The Partisan Divide on Issues

[David Horn]

(03-16-2021, 04:32 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(03-16-2021, 03:30 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(03-16-2021, 02:50 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(03-15-2021, 09:27 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: For a while Chuck Schumer has been appearing on various MSNBC shows giving his view of the senate proceedings.  In these he has borrowed a phrase from NASA, first made famous during the Apollo 13 mission.  "Failure is not an option."

For the last few decades, the senate only has two important voices: the majority leader's and the minority leader's.  Senators don't vote on whether a bill is popular with who elected them, but according to partisan policy which is linked to who is in the White House.  I suspect the Democrats are trying to break this, or if they cannot to pick up the voters whose desires are not being met.

Killing or otherwise working around the filibuster are options.  I gather failure is not.

The filibuster lives as long as Joe Manchin is in the Senate. Why he believes that this is an institutional must is beyond me, but he does.  I know that, as a Dem, he's not alone in this.  On the other hand, if he collapses, or is primaried to oblivion, that may change.

Well, I suppose it remains a matter of personal power.  For as long as he cares more about holding the Democrats hostage than the people of his state, he will hang tight.

Joe Manchin seems more reasonable in his interviews on Meet the Press. It may, I have heard, that he might be willing to budge at times on the filibuster. He supports it now since he wants the minority to have a voice, he says. But once the voice is made apparent as little more than fanatical extremism, he may have heard enough. AZ senator Sinema is also a questionable DINO.

There's a group of 10 or so Republican senators, not always the same people, who he feels can be negotiated with. When push comes to shove, the question is what these guys will do. They did not vote for the 1.9 trillion covid American Rescue package. They might be open to a compromise of $11 an hour on the minimum wage, to be raised over several years tbd. Much can be financed through another reconciliation bill, and I suspect the Democrats will resort to that on new taxes and infrastructure/climate change spending, and the question then will be what will Joe support in this.

Joe Manchin managed to get reelected in one of the most pro-Trump states in the nation.  Don't expect a lot from him.  An $11 and hour minimum wage, with a ramp-up is, frankly, an insult to working people.  $15 is barely adequate.  But Joe is captive to WV business interests, and he willingly admits as much.  He's planning to be the Max Baucus of this time period.  I'm doubt anything good will come of that.
Kirsten Sinema may see a path forward, especially so if Arizona moves in a Bluer direction. That's never going to happen with WV.