6th March 2021, 11:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 6th March 2021, 11:47 PM by A Black Falcon.)
Joe Manchin is occasionally annoying, but he is most certainly not in any way, shape, or form a Republican, and he proved that without any doubt yesterday. Seriously, how is THAT your takeaway?
When Republicans pass a major bill -- their supporters celebrate.
When Democrats pass a major bill -- their supporters yell and scream at Democratic leadership, angry that they only got 99% of what they wanted and not 100%.
Seriously, I'm as much of a pessimist as anyone but it gets really old.
But anyway, it went as I said -- every single Republican voted against the bill. ALL of them. And yet, the bill passed because all Democrats voted for it. Biden did the work and got all of our caucus in line for what he wanted, a 1.9 trillion dollar economic recovery package that should cause a pretty dramatic economic boost. Almost two trillion dollars is such a crazy amount of money, but due to COVID I'm sure it is needed.
And here we return to the start. Am I annoyed that the minimum wage wasn't in the final bill? Of course I am! A minimum wage increase is badly needed. And even more importantly, it is critically important to tie the minimum wage to inflation going forward so it never falls as far behind again as it has now. Biden needs to keep pushing on this issue, this isn't our last chance to get it passed. I am definitely disappointed that eight Democrats refused to overrule the parliamentarian; we should have had all Dems voting for this, it's an easy and obvious vote. Back in the early '00s, the Republicans fired a parliamentarian who ruled against them on one of Bush's tax bills. We should have done something similar, but instead are letting some random person who isn't a legislator or judge decide on what can go into bills, which makes little sense. I mean, if a minimum wage increase was passed, even Joe Manchin's $11 minimum wage idea, while not enough, would be a dramatic improvement over what we have now, particularly if it was attached to inflation going forward! We need to keep trying to pass something for the minimum wage, it's certainly important.
And yes, shame on my Senator Angus King for being one of those who refused to overrule the parliamentarian. It's unfortunate.
However, don't let that failure, or that they slightly narrowed eligibility for the $1400 check so people who make over $80,000 won't get it, cause you to miss the forest for the trees! This is a massive bill full of a huge number of very good things and we should be absolutely thrilled that it passed. There's so, so much in this bill, the $1400 checks are only the beginning... it'll fix a massive Obamacare price cliff for people 60 years old or older, for instance, among many other things. This is Joe Biden fulfilling one of his most important campaign promises.
And why did we get this bill, and not nothing? We got it because Joe Manchin is NOT a Republican. He likes to be annoying and get attention, but is a Democrat and voted with his party in the end. If he was a Republican, the bill would have been defeated and we'd be getting nothing. But because we managed to get 50 Senate seats between this past election and the January runoffs in Georgia (thank you, Donald Trump, for helping to convince some of your voters to not bother voting in the runoff, helping us to win!) the Democrats have now passed what is, currently, the most generous, largest COVID recession financial rescue package in the world.
When Republicans pass a major bill -- their supporters celebrate.
When Democrats pass a major bill -- their supporters yell and scream at Democratic leadership, angry that they only got 99% of what they wanted and not 100%.
Seriously, I'm as much of a pessimist as anyone but it gets really old.
But anyway, it went as I said -- every single Republican voted against the bill. ALL of them. And yet, the bill passed because all Democrats voted for it. Biden did the work and got all of our caucus in line for what he wanted, a 1.9 trillion dollar economic recovery package that should cause a pretty dramatic economic boost. Almost two trillion dollars is such a crazy amount of money, but due to COVID I'm sure it is needed.
And here we return to the start. Am I annoyed that the minimum wage wasn't in the final bill? Of course I am! A minimum wage increase is badly needed. And even more importantly, it is critically important to tie the minimum wage to inflation going forward so it never falls as far behind again as it has now. Biden needs to keep pushing on this issue, this isn't our last chance to get it passed. I am definitely disappointed that eight Democrats refused to overrule the parliamentarian; we should have had all Dems voting for this, it's an easy and obvious vote. Back in the early '00s, the Republicans fired a parliamentarian who ruled against them on one of Bush's tax bills. We should have done something similar, but instead are letting some random person who isn't a legislator or judge decide on what can go into bills, which makes little sense. I mean, if a minimum wage increase was passed, even Joe Manchin's $11 minimum wage idea, while not enough, would be a dramatic improvement over what we have now, particularly if it was attached to inflation going forward! We need to keep trying to pass something for the minimum wage, it's certainly important.
And yes, shame on my Senator Angus King for being one of those who refused to overrule the parliamentarian. It's unfortunate.
However, don't let that failure, or that they slightly narrowed eligibility for the $1400 check so people who make over $80,000 won't get it, cause you to miss the forest for the trees! This is a massive bill full of a huge number of very good things and we should be absolutely thrilled that it passed. There's so, so much in this bill, the $1400 checks are only the beginning... it'll fix a massive Obamacare price cliff for people 60 years old or older, for instance, among many other things. This is Joe Biden fulfilling one of his most important campaign promises.
And why did we get this bill, and not nothing? We got it because Joe Manchin is NOT a Republican. He likes to be annoying and get attention, but is a Democrat and voted with his party in the end. If he was a Republican, the bill would have been defeated and we'd be getting nothing. But because we managed to get 50 Senate seats between this past election and the January runoffs in Georgia (thank you, Donald Trump, for helping to convince some of your voters to not bother voting in the runoff, helping us to win!) the Democrats have now passed what is, currently, the most generous, largest COVID recession financial rescue package in the world.