Reconciliation
October 15, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
How is the left’s campaign to harass Sen. Kyrsten Sinema until she agrees to in excess of $4 trillion in new spending working out? Not well, if this report is true: U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a key moderate, told fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives this week that she will not vote for a multitrillion-dollar package that is a top priority for President Joe Biden before Congress approves a
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October 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Back in 2009-10, when the Democrats controlled 59-60 Senate seats, they were pleased as punch to pass a $1 trillion stimulus package and the “camel” known as Obamacare. Sure, some Dems wished for even more stimulus money and the “horse” of single-payer health insurance. But there was no serious resistance to settling for less and few public complaints about not getting more. Twelve years later, with the Dems controllingly only
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October 6, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden visited a union training facility in Michigan and addressed the alleged need for his proposed tax-and-spend blowout (White House transcript here). Things are looking up for the blowout, but I think it is fair to say that the enthusiasm on the ground in Michigan was limited while the antipathy was audible. My guess is that meritless Merrick Garland is on the case. #LetsGoBrandon crowd greets Biden in Michigan
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October 5, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
When conservatives attack the Democrats’ attempt to pass an enormous reconciliation package, we focus on the cost and the left-wing agenda items the Dems are imposing, some of which have little to do with what is properly the subject of budget reconciliation. These are valid attacks and they resonate not just with strong conservatives, but also with those on the center-right. When Joe Manchin criticizes the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package,
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October 5, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Following remarks on raising the debt ceiling yesterday — remarks whose gist was that Republicans are bad — President Biden took a few questions from the press (White House transcript here). Republicans are guilty of using “procedural tricks” and “elaborate procedural schemes” that call for numerous votes. It’s “a Republican stunt”! Republicans are “playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy.” Bad! The stalking of Senator Sinema in the ladies’ room
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October 4, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Groucho Marx was a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan. He often played recordings of their comic operettas at home to the annoyance of his wife. One day Groucho said to her, “did you know that Gilbert couldn’t stand Sullivan and Sullivan couldn’t stand Gilbert?” The long-suffering woman replied, “it doesn’t surprise me, I can’t stand either one of them.” That line came back to me when I read the
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October 4, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The LUCHA thugs who stalked Senator Sinema into the ladies’ room at Arizona State yesterday were not out to win friends or influence people in the style of Dale Carnegie. In lieu of decency or an argument, they applied time-tested tactics. At the opening of chapter 4 of Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (2010), Stanley Kurtz relates a well-sourced story illustrating the precedent for LUCHA’s
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October 4, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The stalking of Senator Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom stall during her return to Arizona over the weekend (video below) is disgusting. I would like to say it is disgusting beyond comment, but there is much that might be learned or inferred from it. Here are 10 notes and queries that occur to me this morning. • Did you know that this happened yesterday at Arizona State University? If I
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October 3, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats’ dystopian dreams are packed into the prospective Reconciliation bill whose fate we have been following. Michael Goodwin takes up the spectacle of last week’s Democratic infighting and opines: “By giving his blessing to the radicals’ refusal to vote on the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal until they get a vote on the $3.5 trillion grab bag of socialist trash, he turned his back on the central promise of
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October 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Turning my attention to literary pursuits yesterday, I checked the headlines for reports that Dems had worked out their differences to ram through the dystopian nightmare embedded in their prospective multitrillion dollar reconciliation bill. When news came that President Biden’s minders in the White House daycare operation had let him out for a pep talk to House Democrats in the afternoon, I feared they might be getting somewhere, but no.
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October 1, 2021 — Scott Johnson
No sooner had I posted “The Manchin proviso” yesterday morning than Politico sent out notice that it had posted the Manchin/Schumer memo dated July 28, 2021. I have uploaded the memo to Scribd and embedded it at the bottom of this post. It is a weird document that is beyond my poor powers to explicate. Signed by Senator Manchin and Majority Leader Schumer, the memo purports to set forth Manchin’s
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September 30, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats seek to enact a multitrillion dollar break-the-bank spendingpalooza and other destructive measures in a “reconciliation” bill on party line votes — despite their incredibly narrow majorities in both the House and the Senate. Do we need to worry that they will will pull it off? Paul noted some of the spanners in the works here yesterday. It is misguided to focus on any one of the spanners. When
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September 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Hill reports that Nancy Pelosi is poised to postpone the vote on infrastructure legislation that was scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday). Apparently, Pelosi doesn’t have the votes to pass the $1 trillion bill. It seems that fewer than a dozen House Republicans will vote for it. That’s not enough to overcome defections from hardcore leftist Democrats. I’m surprised by this development. I thought that when push came to shove, only
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September 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
It looks like the Democrats can only pass a reconciliation bill if they are willing to get behind a trimmed-down package. The $3.5 trillion version doesn’t command the support of 50 Senators. A $2 trillion package might. But to get from $3.5 trillion to around $2 trillion, the Democrats must agree on what to cut. That seems like a tall order because the current package contains big gifts for everyone
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September 28, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
There are lots of moving parts to the Democrats’ struggle to spend trillions of dollars via bipartisan infrastructure legislation and Democrat-only-backed reconciliation. The debt ceiling has now been thrown into the mix for good measure. This piece in the Washington Post does a good job describing the Democrats quandary. It simplifies things considerably if one starts from the reality we have emphasized throughout — Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema
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September 27, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In 2020, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed 23 freshmen Democrats for Congress. I’m tempted to say that if Congress enacts the Democrats’ massive spending packages, complete with tax increases and anti-business agenda items, the Chamber will have gotten what it deserves. In fact, I will say it. The Chamber is belatedly trying to avert this disaster and to limit the damage its improvident endorsements caused. It’s warning the Democrats
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September 19, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Politico reports that the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has decided that providing a pathway to legal status and citizenship for illegal immigrants is not a budget-related matter, and therefore cannot be enacted through the “reconciliation” process. This seems to mean that when the Democrats finally get around to passing budget reconciliation legislation, which they can do with a simple Senate majority, it will not include amnesty. To accomplish amnesty, the
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