The Big Picture - 
By Glynn Wilson - 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the absence of Trump tweets and constant news coverage of Trump tweets it’s hard to get the attention of people around the country to focus on any one big issue these days.

After a major break from the news in May-July with vaccination rates going up and Democrats in charge of two of three branches of the federal government, many people felt relieved and took a break from the news. Reader circulation numbers and TV ratings were down, in some cases by significant numbers. Fox News lost 40 percent of its audience.

But with the Delta variant infection rates going back up and hospitalizations hitting peaks in many red states, especially in the South, some people started paying attention again in August.

Now that the second summer of Covid is over, there is so much news on so many fronts it’s hard for people to keep up with it all, much of it centered around politics in Washington, D.C.

I get it. People want their lives back after four years of Trump and his insurrection, and a year and a half of pandemic lock downs.

Many people, Democrats, Republicans and independents, reacted with anger and resentment at what happened in Afghanistan, and to what is happening on the Southern border with Mexico. Whoever thought it was a good idea to use horse whips on people trying to enter the great US of A should be, well, horse whipped.

At the same time, the third branch of government, the Supreme Court, issued a ruling allowing Texas to go back to being a coat hanger state, pissing off most of the women in the country and half the men, the ones with more than half a brain.

Congress

But the big news right now is on the legislative front, and it appears to me at least judging by what’s happening on social media, that many average Democrats around the country are not paying as close attention to what’s happening in Washington as they should be.

As I reported Monday and The Guardian reported Wednesday, as well as The New York Times and Washington Post in links I shared on Facebook, we are on the verge of a “make-or-break moment” that could determine the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections and the fate of Joe Biden’s presidency.

“Failure would be disastrous for the president and his party’s political prospects next year,” The Guardian reported.

“This is a big week for the American people. It’s a big week for President Biden. It’s a big week for House and Senate Democrats,” the New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a member of House leadership, told reporters. “We’re not running away from that. We’re leaning into it. We embrace it. We understand that we’ve been given the opportunity to govern for the people … that’s exactly what we are committed to doing.”

The American people, even Republicans, broadly share the goals set forth in Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, including a once-in-a-generation expansion of the nation’s social safety net and an overhaul of the tax code to make the top 1 percent and corporations finally pay closer to their fair share. The disputes that remain concern some of the specifics of the legislation, the amount of spending and some of the measures aimed at combating climate change and expanding healthcare.

There could be a key vote or two on Thursday, so some of this will shake out this week.

At the very least, the House Democrats should go ahead and vote to approve Biden’s infrastructure bill, which amazingly passed in the Senate last month with bipartisan support. It contains money to fund repaving roads, reparing old bridges, expanding internet access to more Americans, especially in rural areas. It also allocates $3.5 trillion over the next decade on measures to combat climate change, like funding alternative energy source development, wind and solar, and building the infrastructure for electric vehicles. Some of that money would also expand Medicaid and Medicare to help more people have access to healthcare, and there’s money to expand access to childcare for workers too.

But progressive Democrats are whining about some of the negotiated cuts to compromise and pass the legislation, and so-called moderate Democrats are whining about other issues, as Republicans have indicated they are not willing to compromise even on a debt relief continuing resolution to simply keep the government from shutting down entirely.

I agree with Tom Friedman in the Times, whose column on Wednesday was dedicated to wondering if there are any Democrats with the courage of Republican Liz Cheney.

“This is Code Red (for American democracy). And that leads me to the Democrats in Congress,” he wrote.

“I have only one question for them: Are you ready to risk a lot less than Liz Cheney did to do what is necessary right now — from your side — to save our democracy?”

“If the Democrats instead form a circular firing squad, and all three of these major bills get scattered to the winds and the Biden presidency goes into a tailspin — and the Trump Republicans retake the House and Senate and propel Trump back into the White House — there will be no chance later. Later will be too late for the country as we know it.”

Nancy Pelosi

As of Wednesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was still saying she would bring the infrastructure bill up for a vote on Thursday, even though progressives were furious about the change of strategy, with some calling it a “betrayal.” Several members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus claimed they planned to oppose the infrastructure bill on Thursday unless there was also a vote on the $3.5 trillion social policy legislation.

We will see if Pelosi finds a way to get them to back down in time.

“The change in circumstance regarding the reconciliation bill has necessitated a change in our Build Back Better legislation but not in our values,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democrats on Tuesday.

After promising to hold a vote on both measures at the same time, Pelosi told her caucus that the House should proceed with passage of the infrastructure bill while the Senate attempts to reach a consensus on the spending plan, after a pair of moderate holdouts balked at its price tag, including Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has found himself in a position of real power probably for the first time in his career.

It’s a bit of irony, since as The Intercept recently reported, Manchin made his fortune in the coal business, and he now holds control of what the final climate change bill will contain.

As Pelosi ‘s staff rushed to trim the bill so it might pass in the Senate, she indicated that the House would not take up a bill that didn’t have the support of all 50 Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

President Biden has said that the total cost of the bill is actually “zero” since it will be offset by an increase in tax revenue over several years. The bill will not receive any support from any Republicans, because of the usual complaint about “taxes and government spending,” unfounded claims that it would stifle economic growth and just increase the nation’s debt.

“This spending is on a scale not seen before in our country,” claimed Republican senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, holding up a copy of the 2,465-page draft legislation. “This bill represents Bernie Sanders’ socialist dream.”

We say bring on the dream, and to hell with the Republicans.

Democrats in the Senate probably should have eliminated the filibuster rules already when they had the chance. But the president didn’t favor it, so it didn’t happen. But if passing the infrastructure bill and preventing a government shutown require some compromises now, by all means Democrats should take their medicine and hope legislative success might just keep them in the majority after 2022. If they can hold on through the midterms and remain in power, they will have more chances to help even more people down the road.

“This is clearly a pivotal moment,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, describing the president as “deeply engaged” with Democratic leaders and members to pass his agenda.

“He’s working together in lockstep with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer to get this done,” she said. “And they are all clear-headed … about the challenge of what we are pressing to achieve this week.”

National Debt

With Biden’s economic agenda hanging in the balance, Democrats are also scrambling to avert a government shutdown and avoid a financial crisis with the national debt, after Republican senators blocked a measure that would have funded the federal agencies and raised the country’s borrowing limit.

Speaking on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, warned lawmakers that the consequences of failing to raise or suspend the debt limit would be “catastrophic”. Without congressional action, she said the Treasury Department will struggle to pay its bills on Oct. 18.

Will Democrats come together to salvage Biden’s agenda, keep the federal government open and avoid a fiscal catastrophe?

“You know me, I’m a born optimist,” Biden said on Monday, as he rolled up his sleeve to receive a Covid-19 booster shot. “We’re gonna get it done.”

Unfortunately, some important and popular provisions may have to be jettisoned for now.

An overwhelming majority of Americans from all parties favor government action to reduce drug prices, according to pollsters, but that policy may not be included in the final bill partly due to corporate lobbying by the pharmaceutical companies.

Tax increases on the wealthy and corporations are also very popular across the political spectrum, but it is unclear how many of those provisions will remain in the legislation.

The same may hold true for a proposed expansion of Medicare to include dental, hearing and vision coverage. All popular spending items; all opposed by Big Pharma, Republicans and even some moderate Democrats.

According to the Tuesday morning email from The New York Times:

“It is even possible that the entire bill — which would expand pre-K, community college, Medicare, Medicaid, paid family leave, child tax credits, clean-energy programs and more, while significantly increasing taxes on people making more than $400,000 — will fail.”

If this bill fails, the Times concludes, “Democrats are likely to enter next year’s midterm congressional elections looking divided and unable to govern.”

So forget Afghanistan, for the moment, the border crisis, the abortion crisis, and even the use of federal Covid money for new privatized prisons in Alabama.

If the Democrats on Capitol Hill can’t get it together, and fast, Dog help us all.

Chances are the Republicans will take over the House and Senate majorities next year, and have a real chance at bringing back Trump to the White House in 2024.

Believe it? Or not.

Where are you going if that happens? Canada? Mexico? Or the grave?

I, for one, have no interest whatsoever in living through another four years of Trump and these toady Republicans in charge of Congress and the ability to further erode control of the courts to these Catholic conservatives from the Federalist Society.

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