Did they pass the bill or not? Stunts are stunts, and Sinema isn’t my favorite senator, but Democrats didn’t pull an Obamacare of trying to get Republicans on board for months, watering down the bill, and then having them not vote for it anyway at the end.
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Oh Boy! You can make excuses all you want, don’t expect me to follow you down that lonely path.
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Lonely? This legislation is one of the most popular pieces of major legislations in history.
Politics is the art of the possible. I’d rather get something good passed, even with imperfect allies, than to wait (forever) to pass a better bill.
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I’m pretty sure people didn’t vote for her bag of stunts. As mentioned she bailed on a key election promise.
Showed herself to be a fake progressive. Highly doubt she’ll lock up the same votes in the future.
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Mark Kelly has a twin. Twin astronaut Arizona senators anybody? Hopefully a few people are looking at a primary run for Sinema’s seat right now.
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Well, the minimum wage likely won’t be getting raised ever again. Against incredible odds, the Democrats finally have the advantage, and they’re throwing it away. If they don’t pass important legislation on the big issues within the next two years and significantly, ruthlessly and unapologetically improve the life of the average American, they’re going to lose that advantage- and it’s never coming back, because there’s only so much more abuse the USA can take before elections and free society cease to be a thing. There might not BE a next time for them to rethink their poor choices in a decade.
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The Democrats made a bunch of overtures in February to try and talk to some of the republican senators and they got within spitting distance of obstructing this bill past when the current unemployment benefits run out.
This news was a genuine surprise, which means the Democratic senators have shown a little spine for the first time that I have seen.
If they get HR 1 through the senate, I will change my tune on whether they’ve decided to fight. I don’t really expect them to given Sinema and Manchin’s actions. (I very much want to be pleasantly surprised.)
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I’m sure the Free Ice Cream and Ponies for All Act of 2022 would be the most popular. Popular does not equal wise.
Was it stolen from many grandchildren or just one very rich grandchild? Were they all gathered in one group and if so why did they have so much cash on hand? I have so many questions…
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To make matters worse, when asked about her thumbs down, her office responded with this incredibly disingenuous bullshit:
“Commentary about a female senator’s body language, clothing, or physical demeanor does not belong in a serious media outlet.”
Her vote is just “body language”? Fucking body language?! Talk about disgusting - that’s some hard-right-Republican-level disingenuousness and contempt for the press right there.
Yeah, they’re still in the “oh no, we don’t want to violate any norms!” state of mind, after 12 fucking years of the Republicans ramping up in blatantly violating every norm, ethical rule and then law that stood in their way.
Yeah, I don’t think most of the Democrats have yet realized the existential threat they’re facing right now - not just to holding power, but to democracy in this country as a whole.
Yeah, especially since it seems kind of unlikely Biden will want to be in office until he’s 86.
Instead they watered down the bill in order to get the Democrats to vote for it, after some of them refused to even vote for the things they campaigned for.
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Is there no way to convert her posture into actual thinking things through and whatnot? Is she newly horrified of gravity and wage increases that increase prices of $230 weather snoods?
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Move that goalpost!
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You start eating your fifth pony made out of raspbetty swirl as a family, things come together.
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Exactly! Good for them! They got a watered down bill that does some good passed instead of no bill!
The alternative was to … pretend that they had votes that they didn’t have?
No - you ended up with a bill that nobody really ended up being happy with. Yay for compromise.
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People are going hungry and many are on the verge of becoming homeless. That’s likely MILLIONS of Americans. MILLIONS! What sort of economy do you think we’ll have if MILLIONS of Americans can’t do the very basics of supporting themselves and their families? Our economy is based on consumerism. It falls apart when consumers can’t spend money. We should have had a more robust stimulus response last spring. We didn’t because a bunch of neo-fascist ideologues would rather watch people suffer and die (over half a million dead right now) than to actual help people suffering by taxing the 1%.
[ETA to correct can to can’t]
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Agreed. Yay for compromise. There’s compromise, and there’s inaction. I choose compromise over inaction.
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The question isn’t why we ended up with a worse bill than we should have. The answer to that is clear: we only have 50 seats in the Senate, so we’re stuck with pleasing the most conservative Democrats.
The question is: how do we get a majority in the Senate that keeps us from being beholden to the most conservative Democrats.
Sadly, progressives don’t win swing districts. Progressives win safe districts, and replacing somewhat progressive senators with very progressive senators isn’t going to change the fact that any bill Joe Manchin doesn’t approve of won’t pass the senate.
What might change the equation is DC and PR statehood. But for that we have to get rid of the filibuster and guess who opposes that? Joe Manchin.
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