America’s Deadly Game of Budget “Negotiations”
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Repubs Return To Debt Talks After Walking Out In A Huff
via HuffPost
The negotiations with the White House resumed hours later on Friday night.
Republicans have demanded significant spending cuts in exchange for lifting the federal
government’s “debt ceiling,” a legal limit on how much the government can borrow to pay bills Congress has racked up over the years. Republicans also want stricter “work requirements” in certain federal safety net programs
Biden has signaled openness to new work requirements ― better understood as limits on benefits to the unemployed ― but it’s unclear where he might be willing to add them. Republicans proposed stricter eligibility rules for jobless Americans in Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the relatively tiny Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
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A Look Back…
This Is Going to Hurt
2019-03-09
Trump Budget For Fiscal 2020: Slash Domestic Spending, Give It To The Military.
Trump will propose major cuts to anti-poverty programs, health care, housing and nutrition assistance, environmental protection, transportation, international programs that provide foreign aid, and more.
Are Biden-Led Dems Trying To Lose?
2021-05-24
“If the aim is to avoid a midterm massacre, why would you do this?”
Presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would: enact a public option to create a government-run alternative to private insurance plans; reduce the sky-high and life-threatening prices of prescription drugs; cancel up to $10,000 of student loan debt per federal borrower; and raise the estate tax, which affects only the wealthiest 0.2% of U.S. Households.
When President Biden unveils his official budget proposal on Friday, however, none of those initiatives— which were already considered inadequate by progressives demanding Medicare for All, at least $50,000 of student debt relief, and substantially higher taxes on the super-rich—will be included… .
Liberals. Centrists. Progressives. Right-Wingers.
2021-10-01
Biden Caught Up In A World Wind
President Biden urges/pleads with all Democrats to compromise, to have patience and let him try to revive his economic agenda, and legacy.
Biden made his pitch during what pundits are calling a rare meeting on Capitol Hill in the midst of an intense, angry fight over two pieces of legislation that Democrats were struggling to get a handle on. The first bill would fix the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections. A second package would authorize roughly $3.5 trillion to expand Medicare, combat climate change and boost a wide array of federal aid programs.
Democrats don’t appear to have an immediate way forward for either of the spending plans; they do what Democrats always do – form a circle firing squad and wait for someone, anyone, to shout FIRE!
Shrinking Into Nothingness
2021-10-26
Because That’s What Democrats Do
In an opinion piece on Tuesday at The Guardian, Robert Reich poses a familiar, and some may say inevitable, Democratic Party policy outcome: Is Biden’s entire agenda about to shrink into nothingness?
While Dr. Reich details how this does not have to happen, we pretty much know that it will happen. Because that’s what Democrats do.
For example, Democrats’ once in a lifetime plan to shore up and expand Medicare and Medicaid benefits are today being (1) scaled back to appease right-wing Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and (2) corporate Democrats are caving to industry groups like pharmaceutical lobbyists and private insurers over drug-pricing reforms.
Earlier this month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told Democrats to get ready to appease Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – decide which cuts to make to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, get the plan down to whatever it takes to make Manchin Sinema happy.
But, again, we know those two right-wing Democrats will never be happy, no matter what you throw at them. Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was absolutely spot on when she tweeted “We can’t negotiate the reconciliation bill down to nothing”.
Obsessed With You, Our Cuddly Cuts
2023-02-17
“… the specifics are actually pretty bad.”
“We’ve heard a lot of talk from House Republicans about cutting spending, but very few specifics,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “Well, that’s probably because the specifics are actually pretty bad.”
Republicans’ latest budget plan, over-loaded with cuts to social and security spending, is detailed in a new report by the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) and the numbers are scary – that is, if you are a senior citizen; if you are poor; if you need heating assistance; if you are in the military; if you are in law enforcement or public safety; if you are in science and innovation; if you are in need of child care; if you are concerned with child nutrition; if you care about baby formula; or if you care about national security and veteran assistance programs.
How scary? At least 30% in cuts to many, too many, federal programs. This is a long-time Republican obsession.
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