One year later

Hello guys. Can’t believe it’s been a year already

So I made this thread a year ago for 2 reasons:

1. To have the admin’s policy in one place and track what actually gets done
2. To post about the actual process of passing things within the government

When this thread started there was so much interest with the stimulus checks and COVID vaccines that were not out yet at the time, that I was updating almost every week. I always figured that I would post less as things settled down. But I admit I fell off a few times, and there’s a lot of things that I did not post about last year that I probably should have

Of course, there’s been no shortage of controversies, setbacks, and crises. That is to be expected. I know that the government is going to do things that I personally do not support. What I’m saying is, this thread was never meant to make people fall in love with a politician. It was made to give people at least a general idea of what’s happening inside the administration and congress.

Anyways, that’s not what this is about.

The Update

Last time, the 50 Senators, led by Chuck Schumer, were trying to pass a $1.75 trillion social spending package. Schumer set a deadline for a vote on BBB by December 25, although Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Krysten Sinema (AZ) had previously signaled opposition. Over time, negotiations between Manchin and Schumer had deteriorated so much that, by the end of December Manchin was in talks only with the White House, leaving out the Senate altogether. Just before the holidays, Manchin went on Fox News and announced he would not support BBB, dealing a fatal blow to his party’s economic agenda.

Since then, they’ve turned their attention to Voting Laws.

I already posted a year ago about the nationwide effort to suppress the vote following the record turnout of the 2020 election.

About one-third of Americans believe that the 2020 election was illegitimate. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans say the election was stolen from Former President Trump. This has led to over 400 laws created in 2021, prohibiting assistance to voters, restricting access to mail-in ballots and drop boxes, and requiring IDs to vote, restrictions that Republicans say are to prevent voter fraud. (There was no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election).

More concerning, some states have introduced laws to alter the process of counting and certifying the electoral vote. In 2020 Trump attempted to pressure secretaries of state to either not certify the results or “find” fraudulent ballots. Even Mike Pence, the former Vice President, resisted Trump’s request to stop the election certification. However, many Republican election officials that refused to go along with the Big Lie have been removed, or resigned due to intimidation and threats, leading many to speculate that the obstacles that prevented the 2020 election results from being overturned are now being systematically eliminated for subsequent elections.

Two bills, the Freedom To Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, have been circulating in Congress for over a year now. The Freedom to Vote Act would make Election Day a national holiday, allow states to have early voting for at least two weeks prior to Election Day, allow voting by mail and drop boxes, and require voter ID laws to accept one of several forms of identification. The John Lewis act would prohibit states from passing laws that would make it harder for citizens to vote. More importantly, it would guarantee the right for citizens to vote and the right to have their votes counted.

In late December, Schumer announced a plan on voting rights.

The Senate would hold a vote on their voting rights package. If they could not get the required 60 votes for their bill and avoid a Republicans filibuster, they would then vote to make changes to the filibuster, in what Schumer called the “nuclear option”.

The 50 Senators all agreed that the legislation was necessary, but Manchin and Sinema have since stated that they would not support any changes to the filibuster, even for one decision regarding the critical right to vote.

“While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said. “We must address the disease itself, the disease of division, to protect our democracy, and it cannot be achieved by one party alone. It cannot be achieved solely by the federal government. The response requires something greater and, yes, more difficult than what the Senate is discussing today.”

The Senate held a vote on the package last Wednesday. It failed to reach a two-thirds majority at 51-49 and was filibustered.

A vote to reform the filibuster failed 52 to 48.

Having lost their chance at passing voting reform, the congresspeople have begun picking up the pieces of their social spending plan. There are new deadlines, with the government needing to be funded by Feb 18th, a weeklong recess directly after that, and the state of the union on March 1st. Negotiations have restarted in the new year with Pramila Jayapal, leader of the House Progressive Caucus, calling for Democrats to get as much passed in the next four weeks as possible. On Thursday, the President held a meeting with executives from Ford, GM, Microsoft and others to discuss BBB.

Splitting the bill up into multiple small packages is unlikely, due to constraints in the budget reconciliation process they are using to pass it. However, it is likely that the final deal will stay at $1.75 trillion.

Where BBB stands

❌ Not likely - 12-week paid family leave and free community college; possibly funding for housing and Medicare expansion

⚠️ Disputed - Expanded Child Tax Credit

A component of last year’s American Rescue Plan, which helped to drive the child-poverty rate to record lows, it is widely supported. The question is how long to fund it. The original BBB extended it for 5 years. The version that passed the House extends it for 1 year. Some Democrats believe those are too short and want 10 years, which would cost over $1.5 trillion alone. While the debate over future payments continues, the current payments expired earlier this month.

⚠️ Disputed - Corporate tax increase. Manchin says he supports it, Sinema opposes it

⚠️ Disputed - State And Local Tax deduction a.k.a. SALT

The SALT cap, created in 2017, is a $10,000 limit for taxpayers to deduct state and local tax from federal tax. Currently, the $10,000 deduction expires in 2025, after which there is no limit on deductions. Congress members in high income, high tax states want to increase the cap to $80,000 for nine years, then lower to $10,000 in 2031. Some believe that the tax change, which is one of the most expensive items in BBB, is too big to fit other priorities. However, three members of the House have said they will not support BBB without raising the $10,000 SALT cap. “We support the President’s agenda, and if there are any efforts that include a change in the tax code, then a SALT fix must be part of it. No SALT, no deal.” — Reps Tom Suozzi (NY), Mikie Sherrill (NJ) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ)

✅ Likely - Universal Pre-K

✅ Likely - Healthcare subsidies for insurance premiums + provisions for the government to negotiate the price of some prescription d****

✅ Likely - At least $500 billion for climate programs and incentives for reducing carbon emissions. “The climate thing is one that we probably can come to agreement on much easier than anything else.” — Joe Manchin

President Biden was still convinced that BBB can get passed, at least a large portion of it, at a press conference last Thursday. As for voting rights, the President was noticeably less optimistic.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Biden said. “I make no bones about that. It’s going to be difficult… But we’ve not run out of options yet, and we’ll see how this moves.“

@SonicNirvana Need to do like I used to and one week next year speak in only Kornheiser memes.

Dudes literally as bad, maybe even worse than trump

def bring it back to cfb thread

thank u

Along with modern antitrust and collective bargaining, right to repair is a movement that has been going on for many years, but is now being taken up by the federal government in the current admin.

now instead or apple and microsoft, it needs to make its way to the automotive industry

job report goof

Someone explain this to me like I'm 5

ktt2.com/biden-adm-to-split-7bn-in-frozen-afghan-assets-between-9-11-32513049

Biden is an imperialistic ghoul with a shrinking island so he's trying to associate part of this theft with 9/11 victims even though Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11 in the first place

Inflation.

Pretty much all that matters

Going to be a bloodbath this fall

Going to render him a lame duck next year

And 2024 re-election chances just get slimmer and dimmer

GQP gonna have field day with this one, even more than before

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the sister of a man married to Paul Ryan's wife's sister this is like a massive example of DC "small world" aristocracy yet again masked by history. everyone knows each other in DC, there is nothing actually historical or meaningful even when it seems so
on her legal record she has virtually no major standouts rulings and many of her biggest appeals were overturned in higher courts. she doesn't have a body of rulings enough to even declare a consistent legal philosophy yet. horrible pick

wait aren't you an anarchist