10.31.21: Today's "Meet The Press" Missed The Mark

First and foremost, we have a bone spur to address with "Meet The Press" today. The program was too much, and perhaps becoming, inside the beltway talk. President Joe Biden is in Rome for the G20 Summit and it wasn't even brought up at all let alone as a topic of discussion. The fact that the G20 came to an agreement of a 15 percent minimum corporate tax means that companies won't be able to hide their money in tax shelter countries, which will give a big boost to American tax revenue, helping to pay for the reconcilliation package. Or simply that our president is on the world stage and it didn't seem to matter.

Instead, in discussing the reconcilliation package with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D), Mr. Todd kept coming back to the question of what is not in the bill, instead of maybe asking about the 'pay-for's' on what's in the package. Dare we say that there was a bit of harping on it on the part of Mr. Todd. We get it, but make the point ask the tough question and then move on. 

That tough question, which really didn't come through should have been on prescription drugs. Talk about an industry that has the United States and the world frankly, with Covid, by the collective cajones. 

The free Covid-19 vaccine most of us are getting isn't free; the government paid the pharmaceutical companies for the doses, of course. And 20 years after the prescription drug 'donut hole' the American people still can not negotiate on the price of drugs and continue to pay the premium. 

The impatience of the American people never ceases to amaze, everything to be done yesterday in a country of over 330 million people, and that's why you see the president's poll numbers dragging right now, but as Secretary Granholm made the point, they can rebound when the Democrats pass these two massive bills. Next summer when Americans start seeing construction on roads and bridges and then send their 5 year olds to universal Pre-K, things may turn around. 

The other thing that the secretary mentioned, plugging her boss, is that the president is working for the middle class, and let's face it there is a big corporate machine that works against the little guy. See above for our prescription drug example, and the Sacklers are still billionaires. It takes time and it takes wading through an avalache of opposition rhetoric backed by a lot of cash.

Case in point, the panel's discussion of mayoral races and police funding. Interestingly, maybe because it isn't a tough contest, no one on the panel cited the New York City mayoral race where candidate Eric Adams (D) who was a former police officer is sloganing that a safe city is a prosperous city and that better policing, not less, is answer. That's the model that Democratic mayoral candidates should think about. 

And when it comes to the Virginia gubenatorial race, from afar it has seemed like Mr. McAuliffe's to win or lose all along. He was already sucessful in the position and should have been able to capitalize greatly on that progress. However, the mire that Republicans sift around in politically these days, culture wars all day, everyday, then requiring a response brings everyone down sapping the energy from voters' enthusiam.

But make no mistake, it would be a catastrophic lose for the Democrats and a signal that Americans short attention spans are fully functioning. 

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist; Brad Todd, Republican Strategist

10.24.21: Should Mitch McConnell Be Physically Punished?

Back from a two-week hiatus, we have to say that not much has changed given today's "Meet The Press" with an independent, Senator Angus King (M), trying to thread a legislative needle, Democrats being hammered during their very public and messy legislative sausage making, and Republicans saying 'no' to anything and everything.

One thing is for sure, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) who is not running for reelection doesn't give a shit about anything with the exception of the small bit of power he can still wield in the Senate, which is not the 'world's most deliberative body' because you can not call it that when their is zero deliberation, and that was Senator King's point when discussing the filibuster. Mr. Blunt for his part had not one constructive answer to any of Ms. Mitchell's questions.

In the Senate as it is, having the majority means nothing except when it comes to appointing judges, which is now the chamber's basic function as legislating takes a back seat. Senator King said that there should be filibuster reform but to achieve it, you have to 'thread the needle' of retaining minority rights while also not effectively giving them a veto on everything the majority wants. 

The filibuster as it stands now exacerbates the disproportionate representation in the Senate. Because every state has two senators the country a disproportionate amount of senators represent fewer people. E.g. Two senators for California's 40 million people and two senators for South Dakota's 860,000 people. Given that, there needs to be reform because as it stands whether the Republicans are the majority in the senate or the minority, they have control. 

Because Democrats always like to bite off more than they can chew, we'd suggest a first step. One this one rules change to the filibuster and that would be to make it standing, meaning that if a Senator wants to filibuster a bill he or she must stand up and hold the floor with pertinent rhetoric on why they oppose it.

Democrats should make that one change and then stick it to Republicans by bringing a slew of bills to the floor so that they have to physically make octogenarians like Mitchell McConnell and Chuck Grassley stand at the podium for 8 to 12 hours and then have a vote. 

Why make legislating physically punishing?  Let's throw that back the other way and ask haven't the American people been physically punished enough with unaffordable housing and healthcare, crappy employment and covid? Is it a little cynical to physically punish Mitch McConnell? Yes, but it's justified.

Stand up and make a case or shut the hell up, right? Since when is the United States an apartheid state where it's minority rule?

Specifically, voting rights for all Americans are being curtailed by conservative state legislatures and what used to be a bipartisan no-brainer of reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act is no more since The Supreme Court's 2013 decision to eliminate the pre-clearance provision in which states wanting to change election laws had to have approval from the Justice Dept. States like Texas and Arizona are running wild in changing their laws to suppress and potentially nullify votes. No Republicans voted to reauthorize the Act. 

Again, Roy Blunt not helpful with his disingenuous answer that a voting rights bill would be a national take over of voting, empty rhetoric. Look at it this way, states set their own minimum wage, but there is a baseline national minimum wage, which is $7.25 by the way. What the voting rights bill establishes is some basic minimums like making presidential election day a national holiday. 

But here's the rub, the bill also institutes a reauthorization of the pre-clearance provision. The Republican minority is saying 'no' to that, and what the minority in the Senate wants, it gets.

 

Panel: Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Eugene Daniels, Politco; Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist

 

10.3.21: Doesn't Matter How the Watch Works, It Just Has To Keep The Time

There's a point in the film Sicario where Emily Blunt's character asks the sicario, Benecio del Toro, if there is anything she should know about the drug trade, and he responds: You're asking me how a watch works, for now let's just keep our eye on the time.

Deciphering the negotiations going on between the Democrats in Congress is just like asking someone how a watch works and for the owners of that watch, the American public, we're not concerned about the repair process just whether it works once you're done.

In other words, one shouldn't fret about the intermediate steps that without overbearing media coverage would be part of the larger work of what is called legislating...

Make no mistake, however, that time is a factor, as the panel outlined in a number of ways. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson outlined it most concisely explaining that the Democrats may not have control of congress after the midterms, for which campaigning will start next year and perhaps a four-year presidential term so the window is now for the Democrats. USA Today's Susan Page called it the 'last train leaving the station,' as to say that it's unknown when the Democrats will have another opportunity like this to pass transformational legislation. 

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called the Democrats' budget bill the most significant piece of legislation in our life times, while Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman explained that the legislation is the culmination of everything Nancy Pelosi has been fighting for for thirty years. All this means that it will take time to get Democrats unified on their priorities and what the cost will be. At the moment, the media is asking every legislator what their number is on this budget bill, but it isn't asked as to gain insight, just to get something on the record because we'll only know what the number is when they arrive at it.

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan said that she didn't understand why the Democrats wouldn't give the president a legislative win by bringing the infrastructure bill to a vote and getting it passed then go to the budget. It's sound logic of moderation, but as outlined above most Democrats are looking at both as the only opportunity to forward their agenda. And the president himself is on record as saying that the two bills are linked. 

What is inexcusable and hopefully not the case is that the progressives in the Democratic party are willing to scuttle both bills if they don't get what they want in the budget bill. That's like taking the watch in for repair, paying in advance, and getting it back still broken. 

Panel: Susan Page, USA Today; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Jake Sherman, Punchbowl News; Jeh Johnson, fmr. Homeland Security Secretary.