Progressives in the House have won a rules change that would allow Medicare for All, a Green New Deal or other big ticket agenda items to be exempted from paygo. This was a necessary step in opening the way for it.
Paygo is short for “pay as you go,” which Democrats proposed in the 80s to get clever with Reagan, whose tax cuts and defense spending drove up the deficit. Since then it has been used to hamstring progressive policy. Last time Pelosi won this fight theintercept.com/2019/01/02/nan…
The value of changing the rules, even though they don’t yet have the votes for M4A, is that it is easier to defend the rules as they are than fight for changes.

Also it applies to things this term that can actually pass, like more checks, Medicaid and Medicare expansion etc
Here’s my newsletter from 2 years ago that went into the politics of this fight the last time progressives lost it (which you might as well sign up for since it’s free)

badnews.substack.com/p/paygo-pelosi…
Also it’s too early to call it a victory. It has to get approved on the House floor, but getting it into the package is big

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More from @ryangrim

30 Dec 20
Might as well call McConnell’s bluff. They’re not actually gonna let Facebook go under. Pocket the $2k and let them sort section 230 out later.
Yes, like this one, which would also have a hilarious time defending 10,000 libel suits a day. But sadly they’re not gonna let twitter shut down either
Read 6 tweets
29 Dec 20
In 2004, this guy’s dad, a Chicago machine politician, announced abruptly he wouldn’t run for re-election to Congress. It was too late for anybody else to run, but he had arranged to put his son, a professor living out of state, on the ballot. He won unopposed. /1
In 2018 @Marie4Congress challenged him, lost a close race, and people and groups who supported her were put on the Dem establishment shit list. When nearby Illinois Rep. Bustos took over the DCCC next cycle, she formalized that into a blacklist. Newman ran again anyway.
She smoked him the second time. He’s done, and this vote against $2,000 checks will be one of his last votes ever.
Read 6 tweets
19 Dec 20
I’ve kept thinking about this argument over the M4A floor vote because while the debate itself doesn’t mean much, it divided people in a useless way. So maybe this’ll help make more sense of it:
Consider the fact that the left basically has no power rn. Right? Ok.

You can’t maneuver your way out of powerlessness. There’s no clever trick that abolitionists could have pulled in 1820 that would’ve ended slavery, even tho there were a few members of Congress against slavery
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t debate tactics and maneuvers. You absolutely should. Some maneuvers are dumb, some are smart. Argue that out. But understand that that’s all you’re talking about. Your opponent in those debates is not your enemy. You might even be wrong.
Read 5 tweets
13 Dec 20
Real question that will help me engage with folks on here who I do think are coming from a good place: Why is a vote on the House floor for M4A considered so obviously better than other demands? What’s so useful about the floor? We already know who backs it and who doesn’t...
Ok I think I get it: people think the cosponsor list is fake but a vote would be real.

Sorry to say but that’s wrong: A vote on a bill that won’t pass the Senate is just as symbolic as the act of cosponsoring. They’re both posturing. So if you have leverage, get something real.
Biden could give everyone who had Covid Medicare by executive action. That could end up being 30 million people or more. They could try to extract a commitment from Pelosi to demand that in exchange for govt funding bills. Whatever. Real things are possible.
Read 5 tweets
11 Dec 20
People on here, including, apparently, lurkers like @BarackObama, are confused about the 20th Century party realignment, and that has led them to a confused understanding of politics today. The myth is that LBJ signed Civil Rights and said, well, there goes the south /1
He may have said some version of that, but that's beside the point. In fact, the realignment goes back at least to the New Deal. In the '30s, the GOP was still the Party of Lincoln and Dems were the bigger racists, but the New Deal was very good for everybody. And so in 1936 /2
for the first time that we have a reliable record, a majority of Black voters went Democratic. Elite columnists thought it was absurd that Black voters could ever side with the legacy of the Confederacy which was still dominated at the congressional level by white supremacists./3
Read 8 tweets
6 Nov 20
For people wondering why House Democratic leaders would be launching an attack on the Squad out of the gate, consider the math and the new power balance:

Dems will have a much smaller majority in 2021, maybe 8 or 9 seats. Think about what that means:/1 theintercept.com/2020/11/06/ele…
Pelosi always loses one or two @JoshGottheimer types on every vote. That means that about seven (!) Dems have veto power over the caucus. And the Squad has been buttressed by @JamaalBowmanNY, @CoriBush, @MondaireJones & @Marie4Congress

That’s 8 right there
And that’s before you get to Progressive Caucus leaders like @RepJayapal, @MarkPocan or @RoKhanna

Dem leaders know progressives have real power in the caucus now, and are trying to shame them into not using it, is my read.
Read 4 tweets

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