Retire, Breyer: another September 2021 US Politics thread

This sounds too clever an interpretation by half, but Jayapal's on the record, so:

With Democrats stumbling headlong into the final negotiations over President Biden’s agenda, and progressives vowing to exercise maximal leverage in a way that has centrists in a fury, a question has arisen: How does the president himself want this process to unfold?

The answer to this suggests something counterintuitive about this moment. It may actually be in Biden’s best interests — that is, it may be crucial to ensuring passage of his agenda, which would be better for the country — if progressives do continue using their leverage as aggressively as possible.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has announced that a planned vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill has been postponed until Thursday. She hopes to broker an agreement in principle between centrists and progressives on the multitrillion-dollar social policy bill, in hopes that progressives will then agree to pass the bipartisan one.

Progressives want to wait until the Senate passes the social policy bill first — by a simple majority reconciliation vote — thus using their leverage to ensure that the latter is sufficiently robust.

But the centrists — or “moderates,” as some call them — now want Biden to bring down the hammer on progressives. Some centrists anonymously leaked to Politico Playbook that they’re “infuriated” that Biden has not yet pressured progressives to pass the bipartisan bill this week, before reconciliation is done...

You see, from the point of view of centrists, this is an indictment of Biden. But this misses the point entirely. If anything, this shows that Biden does not see utility in pressuring progressives, at least not in this fashion, meaning this gambit is already backfiring.

I can report that the office of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, confirms this to be the case.

“The White House has not asked progressives to change course,” Chris Evans, a spokesperson for Jayapal, told me. He noted there has been no pressure to vote for the infrastructure bill “before” the reconciliation one is “passed.”

“Like the overwhelming majority of Democrats, progressives support President Biden’s entire Build Back Better agenda and look forward to sending both bills to his desk,” Evans added.

Means testing EV credits doesn’t mean money will go to mass transit - it just means that money goes unspent (making room for more defense spending!) while people who can afford a $30k car buy an ICE vehicle instead of an EV,

New: Two House Progressives - @RoKhanna and @JamaalBowmanNY - signaled a path forward that would allow progressives to vote for the bi-partisan infrastructure bill, before the Senate passes the reconciliation piece. “We're gonna respect and get behind our president,” Khanna said.

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) September 27, 2021

caaaaaaaaave

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/27/pelosi-house-democrats-infrastructure-514359

Pelosi explained her thinking in a rare Monday night caucus session, saying she and Biden himself are continuing to push the Senate on negotiations related to the social spending package, but the House must move ahead on infrastructure this week before surface transportation funding expires Thursday.

The speaker had declared earlier this summer that the House would only pass Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill if both chambers had also agreed to the party’s broader social spending plan. The California Democrat privately told members that the thinking began to change 10 days ago when she learned that Democrats would need to scale back the initial $3.5 trillion price tag for that spending bill — a massive legislative task.

“I told all of you we wouldn’t vote” for the infrastructure bill until reconciliation was finished, Pelosi told Democrats at the end of the caucus meeting. “Until 10 days ago when the price had to come down.”

Weak sauce

Entitlement mentality

MANCHIN on $3.5T bill: "We're just concerned about entitlement mentality versus rewarding mentality and then taking care of those who really can't take care of themselves... there's so much good stuff in there that we’re still working diligently."

via @LACaldwellDC @JulieNBCNews

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 27, 2021

Moderate = corporate entitlement whore

Got to get payback for all that legal griff!

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c0/01/c4/c001c4156804096cddaa93804cee6866.jpg

it’s like we’re pawns in some kind of game to him

reading about congress pic.twitter.com/2ArxHxqqTO

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) September 28, 2021

"It’s almost as if, to the people with the power to act, the prospect of a Trumpified Republican Party with the will to subvert the next presidential election and the power to do it is one of those events that just seems a little too out there. And far from provoking action, the sheer magnitude of what it would mean has induced a kind of passivity, a hope that we can solve the crisis without bringing real power to bear."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/opinion/trump-2024-election.html

you should have been the one to start the 2024 stolen election thread, raymond! i tried but i got too mad and sad about it, it went downhill quickly. but i do want more level-headed people to think about it and take it seriously. i've hit my nyt paywall limit and can't seem to bust in using a VPN, but Bouie usually is great

Speakin' of that good ole' (semi) legal graff...this was another one that seemed to get filed in the back pages.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/20/jesse-benton-indicted-rand-paul-mitch-mcconnell-former-campaign-manager/5791086001/

Got a feeling that this perhaps be tied to this load of BS.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/played-for-fools-ky-lawmakers-want-their-2415-million-back-from-aluminum-mill/ar-AAOSIPv

Don't really have to hide anything...

Shafer attempts to pull Kagen back from the ledge: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/24/why-the-fear-of-trump-may-be-overblown-514270

Basically, don't worry about Trump, he won't get re-elected... but that's what everyone said about him getting elected in the first place and that doesn't address the underlying faults in our system of government that he's exploiting. I can buy that Trump is on his way out, he's already giving himself a "health conditions" pass to drop out if all else fails, but all the unprecedented and unthinkable things he's done to undermine our democracy are now part of the Republican playbook and Democratic leadership seems to think once he's gone, the Republicans will just toss that playbook and come join them in the center to help them defeat those pesky progressives.

Right before a star dies, it swells up and make a giant terrifying explosive flash... but it still dies.

So goes the GOP.

Jack Shafer is one of the most "my-life-is-fine-so-all-is-well" hacks around. He contributes nothing, but he'll always have a column.

GOP: Waiting for a Star to Fall

the problem is that dying stars often cause a little bit of damage during the death phase

that's where you belong
in my arms baby yeah

the problem is that dying stars often cause a little bit of damage during the death phase

Totally agree, I think that's what we're seeing now

Well, at least I could use a wish right now

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that Democrats should raise the ceiling alone, but he has also closed off all avenues for them to do so, save one: an amended reconciliation bill that would occupy a fair chunk of Senate floor time before Democrats could pass it by party-line vote.
Democrats in Congress are at odds over whether they have enough time to do that and the next steps forward. The party tried to pass a debt limit hike alongside a measure to fund the government last week. But that was filibustered by Senate Republicans.

On Tuesday, Democrats sought unanimous consent to pass a debt ceiling hike by a simple majority vote. Republicans objected to that too, further angering White House officials who were already chafing at their refusal to fall in line on a vote they’ve been trying to portray as almost pro forma.

Biden has coordinated his approach with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but has publicly deferred to the congressional leaders on how to maneuver out of the jam. On Monday evening, they discussed possibly raising the debt ceiling through budget reconciliation, something White House officials had been saying they were loath to do.
One other option: The Senate could vote to change their own rules so that a bill that raises or suspends the debt limit is not subject to a filibuster. Lawmakers have made similar rules changes for the confirmation of judicial nominees and Cabinet officials. But it would require all 50 Democrats to support such a measure as well as Vice President Kamala Harris’ sign off. Biden’s opposition to such a change would effectively doom it.
Am I making too much of this? Admin not inspiring/allowing much confidence these days.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/28/biden-senate-rules-raise-debt-limit-514561

Yes, it's unspeakably stupid not to just exempt the debt ceiling from the filibuster. The only argument against it, I guess, is that if Republicans hold Congress they could vote to lower the debt ceiling by a simple majority... but that would just make them directly responsible for crashing the economy.

Yes, and meanwhile, of course, xpost unprecedented and unthinkable not so uncommon any more.

So we have an unlikely hypothetical vs. a Democratic Congress and President playing chicken with the economy and scaring people.

Saved from being the dumbest marginally left of center party in the world only by Kieth Starmer.

I mean, with the time factor, especially (?), how far could the stumbling etc. go? If Biden really were deferring to Congressional leaders, in a timely fashion, or at all---I'd feel a little more reassured.

So now the Dems get their-our own Get The Fuck Outta The Way Prez, like second-term Reagan---?

Not that he doesn't have horrible shitty obstruction, horribly shitty everything as the Trump legacy, but he needs to trust other people's judgement more, also trust recognition of judgement's limitations, recognition's too, in this our shitstorm.

And fucking say something about limitations and shitty options (and make it stick) as well as that West Wing soldiering on stuff.

up is down black is white dogs laying with cats

It's the difference between finishing 0-16 and finishing 1-15. What would strengthen absolutists is electing Biden and showing the Democratic party can't advance any progressive goals: not health care, not child care, not education, safety net.

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 29, 2021

The D establishment would be discredited. The left would just want to burn the whole party to the ground. And it would be very hard to argue against them.

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 29, 2021

I'm a huge fan of incremental progress. I wrote a whole book defending Obama's presidency! But if the only permanent change Biden signs into law is a plussed up highway bill, there's no defending that. It's a failure and there will be a recknoning.

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) September 29, 2021

Ro Khanna is out there turning the heat up on Sinema. To hear him say it, she is the one and only true roadblock and the president will support a vote against infrastructure if there isn't further agreement.

"The President keeps begging her, tell us what you want. Put a proposal forward," says Rep. Ro Khanna of Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

"One Senator, Kyrsten Sinema, is holding up the will of the entire Democratic Party." pic.twitter.com/kxVP9fGZCG

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) September 29, 2021

Cannot fucking wait to vote against her in a primary

Do wonder what her better good is? What is driving her to go ahead with this. I mean surely she must be acting out of something other than contrarian evil like.

She's bought and paid for...I'm sure to win that senate seat there was boodles of outside money flowed into Arizona and those interests trump anything else.

Witch probably will go full Lieberman and switch to being an 'independent' or join the freaking GQP next election as a 'Maverick' when the Democrats lose the Senate stating some malarky of 'party changed since I was elected' or whatever horse crap her handlers write. Then she will lose the seat to some Maricopa county lunatic to the right of Joe Arpaio.

I hate them all...

Easy with the "It was Sinema all along."

she’s irredeemably awful but kinda feel like it wasn’t her someone else would have to step up and be ‘the Sinema’

Anemic Sinema.

Her behavior is Classic Sinema.

She's an attention-seeking clown.

she def seems like the type who's holding out for a red swingline stapler more than any sort of pork

The Trump impressions, apparently those are all largely improvised, too, which I think is the key.

oops lol rong thred

very sinematic

FIN DU SINEMA

sinema dis pants, i breaka u face

Should have been DE instead of DU sorry

What was that bs about her doing a paid internship at a winery in 2020

josh marshall weighs in:

In any case, if you’re going to lose it is important to lose well rather than poorly. Doing so is a key way to actually win. But to win you have to be ready to lose well. Losing well is far better than losing poorly.

loooooooooooooooooooooooooool

the art of losing is hard to master