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Stuff is getting done. Is it the start of a trend?

Published on 35 Comments on Stuff is getting done. Is it the start of a trend?

Interesting times:

  • The Senate has passed the $280 billion chips bill and the House will soon follow. Keep in mind that it's actually about $80 billion for chips and $200 billion to fund 20 "regional technology hubs" for general research into artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing and other cool-sounding futuristic stuff. Also keep in mind that this spending stretches over ten years, so it's really only about $30 billion per year, about half a percent of the federal budget.
  • Joe Manchin has finally reached an agreement for a bill with three components: about $400 billion in spending on climate change; a mandate for Medicare to start negotiating prescription drug prices; and about $700 billion in new taxes. Details to come.
  • We seem to be close to a bipartisan agreement to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act. It's not a comprehensive election bill, but it's a good step forward. Rick Hasen explains: "It not only would confirm what we’ve already known—that a vice president has no unilateral power to accept or reject election results. It would also raise the threshold for senators or representatives to object to valid electoral college votes, eliminate the chance that a state legislature could rely on that 'failed election' language to send in alternative slate of electors, and provide a mechanism for federal judicial review of any action by a rogue governor to send in a fake slate of electors. These are all positive developments."
  • The Fed raised short-term interest rates another three-quarters of a point today. Idiots.
  • A bill to codify same-sex marriage nationwide—just in case the Supreme Court gets itchy to overturn Obergefell—got a surprising amount of Republican support in last week's House vote. Now there's some optimism that it could get ten Republican votes in the Senate, enough to overcome to a filibuster. I remain pessimistic about this, but you never know. I suspect that most Republicans, even if they won't say so publicly, don't really oppose same-sex marriage anymore, having seen that nothing much has happened over the past seven years since it became legal nationwide.

It's almost as if a sudden desire to actually do stuff has broken out in Washington DC. Amazing.

35 thoughts on “Stuff is getting done. Is it the start of a trend?”

  1. MattBallAZ

    I wonder if this is it for the Fed, if it will be clear we're in a downturn before they can raise rates again.

  2. drickard1967

    "Joe Manchin has finally reached an agreement..."
    Joe Manchin yanks the football away in 5, 4, 3...

    "A bill to codify same-sex marriage nationwide... got a surprising amount of Republican support in last week's House vote."
    This was a psy-ops fake out, so Rs could tell squishy suburbanites "See, we're not *all* insane."

    1. cld

      They suddenly realized they have to run on something other than Trump, and Joe Manchin suddenly realized so does he.

  3. different_name

    If Senator Houseboat and his quirky sidekick both actually sign on to a meaningful set of bills, I may have to reevaluate a few things. Starting thinking of a way to verify I didn't become the protagonist in a Quantum Leap episode.

  4. ProgressOne

    Don't forget there is a good chance of passing a long-overdue rewrite of the Electoral Count Act of 1887. For American democracy, this may matter more than anything else.

    Nine Republican senators have signed onto the bill, which would be just one vote short of a filibuster-proof majority, assuming that all the Democrats go along.

    1. xi-willikers

      Hmm he hasn’t lied yet, I’d say I believe him. I’m more worried about Sinema pulling a “John McCain” type move with the thumbs down. She’s a dumbass

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        & you love that about her.

        How much did you donate to her 2011 joint victory pac with Tulsi Gabbard, from back when both were ratfucking the Democrat Party from the House?

  6. Art Eclectic

    Stuff has to get done now, clock is ticking down before it all turns to s**t again. A lot of people have suddenly realized that SCOTUS has every intention of turning everything back to the states that's not explicitly spelled out as Federal in the Constitution.

    People are going to have to vote with their feet when this is all done. We will no longer be the "united" States of America, just the States of America. Really, we've moved into Cold War territory. Extremist Republicans are just itching for someone to fire the first shot.

        1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

          The first fusillade of the 2nd US Civil War will be Doubleday Press releasing the Pee Tape.

  8. jte21

    Well I'll be damned about Manchin suddenly willing to agree to something, unless he's just yanking everyone's chain again. I'd be surprised if the SSM bill overcomes a Senate filibuster, though. The GOP is too far gone at this point to let that happen. Will make for some savage campaign ads this fall, though.

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      Yep. Getting the bill passed means either somehow convincing every single MAGA wingnut in the Senate to refrain from to unanimous consent, or getting ten Republicans to vote for cloture. I'm sure there's a right wing pressure group or two that will be scoring the bill, just like the NRA does with gun votes. My reading of the tea leaves is that it's not doomed to failure, but is an uphill fight, and odds favor no passage.

  10. Jasper_in_Boston

    Joe Manchin has finally reached an agreement for a bill

    Where have I heard that before? lol.

    The Fed raised short-term interest rates another three-quarters of a point today. Idiots.

    Good. The soft landing (or, yes, recession, if that's the way this plays out) needs to arrive as soon as possible; which is another way of saying as far as possible from the summer of 2024, when the electorate's perceptions about the direction of the economy have largely been cemented.

  11. lawnorder

    The federal rate increase is not a big deal. Even with the extra three-quarters of a percent, rates are still low by historical standards and are well below the rate of inflation. As long as interest rates are less than the rate of inflation, banks are effectively paying you to borrow money.

  12. Altoid

    The same-sex marriage bill in the House was a fluke that caught gop leadership by surprise-- they made it a free vote and didn't expect anything like 47 to favor it, an unintentional thaw that can't be allowed again on such a core issue as the culture war. So the contraceptives vote was whipped and got only 8 House republicans. It isn't clear yet what'll happen in the Senate, with 9 already on board publicly on marriage, and the rest of the Dobbs- and Thomas-prophylactic suite is still in the air.

    I'd count as a "result" just the fact that Dems are now forcing these culture-war votes, whether they ultimately carry or not. Maneuvering the enemy on silliness they've created for themselves is always smart politics.

    It really looks like all Manchin wanted was to be able to label whatever he signed onto as "anti-inflationary" and what do you know, it's in the title. His office released something on his own letterhead touting his agreement, for what that's worth-- which I'd guess is about 95% yes (hoping he doesn't have dyspepsia before the votes). Like everybody else here though I'm wary about Sinema. She's been unusually quiet even for her and that's worrying. But we can hope.

    McConnell seems to have decided for now that he doesn't want the Senate to be only and always and forever the place good proposals go to die. Plus, the ECA fixes will help him shorten the leash on the coup enablers in his midst when they're out of his sight. Still I wonder how much of that chip-fab money will end up in Kentucky.

    1. JonF311

      SSM is no longer a core issue in the culture war. Most people, even most Republicans have accepted it as no big deal-- it breaks no one's bones, picks no one's pocket and most importantly doesn't raise taxes. With the GOP finding itself berated even by some of its own voters (and donors) for the post-Dobbs lunacy GOP state legislatures are churning out the Respect For Marriage act is a useful bone to throw out to the non-reactionaries who like to vote Republican but can only stomach so much from the SoCon fringe.

      1. Altoid

        Maybe. Then again, the congresscritter just north of here voted a proud and hearty no on the SSM bill, then three days later was at his son's wedding to, you guessed it, a man. This has not hurt the representative at all in his (rural) district, afaik, but a yes vote surely would have. Sometimes it's just all about the hypocrisy.

  14. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    Off-topic, though more does seem to be coming from both the House Torquemadas on Neoliberal Nancy's Showtrial & Sore Supremes Loser Merrick Garland's feckless Injustice Department, & I want to ask: did anyone overlay Black Eyed Peas -- Let's Get it Started to the Josh Hawley Flouncing Video?

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