I'd buy this libertarian view of vaccines if the proponents were offering a plan to hold people liable for infecting others, but that's sort of the point of public health regulation: the externalities can't be controlled by the market.
It's one thing to say "people shouldn't have to get the vaccine." I actually agree with that.
It's a entirely different thing to say "people shouldn't have to get the vaccine and also should pay no public cost for making that choice." That's nuts.
The Dems are going to come to a deal in the next day/week/month, it will pass, and then six people are going to write "is that anyway to run a legislature" pieces in major outlets and my head is going to explode.
Yes, in fact, this is how legislative politics in a republic works.
One thing people mistake is the actual mechanics of legislative negotiations. It's really mundane, and not at all magical.
The stakes are higher and players more experienced, but if you've ever been in a drag-out session at the HOA or in the church basement, you're familiar.
People laugh when they wheel in the pizzas, but that's almost the perfect anecdote to properly set the scene. People get tired and cranky, it's often boring and then tense and then boring; then someone annoys you. You circle around the same shit aimlessly. No one listens.
Everything takes six times longer than you expect, because that's how negotiations and deliberations always go; people stray off focus constantly and bring up stuff you thought was resolved 40 minutes ago. One person always talks too much.
As a former appropriations staffer, I reiterate my belief that maybe we should just repeal the entire Budget Act. It could hardly be worse.
Someday, there will be no filibuster in the Senate and (god willing) no Budget Act and it won’t even be clear what we will talk about all day on this website.
Is a complete repeal of the Budget Act allowed under the Byrd Rule?
Dems want it on the CR so: (1) the GOP has to provide some votes and/or not filibuster; (2) it can be a suspension rather than a hard, numbered increase; (3) they can move it very quickly and thus (2) take the two-week vote break scheduled for October.
Republicans want to not do that so: (1) it stays in the news as the Dems move it through the budget resolution process; (2) the Dems have to do it all alone as the GOP complains about it; and (3) the Dems have to stick a number on it to satisfy the Byrd rule for reconciliation.