Manchin has apparently even taken his original proposal off the table  |
| “I’m really not going to talk about Build Back Better anymore because I think I’ve been very clear on that,” Manchin said earlier this week. “There is no negotiations going on at this time, OK?” |
Latest word on all of this is that Manchin has actually been talking to Mitt Romney, some GOP insiders, and the buzz is that there is full court press right now attempting to get Manchin to walk across the aisle and join the good guys. Now I am not convinced that anything like this will happen anytime soon, but if there was ever a blueprint on how to drive a moderate out of your Party, the recent behavior of Democrats and liberals against Manchin would be the gold standard.
57 comments:
I think you meant NOW attempting not not
Think they can resurrect BBB for this session?
QUOTE OF THE DAY
January 9, 2022 at 10:53 am EST
“I think the one thing that if I could wave a magic wand and have more information on, it would certainly be what did the president know about January 6 leading up to January 6. And I think what’s important is — it’s the difference between was the president absolutely incompetent or a coward on the sixth when he didn’t do anything, or did he know what was coming?
And I think that’s a difference between
incompetence with your oath
and possibly criminal.“
— Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), in an interview on NBC News.
A brief timeline of CDC advice
Here is the typical timeline of a CDC recommendation:
1Somebody publishes research suggesting that things have changed. This gets reported.A cadre of loud and persistent critics begins demanding that the CDC skip its usual bureaucratic dilly-dallying and change its guidelines now.
2 Science has spoken. This gets reported.Someone leaks the news that the CDC is thinking about announcing a change. This gets reported.
3 The CDC announces new guidance. This gets reportedA new pack of critics begins yelling that the CDC blew it and the guidelines really should have stated something different.
4 This gets reported.Someone finds a source in the FDA who says the the CDC never consulted with them, and this explains why they screwed things up. This gets reported.
5 The CDC explains its guidelines with some added nuance. This gets reported.Every doctor and pseudo-doctor on TV, radio, and social media begins to loudly debate the guidelines. In newspapers and on local TV, reporters produce pieces listing the pros and cons of each side.
After inhaling all this, half the country complains that the CDC waited too long. The other half complains that they acted too quickly and caved to political expediency. A third half complains that they just can't keep up with the CDC's constantly changing advice.Somebody publishes research suggesting that something else has changed. This gets reported
Rinse and repeat.
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AuthorKevin DrumPublished onJanuary 8, 2022 – 9:52 am28 Commentson A brief timeline of CDC advice
GOP Senator Says Trump’s Election Claims Are Bunk
(OF COURSE THEY ARE)
January 9, 2022 at 11:54 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) made it clear that he didn’t subscribe to Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen from him,
Politico reports.
Said Rounds:
“As a part of our due diligence, we looked at over 60 different accusations made in multiple states. While there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would have changed the vote outcome in a single state.”
NOT ONE SINGLE STATE!
"YOU SEE! YOU SEE!"
Ch screams, dancing about.
"There WERE irregularities!!!
HE ADMITS IT!"
REALITY,
tapping Ch on the shoulder, SAYS,
"But nothing that would have changed the outcome. Not even in A SINGLE STATE."
R.I.P. BIG LIE.
R.I.P. REPUBLICANS
James, when do you layout your unity message here, in your own words?
I especially enjoyed James cheering the US Investor Class while he made his point of a rising Stock Market in 2021
RNC Research
VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/CalFreiburger/status/1480221054652100609
Asked "how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to Covid are FROM Covid or how many are WITH Covid," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says "those data will be forthcoming."
Calvin Freiburger
So Covid numbers are magically going to dramatically improve not because Biden did anything new or better to change outcomes, but because it's no longer advantageous to lie about them. Nice little scam that the GOP is utterly unprepared for.
So the CDC was lying again and the source of 2 years of "misinformation"
While claiming exactly the opposite
Why don't people trust state news, Fauci and the CDC again?
Is it because doubters have brains that actually work ?
I'm not a big Brett Baier fan he towers over Wallace
at least for now
Reports that cmbill, Clinton, Obama and Oprah are all pressuring Manchin. And Manchin also talking to Kudlow. If dems dony get out of his face, he's liable to go Indy and caucus with gop.
* but he towers over Wallace
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I am, as you know, a Black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 15th amendment was not a bipartisan vote, it was a single party vote that gave Black people the right to vote. Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in.”
— Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), quoted by Politico.
Biden Heads to Georgia to Talk Voting Rights
“Fresh off a high-profile speech in which he warned that a dagger had been placed at the throat of American democracy, President Joe Biden will travel to the state that White House officials view as ‘ground zero’ for Republican-led election suppression efforts,”
Politico reports.
“Biden will speak in Georgia on Tuesday. In his remarks, he is expected to not only echo the themes of his address on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection
but to expand on his endorsement of a filibuster carveout to pass voting rights legislation in the Senate.”
But, Joe, the GOP wants TO EXCLUDE black citizens from voting.
"CHT, never said
"Don't get vaccinated, don't get a booster, just pray."
In fact Scott is an advocate of getting vaccinated, he himself, is vaccinated and so is his lovely wife."
James, stop lying.
Goo have been welcoming more and more black and Hispanic voters recently. They're bring welcomed not excluded.
Decent, honest, truthtelling free speech advocate said.
By Taegan Goddard
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) made it clear that he didn’t subscribe to Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories
Get some of that alky medicine "pastor"
Having Goddard posting about a single senator doesn't change anything
ARE YOU REALLY THIS STUPID of JUST DISHONEST?
or both ?
definitely desperate and fixated on Trump
anything to ignore the disaster that is Biden I guess
Exactly. Just once I'd liked to discuss Biden eith a democrat and not have him change the subject to Trump.
Decent, honest, truthtelling free speech advocate said...
Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in.”
How many Democrats voted for 15th Amendment?
The Senate passed the amendment with a vote of 39 Republican votes of "Yea", 8 Democrat and 5 Republican votes of "Nay"; 13 Republican and 1 Democrat not voting.
And Congress overrode Democrat President Andrew Johnson's veto
https://findanyanswer.com/what-was-the-vote-on-the-15th-amendment
So Republicans were responsible for passing the black voting rights amendment against Democrat opposition
Thanks for reminding us "pastor"
Having Goddard posting about a single senator doesn't change anything
LOL
Oh YES it DOES when that senator actually says what a lot of the others wish they had the guts and freedom to say.
But, Joe, the GOP wants TO EXCLUDE black citizens from voting.
Not only is this an egregious LIE, it defies logic. The GOP has been steadily INCREASING it's percentage of the black vote in recent years.
Only a lying, asshole, imbecile would state the exact opposite of what is actually happening.
KansasDemocrat said...
James, stop lying.
It's his trademark
He even lies about not lying
And he lies in his moniker
but he does plagiarize and waterboy for Goddard like a champ
as if I have to remind anyone
ROFLMFAO !!!
was the president absolutely incompetent or a coward on the sixth when he didn’t do anything, or did he know what was coming?
Great question, Reverend...
Only problem. Security for the Capitol building is the responsibility of Congress and the Mayor of D.C. It's not under Federal or Presidential jurisdiction.
So quite literally the guy demanding the President should have known more and done more is exactly one of the people who actually "was" responsible for not anticipating or doing more.
I guess he is indicting himself and the rest of his friends in Congress.
rrb said...
But, Joe, the GOP wants TO EXCLUDE black citizens from voting.
Not only is this an egregious LIE, it defies logic. The GOP has been steadily INCREASING it's percentage of the black vote in recent years.
Only a lying, asshole, imbecile would state the exact opposite of what is actually happening.
The POS "pastor" james boswell is a pathological liar
The 15th amendment was not a bipartisan vote, it was a single party vote that gave Black people the right to vote.
"Driving Miss Nancy" Clyburn is a fucking LIAR.
At the time of Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency in 1868, Americans were struggling to reconstruct a nation torn apart by war. Voting rights for freed blacks proved a big problem. Reconstruction Acts passed after the war called for black suffrage in the Southern states, but many felt the approach unfair. The Acts did not apply to the North. And in 1868, 11 of the 21 Northern states did not allow blacks to vote in elections. Most of the border states, where one-sixth of the nation's black population resided, also refused to allow blacks to vote.
Republicans' answer to the problem of the black vote was to add a Constitutional amendment that guaranteed black suffrage in all states, and no matter which party controlled the government. Congress spent the days between Grant's election and his inauguration drafting this new amendment, which would be the 15th added to the Constitution.
The writers of the Fifteenth Amendment produced three different versions of the document. The first of these prohibited states from denying citizens the vote because of their race, color, or the previous experience of being a slave. The second version prevented states from denying the vote to anyone based on literacy, property, or the circumstances of their birth. The third version stated plainly and directly that all male citizens who were 21 or older had the right to vote.
Determined to pass the amendment, Congress ultimately accepted the first and most moderate of the versions as the one presented for a vote. This took some wrangling in the halls of Congress, however. Many Congressmen felt that the first version did not go far enough, and that it left too many loopholes.
Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment on February 26, 1869. But some states resisted ratification. At one point, the ratification count stood at 17 Republican states approving the amendment and four Democratic states rejecting it. Congress still needed 11 more states to ratify the amendment before it could become law.
All eyes turned toward those Southern states which had yet to be readmitted to the Union. Acting quickly, Congress ruled that in order to be let into the Union, these states had to accept both the Fifteenth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to all people born in the United States, including former slaves. Left with no choice, the states ratified the amendments and were restored to statehood.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-fifteenth/
Our 15th Amendment exists thanks to REPUBLICANS.
C.H. Truth said...
was the president absolutely incompetent or a coward on the sixth when he didn’t do anything, or did he know what was coming?
Nancy is keeping her communications with Capitol Police and the FBI secret
Some truths she definitely wants hidden
Wasn't it Biden who gave an eulogy for a democrat senator from the KKK ?
of course that was a younger Biden
and not Hunter
Only problem:
The then President of the United States saw the Capitol building being assauted by the supporters he sent walking there and despite repeated begging from his staff and family, did nothing about it for hours and hours.
Decent, honest, truthtelling free speech advocate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wait shouldn't this say "administrator" ?
He's a regular false accuser
odd behavior from a "pastor"
ROFLMFAO !!!
Wasn't it Biden who gave an eulogy for a democrat senator from the KKK?
Yes he did, but that was only after that democrat senator had repented his earlier Klan stances and was getting overwhelming support from his state's black voters, as was the Democratic Party.
but you know what Reverend...
Maybe he is just stupid and doesn't understand what a simple blogger understands about the security surrounding the Capitol building? Maybe I am better informed than he is?
Or...
He believes that other people are stupid and will follow along with his anti-Trump tirade because they are stupid and don't understand about the security surrounding the Capitol building. Or maybe he just thinks that they hate Trump so much the facts won't matter?
What do you think, Reverend?
The GOP has been steadily INCREASING it's percentage of the black vote in recent years.
But the majority of GA blacks still vote DEM, and the GA GOP wants to prevent that as much as they can by whatever means they can employ.
The then President of the United States saw the Capitol building being assauted by the supporters he sent walking there and despite repeated begging from his staff and family, did nothing about it for hours and hours.
Well other than this isn't true...
That is not what the Congress idiot said, now was it?
It is also not what you wrote Reverend, now was it?
He is laying the responsibility for Capitol security on the President, when in fact it was his own legislative body that was responsible. That is backasswards wrong.
What do you think, Reverend?
I think he wants to change the pledge to "One nation under Goddard"
he sure is working hard on that
ROFLMFAO !!!
Well other than this isn't true...
the "pastor" is simply a pathological liar
I guess future testimony may reveal what Trump told those staff and family members who were desperately BEGGING him to call off the assault on the Capitol police. Until then, I will let Ch try to discern the workings of Trump's mind.
His attempt to do that at 1:18 sure was lame. (snicker)
But hey Reverend...
I figured out the discrepancy between the PA Dept of Health and your Philadelphia internet news site claims...
The number from PA DOH was for the entire state.
Your articles were about Philadelphia itself for the most part or the greater Philadelphia area. Since Philadelphia is a heavy minority and Joe BIden heavy area, it only makes sense that more people would be unvaccinated, catching Covid, and dying.
Since when I did my own research, I found that Biden counties were much worse off that Trump counties.
So your article are probably correct... for heavy minority Democratic Philly. The General PA DOH website is correct... for the rest of the state.
That makes sense, doesn't it Reverend?
James is either a liar, or he is purposely posting lies, innuendo and accusations I tended to irritate others here. Not worthy of a pastor now is it.
I'm damn glad he's not my pastor. Mine is actually respected.
So Reverend...
Do you believe that security plans "before" January was lacking? Do you suppose they should have had better security in place? Should they have had an idea of what could take place given there were over 60,000 rally goers at the Capitol that day?
Do you believe that they could have done a better job in preparing? Perhaps took the President's advice and had National Guard actually on site? Perhaps had more security overall at the Capitol building?
Or do you believe that they did everything perfectly... and that the only blame should be placed at the feet of the "bad orange man"?
Just curious if you can "actually" be decent and honest?
Myballs said...
James is either a liar, or he is purposely posting lies, innuendo and accusations I tended to irritate others here. Not worthy of a pastor now is it.
I'm damn glad he's not my pastor. Mine is actually respected.
I think most are and certainly most pastors are not on message boards "snickering"
and being dishonest at best as is the case with the POS "pastor"
of course we know his true GODdard
Stop ranting, Ch. The question is, why didn't the President DO ANYTHING after his supporters strted assaulting Capitol police and forcibly breaking into the Capitol?
He sat actually ENJOYING it on live TV and resisting the repeated pleas of his advisers and even members of his own family to call a halt to it.
That went on for hours.
Yes he did, but that was only after that democrat senator had repented his earlier Klan stances and was getting overwhelming support from his state's black voters, as was the Democratic Party.
Was that after he discussed white ni***** on national tv?
Don't know. Whatever he said, he eventually enjoyed strong support from blacks.
When Obama was elected U.S. Senator, he sat with Byrd one day at Byrd's invitation while Byrd told him how much he regretted his former Klan days. The two had a moving conversation and Byrd presented Obama with a signed edition of his works.
1:28
Yeah, I'm such a TERRIBLE "not respected" pastor that I served my last church for nineteen years before retiring.
(And no, I was neither fired nor was I asked to resign.)
Stop ranting, Ch. The question is, why didn't the President DO ANYTHING after his supporters strted assaulting Capitol police and forcibly breaking into the Capitol?
That is quite literally NOT THE QUESTION you or the turncoat Congressman asked. Do we have to go back and look at "YOUR QUOTE OF THE DAY"? Which was about whether or not he knew what was "coming" (prior to Jan 6th) and why he didn't do anything (in the same sentence).
Once a riot starts, there is little anyone is going to do to stop it from an office somewhere. These people were not watching television or surfing the internet, or on Twitter. They had to be stopped by having people on the ground. Either more Capitol police or national guard.
Neither of which is under control of the President.
Grow up Reverend.
You asked a question. You didn't like the answer.
So now you want to change the question?
Like a child.
Reverend...
The President had recommended and called for 10,000 national guard member to be present. Meadows said he provided an order of such (which is not really a real order because they are not under his control).
But ultimately the request for National Guard needed to come from the Mayor of DC because they have no Governor. A President can call for them under emergency conditions but nobody believes that you can call for National Guard and have them be there within the time frame necessary.
The idea that a President could have "stopped" the riot while it was taking place is just silly. I have no other word for it. I mean think about what you are believing would have taken place here? That these people were storming the Capitol building and then they all happen to see a tweet from the President on their phones and stop?
Perhaps they suddenly build giant television screens so that everyone could see the President speak?
This is a childish "Why didn't he do something" when in fact there was really realistically that could have been done from the White House to stop a Capitol riot that was technically 100% the responsibility of Congress, Capitol Police, and the DC Mayor to call the National Guard.
This is a childish "Why didn't he do something"
When you pause to think about it, this is the same leftist reaction to just about anything. It's this attitude that allows the left to throw gigantic piles of "government" money at a problem, almost always enriching themselves and their stable of perpetual rent-seekers in the process, without ever solving the original fucking problem.
Grow up Reverend.
BWAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! As an advocate and believer of the big lie and that the Stop the Steal Insurrection was a hoax, your comment is not only amusing but sure shows you that trump has destoryed your brain!!!!!! What is realistic asshole trump ate French fries as DC burned......it was technically 100% under trumps control to stop and he did NOTHING!!!!!! Sad your simplistic sick mind isn't aware enough to figure out that TRUTH!!!!!
Some Republicans have a conscious mind Scott. I watched him
Speaking to NBC's Meet The Press, the outgoing GOP lawmaker said the former president's meteoric rise to power came because he was at the right place at the right time.
1:21 / 2:03
Read More
Kinzinger also claimed Trump's enduring grasp on the party is due in large part to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who paid a visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club days after denouncing his role in the Capitol riot.
'Did Donald Trump reveal what the Republican party is or change it?' host Chuck Todd asked.
You know, I think it's actually a little of both,' Kinzinger said.
'So, I think, on the one hand, Donald Trump is a symptom of years and years of leaders, you know, profit-driven radio shows, whatever, turning the base into this angry, fearful, you know, victimized group of people.'
He said those talk radio shows, without naming any hosts or titles, convince their viewers that they can 'never get a fair shot or that they're losing 'more and more political power.'
'Keep in mind, Republicans still won just about half of all races,' Kinzinger clarified, before adding: 'But then Donald Trump came along and, I think unintentionally, because I think he just wanted to be, you know, that guy, unintentionally got in front of the wave where people wanted somebody to blow stuff up.'
Kinzinger is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the riot
'The problem is leaders have to now interdict this fear and anger cycle and they're not doing it. They're instead hiding.'
Kinzinger is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the riot. He along with Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming are the only two members of the GOP appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the committee investigating January 6.
Some Republican leaders in Congress have been accused of flip-flopping on their initial reactions condemning Trump and the Capitol riot in order to please the ex-president.
Senator Lindsey Graham famously said 'enough is enough' with Trump when Congress resumed its Joint Session to certify Joe Biden's 2020 victory. Hours earlier rioters were overwhelming law enforcement and shattering glass to enter into the US Capitol.
But hours after Biden's speech last week denouncing Trump's role in the insurrection on its first anniversary, Graham released a scathing statement accusing Biden of 'politicizing' the riot.
And Kinzinger accused McCarthy of lying on Sunday when he recalled the House GOP leader painting the January 2021 visit to Trump's Florida retreat as a mere coincidence.
'January 7th, I'll tell you, within my Republican Caucus, there was a lot of silence, a lot of discussion -- where do we go from here, this was wrong,' he said, describing the immediate fallout after the insurrection.
Seig Heil Mr Trump.
Rat...
It's like magic.
A few hundred people enter the capitol building, some fighting with Capitol police. The President pulls out a magic wand and a top hat, waves the wand over the hat and abracadabra, he pulls a rabbit out...
and then poof!
Magically all of the rioting stops.
Why didn't he just do that, asks the children who believe in magic!
Sort like there is some magic item in the Capitol building that if the man with the Horns and caveman suit would have just been able to locate
Poof!
He magically becomes President!
Poof!
Because so far, Rat...
Haven't heard any more realistic explanations to "magic".
The idea that a President could have "stopped" the riot while it was taking place is just silly. I have no other word for it. I mean think about what you are believing would have taken place here? That these people were storming the Capitol building and then they all happen to see a tweet from the President on their phones and stop?
But they had a Lego mock up of the capital and as I understand a division of Tonka D-9’s at the ready
A Powerline writer believes that BBB is totally socialism and he would eventually reverse everything since Teddy Roosevelt broke the Standard Oil monopoly and regulated capitalism. Even public schools nationwide
Enacting these massive, new entitlements is one reason the House bill is rightly called “progressive.” The second, equally important reason is that nearly all Democrats, except Manchin and his Arizona colleague Kyrsten Sinema, are willing to break the Senate’s longstanding rules and procedures to achieve their desired outcome. This determination to override traditional governing procedures and the institutions that embody them has been a hallmark of capital-P Progressivism since Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette came roaring into the Senate in 1906.
By 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was running for president as the Progressive Party nominee. Woodrow Wilson, the man who gained the Oval Office by TR’s third-party candidacy, had embraced progressivism while a professor (and later college president) at Princeton. Wilson and progressive public intellectuals such as Herbert Croly explained their rationale far more candidly than their political descendants do. The Constitution, they rightly noted, encumbered our national government with its enumerated powers, decentralized federalism, multiple veto points for any new policies, and strong protections for private property, contracts, and minority-party rights. Progressives argued that those restraints may have been fine for the 18th and 19th centuries but not for the 20th, which needed a far more active state.
Although 21st century progressives are uncomfortably standing in Woodrow Wilson’s shadow on account of his racial policies, their basic contention is the same: The “old” Constitution is outmoded. Its restrictions stand in the way of a more powerful, activist, conservative
Creating that government is what progressive legal scholars mean when they advocate for a “living Constitution,” which achieves desired outcomes by ignoring restraints in the “old Constitution.” They have largely succeeded. Progressives have gradually remodeled America’s government, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. During FDR’s first term in the White House, the Supreme Court ruled that most of those programs violated the Constitution. Roosevelt found that intolerable and on the heels of his 1936 landslide reelection, threatened to expand the court and pack it with pro-New Deal justices. The blowback caused FDR to retreat, but the mere threat helped achieved his desired results. Sitting justices began approving his programs or retiring, replaced by FDR’s nominees. It proved to be an inflection point for the high court and for American government. Since then, the Supreme Court has successively loosened the old Constitutional restrictions and approved major accretions to centralized power, much of it located in Washington bureaucracies. Whether the current court, with its conservative majority, will continue to do so is one reason nominations are now so hotly contested. The fight is over fundamental issues.
Washington’s centralized power, substantially engorged by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, is how America is governed today, less by statutes and more by executive diktat and bureaucratic rules, which are enforced and adjudicated mainly by the very agencies that promulgate them. Congress now sees its role mainly as overseeing those agencies. It’s not very good at it.
This centralized administrative state with its expansive powers is why Washington bureaucracies presume they have the authority to require private businesses with over 100 employees to fire workers who refuse COVID vaccinations. It is why the Department of Education can demand private universities comply with a vast range of federal rules and regulations if any of their students or faculty receive federal loans or grants (as all universities do, except Hillsdale). It is why Washington bureaucrats can tell K-12 schools what kind of lunches to serve, a task once handled solely by local school boards and seized from them without any congressional debate.
Washington money means Washington rules. Those regulations go well beyond statutory laws or constitutional protections against discrimination. They have suppressed the Constitution’s basic federal structure and gradually erased the line between “public” and “private” enterprises. This web of centralized control and bureaucratic rules has “progressively” usurped control over most aspects of American public and private life, making civil society subordinate to the administrative state.
Expanding this centralized state and endowing it with still more cradle-to-grave programs is the main aim of Build Back Better. Achieving that won’t be easy because the Democrats didn’t run on that platform and didn’t win enough votes to enact it. Joe Biden won mainly because he wasn’t Donald Trump, because he promised to return the country to normality after four turbulent years and outlined a vague center-left agenda to do it.
Those promises went out the window after Biden took office. The window opened wider when Democrats captured Georgia’s two Senate seats in runoff elections. Those victories in early January cost the Republicans control of the upper chamber. Since Democrats already controlled the House, just barely, they now held both branches of Congress, as well as the White House. Only the Supreme Court was beyond their grasp, and they are threatening to take it, too, by going where even Franklin Roosevelt dared not tread. Nonetheless, the Georgia victories gave the incoming Biden team an opportunity, and they seized it. They opted, in their words, to “fundamentally transform America.” What they failed to acknowledge was that Biden was in a far weaker position to do that than Roosevelt in 1936 or Johnson in 1964. Those presidents carried overwhelming majorities into the White House and Congress. Biden did not. His position was weak at the beginning and has gone downhill ever since.
It’s not surprising, then, that the White House has such trouble passing Build Back Better. What’s seems odd is that Biden has refused to change course. He is still hellbent on passing an ambitious, left-wing agenda. The budgetary elements can pass the Senate with a simple majority under budget reconciliation rules. But that requires the support of all 50 Democrats since Republicans are united in opposition. Vice President Kamala Harris could then break the 50-50 tie and pass the gargantuan bill.
But Joe Manchin has proved an immovable object, objecting to the legislation’s accounting tricks, the massive deficit it creates, and the fuel it pours onto an overheated economy. Since Biden won less than 30% of the West Virginia vote while losing every single county in the state, he has no leverage over the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation.
Budget reconciliation rules don’t cover all of Biden’s proposals. These additional proposals could be blocked by filibuster, unless the filibuster itself were eliminated. That could be done by a simple majority vote, but it would fundamentally change the Senate by ending its traditional protections for the minority party. That’s why then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused President Trump’s demand to do it. That’s why Democratic Sens. Manchin and Sinema refuse to change the rules now, despite pressure from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The debate over the filibuster rule has received a lot of attention, and properly so. So has the flip-flop by Democrats who stoutly defended the rule when they were in the minority. But the real issue here is not Schumer’s blatant hypocrisy. The deeper issue — one that has largely been missed — is how the effort to overturn Senate rules and pass BBB fits so neatly into the larger sweep of progressive politics. That’s not just because Democrats want to permanently expand the social-welfare state and “fundamentally transform America.” It’s also because they are willing to smash venerable institutions and procedural safeguards to do it. The same logic applies to their effort to nationalize election laws. That, too, is probably doomed because of the filibuster. If it did pass, it’s also likely that the Supreme Court would strike it down because the Constitution specifically delegates election lawmaking to state legislatures, with national courts stepping in only to protect individual rights.
The latest initiatives by Biden, Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi may fail, but they won’t be the progressives’ last hurrah. They’ve been winning for over eight decades and came within two Senate votes of winning this time. They’ll keep trying until voters send them a clear message that the administrative state is already too big, too intrusive, too far removed from control by citizens’ elected representatives. Its continued growth and unchecked power threatens our oldest institutions, our freedoms, and our liberty under law. The voters’ message must be unambiguous: Stop trying to fundamentally transform America. We never asked for it, we don’t want it, and we never gave you permission.
Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor
A few hundred people enter the capitol building, some fighting with Capitol police.
You keep perpetuating the same fucking lie Lil Schittty.......thousands were present at the capital with most wearing MAGA gear, carrying trump signs and overrunning the police!!!!1. That is clearly understood except to brain damaged child marrying asshols lie you and rat!!!!!!! The horned guy was symptomatic on how sick the rioters were an willing to stop congress from voting a clear sign of an insurrection.....sorry sport, but your really need to grow up and get a pair....which you have seemed to lost in trumps ass!!!!!!
But they had a Lego mock up of the capital and as I understand a division of Tonka D-9’s at the ready
You really make a box of rocks look smart, shorty.......>BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
actually Denny... there were tens of thousands at the rally. About 99% of them were never at the Capitol building.
It is what you liberals like to call a "mostly peaceful protest".
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