So in that Kasie Hunt Tweet she is directly telegraphing that she's already made up a narrative in her head (suburban women are turning on Democrats because that didn't pass paid family leave) and she's gonna go out looking for a story that supports that narrative.
This doesn't seem like how journalism should work.
The point about riding maskless on an airplane is a good one. I hadn't thought about it before, but I imagine a Republican president will do that on Day 1. I bet even after 2022, a Republican Congress will pass that bill and complain when Biden doesn't sign it. Why the administration doesn't get ahead of all this and just give up on NPIs now I will never understand.
I would just note again that while Matt's earlier article putting a lot of the blame for this on Schumer was persuasive, all of Schumer's incentives change in 8 weeks when the primary filing deadline in New York passes. So that's the timeline to keep an eye on.
The depressing thing is that passing BBB in its fullest, pre-Manchin form would not have moved the polls much. Legislation matters much less than the zeitgeist, and laws affect the zeitgeist in strange, unpredictable, hard to control ways.
'There is no distinction between Nazis and average white people' is an accurate representation of a tweet by a fairly prominent Democratic activist this weekend. When you have that level of insanity in your base, it's very difficult to get anything done.
I think a Democrat from 10 years wouldn't believe that anyone could complain about a trillion dollar bill that raises taxes on the rich and spends money on the welfare state and environment. But the Democratic base has got so detached from reality that not only is the bill already viewed negatively, it might actually fail to pass.
Here's the Tweet. She has 490k followers, and has written in the WaPo. It wasn't an accident, she's retweeted it herself since writing it.
It’s pretty clear now that Manchin is fundamentally negotiating in good faith, so if Schumer and those to his left can’t figure out something, I’m going to place that blame entirely on them.
In a nutshell, the situation has not changed since last June. Manchin said stay under 1.5T and pick a few things to be fully funded (or at least have significantly less budget tricks) and he will support. Why we are still in the same place in February has little to do with Manchin and everything to do with the Progressives not being able to accept reality and continuing to try to get Manchin to change. He is not going to.
All of that, and the thing that had me nodding my head was the paragraph about riding on an airplane without masks. This issue absolutely will be influencing my next votes.
And all the other stuff, the key provision that I support is making the expanded child tax credit permanent. But I’m sort of resigned that that’s not gonna get passed either.
The Democrats should wrap up some pro natural gas to replace coal elements in their climate proposals. That might get Manchin to sign on.
Just spitballing here, but I wonder if West Virginia is a bit of an outlier here amongst deep red states. They had Robert Byrd as an institution in the Senate, and he basically staked his whole career on "my state is really poor, they need government solutions to improve roads/electricity/schools etc." and people kept voting him in. I know cultural issues have superseded economic ones in a lot of places, but perhaps those feelings linger just enough in West Virginia to influence Manchin?
The actions of foreign governments have made it hard to feel we have returned to normal. Every time I turn on the Olympics, I see empty seats and an event that could be a celebration of peace and normalcy downgraded to a grim rendition of pandemic theater. The Tokyo games were even worse. I could not vacation in Canada last summer even though I was fully vaccinated. Biden might have been able to pressure Canada into opening it’s border to tourists a bit earlier, but he didn’t try and he would have taken a lot of flak if he had.
Nor can Biden make my mother more willing to travel and dine out. The continued dreariness of life isn’t Biden’s fault. However, I’m wearing a mask on a plane right now because of a Biden administration mandate, and that makes it very easy to project pandemic angst onto Biden.
I can't say for sure, obviously, but I think Manchin probably would have been more receptive to funding gimmicks and CBO score gaming if Democrats and leadership hadn't spent three months trashing him for not going up to $3.5 trillion. It's hard to see how that wouldn't result in a lot of bad blood, particularly when Manchin made his red lines clear at the beginning in the Schumer memo. That Schumer kept it a secret even, apparently, from Pelosi and President, and said nothing as other Democrats complained that Manchin didn't spell out what he wanted.
But maybe things had to play out that way. It's also hard to see progressives willingly go from $3.5 to $1.5 trillion until they'd exhausted all avenues and proved to their base that they "fought" for a bigger number. But the way in which they fought - often in personal terms about the (lack of) moral character of Manchin and Sinema, was probably counterproductive considering they need Manchin more than he needs them.
Democrats: “Cut one penny from the welfare state and we’ll have millions of sick and starving children and old people dying in the streets.”
Republicans: “Cut one penny from the military and we’ll have Chinese tanks rolling down Santa Monica Boulevard.”
The bipartisan “compromise” has indeed always been “why not both?” - spend more on everything without addressing the obvious status quo of massive programs that pad public payrolls and funnel cash to politically connected contractors and “consultants” while benefiting neither national security nor the personal well being of citizens in need.
So in that Kasie Hunt Tweet she is directly telegraphing that she's already made up a narrative in her head (suburban women are turning on Democrats because that didn't pass paid family leave) and she's gonna go out looking for a story that supports that narrative.
This doesn't seem like how journalism should work.
The BBB fiasco has been a big loss for the "Bullying Works" caucus.
The point about riding maskless on an airplane is a good one. I hadn't thought about it before, but I imagine a Republican president will do that on Day 1. I bet even after 2022, a Republican Congress will pass that bill and complain when Biden doesn't sign it. Why the administration doesn't get ahead of all this and just give up on NPIs now I will never understand.
I would just note again that while Matt's earlier article putting a lot of the blame for this on Schumer was persuasive, all of Schumer's incentives change in 8 weeks when the primary filing deadline in New York passes. So that's the timeline to keep an eye on.
The depressing thing is that passing BBB in its fullest, pre-Manchin form would not have moved the polls much. Legislation matters much less than the zeitgeist, and laws affect the zeitgeist in strange, unpredictable, hard to control ways.
'There is no distinction between Nazis and average white people' is an accurate representation of a tweet by a fairly prominent Democratic activist this weekend. When you have that level of insanity in your base, it's very difficult to get anything done.
I think a Democrat from 10 years wouldn't believe that anyone could complain about a trillion dollar bill that raises taxes on the rich and spends money on the welfare state and environment. But the Democratic base has got so detached from reality that not only is the bill already viewed negatively, it might actually fail to pass.
Here's the Tweet. She has 490k followers, and has written in the WaPo. It wasn't an accident, she's retweeted it herself since writing it.
https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1490399717213323265?s=20&t=h_9g8vJBPsxNPtvrsALUgg
It’s pretty clear now that Manchin is fundamentally negotiating in good faith, so if Schumer and those to his left can’t figure out something, I’m going to place that blame entirely on them.
In a nutshell, the situation has not changed since last June. Manchin said stay under 1.5T and pick a few things to be fully funded (or at least have significantly less budget tricks) and he will support. Why we are still in the same place in February has little to do with Manchin and everything to do with the Progressives not being able to accept reality and continuing to try to get Manchin to change. He is not going to.
All of that, and the thing that had me nodding my head was the paragraph about riding on an airplane without masks. This issue absolutely will be influencing my next votes.
And all the other stuff, the key provision that I support is making the expanded child tax credit permanent. But I’m sort of resigned that that’s not gonna get passed either.
The Democrats should wrap up some pro natural gas to replace coal elements in their climate proposals. That might get Manchin to sign on.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1490421067420209152?s=21
His worst tweet ever?
The Covid fear porn fetishists are killing us.
NJ Gov. and Covid hawk Phil Murphy is now a Covid dove. It has become a weird and incredibly stupid self-own by liberals.
Like most of the things that kill us as a party it is mostly upper class white women who push this.
Just spitballing here, but I wonder if West Virginia is a bit of an outlier here amongst deep red states. They had Robert Byrd as an institution in the Senate, and he basically staked his whole career on "my state is really poor, they need government solutions to improve roads/electricity/schools etc." and people kept voting him in. I know cultural issues have superseded economic ones in a lot of places, but perhaps those feelings linger just enough in West Virginia to influence Manchin?
The actions of foreign governments have made it hard to feel we have returned to normal. Every time I turn on the Olympics, I see empty seats and an event that could be a celebration of peace and normalcy downgraded to a grim rendition of pandemic theater. The Tokyo games were even worse. I could not vacation in Canada last summer even though I was fully vaccinated. Biden might have been able to pressure Canada into opening it’s border to tourists a bit earlier, but he didn’t try and he would have taken a lot of flak if he had.
Nor can Biden make my mother more willing to travel and dine out. The continued dreariness of life isn’t Biden’s fault. However, I’m wearing a mask on a plane right now because of a Biden administration mandate, and that makes it very easy to project pandemic angst onto Biden.
"We need a new name,..."
Build back McManchins?
I can't say for sure, obviously, but I think Manchin probably would have been more receptive to funding gimmicks and CBO score gaming if Democrats and leadership hadn't spent three months trashing him for not going up to $3.5 trillion. It's hard to see how that wouldn't result in a lot of bad blood, particularly when Manchin made his red lines clear at the beginning in the Schumer memo. That Schumer kept it a secret even, apparently, from Pelosi and President, and said nothing as other Democrats complained that Manchin didn't spell out what he wanted.
But maybe things had to play out that way. It's also hard to see progressives willingly go from $3.5 to $1.5 trillion until they'd exhausted all avenues and proved to their base that they "fought" for a bigger number. But the way in which they fought - often in personal terms about the (lack of) moral character of Manchin and Sinema, was probably counterproductive considering they need Manchin more than he needs them.
There may be too much bad blood now for a deal.
Democrats: “Cut one penny from the welfare state and we’ll have millions of sick and starving children and old people dying in the streets.”
Republicans: “Cut one penny from the military and we’ll have Chinese tanks rolling down Santa Monica Boulevard.”
The bipartisan “compromise” has indeed always been “why not both?” - spend more on everything without addressing the obvious status quo of massive programs that pad public payrolls and funnel cash to politically connected contractors and “consultants” while benefiting neither national security nor the personal well being of citizens in need.