I know members (one has been explicit about it) that are reluctant to go to the New York Times domain. If it's not been your habit, then you may be able to look at this op-ed column without having a subscription. A "freebie." Of course, your reluctance may not be a case of "subscription paywall anxiety." In which case, I defer.
Ezra Klein highlights the Budget Reconciliation process and how the majority party in the Senate has (and continues) to use it to try to advance their agenda, instead of contending with the high barrier of needing a filibuster-proof 60-vote supermajority in order to pass legislation.
He argues that Liberals and Conservatives alike would be better served if the Democrats used their simple majority (with VP Harris's vote if needed) to "go total nuclear" and finally eliminate the legislative filibuster altogether, because what happens to governance when the majority party resorts to Budget Reconciliation is why "Government" is about as popular a concept in this country, by and large, as "diarrhea."
Of course I like the Dadaist reference, but I also think this is a carefully researched and very readable op-ed column from a very logical-minded social influencer (or influencer wannabe.) I think it's exceptional. Here are three paragraphs from partway thorugh the column:
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[Senator Robert] Byrd’s reforms didn’t work as he intended. The problem of the filibuster demanded a solution, and even covered in “Byrd droppings,” budget reconciliation was the closest thing to an alternative. The Byrd rules didn’t prevent non-budgetary legislation from being passed through reconciliation, but they did make that legislation worse, and weirder, and the Senate has simply decided to live with the ridiculous results, and make the rest of us live with them, too.
President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, for instance, were designed to expire — expire! — after 10 years because otherwise they would have increased deficits after 10 years, and so been ineligible for reconciliation. President Donald Trump’s tax cuts employ the same trick. This is a legacy of budget reconciliation: Massive chunks of our tax code are just set to disappear at an arbitrary point in the future, and what happens then is anybody’s guess.
The distortions don’t end there. Budget reconciliation warps policy design by pushing away from regulation and toward direct spending and taxation. An example: If you were designing a health care bill in budget reconciliation, you couldn’t pass a rule saying private insurers had to cover pre-existing conditions. But you could add a trillion dollars to Medicaid funding so it could cover anyone with pre-existing conditions who couldn’t get private insurance. Or to use an example that is actually in the reconciliation package Democrats are designing now: You can pass $1,400 checks through budget reconciliation, but you can’t pass emergency paid leave. When Congress writes laws through budget reconciliation, it writes them with one arm tied behind its back.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 02-05-2021).]
His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hajj Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular. (and unofficially, King of Scotland)
There likely isn't a more odious little Leftist troll than Ezra Klein.
"Ezra Klein shows just how fresh and exciting the world can be if, for you, history began around 2000. Exuding that aura of patchouli and devil-may-care insouciance that is catnip to lefties and irresistible to truly stupid women...."
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 02-05-2021).]
That "odious little leftist troll" is at it again.
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San Francisco is about 48 percent white, but that falls to 15 percent for children enrolled in its public schools. For all the city’s vaunted progressivism, it has some of the highest private school enrollment numbers in the country — and many of those private schools have remained open. It looks, finally, like a deal with the teachers’ union is near that could bring kids back to the classroom, contingent on coronavirus cases continuing to fall citywide, but much damage has been done. This is why the school renamings were so galling to so many in San Francisco, including the mayor. It felt like an attack on symbols was being prioritized over the policies needed to narrow racial inequality.
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In much of San Francisco, you can’t walk 20 feet without seeing a multicolored sign declaring that Black lives matter, kindness is everything and no human being is illegal. Those signs sit in yards zoned for single families, in communities that organize against efforts to add the new homes that would bring those values closer to reality. Poorer families — disproportionately nonwhite and immigrant — are pushed into long commutes, overcrowded housing and homelessness.
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There is a danger — not just in California, but everywhere — that politics becomes an aesthetic rather than a program. It’s a danger on the right, where Donald Trump modeled a presidency that cared more about retweets than bills. But it’s also a danger on the left, where the symbols of progressivism are often preferred to the sacrifices and risks those ideals demand. California, as the biggest state in the nation, and one where Democrats hold total control of the government, carries a special burden. If progressivism cannot work here, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?
Three paragraphs from the odious one's newest "ode."
"California Is Making Liberals Squirm"
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If progressivism can’t work there, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?
Klein writes about the ways the Left has screwed up the House, but somehow blames Bush and Trump.
rinse, are you paying attention? You have much to learn from this odious left wing troll.
If that's a reference to the first of the two columns from Ezra Klein that I have put here, then consider how he finishes:
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“Democrats have an opportunity to restore our democracy and deliver on the promises they campaigned on,” the Rev. Dr. Stephany Rose Spaulding, founder of Truth and Conciliation, told me by email. “But they can’t do that without breaking down structural barriers to progress — that starts with eliminating the filibuster. If we allow the filibuster to block voting rights, gun violence prevention, Covid relief and more, we’re sending a clear message to millions of voters that their votes and voices don’t count in our democracy.”
To be clear, if Democrats will not get rid of the filibuster, it is better that they use budget reconciliation than that they fail the American people totally. But the fact that Democrats are using budget reconciliation at all is evidence that even Sinema and Manchin know the filibuster has gone too far, that the chamber cannot operate under supermajority rules, all of the time.
This is a terrible way to legislate. Enough with kludges. End the filibuster, and make the Senate great again.
So he's calling out the Democrats and putting an onus on them, to bring two of their own into the fold (Senators Sinema and Manchin) and then use Vice President Harris's tie-breaking vote in the Senate to eliminate the last vestiges of the filibuster. To get to a place where they could pass any and all kinds of legislation with just a simple majority vote in the Senate. (Discounting any scenarios involving a Presidential veto.)
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Originally posted by williegoat: That's almost a Jim Croce song.
That is a reference that is infinitely more esoteric than anything having to do with Jim Croce or any kind of music. Except maybe for some particularly obscure and little known works of Classical Music or a Gregorian Chant accompanied by a Klavier and Flugelhorn ensemble. It's so esoteric that it kind of surprised me when it came to mind, as I hadn't thought of it in many a year. If you "got" it and are just holding back about it... well, I'm impressed!
That is a reference that is infinitely more esoteric than anything having to do with Jim Croce or any kind of music. Except maybe for some particularly obscure and little known works of Classical Music or a Gregorian Chant accompanied by a Klavier and Flugelhorn ensemble. It's so esoteric that it kind of surprised me when it came to mind, as I hadn't thought of it in many a year. If you "got" it and are just holding back about it... well, I'm impressed!
Well, I almost said that it would appear on the surface that you are only looking at one side, but that would have been an observation lacking dimension.
To uh...er...fold this topic back to its origins, the Klein bottle and Mobius strip always remind me of one of my favorite artists, M.C.Escher, who though not considered a Dadaist, was their contemporary.
It should not be surprising, given my penchant for the art and culture of the early to mid 20th century.
[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 02-14-2021).]
This is 2 minutes and 30 seconds at the end of Wednesday's edition of "The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell" on MSNBC.
Mr O'Donnell suggests that the 44 years of age and current U.S. Senator from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, would do well to take some advice on the filibuster from the 33 years of age and former member of the Arizona state legislature, Kyrsten Sinema.
It's a YouTube video segment that is queued to start at the 41 minutes and 30 seconds mark. The soundtrack is "choppy" but still very intelligible--whether it's intelligent is your "call" to make. I liked it, but odds are (if anyone is actually reading this) you already figured that.
