Congress escaped shooting itself in the foot again playing childish games when it passed an emergency spending bill, averting a government shutdown, at least until December. Predictably when a Democratic president is in office, the Republicans play their “little” games to discomfit the Democrats and try to fool people that they are doing this out of “principle”; but we all know that when a Republican is in office, they hypocritically throw out their “conservative principles” about the debt, thanks in part to either needless wars before, or massive tax giveaways to the rich now. Of course this emergency funding is just kicking the budget can down the road, just in time for the Christmas holidays—so like Republicans to be miserable Scrooges because it makes them feel “good” to see people miserable if they think enough foolish voters will blame it on the Democrats.
But Democrats don’t want to be “Scrooges”; they want everyone to have at least a little share of the American Pie, not just the crumbs that happen to fall off the table that the dog didn’t get first. Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending proposal, the majority of it in something called the “American Families Plan,” seeks to be the most ambitious social safety net proposal since LBJ’s “Great Society” in the 1960s. It includes providing pre-school and childcare earlier at little or no cost, more child tax credits, two years of free community college, and increased college grants for needy students. There are also “enhancements” to the Affordable Care Act, including establishing a federal Medicaid plan for those who live in states that do not allow expanded Medicaid. And there is something that might make a lot of people happy, a proposal to add dental benefits to Medicare. And of course to make certain people happy (AOC), there is significant investment in, and inducements, for carbon-free power.
All this sounds great—except that the Democrats have to be their own “Scrooges.” Take for example the compromise infrastructure bill that was passed in the U.S. Senate. There, Senate Democrats said to the House of Representatives, the “hard” part was done, now all you have to do is your simple little part and vote on the damn thing. But has that happened? “Moderate” Democrats in the House are demanding that it be put up for a vote now before a vote on Biden’s spending plan, which makes sense since that is months away from being sorted out and reconciled with a Senate proposal, which frankly seems like a tough row to hoe with Senators Manchin and Sinema still claiming that the current numbers are a “non-starter” despite deciding to vote for the plan’s resolution anyways.
Why has this not been put up for a vote in the House? Because Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under pressure from the “progressives,” demanded a concurrent vote on the $3.5 trillion spending plan that hasn’t even been presented in its “final” form yet (just competing “blue prints”), and won’t be for months. Thus Democrats are wasting away the time when they could have at least one “victory” in the bag (the infrastructure bill) and instead are looking more and more like “losers.” The bellyaching from both the “moderates” and the “progressives” in the House only serves to make Pelosi appear to have only limited personal capabilities to influence and force her own members to fall in line for the common good.
Why can’t Democrats get their act together? Even though a few Republicans pretend to have moral scruples, when push comes to shove, even they abandon personal “principle” and are in lockstep even with their “leader’s” most repugnant ideas for purely partisan reasons (see Sen. Susan Collins). Yet Democrats go to battle not with Republicans but with themselves, even when “victory” is in their grasp if they just would maintain a semblance of unity—especially in public.
In Newsweek, right-wing commentator Peter Roff has written an op-ed claiming that the “problem” of “moderate” Democratics opposing the spending bill on “principle” is a “myth,” although he of course can’t admit that “moderates” in the Republican Party is an even bigger myth. Roff makes the ludicrous claim that the so-called moderates in the Democratic caucus are really as “socialist” at heart as Bernie Sanders, but because some of them occupy what are called “swing” seats, they only act out of self-preservation, not out of “principle.” If they were not “afraid” for purely survival reasons, they would vote for the $3.5 trillion spending bill.
Of course this is nonsense, since if Democrats had a larger majority, those swing Democrats would be even more likely to vote against the spending bill if there was no pressure to do so. Right now, they are facing pressure to vote for the spending bill, even though it is months away. Who knows what will happen by then; the only thing for certain is that the infrastructure bill is there for the taking, but Pelosi and company apparently fear that if the infrastructure bill is passed now, the “moderates” will be “satisfied” with that and refuse to support the spending bill. Believing this, the “progressives” threaten to vote against the infrastructure bill if it is not tied to the spending bill. When and if the spending bill ever is completed and comes to a vote, who knows how lawmakers may be feeling about any of this.
What Democratic lawmakers should be thinking about is because mid-term elections tend to go against the incumbent party in the White House, they should stop worrying about the 2022 election, since at least for House members, it isn’t going to matter how they vote anyways, it is how people feel about the president and the job he is doing. The effect of the ACA on the 2010 election should not be looked upon as a “guide,” because most of the electorate didn’t see it as helping themselves. The proposed spending bill will help a lot of people, and if they don’t appreciate it now, they will in the future.
Democrats need get behind the spending bill and tout its benefits instead of letting a few handwringers and those who still believe the “bipartisan” myth to hold it up, especially in the U.S. Senate where the two principle roadblocks are not even up for reelection in 2022. The Democrats need to put forward a solid front, because those lawmakers who are holding up progress are the ones who are making the spending bill look “bad” to many voters, and themselves appear weak and confused about what the Party stands for. We already know what Republicans “stand” for, and it isn’t for “the people” but for a fascist dictator-wannabe.
No comments:
Post a Comment