As much as the centrist in me wants to declare victory on this, I'm not sure what this will end up accomplishing with Pelosi's comments, especially after Biden's comments that he won't sign this unless it's accompanied by a "human infrastructure" bill that consists of a lot of the stuff stripped out of the compromise bill.[1]
I'm not sure what the incentive or "win" is for the GOP senators here. I guess that they can claim that they pushed through some popular infrastructure spending, but they're completely unable to claim that this is a compromise of any sort, especially given that Biden will still get the stuff that they were unwilling to grant him in the negotiations. This seems like a MASSIVELY bad faith exercise on the part of the Biden administration, and I'm not confident that it won't make future bills that would also benefit from compromise harder to pass.
What am I missing here? If I were a GOP senator who spent time negotiating this, why would I continue to play ball, if all the horse trading is for naught in the end?
All of this seems too clever for its own good and the messaging to the public should have been better that this was the case all along.
The way it rolled out was:
1. Great compromise on infrastructure! Parties are working together again!*
2. * Only if Democrats get what they wanted in the first place via the reconciliation side-channel.
I'm still very unclear why given #2 above, why not just do it all via reconciliation and have Democrats claim the win on infrastructure? It seems like Biden's trying to give something to Republicans (and good on him for that!), but the gift's been so clumsily given that it's just embarrassing everyone in the process.
The real casualty here is the reason why we want compromise legislation - to temper the worst impulses of both sides. In this case, we're not seeing a more targeted bill that addresses deficit and scope concerns. Democrats get to claim bipartisan cooperation, while Republicans get to slap their names and votes on the parts of the bill that everyone likes. If this spurs future (real) bipartisan collaborations in the future - great. However, I'm bearish on that given Mitch McConnell and the makeup of the current GOP base. Infrastructure is nice and easy - let's see how this process translates into fixing immigration.
That is definitely the problem with the lack of leaks coming from the Biden Admin: the public doesn't hear/see what's going on until something is said.
It's definitely aimed at Manchin. That said, I do believe that it was a fait accompli from the GOP Senators regarding the reconciliation bill. They could have said "See, we got stuff done on infrastructure" while hitting at the Dems for the reconciliation spending.
Now, it might all be done solely by Democrats via reconciliation with the GOP being seen as wasting time via bad faith negotiations.
As much as the centrist in me wants to declare victory on this, I'm not sure what this will end up accomplishing with Pelosi's comments, especially after Biden's comments that he won't sign this unless it's accompanied by a "human infrastructure" bill that consists of a lot of the stuff stripped out of the compromise bill.[1]
I'm not sure what the incentive or "win" is for the GOP senators here. I guess that they can claim that they pushed through some popular infrastructure spending, but they're completely unable to claim that this is a compromise of any sort, especially given that Biden will still get the stuff that they were unwilling to grant him in the negotiations. This seems like a MASSIVELY bad faith exercise on the part of the Biden administration, and I'm not confident that it won't make future bills that would also benefit from compromise harder to pass.
What am I missing here? If I were a GOP senator who spent time negotiating this, why would I continue to play ball, if all the horse trading is for naught in the end?
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-meet-with-bipartisan-senators-discuss-infrastructure-plan-2021-06-24/
Allahpundut has some thoughts on the matter:
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/06/25/senate-gop-mad-at-biden-for-threatening-to-veto-infrastructure-bill-but-is-it-just-kabuki-n399019/amp?__twitter_impression=true
All of this seems too clever for its own good and the messaging to the public should have been better that this was the case all along.
The way it rolled out was:
1. Great compromise on infrastructure! Parties are working together again!*
2. * Only if Democrats get what they wanted in the first place via the reconciliation side-channel.
I'm still very unclear why given #2 above, why not just do it all via reconciliation and have Democrats claim the win on infrastructure? It seems like Biden's trying to give something to Republicans (and good on him for that!), but the gift's been so clumsily given that it's just embarrassing everyone in the process.
The real casualty here is the reason why we want compromise legislation - to temper the worst impulses of both sides. In this case, we're not seeing a more targeted bill that addresses deficit and scope concerns. Democrats get to claim bipartisan cooperation, while Republicans get to slap their names and votes on the parts of the bill that everyone likes. If this spurs future (real) bipartisan collaborations in the future - great. However, I'm bearish on that given Mitch McConnell and the makeup of the current GOP base. Infrastructure is nice and easy - let's see how this process translates into fixing immigration.
I don't think republicans fit into their decisions at all. This is about Manchin. And how the left is completely fed up with him.
That is definitely the problem with the lack of leaks coming from the Biden Admin: the public doesn't hear/see what's going on until something is said.
It's definitely aimed at Manchin. That said, I do believe that it was a fait accompli from the GOP Senators regarding the reconciliation bill. They could have said "See, we got stuff done on infrastructure" while hitting at the Dems for the reconciliation spending.
Now, it might all be done solely by Democrats via reconciliation with the GOP being seen as wasting time via bad faith negotiations.
Too clever is a distinct possibility.
Biden statement clarifying/walking back:
https://mobile.twitter.com/awprokop/status/1408886053520527367
David, you wrote, "Cruz was a hero even though his shutdown was disastrous for the GOP."
Not really. Look what happened in Nov. 2014.