The Republican leaders in Congress have a plan. They will vote against everything the Democrats bring to them. Want to get to the bottom of how the January 6 insurrection unfolded so that it will not happen again? Nope. What about Paycheck Fairness? No again. Vote to overturn our government? You bet! Give the R’s 147 votes and the Americans 0.
It may take a while for conservative Americans to get that their Republican leaders will not do anything for them, just for their corporate funders. After all, Republicans used to be a real party, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch (Grim Reaper) McConnell has killed off the Republican Party by freezing it to death. He also wanted to freeze the Democracy.
He announced last week that he would not vote for anything President Joe Biden wanted. But that did not keep his minions from fake negotiating for as long as they could drag it out. It has been their way of eating up the president’s precious first-year minutes.
How did they want to pay for their meager infrastructure bill? With money from regular people in the form of a gasoline tax hike. Yet, they had no trouble giving a humongous tax cut to the wealthiest one percent of their donors, ahem, their people.
The White House officials told Democrats on Tuesday that they should prepare to go it alone on President Joe Biden’s impressive infrastructure bill. He needs to go big in order to shift all those McConnell dollars back from the wealthiest of the wealthy and mega-corporations to a middle class. Without that, people have no opportunity, no hope, but plenty of anxiety over their monthly bills.
The infrastructure is POTUS ‘ top domestic priority.
Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Shalanda Young and Steve Ricchetti, a top Biden adviser, told the Democratic Caucus that the Republican Senator negotiators would have between seven and 10 days to reach their bipartisan agreement.
The Republicans have been trying to take money from already designated projects, such as the coronavirus pandemic, and switch it over to an infrastructure budget. Even so, they still wanted it to designate far less money for the bill.
Then, there was the definition of infrastructure. Democrats have been listening to their constituents and realize that infrastructure includes more than transportation in the form of highway projects, bridges, trains, and so on. Now, internet access is every bit as fundamental to daily life.
Republicans want to control women from their reproductive rights to equal pay. So, not funding daycare for children and elderly relatives and schools just gives women too much power for their liking.
If the Republicans cannot come around, the Democrats with go ahead with a partisan package. Chair of the Budget Committee Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY) said as he came out of the meeting:
‘They’re giving it a week or 10 days more and that’s about it. And then we move along with reconciliation — for everything.’
Five senators from each party have been trying to negotiate a package, especially since Senator Manchin (D-VA) has been intense in his need for bipartisanship and to protect the appendix-esque filibuster.
Yarmuth suggested that the Democrats would have to move on toward President Biden’s two-part infrastructure plan alone:
‘We’re assuming right now that everything will be done by reconciliation —everything meaning the jobs plan and the families plan. That doesn’t preclude a bipartisan agreement. If one happens, we just take that part out of the instructions. But right now we’re assuming everything will be [done by reconciliation].’
Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) warned:
‘If they choose the obstruction pathway, then we’re prepared to do what is necessary to get the American jobs plan over the finish line.’
Leader of the powerful Progressive Caucus, Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said:
‘What we have said consistently is that it would be very difficult for us to vote on a smaller bipartisan package that leaves out so many of our critical priorities,” Jayapal said. “And unless we absolutely have the other package — reconciliation packages — moving at the same time and we have 50 votes in the Senate for it.’
Then, she commented that the liberals would oppose a smaller package:
‘That is the challenge for u. We’re not going to vote on something smaller unless there’s something that has everything in it at the same time.’
Yarmuth wanted the bill before Congress leaves for the month of August:
‘I’m not overly confident, but I’m confident. Everybody’s committed to getting this done.’
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
