{"id":32584,"date":"2021-04-04T14:50:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T19:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=32584"},"modified":"2021-04-04T14:50:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T19:50:19","slug":"the-big-bet-ctd-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/04\/04\/the-big-bet-ctd-3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Bet, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I expressed<\/a> concern if we do not raise taxes to pay for the American Recovery Plan, which has been passed, and the upcoming infrastructure bill. Apparently, the American public agrees that we need infrastructure renewal – and we should be responsible adults and pay for it by raising taxes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Will the package pass? While the House remains under Pelosi’s firm thumb, I don’t think there’ll be much to worry about in that chamber. The most progressive members of the House have seen Biden and Pelosi explode out of the gate on priorities they like, and I expect those that would be most discontent have received advice that getting a slice of the cake is better than no cake at all.<\/p>\n

The Senate is a steeper hill to climb. On the Democratic side, again the progressives have been more or less happy with the treatment of their priorities, as led by Senator Sanders (I-VT). On the other end of the spectrum, the Democrat’s most conservative member, Senator Manchin (D-WV), while preferring bipartisanship and exhibiting a notable lack of political savvy, has also stated he wants a big, big infrastructure package, presumably because of the economics of losing Big Coal to Green Energy’s advance will put pressure on a West Virginia economy that is heavily dependent on that industry. Of the two motivational forces, my guess is the latter will win out, if put to the test.<\/p>\n

Republicans remain the big question. Some Senators, of course, such as Kennedy (LA-R), Daines (R-MT), Risch (R-ID) and Hyde-Smith (MS-R), will remain hopeless dead-enders. They will cling to the ideological tenets which brought them their prestige and power because that’s what they do – and they see the world in static terms.<\/p>\n

But others are not so rigid. Murkowski of Alaska is already known to be dubious about her membership in the Republican caucus. She may provide the input into an infrastructure bill that Manchin would value. She might vote for it. And, importantly, Alaskan voters approved a new format for Senatorial races in which a single ‘jungle’ primary is employed, from which the top four advance to the general election. This dilutes the power of party zealots and increases the incumbency power of Murkowsi, who, almost ten years ago, exhibited her clout with the Alaskan general election voter by winning as a write-in candidate after being defeated in the GOP<\/strong><\/em> primary. Having also voted for conviction in the second Trump impeachment trial, much to the dismay of her home town party, her relationship with them is probably a trifle fraught.<\/p>\n

Collins of Maine might consider voting for an infrastructure package, as she was the least loyal Senatorial Republican to former President Trump during his term in office, and at her age she may be considering the nature of her legacy.<\/p>\n

And a surprise vote might come from Senator Capito (R-WV), if suitably courted by her state colleague Manchin and Senator Schumer (D-NY), for the same reasons that Manchin will vote for such a bill. While she does have a TrumpScore<\/em><\/a> of 92, Ballotpedia<\/strong><\/em> says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Based on analysis of\u00a0multiple outside rankings<\/a>, Capito is a more moderate right of center Republican Party vote. As a result, she may break with the Republican Party line more than her fellow members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given her overwhelming reelection victory last year, her position can be presumed to be secure, and she might venture outside of her comfort zone on this issue.<\/p>\n

But that’s not enough to overcome the Senator filibuster rules as currently formulated. While the reconciliation process may be an option, in my opinion, the Democrats should convince Manchin to either junk those rules, or reform to force obstreperous Senators to actually get to their feet and start talking, as filibusters used to be formulated.<\/p>\n

Democrats need to show confidence that their policies are winners, and that they can translate that winning into electoral success and increase their sliver-thin lead in the Senate into something more substantial. Given the lack of Republican leadership, and their clinging to Republican tenets shown to be failures, this shouldn’t be too hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I expressed concern if we do not raise taxes to pay for the American Recovery Plan, which has been passed, and the upcoming infrastructure bill. Apparently, the American public agrees that we need infrastructure renewal – and we should be responsible adults and pay for \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32587,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32584\/revisions\/32587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}