to vote for it unless it got a CBO score (which would be impossible at that point). did they do the 180?

did manchin and sinema do a 180?

can i do a 180, on tony hawk pro skateboarder? yes i can.

my point is that, for the millionth time, it's a 50/50 senate and house with only 3 votes to spare, and congress is full of giant fucking rich assholes

jesus christ wouldn't be able to get manchin and sinema to have any sense of personal responsibility or guilt