Keep Your Eye on the Prize: Dems Finally Will Stop the GOP Bipartisan Charade and Move to Pass Infrastructure Bills Through Reconciliation
May 29, 2021
BuzzFlash: “Making Good Trouble Since May of 2000”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is tasked with getting Democratic outliers in line to pass the reconciliation projects and the “For the People Act” through reconciliation on the one hand and a filibuster exemption on the other. (DonkeyHotey)
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH, Short Take
In the absence of wall-to-wall shock performances and tweets by Trump, the DC Press Corps has been — to use one of their favorite clichés — “struggling” with how to cover an administration that is honest, competent and doesn’t leak like a sieve.
The corporate media has been beating the drums of speculation over whether or not Biden is sincere in his efforts to reach a so-called “bipartisan” agreement over infrastructure. Historically, “bipartisan” negotiations with Mitch McConnell have led to Republican bills that leave the Democrats without pressing solutions to run on and make them appear as feckless as a soggy sponge.
Hot on the heels of “Dr. Moreau” McConnell’s use of the filibuster on Friday to sink a January 6 commission in hopes of erasing the Donald Trump insurrection that McConnell denounced on that day, Chuck Schumer has announced that after Memorial Day, the Democrats are going to go it alone on drafting an infrastructure package, even if “moderate” GOP Senators want to continue making proposals. However, none of the GOP diversions will fly primarily because they are both too low and refuse to tax the rich and corporations to fund the programs that will “build back better” the US economy.
That McConnell could pompously, hypocritically and bombastically lead the first filibuster of this session against a commission structured to meet almost every Republican demand, proves once again that McConnell and the Republican Senate caucus have only two policies: to defeat any bill that might benefit Democrats and Biden — and revealing the truth about January 6 would certainly be perilous for the GOP — and to preserve tax cuts for the rich and corporations.
Even clueless grandstanding Joe Manchin (D-WV) conceded Friday,
“I’m very disappointed, very frustrated that politics has trumped — literally and figuratively — the good of the country.”
He just figured this out? How is his buddy in “give the Republicans a chance dance” Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) doing in that department?
BuzzFlash has been concerned that Biden was losing his way after the first 100 days, as his Blitzkrieg of accomplishments has started to slow down. The media picked up the slack by covering Republican clown shows (think Greene, Gaetz, and Boebert, among others), declarations of “crisis on the border,” and even the incoherent and defiant blather of the other guy who used to be president.
If Biden doesn’t stay on the high-speed offensive, the Republicans know that they can potentially derail him through gumming up the works, as Ron Johnson (R and “Lurch”-WI) and Rand “Don’t attack me while I’m mowing the lawn” Paul (R-KY) are doing. The overpowering resolve the Biden Administration displayed during passage of the COVID relief bill shows the GOP and the press that the Dems are setting the agenda.
Otherwise, politics in DC will return to Republican obstructionism being the main story in a town where power is perceived to be in the hands of those who control the narrative and the votes.
As Bernie Sanders recently warned:
As the White House's fruitless infrastructure talks with Republican lawmakers persist with no deal in sight, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont warned Thursday that Democrats risk losing control of Congress if they get bogged down in unending negotiations with the GOP and fail to urgently confront the climate emergency, soaring prescription drug prices, and other key issues.
"What happens if they spend week after week, month after month 'negotiating' with Republicans who have little intention of addressing the serious crises facing the working families of this country?" Sanders asked in a CNN op-ed. "What happens if, after the passage of the vitally important American Rescue Plan—the Covid-19 rescue package signed into law by President Biden in March—the momentum stops and we accomplish little or nothing?"
It is vital to remember that most polling indicates the majority of voting Americans support most of the individual allocations in the remaining infrastructure packages. Biden has bipartisan support for his proposals everywhere in the US but Washington, and maybe in some deep Red States.
Biden also needs to pass the two infrastructure bills to help turn the tide against the Republican credo since Reagan: “Government is not part of the problem; it is the problem.” If the Republicans succeed in either watering down the bills and continue the tax inequities or significantly lower the expenditures, it is going to be that much harder for Biden and the Congressional Dems to retain control in the 2022 elections.
Finally, Biden has to convince wavering Dem Senators, particularly Manchin and Sinema, that they must be loyal to the caucus and vote to pass the “For the People Act” or risk stolen elections — and evolution into a one-party state of a combination of shrewd cynics and profound psychotics — in 2022 and 2024.
The narrative of Biden as a transformative president is now slipping into the normal media coverage of “gridlock” in DC. To truly be transformative, Biden and Schumer must get the Senate Democratic outliers firmly in hand and pass legislation that will curve the moral arc toward justice, but time is of the essence. If the Republicans succeed in dragging out Biden’s agenda, they will have beaten him.
The Republicans in the Senate represent more than 40 million fewer people than the Senate Democrats. It is Biden’s duty to proceed expeditiously on behalf of the majority of the American people.
Follow BuzzFlash on @twitter
Continue the conversation at the BuzzFlash Nation group on Facebook