Wednesday open thread: Reconciliation!
Invariably, on Twitter and on the yak shows you hear calls for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's head. He needs to step down because he's nOt dOiNg sOmeThiNg.
Well, last night he did something:
Top Democrats announced on Tuesday evening that they had reached agreement on an expansive $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, including plans to pour money into addressing climate change and expanding Medicare among an array of other Democratic priorities, that they plan to advance alongside a bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Combined with nearly $600 billion in new spending on physical infrastructure contained in the bipartisan plan, which omits many of Democrats’ highest ambitions, the measure is intended to deliver on President Biden’s $4 trillion economic proposal. The budget blueprint, expected to be dominated by spending, tax increases and programs that Republicans oppose, would pave the way for a Democrats-only bill that leaders plan to push through Congress using a process known as reconciliation, which shields it from a filibuster.
The fact is, the loudest, most braying people on Twitter don't know what they're talking about. The same goes for the yakking pundits wringing their hands while licking their chops at "Democrats in disarray" narratives. They expect politics to be like The West Wing, spectacle and showmanship, with a soaring orchestral soundtrack. Bismarck had it right comparing politics to sausage making: it's ugly, laborious, and may not turn out the way you want it to. But in a democracy, it's the only way to get things done. And the fact is, most of the negotiating will be done away from cameras; the political media hates this because it deprives it of storylines.
I tweeted yesterday that most pundits are not actually experts on the subjects about which they fulminate. That's double for political commentators. They think they know what's going on, but time and time again they prove themselves to be clueless. For months they've been saying that the reconciliation bill was dead, and President Joe Biden's priorities were in ruins. Obviously, rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. Of course, they'll move on to some new criticism, and can be summarily ignored. Even the pundits you like have been going off the deep end, both with the budget and with voting rights. The fact is, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and we're not supposed to know. Senator Bernie Sanders, just a few days ago, was making noises that he wanted a bigger budget. This excited the political press, eager at the prospect of Sanders torpedoing the deal. Instead, he's on board. This shows no one actually knew anything until Schumer made his announcement.
Enjoy your hump day, friends. This is what winning looks like.