Joe Biden, the incredible shrinking President, went hat-in-hand to Congress this past week, mewling that his Presidency (only 10 months old) is hinging on the passage of the infrastructure and social spending bills currently stalled in Congress.
The hangup? A couple moderate Senators rejected the $3.5 trillion package put forth by the Democrats’ progressive wing, and the House progressives declared that they would not support the infrastructure bill unless they got their social spending bill at the same time.
Neither of these bills is good for the country. The infrastructure bill is not only barely about infrastructure (6%, by some estimates), it’s wholly unnecessary, given that there’s a trillion in unspent COVID cash lying around. The social spending bill is even worse, doling out buckets of vaporware cash to everyone and anyone whose votes the Democrats figure can be bought. That it’ll be “paid for” simply by taxing the rich is the biggest lie since “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Inflation, already upon us thanks to the COVID cash print-fest (yeah, yeah, supply chain disruptions blah blah blah) will continue to eat at Americans’ economic health (“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon”). The economy will stagnate, thanks to higher taxes, continued disincentives and moral hazard, and the stultifying effects of massive government.
No matter, of course. The Democrats are hell-bent on this path, flogged there by Bernie Sanders and his acolytes.
That the country has neither asked for nor wants this spendapalooza is of no consequence.
It is a sure bet that the Democrats will lose the House in the mid-term elections. The way they’re going, they’ll probably lose the Senate as well (the gambling markets think so), but either way there will be no more progressive legislation enacted in the latter half of Biden’s term.
However, Biden will still be President (or, at least, the Presidency will remain in Democrats’ hands) through 2024. This means gridlock, and this means that whatever the Dems pass now will be the law of the land at least until 2025. I reckon they’re counting on the gravy train becoming popular enough, and Americans becoming accustomed enough, to make repeal of all this spending very difficult for the GOP, should it take the reins back.
Concurrently, I reckon they figure this is their one chance to enact the social spending fantasy that Sanders has been embracing for his entire political career.
Sanders just turned 80. He’ll be 84 by the time another Presidential oath of office is taken. This social spending bill is his final shot at achieving some of what he envisions for the country. The incentives are all there for him to dig his heels in, to hold Biden’s Presidency hostage (as Joe sees it) to his demands. He knows that the Dems have to pass something now, he’s got a passel of yapping youngsters (fools, the lot of them) backing his play, a House Democratic Caucus that’s figured the calculus similarly, and Father Time nipping at his heels.
Joe Biden was nominated by the Democratic voters ahead of a sheaf of more leftist/progressive candidates, on the presumption of relative moderacy. Biden betrayed those voters, electing instead to bend the knee to Sanders, AOC, and the deluded fools who buy into this transferist iteration of socialism. Now, Biden’s groveling to everyone, desperate for a “win,” even though that win will be a disaster for the country, and Sanders is smirking (as much as a crotchety old commie coot can smirk) at the power he is finally wielding.
Perhaps the Dems will implode. Perhaps McAuliffe will lose the governor’s race in Virginia, done in by too much wokeness, and said loss will prompt the Dems to rethink their mad rush off the left cliff.
I doubt it, though. Bernie has nothing to lose here, and will cede as little as possible. I imagine he’d have no problem watching the party go down in flames should he not get his way, so his successors can declare a Pyrrhic victory.
Loading ...
Active Comment Threads
Most Commented Posts
Universal Background Checks – A Back Door to Universal Registration
COVID Mask Follies
When Everything Is Illegal…
An Anti-Vax Inflection Point?
“Not In My Name”
The Great Social Media Crackup
War Comes Through The Overton Window
The First Rule of Italian Driving
Most Active Commenters