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30 Sep, 4 tweets, 1 min read
We will now shape US policy according to the arbitrary, idiosyncratic, empirically & theoretically unsupported changes to this popular bill made by one conservative old white guy elected with under 300K votes. Great way to run a country.
Here's Manchin's memo. He wants to strictly means test any money spent to help poor people, but he wants to keep fossil fuel subsidies intact. static.politico.com/1e/ef/159cabd5…
Keep in mind: he says he's worried about spending too much. He says he's worried about debt. He says he's worried about inflation.

But he wants to keep fossil fuel subsidies intact.

Boy it would be SUPER awesome if some DC reporter asked him about this contradiction.
The losing candidate in a given NYC mayoral race receives more votes than Manchin received to win his last race, but he gets to be king of the country.

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More from @drvolts

David Roberts Profile picture
30 Sep
Sure, I agree with everyone saying that the solution to this is to elect more Democratic senators, but let's just pause & reflect on the fact that that 50 Dem senators in Congress today represent *40 million more people* than the 50 Republicans.
This should be the backdrop to every story about Democratic challenges. At every level of the US system, the voice & power of white rural & exurban voters is amplified. Dems have already won over a majority of the country's voters -- it just doesn't matter.
I wrote this when the climate bill failed in 2010. Same thing then: if you have legislation supported by the public & majorities in both houses of Congress, *that ought to be enough*. It is ludicrous that you can accomplish all that & it's "failure."
grist.org/politics/if-yo…
Read 8 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
29 Sep
This is a bunch of vapid bullshit & conservative talking points that do not address any of the specific issues being negotiated.

"Vengefully tax for the sake of wishful spending"? Just fuck all the way off.
One thing this statement makes very clear is that Manchin spends most of his time surrounded by rich old white conservatives. Not just the big stuff, there are tons of little tells throughout -- little habits of thought & rhetoric. He is fully in that bubble.
Note the central self-contradiction, so familiar from right-wing rhetoric that we barely notice it any more:
1. We're in a "brutal fiscal reality," we can't pay for existing programs, inflation is on the rise, BUT ...
2. we can't raise taxes on the wealthy.
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
29 Sep
"Democracy advocates" 🤔 washingtonpost.com/politics/as-tr…
Are we headed for a situation in which the US media does a both-sides on the value of democracy itself? Yes. Yes we are.
I once wrote a piece with the subhed: "Journalism cannot be neutral toward a threat to the conditions that make it possible." But ... apparently it can! vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
29 Sep
How fucking stupid do you have to be to believe this? "Give me the only thing I want out of this process ... and then I'll sit down & negotiate the rest in good faith."
I feel like I'm losing my mind. Dems surely realize: this is it. On climate, on health care, on child care -- this is it. There won't be another chance for a decade or more, & on climate at least, that means we're permanently fucked. This is showdown at the OK Corral time.
This is not a normal time or normal politics. It's not a time to think in conventional half-a-loaf terms. For ONCE, Ds need to think like Rs -- how to pull every lever, manipulate every rule, violate every norm, to *achieve the goal*.
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
29 Sep
I see we've entered the stage where center-left pundits fall all over themselves to counsel progressive surrender. There is nothing on this earth center-left pundits love more than signaling to one another how Reasonable they are, how above crude partisanship, how matuuuure.
It doesn't matter than, in this case, it's the corporatist "centrist" in Congress being petulant & unreasonable. It doesn't matter that progs are defending the agenda Biden ran & won on, which the public overwhelmingly supports. It doesn't matter that progs have said ...
...again & again, that they're willing to compromise. It doesn't matter that prog surrender at this junction would mean no significant D legislation, on climate among other things, for 10 years or more, if ever.

The machine is set up to scold progs, so that's what it does.
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
28 Sep
Speaking of shouting futile protests at the clouds:

It would be great if reporters writing about the slow sabotaging of the (extremely popular) Dem agenda by corporate Dems is happening under cover of arguments that are, according to our best expert consensus, WRONG.
They are wrong about inflation, wrong about debt. They're wrong about the effect of corporate tax hikes; wrong about state & local tax deductions; wrong about Medicare drug-price negotiations. Manchin is wrong about natural gas & electricity & reliability.
I realize the merits of arguments are basically irrelevant at this point in our sad crumbling empire, but even if only as a protest against the dying of the light, reporters could *mention* that corporate Dems are, based on the best assessment of relevant experts, full of shit.
Read 6 tweets

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