I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat Will Rogers
This is getting ridiculous, even for Democrats. The object was to use Senate parliamentary tricks to pass a massive social legislation bill that would change government. But the Democrats, who are so pathetic at messaging and marketing that they couldn’t sell burgers to shipwreck survivors, it fell apart immediately.
The progressives, after years under the thumb of the moderates, wanted to strut their stuff. So the grandly announced a $6 trillion social infrastructure bill, which they later scaled back to $3.5 trillion once someone got them back on their meds again. This was a marketing disaster of the highest order.
I don’t care if you’re Elon Musk, $3.5 trillion is a shit load of money. For the rest of us, it’s obscene. What they should have done was to get out first, and sell it as a bargain basement baby at a measly $250 billion a year. Hell, the government wastes more than that every year on jet fighters that never actually get off of the ground, and ships that sink when the timbers are knocked away.
The progressives are dug in on $3.5 trillion, and Manchin and Sinema seem to have settled in on something around $1.5 trillion. The solution is simple. Give them $1.75 trillion, without giving up a single program, and shut them up! Because that package is based on 10 years of spending at those levels. Keep all of the programs, but cut the time limit in half. Fund them for five years.
How often do I have to say this? If there’s one thing that a politician learns on his mother’s knee, it’s that you never give the people something you aren’t willing to give them forever. People love free shit from the government, and when you take it away from them, it makes them cranky at election time. The GOP has spent 60 years vowing to reform social security and Medicare without every actually doing it, because they know it would kill them with seniors. Keep all of the programs in place, and simply change the funding limits from 10 years to 5 years.
Biden and the Democrats will get everything they wanted, and get a mammoth victory lap going into 2022. And they will set the table for 2024 and beyond. Because, if these bills pass, and the effects start being felt by the summer, the Democrats are going to start looking a whole helluva better toing into the midterms. And if the Democrats gain seats, they can pass more progressive legislation to strengthen their 2024 chances.
But either way, the benefits are there, and they’re going to stay there. Whether a Democrat or a Republican is elected in 2024, the social infrastructure programs will expire in 2025. And therein lies the rub. No matter who is in power, they will be faced with the choice of either extending those programs, or risking absolute electoral slaughter in 2026. The GOP spent 60 years vowing to gut Medicare and Social Security, and they’re still there. The GOP spent 10 years vowing to obliterate the Affordable Care Act, and it’s still there. Once it gets in, if it’s popular, It’s there to stay!
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
Failure is not an option.
Unless you are Donald Trump, he has failed at nearly EVERYTHING he has done during his manacle piss poor excuse for a human being life … cruel, sadistic and dumber than that proverbial rock …
The only thing that has kept him afloat is that he and his CFO were criminals, cheating on taxes and abusing the bankruptcy system with huge lies about his property values, all in all, combined with trafficking young girls, and laundering big amounts of Putin’s cash, sucking up huge amounts of dark money under the table from most of the international money people like Putin and others …
He IS going down, his golden world at Mar-o-golf, is just so much peeling gold color paint …
tax the rich, the forbes hundred richest showed them getting richer under the covid lock down. I don’t care what the deal is, it has to include a tax for the rich. that is what the people want and deserve. The pandora shows how rich people are hiding funds . musk moves to texas to avoid taxes. the winning bill is taxing the rich. all americans are sick of rich people working the game. that message sells
Sorry, I respectfully disagree with this. I think that the Democrats should go big or go home, and that is what the Red Hots (Progressives) are going for. They are there to serve the citizenry.
Christ on toast. Murf, you really are getting this wrong.
1. The $6T number was proferred because it’s the largest number believed that we need on spending.
2. It sets up up an anchor for negotiations. Part of the reason the ACA is meh is because it started as compromise. Your opening bid shouldn’t be a compromise because you never get what you want.
Yes $6 Trillion is a lot of money, to the yous and mes.
To the federal government it’s only a lot of money when it’s being spent to HELP the yous and mes.
It never seems to be an issue when spent on the Raytheons and the Lockeeds.
The government gave that much away to corporations and billionaires in the form of tax cuts (social welfare for rich folks).
It’s disgusting and the main reason I don’t bother voting anymore. I don’t have the funds to buy my own congress-critter so I feel I can better use the time spent schlepping to the polls to do things like organize my sock drawer.
I’d kind of rephrase that part about “To the federal government” since Democrats DO want to help “the yous and mes.” Change it to “To the GOP, it’s only a lot money when it’s being spent to HELP the yous and mes” since the next part is where the GOP has no problem spending it (or giving it away) to the corporations, etc.
I hadn’t quite finished reading your comment before I posted my own but, now that I have read it, you’re a waste of time. Every single time you stay home to “organize your sock drawer,” you have effectively cast a vote for a Republican candidate.
Joseph you are right. Drive, walk or crawl to the polls. Just go. Republicans need you not to go. That’s what progressives keep doing and then they can’t understand why they keep getting stepped on.