Today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) backed down from his obstructionism, agreeing to let the Democrats raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority rather than by the 60 votes they needed when the Republicans kept filibustering their bills.
Here's the letter I wrote to Senator manchin this afternoon after he talked about not wanting an "Entitlement" country. Dear Senator Manchin, I disagree with your characterization of non-millionaires getting "entitlements". As far as I can see all the "entitlements" are going to the millionaires and billionaires including you. The real problem is income disparity which is hollowing out the middle class with everything going to shareholders that don't need it! Trickle down economics doesn't work especially when the entitled rich class and corporations get a huge tax cut with NO incentive to share that with their employees and workers. Also, social security is NOT an entitlement. I paid the maximum into social security for decades. I expect now to get the return on my investment. The government isn't give it to me. I earned it and invested in it. It is now time my ROI! In the 1950s a family could live reasonably well on one income. Now it takes two to just get by. And, no one has considered that a quarter of that meager income is going to child care. These aren't entitlements we're talking about. This is the oligarchic kleptocracy stealing from the middle class to give to the rich. This will bring down capitalism over time because you are taking away buying power from the consumers, the middle class. So, stop the entitlements to the billionaires and end corporate welfare so that the majority of citizens will be able to earn enough for a life of well-being. This will reduce the need for government to provide a social safety net. Please get your thinking straight on all this! And, get out of the way of the Build Back Better bill and start leading on fixing income disparity. Unless, of course, like the Republicans you've been bought by your donors and choose to ignore your constituents!!! You seem a good guy who is interested in the lives of West Virginians but you need to reframe where the entitlements are going. Thank you for considering my viewpoint. It is CRITICAL!! The Senate rules need revising because all these stupid political games need to end. Catherine Learoyd
Whatever comments you may choose to offer here, please… based on what Heather has written tonight and in all previous nights… if you have a local election cycle going in your area:
Get Involved. Send some texts, make some phone calls, drop some literature, give some money.
Nothing cooking in your neck of the woods? (1) lucky you! (2) VA & NJ still need help reaching potential voters — volunteer with Postcards to Voters.
We are all discouraged. We are all pooped. We are all tuning off radio/TV/Internet — in droves!! It’s not just you. BUT we can’t. Don’t be discouraged. Use your righteous, well-informed, historically contextualized anger and get back to work! We have a country to save. Donald Trump will NOT be my president ever again, dammit!
Oh, McTurtle, McTurtle, you are such a vicious little fiend! How you can sleep at night is beyond me! You and Nero are quite a pair -- playing your fiddles while Rome burns!
"There is one major takeaway from this manufactured crisis: McConnell was willing to come right to the verge of burning the nation down to get his way. In the end, he stopped just before the sparks became an inferno, but it was much too close for comfort."
Thank you, District Judge Pitman for saving the day by temporarily blocking S.B.8 in Texas! Your wisdom is greatly appreciated and sorely needed to dampen the GOP's sordid agenda.
My deepest gratitude to you, dear Professor, for bringing such clarity to the end of this day.
Further to District Court Judge Robert Pittman's federal court action; the Court has ordered all "public-facing court websites [to post] a visible, easy-to-understand instruction to the public S.B. 8 [vigilante] lawsuits will not be accepted by Texas courts."
McConnell figured out that he was going to be blamed for destroying our financial standing in the world
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that his wife’s connection to China shipping magnates created a back channel where Chinese officials, fearing a collapse of their most important commercial market, had a Dutch Uncle talk with Mitch
I’m just glad that the Biden team is pressing the point that Trump ran up huge bills during his reign. Even Biden himself used Trump’s name and not just “the previous administration.” It’s about time.
If the Democrats will stop acting like the high school student council members they were, and stop playing political tiddly-winks, they might notice what really happened today. McConnell DID NOT back down out of any worry over blowing up the world over our debt default. Once the announcement came, there were several R senators who said what McConnell was protecting by dropping the fight was the filibuster. Today Democrats actually got serious about a carve-out for the debt ceiling - and if they did that, they would not be able to go to the rest of their constituencies that have "issues at hand" that could be resolved if the filibuster wasn't there, and say "you have to understand, this was...." and go into their high school student council song and dance defending the filibuster. If they carve it out for this, that's a big "crack in the dam."
There's a solution to not having to kowtow to Manchin (who is at least a Democrat) and that political hippy-dippy with the weird sartorial sense (who is a Naderite/Green, in other words a serious political hippy-dippy - out to "speed the revolution" by "increasing the contradictions") - that the fact that there are 20 Republican senators up next year, and three of those seats are "open" due to retirements. Anti-Trumpers are majorities in all those states, if you get them to vote. And the whackadoodles the Trump Party is putting up are easy to campaign against as embarrassing whackadoodles, if the Democrats just put up a sane person who can string 10 words together that make sense - and make certain the candidate knows that you don't bring a cucumber to a gunfight.
As my old boss used to say "You can do what you want, when you have the votes."
Once again, I find that I have little to offer on the body of today's LFAA. I am grateful for those with expertise in the realm of the debt crisis for their input.
I really enjoyed hearing Bernie Sanders (and I have never uttered those words before) reaching the end of his rope with Manchin and Sinema, finally asking (and I paraphrase) "just what DO you want, specifically?"
It isn't enough to say "I want less". Tell us what you want to cut. Period.
I am also thrilled that the DoJ asked for an injunction in Texas.
Wow, just wow. Talk about pillaging our country. McConnell is the very worst kind of human being and I sure hope the lot of them meet their karma soon. Thank goodness for Biden and team!
Don't think for a moment that WE don't have LEADERS. Enjoy some time with Bernie.
‘BERNIE SANDERS just spent 15 minutes lambasting Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for holding up the Democrats' reconciliation bill, accusing them of 'sabotage'’
‘Sanders unleashes on Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema: The Vermont independent is ready to fight for the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package — and, in a fiery 15-minute press conference, he lashed out at the moderates holding back the spending plan. Sanders directed most of his ire toward Manchin, who he said was doing something "inexcusable" by being vague about the climate policies he supported.’
‘Key quote: "Two people do not have the right to sabotage what 48 want, what the president of the United States wants. That, to me, is wrong," Sanders told reporters’
‘Manchin responded later: He said Sanders wanted an "entitlement society." (Indsider)
'In particular, Sanders targeted Manchin’s view on the role that the government should play when it comes to health care, child care and other programs, criticizing the senator’s comments uttered hours earlier that he “did not believe that we should turn our society into an entitlement society.”
“Is protecting working families and cutting childhood poverty an entitlement?” Sanders asked. After rattling off similar rhetorical questions, he concluded: “Perhaps most importantly, does Senator Manchin not believe what the scientists are telling us, that we face an existential threat regarding climate change?” (Washington Post) See link below:
'When you've got the support of the majority of the American people, the Democratic House and Senate caucus, and when you've got the support of the president — this is not some 50-50 deal.'
'Two people cannot stand in the way of delivering for the working people of this country.'
Bernie Sanders
@BernieSanders
'The pharmaceutical industry is spending millions and millions of dollars on misleading ads, swarming Capitol Hill with their lobbyists to convince lawmakers that it's a-okay for you to continue to pay the highest prices on earth for your prescriptions — NO MORE.
Bernie Sanders'
@BernieSanders
·
Oct 5
'I get a little tired of Republicans telling me and telling you that we "can't afford it" when we talk about investing in the needs of working class people. You ever hear those people say we "can't afford it" when it comes to giving a billionaire another tax break? OF COURSE NOT!
Bernie Sanders'
@BernieSanders
·
Oct 5
'We have the real possibility of creating unprecedented public policy which stands up for working families, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the poor — and defeats the greed of powerful special interests and the billionaire class — but only if we fight for it.'
@BernieSanders
Oct 5
'For a very long time, American exceptionalism has meant being the only major country not to guarantee a single day of paid family and medical leave. I believe it's time we change our national priorities and guarantee paid leave to our people.'
@BernieSanders
·
Oct 4
'The vast majority of the American people want us to:
- substantially lower prescription drug costs
- expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing
- expand home health care
- make child care affordable
- lead the world in the fight against climate change
Let's get it done.'
Links to Bernie's Press Conference and conversation with Rachel Maddow below:
Before going to sleep last night I heard ""Mitch McConnell will allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension AT A FIXED DOLLAR AMOUNT," He hasn't given up entirely. He is still trying to stop the social infrastructure bill from being passed via reconciliation. His offer is meaningless. Schumer needs to bring it to the vote and let Republicans vote NO or he needs to carve this vote OUT of the filibuster on the basis that PAYING THE BILLS must be voted on because it is procedural and the responsibility of both parties to actually vote on it. IT is not part a new bill or act on the President's wish list, the same goes for the Supreme Court and voting rights. Republicans must be put on the record and these three issues should not be filibustered EVER.
What do you all think about Bernie Sanders calling on Manchin and Sinema to state publicly exactly what provisions of the Build Back Better bill they want to reduce and why?
Ultimately we must confront the question of whether we will be a democratic country that supports the principle of majority rule determined by free and fair elections or if we will allow a minority to rule through a government autocrat. This fundamental question is at the foundation of every policy controversy currently being contested at local, state, and federal levels. I believe it is time to confront this issue openly and forthrightly. This can begin with a decision on changing Senate rules to totally eliminate the filibuster. I understand the idea that the filibuster is thought to protect the minority from the flaw designed into the Senate by equal representation by each state regardless of it's relative share of the U.S. population. Yes, this flaw and its impact as well on the electoral college is a serious defect in the design of our democracy. But the filibuster is not an adequate solution to overcome this flaw. Eliminating the filibuster will not correct the defect it supposedly addresses but it is a start, and we must begin somewhere. So, lets stop debating about where to begin correcting the flaws in the design of our democracy and pull on that thread. We have to start somewhere to unravel the mess that is minority rule. It is inconsistent with the very idea of democracy.
How is it that the Senate Minority Leader is the most powerful person in the United States Government? Given this fine point, we are already an Autocracy. It just hasn't been formally called that...yet.
I'm watching Bidens polls cascading down as the GOP cheer. I've been reading a fairly consistent 38%.
The GOP are getting everything they want and frankly worked hard to get. I wish the tables were turned.
I spent yesterday at the Oncologist having various testing and consults. I sat next to a woman who was having similar testing as I was. We spoke the typical "Oncologist waiting area" conversations, the weather, "how cold it always is in here" and where did this year go. No one ever discusses the elephant in the room. After an uncomfortable silence, she said " I have never been so afraid in my life". I thought she was referring to why she was here. No, she said "I really thought after Biden won, life would be better. I'm terrified what the next thing is the GOP will and can do to us". As our conversation unrolled, I discovered that she was a History Professor at one of the local Universities. She used to bring her sons to the museum I'm Director at. She also is a daily reader of Letters from an American. Small world.
McConnell will perform this same song and dance in the matter of weeks. In the meantime, he will bolster his followers to gain ever more momentum. I think we know where this is going.
Here's the letter I wrote to Senator manchin this afternoon after he talked about not wanting an "Entitlement" country. Dear Senator Manchin, I disagree with your characterization of non-millionaires getting "entitlements". As far as I can see all the "entitlements" are going to the millionaires and billionaires including you. The real problem is income disparity which is hollowing out the middle class with everything going to shareholders that don't need it! Trickle down economics doesn't work especially when the entitled rich class and corporations get a huge tax cut with NO incentive to share that with their employees and workers. Also, social security is NOT an entitlement. I paid the maximum into social security for decades. I expect now to get the return on my investment. The government isn't give it to me. I earned it and invested in it. It is now time my ROI! In the 1950s a family could live reasonably well on one income. Now it takes two to just get by. And, no one has considered that a quarter of that meager income is going to child care. These aren't entitlements we're talking about. This is the oligarchic kleptocracy stealing from the middle class to give to the rich. This will bring down capitalism over time because you are taking away buying power from the consumers, the middle class. So, stop the entitlements to the billionaires and end corporate welfare so that the majority of citizens will be able to earn enough for a life of well-being. This will reduce the need for government to provide a social safety net. Please get your thinking straight on all this! And, get out of the way of the Build Back Better bill and start leading on fixing income disparity. Unless, of course, like the Republicans you've been bought by your donors and choose to ignore your constituents!!! You seem a good guy who is interested in the lives of West Virginians but you need to reframe where the entitlements are going. Thank you for considering my viewpoint. It is CRITICAL!! The Senate rules need revising because all these stupid political games need to end. Catherine Learoyd
Whatever comments you may choose to offer here, please… based on what Heather has written tonight and in all previous nights… if you have a local election cycle going in your area:
Get Involved. Send some texts, make some phone calls, drop some literature, give some money.
Nothing cooking in your neck of the woods? (1) lucky you! (2) VA & NJ still need help reaching potential voters — volunteer with Postcards to Voters.
We are all discouraged. We are all pooped. We are all tuning off radio/TV/Internet — in droves!! It’s not just you. BUT we can’t. Don’t be discouraged. Use your righteous, well-informed, historically contextualized anger and get back to work! We have a country to save. Donald Trump will NOT be my president ever again, dammit!
Oh, McTurtle, McTurtle, you are such a vicious little fiend! How you can sleep at night is beyond me! You and Nero are quite a pair -- playing your fiddles while Rome burns!
"There is one major takeaway from this manufactured crisis: McConnell was willing to come right to the verge of burning the nation down to get his way. In the end, he stopped just before the sparks became an inferno, but it was much too close for comfort."
Thank you, District Judge Pitman for saving the day by temporarily blocking S.B.8 in Texas! Your wisdom is greatly appreciated and sorely needed to dampen the GOP's sordid agenda.
My deepest gratitude to you, dear Professor, for bringing such clarity to the end of this day.
Further to District Court Judge Robert Pittman's federal court action; the Court has ordered all "public-facing court websites [to post] a visible, easy-to-understand instruction to the public S.B. 8 [vigilante] lawsuits will not be accepted by Texas courts."
McConnell figured out that he was going to be blamed for destroying our financial standing in the world
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that his wife’s connection to China shipping magnates created a back channel where Chinese officials, fearing a collapse of their most important commercial market, had a Dutch Uncle talk with Mitch
I’m just glad that the Biden team is pressing the point that Trump ran up huge bills during his reign. Even Biden himself used Trump’s name and not just “the previous administration.” It’s about time.
If the Democrats will stop acting like the high school student council members they were, and stop playing political tiddly-winks, they might notice what really happened today. McConnell DID NOT back down out of any worry over blowing up the world over our debt default. Once the announcement came, there were several R senators who said what McConnell was protecting by dropping the fight was the filibuster. Today Democrats actually got serious about a carve-out for the debt ceiling - and if they did that, they would not be able to go to the rest of their constituencies that have "issues at hand" that could be resolved if the filibuster wasn't there, and say "you have to understand, this was...." and go into their high school student council song and dance defending the filibuster. If they carve it out for this, that's a big "crack in the dam."
There's a solution to not having to kowtow to Manchin (who is at least a Democrat) and that political hippy-dippy with the weird sartorial sense (who is a Naderite/Green, in other words a serious political hippy-dippy - out to "speed the revolution" by "increasing the contradictions") - that the fact that there are 20 Republican senators up next year, and three of those seats are "open" due to retirements. Anti-Trumpers are majorities in all those states, if you get them to vote. And the whackadoodles the Trump Party is putting up are easy to campaign against as embarrassing whackadoodles, if the Democrats just put up a sane person who can string 10 words together that make sense - and make certain the candidate knows that you don't bring a cucumber to a gunfight.
As my old boss used to say "You can do what you want, when you have the votes."
Once again, I find that I have little to offer on the body of today's LFAA. I am grateful for those with expertise in the realm of the debt crisis for their input.
I really enjoyed hearing Bernie Sanders (and I have never uttered those words before) reaching the end of his rope with Manchin and Sinema, finally asking (and I paraphrase) "just what DO you want, specifically?"
It isn't enough to say "I want less". Tell us what you want to cut. Period.
I am also thrilled that the DoJ asked for an injunction in Texas.
Wow, just wow. Talk about pillaging our country. McConnell is the very worst kind of human being and I sure hope the lot of them meet their karma soon. Thank goodness for Biden and team!
Don't think for a moment that WE don't have LEADERS. Enjoy some time with Bernie.
‘BERNIE SANDERS just spent 15 minutes lambasting Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for holding up the Democrats' reconciliation bill, accusing them of 'sabotage'’
‘Sanders unleashes on Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema: The Vermont independent is ready to fight for the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package — and, in a fiery 15-minute press conference, he lashed out at the moderates holding back the spending plan. Sanders directed most of his ire toward Manchin, who he said was doing something "inexcusable" by being vague about the climate policies he supported.’
‘Key quote: "Two people do not have the right to sabotage what 48 want, what the president of the United States wants. That, to me, is wrong," Sanders told reporters’
‘Manchin responded later: He said Sanders wanted an "entitlement society." (Indsider)
'In particular, Sanders targeted Manchin’s view on the role that the government should play when it comes to health care, child care and other programs, criticizing the senator’s comments uttered hours earlier that he “did not believe that we should turn our society into an entitlement society.”
“Is protecting working families and cutting childhood poverty an entitlement?” Sanders asked. After rattling off similar rhetorical questions, he concluded: “Perhaps most importantly, does Senator Manchin not believe what the scientists are telling us, that we face an existential threat regarding climate change?” (Washington Post) See link below:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-agenda-sanders-manchin-senate-democrats/2021/10/06/96fdee98-26e3-11ec-a6ad-9ee7deda7f34_story.html
BERNIE on Twitter:
'When you've got the support of the majority of the American people, the Democratic House and Senate caucus, and when you've got the support of the president — this is not some 50-50 deal.'
'Two people cannot stand in the way of delivering for the working people of this country.'
Bernie Sanders
@BernieSanders
'The pharmaceutical industry is spending millions and millions of dollars on misleading ads, swarming Capitol Hill with their lobbyists to convince lawmakers that it's a-okay for you to continue to pay the highest prices on earth for your prescriptions — NO MORE.
Bernie Sanders'
@BernieSanders
·
Oct 5
'I get a little tired of Republicans telling me and telling you that we "can't afford it" when we talk about investing in the needs of working class people. You ever hear those people say we "can't afford it" when it comes to giving a billionaire another tax break? OF COURSE NOT!
Bernie Sanders'
@BernieSanders
·
Oct 5
'We have the real possibility of creating unprecedented public policy which stands up for working families, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the poor — and defeats the greed of powerful special interests and the billionaire class — but only if we fight for it.'
@BernieSanders
Oct 5
'For a very long time, American exceptionalism has meant being the only major country not to guarantee a single day of paid family and medical leave. I believe it's time we change our national priorities and guarantee paid leave to our people.'
@BernieSanders
·
Oct 4
'The vast majority of the American people want us to:
- substantially lower prescription drug costs
- expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing
- expand home health care
- make child care affordable
- lead the world in the fight against climate change
Let's get it done.'
Links to Bernie's Press Conference and conversation with Rachel Maddow below:
Bernie's Press Conference 10/06/21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDAAlhIh2Xc
Bernie Talk with Rachel Maddow 10/06/21
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/-it-s-not-a-50-50-deal-sanders-critical-of-manchin-sinema-obstructing-popular-will-122964549928
If Meadows, Bannon, Scavino, and Patel decide to defy their subpoenas to impress Donnie, I hope those in charge stick to these facts:
“……contempt of Congress earns a year of prison time; obstruction of Congress, five years; and obstruction of justice, 20 years….,”
Before going to sleep last night I heard ""Mitch McConnell will allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension AT A FIXED DOLLAR AMOUNT," He hasn't given up entirely. He is still trying to stop the social infrastructure bill from being passed via reconciliation. His offer is meaningless. Schumer needs to bring it to the vote and let Republicans vote NO or he needs to carve this vote OUT of the filibuster on the basis that PAYING THE BILLS must be voted on because it is procedural and the responsibility of both parties to actually vote on it. IT is not part a new bill or act on the President's wish list, the same goes for the Supreme Court and voting rights. Republicans must be put on the record and these three issues should not be filibustered EVER.
So exhausted by these anti-American GQP folks. It's hard to believe any of them can see their own reflections.
What do you all think about Bernie Sanders calling on Manchin and Sinema to state publicly exactly what provisions of the Build Back Better bill they want to reduce and why?
Ultimately we must confront the question of whether we will be a democratic country that supports the principle of majority rule determined by free and fair elections or if we will allow a minority to rule through a government autocrat. This fundamental question is at the foundation of every policy controversy currently being contested at local, state, and federal levels. I believe it is time to confront this issue openly and forthrightly. This can begin with a decision on changing Senate rules to totally eliminate the filibuster. I understand the idea that the filibuster is thought to protect the minority from the flaw designed into the Senate by equal representation by each state regardless of it's relative share of the U.S. population. Yes, this flaw and its impact as well on the electoral college is a serious defect in the design of our democracy. But the filibuster is not an adequate solution to overcome this flaw. Eliminating the filibuster will not correct the defect it supposedly addresses but it is a start, and we must begin somewhere. So, lets stop debating about where to begin correcting the flaws in the design of our democracy and pull on that thread. We have to start somewhere to unravel the mess that is minority rule. It is inconsistent with the very idea of democracy.
Thank you Heather.
How is it that the Senate Minority Leader is the most powerful person in the United States Government? Given this fine point, we are already an Autocracy. It just hasn't been formally called that...yet.
I'm watching Bidens polls cascading down as the GOP cheer. I've been reading a fairly consistent 38%.
The GOP are getting everything they want and frankly worked hard to get. I wish the tables were turned.
I spent yesterday at the Oncologist having various testing and consults. I sat next to a woman who was having similar testing as I was. We spoke the typical "Oncologist waiting area" conversations, the weather, "how cold it always is in here" and where did this year go. No one ever discusses the elephant in the room. After an uncomfortable silence, she said " I have never been so afraid in my life". I thought she was referring to why she was here. No, she said "I really thought after Biden won, life would be better. I'm terrified what the next thing is the GOP will and can do to us". As our conversation unrolled, I discovered that she was a History Professor at one of the local Universities. She used to bring her sons to the museum I'm Director at. She also is a daily reader of Letters from an American. Small world.
McConnell will perform this same song and dance in the matter of weeks. In the meantime, he will bolster his followers to gain ever more momentum. I think we know where this is going.
Be safe, be well.