The challenges ahead (Biden's America)

[N.E. Brigand]

I get it. Sinema is fragile and must not be upset lest in a fit of pique she tank Joe Biden's agenda. Biden himself said that he didn't think that bit of activism was helpful. He went on to add that it was also a pretty ordinary part of the political process. Or as Mitch Landrieu, then mayor of New Orleans, said in 2018 after Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona was confronted in an elevator for ten minutes by two activists, self-described as victims of sexual assault, who were upset by Flake's support for the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court: "That looks rough if you’re a senator. If you’re a mayor it happens nine times while you’re buying milk." And Sinema, even more than many senators who seldom encounter the people they represent, reportedly has largely been inaccessible to her constituents.

[N.E. Brigand]

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, seems to believe the Treasury Dept. does have the legal authority to mint the trillion dollar platinum coin (in order to avert a a debt ceiling crisis), because back in February, he introduced legislation to prevent Treasury from doing so.

I'm intrigued by Matt Yglesias's argument that the Treasury Dept. may be legally required to mint such a coin if circumstances require:

"If it is legally mandatory for Treasury to pay what Congress has appropriated and legally prohibited to sell bonds to obtain the cash, then you can't just 'decide' you're not doing seigniorage [i.e., minting the coin] to close the gap — the law's the law."

[N.E. Brigand]

Kudos to Joe Manchin for meeting at his office with the "kayaktivists" who had protested from the water near his yacht.

Mind you, he told them West Virginia has too many Republicans for him to support President Biden's full agenda, but at least he listened to their concerns. And it shows that vocal activism, done right, can get you a voice in the room.

[N.E. Brigand]

Interesting analysis of the differing goals of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. In short: Manchin needs to appeal to current Republicans bothered by cultural issues, while Sinema needs to appeal to former Republicans bothered by . (But what about Mark Kelly?)

- - - - - - - - - -
A new poll finds Sinema's net approval rating in Arizona has fallen from +13 (48% approve vs. 35% disapprove) at the beginning of the year to +0 (42%-42%) now.

Among Democrats she's plummeted from +47 (67%-20%) to +6 (46%-40%).

Among independents she's dropped from +11 (43%-32%) to -3 (38%-41%).

But among Republicans her net rating has gone up.

It's gone from -18 (34%-52%) to -2 (43%-45%).

If she hopes to win reelection by appealing to the right, merely blocking Biden's agenda probably won't close that deal.

[N.E. Brigand]

Per a new Quinnipiac poll, the Build Back Better package has a much wider margin of approval than Joe Biden himself did when he defeated Donald Trump last November.

Biden won by 4.4% (51.3% vs. 46.9%).

BBB polls at a 17% margin (57% vs. 40%).

At 28% above water (62% vs. 34%), the infrastructure bill is more popular still.

Pass both. They're very popular.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Gun control is more popular than either (at least according to polls). By your logic that should have passed long since. But it doesn't work that way.

[RoseMorninStar]

Gun control is more popular than either (at least according to polls). By your logic that should have passed long since. But it doesn't work that way.

That's odd, isn't it?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Terrifying, but all too likely.

Bill Maher's dark vision for 2024 is all-too-real

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Biden's agenda is basically dead. I don't think that there is any way that this gap is going to be bridged.

Manchin and Sinema detail key disagreements over Biden agenda

[N.E. Brigand]

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (generally referred to as CREW) has written to the Office of Special Counsel (aka OSC, a permanent investigative executive branch department, not to be confused with the Special Counsels sometimes appointed by the Dept. of Justice for specific investigations, as happened with Robert Mueller) asking for an investigation into whether White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki violated the Hatch Act by advocating for the election of Terry McAuliffe as governor of Virginia.

In a press briefing last Thursday, a reporter asked Psaki this question:

I’m curious if the White House sees the Virginia governor’s race as a bellwether — we talked about it a lot in here — and if the outcome is basically
a (inaudible) support of the President’s agenda since McAuliffe is running on it quite a bit.

And here's how she responded:

Well, I have to be a little careful about how much political analysis I do from here and not (inaudible) into that too much.

Look, I think the President, of course, wants former Governor McAuliffe to be the future governor of Virginia. There is alignment on a lot of their agenda, whether it is the need to invest in rebuilding our roads, rails, and bridges, or making it easier for women to rejoin the workforce.

I will say as — I will leave it to other outside analysis to convey that off-year elections are often — are often not a bellwether, but — and there’s a lot of history here in Virginia. But, again, we’re going to do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he's representing.

The Hatch Act forbids any executive branch official (except the President and Vice President) from making comments in an official capacity that are intended to influence an election. And during the Trump administration, the OSC determined that White House officials can't get around the Act by claiming to be expressing the views of the President. That determination appeared in the Office's report recommending that Donald Trump fire Kellyanne Conway for repeatedly violating the Hatch Act. (He declined to do so.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Review of Psaki's actions (which I think clearly did violate the Hatch Act) should be conducted completely without regard to what the Trump administration did or did not do.

[N.E. Brigand]

I agree on both points. What Psaki should have said is "I'm not allowed to answer your question."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'll believe it when I see it (and maybe not even then).

Democrats drive toward a scaled back $1.75 trillion spending agreement

[Voronwë the Faithful]

FAIILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!!!!!11

But it is still the most likely result.

In other news, meet Biden's new legislative advisor:

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN reporter Kasie Hunt tweeted this an hour ago:

"If paid leave is left out of this bill, I’m going to spend the midterms covering how suburban women who turned on the GOP over Trump are responding to Democratic governing in DC — especially after the pandemic."

Notice how she says nothing about how every Republican member of Congress opposes paid leave. Only a handful of Democratic members of Congress (maybe just one) oppose it. Almost all suburban women who voted for Democrats in 2020 voted for someone who supports paid leave!

This is just another example of the mainstream media's bias against the left.

[N.E. Brigand]

In other words, why aren't there a lot more stories about why Republicans don't support this bill?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's not just the media. Bernie Sanders made the extraordinary statement that "The problem is not with the President, the problem is with members here who, although they are very few in number, they are a significant minority, think that they have a right to determine what the rest of the Congress should be doing.”


But they are not a "significant minority" of the Senate. Sanders seems to have conveniently forgotten that 50% of the Senate are Republicans (and yes, I know that those 50 senators represent less people than the 50 Democratic or Democratic-aligned senators). Sanders, not being a member of political party, apparently things that pretending that one political party doesn't exist is perfectly acceptable.

[N.E. Brigand]

You make an excellent point. Everyone assumes that Republicans will not do the right thing, and that concept has become so baked in that no one even questions it anymore.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Of course, just because you and I (and Sen. Sanders) broadly agree on what "the right thing" is doesn't mean that our view the only possible view of the "right thing" is.

Though at least Manchin can with a straight face say that he is worried about the deficit after having voted against the giant tax cuts for the wealthy and corporation under Trump that increased the deficit so significantly. Not a single member of the Republican caucus can do so.

[N.E. Brigand]

Of course, just because you and I (and Sen. Sanders) broadly agree on what "the right thing" is doesn't mean that our view the only possible view of the "right thing" is.

To be sure. But to the degree that Kasie Hunt is representative of the mainstream media and Bernie Sanders is representative of progressive Democrats, those two groups (1) believe paid parental leave is the right thing and (2) are criticizing moderate Democrats more than Republicans for opposing that paid leave.