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The new Walking Duck website tells you what’s going on.
Check it out today.
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For all the extraordinary change we’ve seen in the politico-media culture in the last generation, two things remain effectively the same:
1. The closer to New York City and Washington, DC something occurs, the more news coverage it will get.
2. The governments and citizens of those two cities handle snow as well as a man in handcuffs can juggle four tennis balls.
I’m not saying it’s a snow day at Wide World of News.
But at a time of a pandemic, vaccine distribution challenges, new virus strains, economic hardship, (already) closed schools, political tensions, international hotspots, paradoxical Beltway gridlock, a looming impeachment trial, and so much more, the news flow seems mostly blocked out by a foot+ of the fluffy white stuff in Certain Cities.
In theory, here’s what Joe Biden is doing today:
That meeting with Senate Republicans, Monday’s centerpiece event, was announced late Sunday night. If I were a betting newsletter writer, I would wager that it might be cancelled on account of precipitation.
I would also bet that if it happens, Joe Biden and his team will use the time to argue that the proposals that make up the approximately $1.3 trillion gap between what President Biden has pitched and what the Gang X has put forward are essential.
Why is the Gang X pitch not destined to change Democratic plans to proceed with reconciliation?
Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and their congressional flocks want to go big, fast, and liberal.
As we wait for more detail of the Gang X plan, we can say that it is not something that under any scenario would lead to as big, as fast, and as liberal as Democrats would like.
If Joe Biden were inclined to abandon reconciliation and somehow find common ground between $1.9 trillion and $600 million – even if he got all the members of Gang X on board at, say $1.3 trillion (which he almost certainly can’t) – Hill Democrats would never go for it.
And when you start to break down the differences program by program, the challenge of “compromise” gets put in sharper relief.
The Washington Post has one of the few bits of reporting on a detailed area of difference between the two sides:
The GOP plan would also reduce Biden’s proposal for extending emergency federal unemployment benefits, which are set at $300 a week and will expire in mid-March. The Biden plan would increase those benefits to $400 weekly and extend them through September. The GOP plan would keep the payments at $300 per week and extend them through June, according to three people with knowledge of the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
Could Biden and the Gang X bridge that one gap?
I think so.
But bridging all the separate discrepancies AND the macro number appears to be mission impossible, especially when the Democrats, before the Sunday morning surprise of the new Gang X offer, had sort of settled into the mindset of going it alone.
Bernie Sanders, who surely would want to see a Democratic-only effort lead to raising the total above $2 trillion, suggested that Biden already has the support necessary — in some Vermont banter with the New York Times:
Mr. Sanders, pressed on whether Democrats had the votes in an evenly divided Senate to move forward with the minimum wage provision, declared that there were “50 votes to pass reconciliation, including minimum wage, yes.”
“In totality, what Democrats are saying,” he said, is “we’ve got to support the president, we’ve got to address the crises facing working families and we’re going to pass reconciliation.”
So while the Washington Post frames the situation thusly….
A $600 billion plan that is a fraction of the size of Biden’s proposal is unlikely to draw much if any Democratic support. However, the GOP offer presents a challenge for Biden, who campaigned on promises of bipartisanship and must decide whether to rebuff the overture or make a genuine effort to find common ground across the aisle….
….I don’t think it is currently mathematically or politically possible to assemble a deal that Gang X unanimously supports and congressional Democrats and Biden’s only-big-won’t-fail economic team embrace.
Like, not only is it impossible to see how such a contraption would make it through the hurly burly legislative process, but I don’t see how to even draw it on the back of a White House mess napkin.
The point being: Even if Joe Biden wants to accept, say, 70% of a loaf in the name of bipartisanship, it appears very uncertain how he actually could pass that piece of bread into law.
Plus, Ladbrokes puts the odds of the Biden-Gang X meeting actually occurring face to face as scheduled at 35%, with a Zoom option at 40%, with rescheduling also of course a possibility.
Does going with reconciliation even as the Gang X offers up what to some will appear to be a legit stab at bipartisanship doom the rest of Biden’s agenda with congressional Republicans?
Not definitely, but mostly probably maybe.
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As we wait to see if the meeting gets canceled, we can all use a bit of good humor, so I spent the early morning collecting Toasted Almond Bars and jokes from some of America's leading political figures about their take on the Biden Era.
All asked for anonymity to share their barbs, clearly meant to char but not burn to a crisp.
[Also, these gags are intended to be funny but they were ghost written not in any case by the folks to whom they are attributed. The leg-pulling "sources" are part of the joke!]
Labor leader: Those who say Joe Biden didn't put a Republican in the cabinet clearly missed word that he picked Gina Raimondo to be his commerce secretary.
Ron Klain: Those who say Vice President Harris is focused on November, 2024 are just wrong – we all know the Iowa caucuses will be in January, 2024.
Anita Dunn: The moments of greatest pride-taking about how diverse the Biden administration is occurs when the president gets together with Ron Klain, Mike Donilion, and Steve Ricchetti to pat each other on the backs.
Liz Cheney: When it comes to policy heft and seriousness of purpose, Kevin McCarthy makes John Boehner look like Paul Ryan.
Got more (better) such jokes?
Send ‘em my way.
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ESSENTIAL READING
None.
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WWON QUIZ
Name these people and what they have in common:
Answer: They all are dealing with snow today.