Democrats should Not Enable Them
Two weeks ago when Politico released the newest Morning Consult tracking poll, one of the things we saw was the favorability and unfavorably of congressional leaders among registered voters. Notice what makes Kevin McCarthy, who considers himself speaker-in-waiting, stand out from the others:
Mitch McConnell- never heard of him- 7%; heard of him but no opinion 14% (Total- 21%)
Nancy Pelosi- never heard of her- 3%; heard of her but no opinion 8% (Total- 11%)
Chuck Schumer- never heard of him- 12%; heard of him but no opinion 19% (Total- 31%)
Kevin McCarthy- never heard of him 18%; heard of him but no opinion 25% (Total- 43%)
Since that poll, the Liz Cheney circus ensued and I suspect a lot more people have now heard of Kevin McCarthy and probably a his 35% disapproval numbers much higher, more like McConnell's 56% disapproval or the generic "Republicans in Congress" 55% disapproval.
McCarthy has spent the last 5 months whining that President Biden ignores him-- no meetings, no returned phone calls, no responses to letters. But yesterday Biden made time (90 minutes) for congressional leaders and included McCarthy. Including him was a waste of time. He just parroted McConnell's negativity and couldn't wait for the meeting to be over so he could text his financial backers asking them to send him contributions. Why? This is what he texted: "I just met with Corrupt Joe Biden and he’s STILL planning to push his radical Socialist agenda onto the American people." There's no reason for Biden to meet with this Bakersfield ass-clown again.
The Ken Thomas and Andrew Duehren report for the Wall Street Journal was headlined precisely as you may have expected-- or should have anyway: Republicans Reject Tax Increases After Biden Infrastructure Talks... oh, just like the bankster-pawn who runs the DCCC, Sean Patrick Maloney. Thomas and Duehren reported that McConnell and McCarthy flat out told Biden that they will "oppose any effort to raise taxes to pay for an infrastructure proposal, leaving a central issue in the talks unresolved as Republicans and Democrats search for a bipartisan compromise." You thought Republicans were fiscally responsible and wanted to pay for spending? That was pre-Trump and they only taxes they'd agree to are sales taxes and VATs that shift the tax burden to the working and middle class. McConnell: "We’re not interested in reopening the 2017 tax bill. We both made that clear to the president. That’s our red line." McCarthy's contribution was the blurt out the same moronic GOP talking point they've been using for a century: "Raising taxes would be the biggest mistake you could make." McCathy and McConnell as their conferences "have called for raising unspecified fees on people who use the infrastructure... The White House and many Democrats are opposed to raising user fees, and both sides have said they don’t want to borrow money to pay for new infrastructure investments."
Afterwards Biden was interviewed for MSNBC and told Lawrence O’Donnell that he "would pursue a plan with only Democratic votes if necessary. 'I want to know what we agree on and let’s see if we can get an agreement to kick-start this, and then fight over what’s left, and see if I can get it done without Republicans if need be,' he said, according to an excerpt of the interview." He told reporters that "paying for infrastructure with user fees, as Republicans have suggested, would mean 'the burden falls on working-class folks who are having trouble.'"
Pelosi said the meeting also featured disagreements on electric vehicles--Biden has proposed $174 billion in funding to boost that industry-- and a discussion of other possible ways to pay for the package, including recovering more taxes owed. Mr. Biden has proposed directing $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service to increase enforcement efforts, which the White House estimates could help it recover $700 billion over 10 years.
“There could be enough money depending on what the final amount is,” Pelosi said. “But I would not take anything off the table and I’m not drawing any red lines.”
The Journal also noted that conservative Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party "have raised questions of their own about Biden’s tax proposals, including the proposed increase of the corporate rate to 28% from 21% and the boost in taxes on capital gains for high-income households."
Republicans also want to cut out several very popular proposals like funding for domestic manufacturing and elder care. Biden has also met with the 3 most right-wing corrupt corporate Democrats in the Senate-- Joe Manchin (D-WV), Tom Carper (D-DE) and delusional sociopath Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) "to try to get them on board... McConnell has said he hopes to unite Republicans against Biden’s agenda, which GOP leaders have characterized as a liberal wish list and argue is driving a labor shortage."
McCarthy later told reporters that "We first have to start with a definition of what is infrastructure. That’s not home health. That’s roads, bridges, highways, airports, broadband." Polling has shown that almost every aspect of Biden's plan is popular with voters and overall 70% of Americans want to see his proposal passed-- including a plurality (47%) of Republicans.
And most voters don't care how it's paid for; they just want to see it passed, although 63% would prefer Biden's tax proposals rather than the GOP's deficit financing (57%). And 57% don't care about the phony "bipartisan" game conservatives are using to slow things down. 57% say passing the plan through reconciliation is fine and just 36% (Republicans of course) oppose that.
So are you asking if congressional Republicans are just delusional and out of their minds? You probably never heard of Georgia freshman Andrew Clyde, a garden variety Republican congressman. Watch this video... and you'll never have to wonder again.
You might want to notice the difference between what Congressman Clyde had to say at the hearing today and what Mitch McConnell said about the same failed Trumpist coup attempt. It sounds like they're talking about two different events in two different places on two different days: