Let me say at the outset that I hate having to rely on a Democrat to do anything.
But after Republican senators, led by the (former President Donald Trump’s words) “Most overrated man in politics,” Mitch McConnell, failed to stop or even slow down the passage of the heinous “bipartisan” infrastructure bill the other day, at this point, about the only racks on which to hang our hats reside in the Democrat party. It’s not that any sane person believes the individuals in question will actually help us, it’s the forlorn hope that maybe they’ll purposely derail the whole thing through reasons of their own.
The first and most obvious of the possible cogs in the establishment’s federal spending machine may be Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself, who announced and then reinforced her opposition to bringing the “bipartisan” bill to the House floor unless the much bigger budget resolution package containing the leftists’ extravagant wish list is forwarded by the senate and presented simultaneously.
Maybe Pelosi’s rationale was a time saver or perhaps it was another attempt at pushing her senate colleagues to do her bidding, or it could be her wacko leftists want more dough to distribute, but it doesn’t appear that the stand-alone infrastructure bill will be moving anytime soon.
To ultimately pass the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” (as Nancy P. calls it) monstrosity, Senate Majority Leader “Chucky” Schumer must hold onto every single member of his caucus in the upper chamber. Rumors are already circulating that two familiar suspects -- West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema -- may hold the key to trillions more in borrowing and spending in the Democrats’ country-sabotaging scheme.
Conservatives hate to rely on such possibilities, but it might be all we’ve got right now. There’s a radical remaking of America taking place before our eyes, and it’s all due to the election of senile Joe Biden last November. The Editors of the Washington Examiner wrote:
“Biden’s new $3.5 trillion spending plan is far worse than the COVID relief bills. At least that spending was temporary. Biden is seeking permanent changes to Medicaid, Medicare, and Pell Grant spending as well as brand new permanent programs for universal pre-K, universal college, and paid family leave.
“And the true cost of all these permanent programs is intentionally obfuscated by Democrats. Instead of extending the child tax credit for 10 years at a cost of $1.5 trillion, Biden’s bill only extends it for five years. Democrats have deliberately low-balled the true costs of all their other spending programs as well, apparently hoping the public will become addicted to all of Biden’s new big government programs.
“Both Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have voiced objections to the size and scope of their party's spending priorities. Democrats need both of them to stay in line to pass their radical agenda. Hopefully one, or both, will break with the party and save the nation from this expensive mistake.”
Hmpf. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this is an offshoot of the greater debate on whether to go “nuclear option” on the legislative filibuster, the same discussion we’ve been having for months. Ever since the Democrats took a technical “majority” -- meaning fifty members plus VP Kamala’s tie-breaker -- pressure’s been on Manchin and Sinema to capitulate and thus allow “Chucky” to do his full-on bidding rather than make appearances of working with the minority party in some insignificant way.
In essence, the ridiculously shortsighted Republican senators who caved on the “bipartisan” infrastructure fiasco totally removed the filibuster issue from the discussion board. Stupid. It was the only card they had to play. As everyone knows, the big ball-buster $3.5 trillion budget resolution doesn’t need 60 votes to advance. It’s a straight-up party shootout with Democrats hoping to corral everyone and Republicans trying to keep their numbers in check.
No one’s asking Manchin and Sinema about the filibuster these days, are they? All the talk about “voting rights” or establishing a January 6 commission is so yesterday in the senate. Democrats simply took a bunch of the provisions from their other bills and plopped them into the budget resolution, which includes, as indicated above, healthcare spending, amnesty for illegal aliens, student loans, paid family leave and the Democrats’ pet tax cut based on number of kids in a household.
It’s funny how president senile Joe often refers to the tax cut as though Democrats experienced an epiphany and are now for everything -- enormous tax hikes on the “wealthy” but also reductions for ordinary schleps with youngins under their roof. What happened to the liberals’ talk about “paying for tax cuts” and accounting for their programs? Oh yeah, the tax hikes will come later, right? Don’t believe it?
This isn’t about the puny matter of the filibuster any longer. This is the whole banana, so to speak, so the pressure on Manchin and Sinema to stay onboard this cruise will be enormous. In the past they could hide behind the “we believe in protecting the rights of the minority”, and, “what happens when we’re in the minority next time?” blah, blah, blah arguments. Those aren’t involved here, so really it boils down to whether they’ll hold up Joe Biden’s entire agenda… or merely settle for most of it?
Hailing from a redder than red state, Manchin in particular must feel some compulsion to pare down the size of the big budget, but what exactly is the reduction that would win his vote? What if “Chucky” agrees to slice off a hundred billion or so -- making it “only” 3.4 trillion -- and then Senator Joe could go home to the Mountain State and say, “Hey, I’m a bipartisan guy. Most of you rednecks voted for Trump, but I got the most liberal members of my party to cut spending and I worked with Republicans to pass badly needed infrastructure improvements.”
In Democrat-land, whenever they agree to slightly reduce the amount they intended to spend they call it a “cut”. Come to think of it, Republicans do it too, though usually there are lasting attempts to limit the growth rate of certain items. Democrats are establishing whole new entitlements here that will likely never be gotten rid of even if Republicans regain the majority. It's like Obamacare-plus-plus-plus.
It could almost be argued that the future fate of the federal budget lies in Manchin’s hands now. Anyone feel good about that prospect?
When spending bills grow to this size, no one person reads them and no one who votes “yea” on them truly understands what they encompass. The budgeting process has completely broken down, with the old mark-up appropriations scenario being ditched long ago. When Democrats took over earlier this year, Bernie Sanders became chair of the budget committee.
“…For too many decades, Congress has ignored the needs of the working class, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Now is the time for bold action. Now is the time to restore faith in ordinary Americans that their government can work for them, and not just wealthy campaign contributors. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this Budget Resolution and a reconciliation bill that works for working families, not the top one percent.”
One could make a good case that Joe Biden won last year’s Democrat nomination, but “The Bern” was the real victor when it came to the agenda. To win support from the socialist Sanders/AOC wing, senile Joe had to abandon any pretext of being “moderate” on fiscal matters. Once in office, Biden jettisoned his plan to work across the aisle and forge compromise legislation. The ol’ “Lunch bucket Joe” who haunted the senate for 36 years has morphed into senile Joe who couldn’t remember if he’d tied his shoes that morning.
Now “Chucky” Schumer and Bernie Sanders are throwing together the deals that Democrats will pass to transform America into a high-tax European style socialist democracy. What votes they don’t already have, they’ll buy. And all of this was made possible by a handful of RINO senators and spineless Mitch McConnell the past few months.
It looks like only Manchin and Sinema stand between us and Bernie Sanders’ dreams. I’m not confident. I hate counting on Democrats to do anything sensible. Patrick J. Buchanan asked the other day, “Is America Becoming a failed state?”
We might have already arrived there.
Infrastructure bill
Bernie Sanders
Budget committee
Chuck Schumer
Joe Manchin
Kyrsten Sinema
$3.5 trillion budget resolution
Mitch McConnell
RINOs