The infrastructure bill and budget reconciliation were allowed to pass by both Republican and Democrat leadership (McConnell and pelosi as well as Biden) because it will be a series of stories that dominate the news cycle for a while as Delta variant news ramps up.

McConnell still has control of his caucus, and 19 republicans didn’t just vote for this because they were convinced by the loser moderates who came up with the infrastructure bill.

Both Republicans and democrats win here, and can avoid pressure to shut things down, extend UI, etc., and the positive press will fizzle out by the time 2022 comes around.

Edit: for the record, I think the change in CDC mask guidance was specifically rushed to overshadow negative headlines on inflation, unemployment/won’t someone think of the business owners, and Palestine.

  • duderium [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I assume they passed it because it is going to be yet another massive wealth transfer to the 1% which changes virtually nothing on the ground. These people are really not capable of thinking very far ahead.

    Honestly to me it seems ridiculous that Biden is focusing on infrastructure while half the country is either burning down or being consumed by a virus, and I can't be the only one who thinks that way.

      • duderium [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Wow, huge surprise that when you ignore the fundamental causes of the virus and just pretend that everything is perfect regardless of mountains of evidence to the contrary, shit gets real quick.