Retire, Breyer: another September 2021 US Politics thread

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Not even the Congressional Baseball Game can calm the partisan waters on Capitol Hill these days.

Usually the feel-good event of the summer, the annual game pits Democratic members of Congress against Republicans and has raised many millions of dollars for local charities.

...

With so much to do legislatively at the moment, moving forward with the baseball game appeared politically tone deaf. Rather than staying in session to approve a resolution to fund the government, with a midnight Thursday deadline to avoid a shutdown, both chambers adjourned in the late afternoon so lawmakers and staff could head a mile down South Capitol Street to the home of the 2019 World Series champions.

Fiscal deadlines usually spawn meetings that go deep into the night to try to bridge the divides, but not Wednesday night, not even with the prospect of a potential default on the nation’s $28 trillion debt just 19 days away that is also complicating the legislative agenda.

President Biden has made dozens of phone calls and had near daily in-person meetings with key lawmakers in the last few weeks in pursuit of a $3.5 trillion framework for his agenda, which could unlock enough Democratic votes to pass the infrastructure legislation.

As he convened one final meeting with lawmakers Wednesday, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majortity Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), speculation spread that Biden might attend the game.

Rather than hunkering down for more meetings or calls, Biden attended the game in a show of support from the former senator, taking advantage of a chance to press the flesh and mingle with lawmakers who hold the keys to his ambitious agenda.

Republicans have dug in entirely against the bigger legislation. The GOP manager, Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.), who made it into the Atlanta Braves’ minor league system, is using that proposal to motivate his team and get ready for the November 2022 midterm elections.

“I’m deeming this game as socialism vs. capitalism,” Williams told his team at their final practice, which Roll Call attended. “It’s a game, but let me tell you: If we win tomorrow night, we’ll send a message for November.”

god, please tell me senator Coach was there. this was the moment he was born for

absolute clown

Manchin proposes raising the corporate tax rate to 25%, the top tax rate on income to 39.6%, raising the capital gains tax rate to 28% and says that any revenue from the bill “exceeding” $1.5T will go to deficit reduction. Also asks Fed to stop quantitative easing program

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) September 30, 2021

is the QE thing supposed to be a requirement for agreement? because that is clearly not going to happen just because Joe says so

this shit with Sinema is so frustrating. I mean Manchin I kinda get, WV is a R+40 state and some idiot centrist like Machin is the best the Dems are ever gonna get there. Sinema on the other hand is from a state that Biden won, if she tanks his agenda she's almost certainly going to get primaried. It feels like her goal is to be the Susan Collins of the left, absolutely despised by both parties with no real sign of what the hell she actually wants and because our country is set up in such an unbelievably stupid way it gives her an insane amount of power, power which is undoubtedly going to be used to tank the left's climate agenda and make our kids' future even worse

Meanwhile much of her state will be uninhabitable sometime in the next two decades.

Why doesn't Schumer call her into his office and say "Get in line or I'll support a primary challenger against you"?

I know the answer is, "because he's Chuck Schumer," but I wish there was a more satisfying answer than that.

"...what the hell she actually wants..."

Enough name recognition to snag a choice cable news slot when she is booted?

Being Majority Leader means having to listen when your members say, "If I vote the way you want, I'll lose my election."

But in Sinema's case, it's like, "If I vote the way you want, I'll damage my idiosyncratic brand that really should be making me more popular with op-ed writers, don't you think?"

Why doesn't Schumer call her into his office and say "Get in line or I'll support a primary challenger against you"?

Because she’d laugh at him. She knows they won’t gut a centrist incumbent.

I think regardless of what she does, there's a good chance she'll be primaried and lose. Possibly the only thing that might save her is getting in line with the rest of her colleagues.

The primary challenge campaign is already starting to rev up.

Dem voters in AZ are reporting that they're receiving tons of pro-Sinema mailers--probably Koch funded

She will absolutely face a progressive primary challenger. That's different from party leadership/donors/etc. going after her (ie the idea of a Schumer threat), it will be the eternal spiel about moderate electability and we can't risk a ewww progressive losing to a Republican in November etc. etc. etc..

This remains the party that let Joe Lieberman keep his committee chair and break Obama's legs after he appeared onstage at the RNC.

Meanwhile much of her state will be uninhabitable sometime in the next two decades.

― I'm a sovereign jazz citizen (the table is the table), Thursday, September 30, 2021 11:12 AM (fifty-five minutes ago)

^^extremely relevant point^^

if Sinema wanted to maximize her leverage and bend the entire bill to her will, imagine how cool it would be if she were doing it to help protect the people she represents?

Why doesn't Schumer call her into his office and say "Get in line or I'll support a primary challenger against you"?

i'm assuming that some version of this happened, but Sinema just didn't understand what he was saying at all. she's not too smart

This is exactly it. is KS not saying “give me x and y for my state and we can get this done”?

Any Progressive challenger is going to be deemed too far left by the people Chuck works for

This is exactly it. is KS not saying “give me x and y for my state and we can get this done”?

Schumer: just tell us what you want. what do you want!? is there anything we can do, specifically for your state, or even just you, to make this work? what do you want?!

Sinema: do u like fud

is KS not saying “give me x and y for my state and we can get this done”?

The only demands she’s made appear to be “no tax increases of any kind for any reason.”

As opposed to Manchin, who wants to raise taxes but only to pay down the national debt, creating the dumbest catch 22 possible.

KS is not a serious person. She conned ppl into thinking she was. Jig is up.

Schumer staring across the desk at Sinema

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions

— Matt Gaetz is a p*do (@totallynotahoax) September 27, 2021

She deleted lmao pic.twitter.com/hjA6qiVMja

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) September 30, 2021

what a fraud

People these days are just making zero effort to hide the fact that they're bought and paid for.

Why would they hide it? What are the consequences? She gets primaried? So what, she'll have a cushy next job lined up for doing someone's bidding now.

We passed the Havana Syndrome act to pay spooks who've been annoyed by crickets

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/havana-syndrome-jason-crickets

yes, but how did they control the crickets?

Why doesn't Schumer call her into his office and say "Get in line or I'll support a primary challenger against you"?

I know the answer is, "because he's Chuck Schumer," but I wish there was a more satisfying answer than that.

But the JASON scientists left open the possibility of some other nefarious attack. “It cannot be ruled out that while the perceived sounds, while not harmful, are introduced by an adversary as deception so as to mask an entirely unrelated mode of causing illness,” the report concludes in its executive summary.

Of course!

He’s a one-man improv troupe, yes anding bullshit forever.

Manchin says reconciliation bill must include controversial Hyde Amendment https://t.co/rQ7txDay5m pic.twitter.com/CYGtbBDi4d

— The Hill (@thehill) September 30, 2021

looooool the hyde amendment, wonderful

what a remarkably depressing phrase to see uttered by a democrat in 2021, holy shit

like, the material effect is awful enough, but that is some significant PSI damage

is he about to switch parties? the fuck is this

In other Democratic embarrassment news

NEW: Harris’ office is calling up prominent pro-Israel groups and leaders for damage control after she was confronted by — and did not push back on — a student who said Israel was commiting ethnic genocide https://t.co/UMPhSz6Q3d

w/ @AlexThomp

— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 30, 2021

West Virginians are kayaking to Joe Manchin's yacht and demanding he explain why he's stopping the reconciliation bill from advancingpic.twitter.com/Q09OC1aEHo

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) October 1, 2021

Have they considered sinking it?

Sinking* Almost Heaven for October thread title.

*Not Really

Diabolus ex Manchinima: the yacht ride to hell.

On Sinema at the Sinema: October 2021 US Politics thread