You know, at the start of this 117th Congress, not many people thought that the Democrats could get much done with a 50-50 split Senate and a Republican caucus hellbent on obstructing them.
Yet here we are, having watched the Senate pass the Inflation Reduction Act yesterday (which will be voted on by the House on Friday), and this is after they passed the PACT Act (healthcare for injured veterans) and the CHIPS Act (boosting U.S. production of semiconductors) and that’s just in the past couple of weeks.
There’s a reason I’m seeing tweets like this all of a sudden:
I mean, Biden already had passed the American Rescue Plan and the biggest Infrastructure bill in a generation, not to mention passing the Violence Against Women Act and the first gun reform bill in 30 years, and that’s still not covering it all. The Democrats are rocking and rolling!
I do take some pleasure in seeing Chuck Schumer dance rings around Mitch McConnell. Regular readers of my blog know how I feel about McConnell. But it was poetry watching Schumer do this:
Schumer somehow convinced McConnell that the reconciliation bill (i.e. the Inflation Reduction Act) was off the table long enough to get him to whip his GOP Senators into passing the CHIPs Act. Hours after the bill passed the Senate, Schumer announced he had a deal with Joe Manchin that put reconciliation back on the table. McConnell and the rest of the GOP was so angry, they voted against the PACT Act, which provides healthcare to veterans exposed to toxins from burn pits, etc. while serving. Then thanks to John Stewart and an avalanche of unbelievable public pressure, the GOP realized they had to cave and passed the PACT Act a few days later. And, of course, reconciliations bills only require 50 votes, so there wasn’t a way for McConnell to block that at that point.
I do wish more voters understood what a feat the Democrats have accomplished. Not just with reconciliation but with everything else that we’ve done. The media just doesn’t cover it, or if they do, it’s for a day and then it’s forgotten again. They seem stuck on painting Joe Biden as having a failed presidency when in fact he’s been more successful on a number of fronts than the last several presidents.
Which brings me to my ask of you. Check out some of these great explainers of the Inflation Reduction Act and spread the word about how consequential they are. Or share/repost/forward posts you see others are making that celebrate this bill. Let’s get the word out!!
A basic explainer of the main provisions of the bill is HERE
More about how tax credits will work is HERE
More about the climate provisions is HERE
Categories: Uncategorized
This is SUCH great and amazingly wonderful news. Biden is indeed getting things done. ‘Sleepy Joe’ my *ss 🙂