In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

As of yesterdy, it looks like Sen Schumer at least is still spinning blarney about a Senate vote on the BBB bill, now " the week of November 15 ". I feel confident this is just yet another version of "we're gonna work all weekend" that we've been hearing since September. How the results of yesterday's elections affect what changes, if any, are made to the BBB text or the schedule is hard to predict, but my guess is that Speaker Pelosi, Sen Schumer, and President Biden will simply double down on their exising positions. As of yesterday, Sen Manchin made his position clear : Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he didn’t sign off on a framework for a $1.75 trillion social spending bill before it was released from the White House and that he didn’t think there was a “rush” to get a deal. “No,” Manchin said, asked if he had signed off on the framework, adding that if he had, his current pushback wouldn’t be “genuine.” “The White House knew exactly where...

With Presidednt Biden out of the country and dozing off on the world stage, Sen Manchin picked a most peculiar time to hold a press conference. According to the Washington Examiner , Sen. Joe Manchin hit the brakes on a newly touted social welfare spending deal, arguing it needs much more work and consideration before he throws his support behind it. . . . He accused Democrats of playing “shell games” with the cost estimates of the latest deal, which is half of the initial $3.5 trillion Democrats hoped to spend. . . . “How can I in good conscience vote for a bill that proposes massive expansion of social programs when vital programs like Social Security and Medicare face insolvency, and benefits can start being reduced as soon as 2026 in Medicare and 2033 in Social Security?” Manchin said. “How does that make sense? And I don't think it does.” Manchin said he would not decide whether to vote for the bill until the text of the measure is written and, in the meantime, demanded...

I've noted that my developing theory of incomptence is starting to show that a major factor, and a major indicator, is an inability to match the calendar with a realistic understanding of the time it takes to finish tasks. We've been seeing this all autumn in the repeated crises over passing the BIF in the House of Representatives, and as I noted yesterday, there's no indication this is going to stop. As The Hill noted, Speaker Pelosi ordered her committee chairs to finish drafting legistlative text for the BBB by last night so the Rules Committee could mark it up for a vote as early as tomorrow. Even The Hill has now backed off: A number of sticking points on the $1.75 trillion package could make it difficult to move speedily. These troublesome issues include locking in how the bill is paid for and whether paid leave and prescription drug negotiations will be added. Senate Democrats also need a decision from the parliamentarian on their latest immigration proposal...

I noted last week that the conservative blogs and aggregators have been generally out to lunch covering the BIF-BBB crisis in the House. The only media that've done a consistent job have been Politico and The Hill, as long as you can filter out their wishful thinking. One question the conservatives haven't taken up at all is the obvious one: with the vote last Thursday a didn't happen, what's next? This morning's headline in The Washington Examiner, though, is Biden and Democrats divided over Thomas Jefferson's legacy . I guess they took the weekend off to stock up on candy for the trick-or-treaters, huh? Where's Byron York? I had to go to The Hill to find any substance at all: House Democrats are looking to pass both the social spending and bipartisan infrastructure bills as early as Tuesday, a leadership aide told The Hill. . . . An aide for Democratic leadership told Axios that committees were notified by House leaders that they had to finish a...

There hasn't been a whole lot said about Biden's visit to the Vatican, in part I'm sure because by limiting press availability, that was the Vatican's plan. What's leaked out is puzzling. I was particularly taken by this video excerpt, apparently taken by the Vatican and released after the fact: It partly depicts Biden in a reception line, clearly confused about how this sort of thing works and, taken aback that people are shakng hands with the Holy Father before they get to him, throwing his arms up in a clear "whatever" gesture and later withdrawing his hand and raising it in a strange fist. Dr Jill, who seems to be in the habit of closely monitoring Joe during his public appearances, notices this with a certain hint of anxiety behind her fixed smile. What strikes me as most peculiar is that I spent formative years in Washington society being groomed by a socially ambitious mother. I've been in reception lines with ambassadors and cabinet sec...

I followed the deveopments in the BIF-Framework Democrat crisis in the House all day yesterday, but I found conservative media, aggregators, and blogs remarkably absent. The Hill, Politico, and NPR were, however, on the case, at least as far as individual developments were concerned. As of yesterday's post, things had just begun not to happen. The problem was that on Wednesday, Speaker Pelosi had been unable to deliver on a House vote passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill. As a result, Thursday was represented as a last-ditch effort to pass it, either to give President Biden some sort of trophy to take to Glasgow, to give the party prestige going into the November 2 elections, or not to embarrass the president, or for the sake of his entire presidency. According to Politico, President Joe Biden left Thursday for his second trip abroad with his massive domestic agenda -- and, by his own admission, his entire presidency -- hanging in the balance on Capitol Hill. . . ...

As I write this, President Biden has delayed his departure for Rome and as far as I can tell is in the process of addressing House Democrats on a whole new economic package that will somehow achieve a Democrat consensus when months of work on the BBB couldn't achieve this. This vignette shows where things actually stood yesterday afternoon as prospects for a vote on the BIF-cum-framework evaporated: Democrats have already nixed a contentious plan to tax the wealth of roughly 700 billionaires, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) confirmed Wednesday, after moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) voiced concerns earlier in the day over the proposed provision in President Joe Biden’s spending package. . . . The senator’s comments came less than six hours after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, released legislative text for the proposed billionaire income tax, which would have required billionaires and Americans making more than $100 million annually to pay a ...