My guess is the final bill comes in closer to 2, but there's a deal to be had if ManSinema want one.

I'm glad Biden is optimistic. The real question is what will the Progressive give up?

Progressives rallied behind Biden's agenda. Now he’s gotta sell them on a compromise. - POLITICO

Progressives have been signaling they are willing to negotiate for days. Voting for the BIF in the Sente shows they aren't the ones holding a deal up.

Yeah, as far as I can tell people have been asking Manchin and Sinema what they would accept and they haven't responded with anything.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Sounds like Manchin is negotiating now, but Sinema went back to AZ for a high-dollar fundraiser and released a letter blaming progressives for holding up Biden's agenda.

I have no idea what she wants.

Attention.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

As in being stalked in a restroom.

Another Biden statement on the range. Have to assume he's gotten these nos from Manchin & Sinema.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/polit...age/index.html

They were of course clutching their pearls about this on Fox News yesterday and the expert guest actually said “ in America we don’t hunt down our elected officials” without so much as a hint of irony.

Sometimes you get what you want and you wish you hadn't.

I love the trillion dollar coin thing even though it sounds like the prologue of a Tom Clancy novel where bad shit will immediately go down.

Or a new Keifer Sutherland show called "Fed Up", where he must track down who stole the trillion dollar coin.

Who would you want to see star in a movie about a bumbling Treasury employee who accidentally loses The Coin on the way to depositing it at the Fed and needs to find it before anyone realizes it’s missing?

— poorly hidden account (@poorlyhidden) October 5, 2021

Just hold a vote. If Sinema and Manchin and anyone else want to blow things up, that's fine. Stop giving cover to people for unpopular votes.

My tv show idea would definitely be Keifer, but if it's a movie, then this has got to be Nic Cage.

It would be Jake Peralta's favorite movie ever.

I'm thinking Don Cheadle. He could hit the humor, but it wouldn't become a slapstick farce.

Alright, a little breathing room on debt ceiling. Now let's get that $1.2+$3.5 done.

538 has Biden approval at 44%. Plenty of time to recover but the deal needs to get done somehow.

So is anyone else following what's going on with the Idaho Lt Governor?

Yes, apparently her babysitter fell asleep and she broke into the adult room and signed executive orders.......Seriously, she is a piece of work and another thing to thank Trump for as Bat shit crazy in public office is now chic.

It’s just a game to them.

Yeah, I was reading about it today. Let me know if I got this right:
Idaho Lt. Gov. battles Governor again on COVID executive orders | Boise State Public Radio

Idaho governor Brad Little is out of state doing a conservative governor border stunt and photo-op in Texas (you know, what with Idaho sharing that US-Mexico border)

The state’s Lieutenant Governor is Janice McGeachin, far right nut job, who has already declared she’s running for governor next year.
While he’s out of the state, she does this:

Today, as Acting Governor, I fixed Gov. Little’s Executive Order on "vaccine passports" to make sure that K-12 schools and universities cannot require vaccinations OR require mandatory testing. I will continue to fight for your individual Liberty! #idpol pic.twitter.com/Jz87jfZaWc
— Janice McGeachin (@JaniceMcGeachin) October 5, 2021

His response:

I will be rescinding and reversing any actions taken by the Lt. Governor when I return. pic.twitter.com/iBuQqX1R5i
— Brad Little (@GovernorLittle) October 5, 2021

Not only did the little authoritarian try to do the stupid no-testing or vaccines, but she apparently also tried to deploy the Idaho national guard to the border.

"The Associated Press reported Major General Michael Marshak rebuffed McGeachin’s request, reminding her the guard was not a law enforcement agency."

So she’s trying to take the Governor’s job via election or, attempting to, by loophole. Meanwhile, looking over her shoulder:

In a statement, Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke called McGeachin’s actions, "overreach that does not represent Idaho and Idahoans." Bedke, who announced he’s running for Lt. Governor in 2022, said GOP leadership is working through a return to session to deny recent vaccination mandates from the Biden administration. His statement endorsed draft legislation this week from the interim Joint Committee on Federalism which would make it illegal for state, county or local authorities to cooperate with a federal vaccine requirement. "What comes next will be determined soon by the Legislative Branch and not be left to the Lt. Governor to dictate," Bedke wrote in a statement email Tuesday.

SI

She does this every time he leaves town.

This is why many Idaho Democrats register Republican to vote for people like Little and Butch Otter in closed Republican primaries rather than vote in their own primaries.

The more moderate Idaho Republicans tend to win state-wide elections by landslides, but, you just don't know anymore....

Sounds kind of like something that Greg from Succession would do.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

As I understand it

Debt limit coming up

Dems want GOP to vote with them to raise it

GOP says no (normal for out-of-power party)

Dems say OK, we will all vote for it

GOP says, no you have to do it through reconciliation (which would be more cumbersome for Dems). GOP filibusters debt limit bill.

Dems stand firm and say we will own this, but we want it at 50 votes for a regular bill. We aren't doing reconciliation.

McConnell realizes that the three endgames for his position are (1) default; (2) weaken filibuster by making carve out; (3) GOP cave at last minute.

McConnell realizes that all three of those suck, so he folds his 2/7 offsuit pre-flop and tells the Dems that they still have to vote for it, but they can do it at 50

Now some GOP members are forcing a filibuster, so McConnell is scrambling to get 10 GOP Senators to help break the filibuster.

If the GOP radicals feel the need to pressure Mitch McConnell for being too bipartisan, then they really aren't reading the room.

I don't particularly care if a handful of senators are nostalgic and want to preserve the filibuster out of a sense of tradition or whatever, but the "it's a slippery slope" argument and being afraid of what happens the next time they are the minority party just seems silly and ignorant for the Democrats.

Does anyone actually believe that a Mitch McConnell (who now seems like one of the more principled among Republican senators due to how far out of whack everything else has gotten) led majority would not carve out exceptions for the filibuster if the Democrats start using it on stupid stuff like setting the debt limit (and note I'm not calling being responsible with the debt stupid, but the debt limit is all about what has already been spent rather than future spending)? If the Democrats haven't learned the playbook from the way the Supreme Court has played out over the past few years, they really don't belong in the same arena as McConnell.

Not sure if this anecdote belongs in this thread or another but oh well:

My coworker was asked "Why do you have life insurance?"

His response was "Because I can't afford health insurance"

:eek:

There's been a lot of Taiwan-China-US in the news.

Nationalism is strong in China. HK, the Spratleys etc. and now somewhat threatening display of power (e.g. military flights). I'm sure they are feeling defensive and reacting to the US. But I wouldn't put an invasion beyond Xi and I wouldn't trust US to protect Taiwan other than selling weaponry and leading global condemnation.

If I was Xi, I'd play the long game and get a bunch of China sympathizers into Taiwanese politics & military (bribe, cajole etc. whatever). I don't see Taiwan remaining independent into next century with China's emergence (and they are so damn close). It'll happen militarily or politically one day.

I've never visited Taiwan but do remember a Zimmern (or was it Bourdain) episode on "stinky tofu" and thinking I have to try it. May have to visit soon.

I'd very much like to visit Taiwan in the next few years - CPBL helped get me through some of the early days of the pandemic. A Chinese takeover seems inevitable and I'd like to go see the country before that.

SI

IMO Politico is prematurely alarmist. Biden's got a lot of issues with infighting, the 1.2+3.5 bills in limbo, and economy/covid/inflation are somewhat intertwined. And he pretty much owns all of these.

But assume we get some of the 1.2+3.5 and we learn to live with covid (e.g. acceptable level of increased deaths), I have faith his polls will rebound.

Because if they don't, God help us with Trump waiting in the wings.

‘The president’s decline is alarming’: Biden trapped in coronavirus malaise - POLITICO

Politico knows better than to use a single poll, but that's what helps sell the narrative. The CBS poll this weekend has Biden at 50/50.

It's not necessary to use one poll to sell the narrative. 538 has Biden down as well:

June 1 - 53.7
July 1 - 52.0
August 1 - 51.5
September 1 - 46.7
October 1 - 45.0
Today - 44.6

One can debate why it's happened and how much of it's permanent, but this is a real thing that has occurred.

I do think it's super-premature to worry about Trump in 2024 though. Biden's numbers are still better Trump's were, and that's before you take into account the dive that happened in January. It's just barely late enough to start to begin being concerned about the midterms.

It really is amazing considering it is the right that is keeping us in this pandemic. Amazing there are independents who cant see that.

Some people see and think in black and white.

Others see and think black, white and grey. Might be (lean) lighter or darker grey, but still grey.

It's down, but it's only down 15 if you look at the single worst poll. A couple of recent polls show a bit of a recovery, but if we are still dealing with COVID next year it will be a bloodbath.

I think it's still worth discussing that polls were practically proven worthless in the past couple years, but we've gone back to taking them at face value.

I would call that a pretty severe over-reaction. Polls are definitely less trustworthy than they used to be, but they are nowhere near useless. They're still right far more often than they are wrong.

Edit: It's definitely worth remembering, and a good point to bring up, that they are less 'the way things are' and more 'our best indicator' these days. But I'd still say they are way, way more reliable than 'this must be what people think, how could they think anything else', or any other method I'm aware of to judge the public's views on most matters.

Re: the independents, it's always been the case that people blame people in charge for national conditions. Sometimes that's justified, and sometimes it isn't, but as a nation there's a long tradition of blaming & rewarding politicians for results/situations, not reasoned assessments of their actions or inactions.

If you're going to sell out your country, at least do it for big $. I wonder what goes through the head of husband-wife when they do this. In this case, don't think it was for some communist/socialist ideal but just spending money.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/10/polit...ion/index.html

Story is a little short on details. If this was on purpose with ill intent, absolutely fire and prosecute them. They were just fired so wonder if this was incompetence, mistake etc. I do want the additional details.

Two Georgia workers fired after being accused of shredding voting applications | Fox News

This feels like the couple was desperate for $20,000. Maybe a $20,000 gambling debt that needed to be paid pronto or else! This is especially strange as it is being reported that the couple made the first move.

Hmmm...strange how these two workers did something so dumb in a very easy to catch manner just as the state is trying to find ways to take over the election apparatus of the most democratic and minority populated County. That is not suspicious at all.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

As we know and you've pointed out repeatedly in many different threads polls don't reflect the reality on the ground of what's going on.

Especially since they're unidentified and no other county. If I didn't know any better, in a county that leans heavily blue, this seems like a great opportunity to both shred a bunch of Democratic ballots /and/ help the GOP elections apparatus of the state take over.

SI

I dunno - it seems like it's a reasonable snapshot of what's going on right now within some error bars. But there are so many variables in play between now and Election Day that it's not going to be a great predictor of those outcomes.

SI

I find it amazing that this article is on FOX News and they don't mention until the very last line they don't know what voters were affected, but I am sure their readers with read all the way until the end and not draw any conclusions from just the headline.

It was 20k per file. 5 million total for all.

Okay, sorry didn't see that in the link. But that would tempt many to be a Benedict Arnold.

Bring on that sweet sweet nullification crisis!

"they are, after all, called opinions"

You should be required to list the law school you attended when writing shit like that. Let everyone point and laugh at them.

Also, fuck paying federal taxes, those were just "opinions" by the court that I had to pay them.

Does this mean states can ban guns now? Maybe the state has a different interpretation of the constitution.

This is exactly the kind of thing that legislators in my state pay outside counsel $300/hour to argue because the $50/hour state attorneys won't. Then the outside counsel lose the case and the state agency gets threatened with defunding, out of spite. And in fact, lots of far-right business people run for state legislature just so they can funnel this type of legal work through the far-right attorneys they're connected to, even though they know they won't win.

Boy does it make them mad when they're told their position is unconstitutional and won't be pursued by state attorneys. They're not used to hearing that from private attorneys who will argue anything for the right price. There is an idea, obviously not subscribed to everywhere, that state attorneys should be held to a higher ethical standard because they're not simply working for a client for political interests, but for the state as a whole. Of course even when they spend 6X on private counsel on a losing case, it's still taxpayer money, they just have a wider net to cast to find willing counsel. The idea that regular-old salaried state attorneys make these kind of arguments is disturbing.

Every day, I become more convinced that I'll still be alive when this country ends up in a true crisis that spurs either a civil war or an organized effort by a number of states to change the Constitution or secede.

Where have I said this? More importantly, what other evidence do we have that's better to show Biden's support over the stated period?

The 1.2 + another 3.5 never did sit well with me and appreciate Biden's willingness to negotiate. The devil is in the details and assume there is a whiteboard in a smoke filled backroom somewhere where Biden/Pelosi is negotiating with the moderates and progressives. Love to see what is being considered to be cut (e.g. I read free community college and expansion of medicare to dental/vision but who knows) and what the increased taxes are.

Rooting for this (and the debt ceiling) to get done before EOY and for the market to resume without this uncertainty.

Dems are so bad at this. The single best thing they can do politically is to expand dental/vision care to Medicare and have it kick in before June 2022. Then they should spend a bunch of the campaign saying over and over, we gave you the freedom to see a dentist and everyone in the GOP voted against it.

But instead, it will kick in in 2028 or get cut altogether.

I'd swap that out with allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Isn't that insanely popular?

Yes, but I don't think users will notice as much as they will being able to go to the dentist or optometrist or hearing specialist. With Medicare D, a lot of drug costs are hidden from consumers. We should still negotiate pricing, I personally like the idea of something like the average OECD price, but I expect Sinema and her big influx of Phrma cash has already killed that anyway.

They hate being in power. I guarantee most can't wait to be the minority party again and go back to having zero pressure and the fundraising carrot back in front.

Mandatory service for all...VA benefits for life... universal healthcare.. boom.

Having all these Senators fawning over Rahm Emanuel today, a man who tried to cover up a murder, is pretty nauseating. Couldn't find anyone else for this job?

It will be wonderful if Dems can come to agreement by Fri.

‘Got to get everybody in the tent’: Dems power toward narrowed deal - POLITICO

Sinema has her demands. Doesn't really touch on any of the big issues, just a list of things lobbyists want. Might be easier to negotiate directly with them and cut the middleman out of the equation.

I know it's not new that politicians are bought and paid for. But I can't remember seeing one who didn't put a little effort into hiding it. I mean her big demand is that we don't close a loophole in the system that allows a huge tax break for private equity and hedge funds.




And she didn't say this to her constituents or other members of the Senate. She only spoke about this to donors.

If the DoJ weren't complete and utter hacks, they'd be investigating her campaign finances with a fine tooth comb.

Oh yeah, we're still in Syria. Not sure what or if there is really a strategic goal. Assad has survived.

Manchin and Sanders had a meeting today to try to negotiate a final package, but in the end Manchin said he was fine if nothing got passed. It looks like Manchin is through with negotiations.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

Manchin never wanted a deal and never took any of it seriously. The package would hurt his family's wealth and that's what his priority is. Just too cowardly to admit it and save everyone the time.

It may be a political flub but glad he said it. Although this may make China more aggressive against Taiwan, I'm all for it. Time to stand up to the bully in Asia.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/21/polit...all/index.html

The FL GOP has a plan to create their own OSHA so they don't have to follow federal regulations.

dola

And DeSantis said that FL is looking to recruit any cop that quits over a vaccine mandate.

I'm now pro-wall. At the FL border.

Biden & Congress need to hurry up and do whatever they are going to do. Polling is now reflecting the way it was going during the ACA passage; divided, no real consensus.

CNN poll from a couple week ago; 25% think their family would be better off if the second package is passed. 71% want some form of it passed, but less than half want the full package. Democratic control of Congress is down to break-even in terms of it being a positive for the country. Etc.

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2021/images/1...re.economy.pdf

Should government employees be able to get a two month vacation despite working less for than a year?

Democrats say yes!

My former employer gave up to 12 weeks parental leave plus 2 weeks bonding, I think? I don't remember the specifics, I had kids at the wrong time. I had my kids on a Tuesday and Wednesday and was back to work the following Monday. The 27 year old guy I hired 5 years ago has had 3 kids and taken all of that time off each time. He was expecting baby 2 when I left.

The policy is understandable, but in terms of practicality for work, if your position is unnecessary (either without you there or because others have picked up your slack), I'd be concerned that you're showing your bosses that you are not needed.

All of that to say, government's got to compete in the workforce too. But it's a bad look for someone in his position, obviously.

Everyone should say yes. Paid paternity leave should be commonplace.It is in every other nation, but of course it could "never work" in the wealthiest nation on earth.

It's not as if Buttigieg wasn't working somewhere else before he had this gig.

I know this has probably always happened, but someone please tell me that there will be some sort of legal consequences for this:Burr's Brother-in-Law Called Stock Broker, One Minute After Getting Off Phone With Senator ProPublica

I like the detail that he dumped his stock before calling his B-I-L.

Always gotta look out for #1 first.

Have you been at home all day taking care of a newborn? Vacation is laughable, it's way harder than actually going to work, especially if you have a dragon baby

Our country's attitude towards parenthood for fathers needs to change. Both in expectation to take pressure off mothers and in understanding to give willing fathers the chance to do so.

I agree. People who think that maternity/paternity leave is "vacation" are doing it wrong.

The parental leave debate has really shown who had some shitty childhoods.

It's bizarre looking at the rest of the world doing this and thinking it's wrong. Those countries have a more educated populace and less crime. They live longer and are healthier.

I don't think it's about "parenthood" or whatever. It's really just pushback from big companies that don't want to give up any profits. And they're good enough at propaganda to convince some dumb people to shill for them. Just like how unemployment benefits were the reason for people not working.

No no no guys… the woman stays at home with the baby and cooks dinner and cleans. The man goes to work, makes the money and then comes home and puts his feet up in front of the TV with a beer.

If we are going to critique a talking point we should at least try to get their perspective on gender roles correct, geez.

It's not just that. It's still pretty engrained to our culture that the mother is the primary care giver and this results in lessened expectations for fathers and also less understanding when they do share equally (or more) in the care giving.

Agree. But I do think the push against family leave has much more to do with protecting big business interests and they are using the culture war stuff as propoganda.

Isn’t everything?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Speaking of which, the frame work of the renegotiated package have removed family leave, Medicare drug negotiation power, and the Child Tax Credit is just one more year. There are still some greatly needed programs remaining that people are really going to feel and benefit from. It needs to be passed now.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

I took 2 months of FMLA after my wife took 3 months and there were so many odd things about it.

1) Hardly any guys do this. It's almost expected that the woman does this. But not only is it expected that the guy doesn't do this but it's also expected that the woman definitely should. Besides the laughably dated gender roles that set the expectation that I wouldn't do it, it was surprising how many people wanted to weigh in and make sure my wife was /definitely/ going to do it. For the record, my wife makes more than I do - if anyone should be staying at home, it should be me. I mean, I get pregnancy and recovery time, of course, but for the child bonding and child rearing part. It's just ridiculous.

1A) I also noticed a corollary to this. There's an expectation you'd only do this for one kid. When I told people I was going to take FMLA - they were like "oh, it's your first" like that explained it all. Wait, what? I even got this a little bit when we were in that undecided time between having one and deciding we didn't want a second. Like do second kids and beyond sleep better or not want to eat like every 5 minutes? So not only are we perpetuating stupid thoughts about genders but also birth order.

2) FMLA is, well, it's ridiculous. Yay, in theory, we can't be fired for taking FMLA. However, with more than half the country being bullshit "at will" states, they could fire me for that and just say it was for something else. Hell, even if you wanted to do it "with cause", they could easily shuffle me away from my main projects or not assign me any new work and then nail me for low performance and then fire me. Fortunately, my boss was pretty cool about this and I didn't have any issues, but I'm sure others are less so. Never mind that we've seen just how people viewed presentee-ism and vacation, at least, pre-pandemic (and still some now). Like, you can see with some people that if you're not there 24x7x365, you deserve to be fired, even if vacation IS PART OF YOUR BENEFITS.

3) Speaking of vacation and benefits, our workplaces dealt differently with how the mom and dad could do stretch out vacation - never mind that we both work at similar places with similar leave structure so this applies at both places. Both my wife and I work where we have vacation time and extended illness leave. The extended leave is fully paid short/long term disability and what happens to "banked" vacation days if don't take all your allotment in a year (we can each roll over a certain amount but any above that get dumped in here - no saving like a year's vacation time until retirement). At both places, to retain benefits, we had to have worked or had a vacation day for at least 1 day in the calendar month. So, for me, this meant my FMLA started like a day or two into November and I went back a couple of days before New Year. That way, I worked at least one day in November and one day in December to keep my benefits. I could have also had used vacation days at the start of that so, for instance, if I had started my FMLA for the last week of October but had a week and a half of vacation, it would count as "working" in November. I just didn't have that much vacation as I had only started working there a couple of years ago and I burned it all in the first couple of weeks of FMLA. I also got to use 3 days of extended illness leave for the three days she was in the hospital. I guess it's better than nothing.

3A) However, her, by virtue of being the mom, could do some thing where she could tap into vacation and extended illness leave that entire pregnancy recovery time (6 weeks or 8 weeks, I think, depending on if it was a c-section or not). Above and beyond that, she could even do this thing where they split those days in half so she'd get half pay for the day but would mean the effective benefit time doubled. So if you had 3 weeks of vacation, you could stretch it out to six weeks for the purposes of benefits. But only the mom, not the dad. The dad got the 3 days in the hospital and that's it.

4) Factoring into all this is "Dads faking incompetence". I was told a couple of times "just pretend like you don't know how to do it and she'll have to do all of it". What kind of selfish sick fuck thinks like that? I mean, like I get, say, pretending (or not caring enough) to understand some hobby that she cares about and you don't - but, dude, childrearing? Not only that but like the first year of child care is a particular fresh hell. You can choose to either grow together (or at least counterbalance the lack of time you lost together) or you can be wholly selfish but I can't think that's great long term for your relationship. That's not to say that in high stress, we don't have times we just go into self-preservation mode in the short term, but
go into self-preservation mode. I mean, we all do some of that some of the time when we're at our limit - but I'm talking about consciously choosing to do that. I think you're sewing some really bad long term seeds there. Then again, the two guys who I remember giving me this "advice" also seem to see their wife as the mother of their kids first and not as their spouse. I don't get it, but, I mean, what works for me isn't the only way to family.

5) And that brings us back to the initial post. When I got back, I had a couple of people give me the whole "how was your vacation" schtick and the tired death glare I gave them shut most of them up. One, who I know knows better - he's probably the most active dad of anyone on our team (scouts, sports, etc) - decided to needle me further and I just stared point blank back at him and said something to the effect of "Believe it or not, it's actually more difficult than dealing with you assholes every day".

SI

cosign...

I took 3 months FMLA when my daughter was born, we set it up so my FMLA overlapped only slightly with my wifes maternity leave so we could keep my daughter out of daycare for as long as possible. Once my wife went back to work it was hell. Up at night, also taking care of a 2 1/2 year old, and the best part, my daughter refused a bottle so she would scream her face off in hunger and I would have to drive her to my wifes work in the city 2X a day so she could sit in the car and nurse her.

Right, very relaxing vacation.

Hell, we have watched our toddler/newborn grandkids for a couple of days at a time and it is exhausting LOL. I don't know where the hell I got the energy as a Dad

BREAKING: Supreme Court agrees to consider limiting EPA's authority to curb greenhouse gases from power plants, will hear appeals from coal-mining companies and Republican-led states

— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) October 29, 2021

SCOTUS is going after Chevron deference. This could be the most monumental change in government this country has ever seen.

Looks like both the infrastructure and the reconciliation plans are getting a vote in the House on Tuesday. House progressives have signed off on the plan.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

If it doesn't get somewhere on Tuesday, I'm pretty sure Manchin and Sinema will bail after the election. They may still screw things up, but if nothing is passed before the election results, I expect both bills will die.

I was a couple of days too late. It sure looks like Manchin just killed not only the BBB, but the infrastructure bill as well. I'm not sure he ever wanted either bill to pass as he was just about to get the infrastructure bill vote tomorrow that he's claimed to have wanted all along.

I think there are a lot of Dems happy this didn't pass. Lot of Dems have donors they need to appease and this vote was a tough one.

This feels like a good lesson for all the folks who wish we had more than 2 parties. It feels like the Democrats are composed of about three parties right now and they can't get a thing accomplished.

I've supported Biden all along and would obviously vote for him again, but I'd have a tough time saying I approve of the job he is doing.

What did Manchin do? I thought it was the progressive wing refusing to vote on infrastructure w/o the BBB.

This isn't a party issue. We legalized bribes to politicians. 1 party or 50 parties, it ends the same if you can buy politicians.

Go back to the original infrastructure negotiations. It was always the plan to pass both, that way both moderates and progressives got some of what they wanted. It was even a big deal when the GOP pretended not to know that was the plan. It's always been the case that neither bill will pass without the other.

The infrastructure bill was mostly a corporate handout. So progressives told moderates you can have that if we get the social spending bill.

No reason for progressives to pass a corporate welfare bill if they get nothing in return.

Priyapal and the White House are still saying things will pass, so maybe this isn't as dead as it seems from the outside.

This whole situation has the feel of football NLI day when one of your commits is actually working behind the scenes to recruit guys to a rival and then flips at 8am on signing day.