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American politics
- Thread starter Danishfurniturelover
- Start date
Robbo
Paul Walsh
They kept him standing until the election. Now we're just waiting for Kamala.
That would be the best solution all round and should have been the result of the election.
Rorschach
Sonny Walters
I think Biden has been quite brilliant so far. I doubt he'll make a 2nd term for age and health reasons but he's already been talked about in the same breath as FDR. A little premature for those comparisons maybe but if they nix or reform the filibuster, which amazingly is being openly discussed, then the policy floodgates will open. One can hope.
Danishfurniturelover
the prettiest spice girl
I was firmly a Sanders man a real good guy I thought.
Nice guy, economic depart.
Incredible what can happen when you appoint reasonably competent people (instead of your friends, family and biggest campaign donors) and let them get on with doing their job and not just act like a spoilt, attention seeking man baby.
johnola
Jermaine Jenas
New to me, what do those words mean?
Rorschach
Sonny Walters
It is a senate rule that can effectively block most of Biden's legislative agenda unless he manages to persuade at least 10 Republicans to vote with him, which won't happen. You need a 60/40 majority for most things. There are some exceptions, judges and budget stuff in particular to which a 50+ majoity is enough, but all the other stuff can be blocked.
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From wiki: Senate rules permit a senator or senators to speak for as long as they wish and on any topic they choose, unless "three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn"[67] (usually 60 out of 100 senators) vote to bring debate to a close by invoking cloture under Senate Rule XXII.
Basically you can delay the vote for as long as you want or until the rest have had enough. There was a time when you needed a lot more votes than 60 to end it. I can see some uses for this, but mostly you're just being a clam.
johnola
Jermaine Jenas
Oh right. Well their democracy has worked reasonably well over a middling length of time so I guess this has its purpose.
Their democracy seems to gotten progressively worse the more it's been used, which probably comes from their terrible two party system and the increasing polarization. It's now more important to beat the other side than to make deals and compromises that benefit the average american.
The purpose of it is to avoid the senate flip-flopping every time a small number of senators change. It also means that significant changes require a significant majority.
It's not a bad rule when people are sticking to conventions, but US politics has become so tribal that (for both sides) beating the other side is now more important than representing their electorate.
Edit: Just saw @Jordinho beat to a very similar comment.
Bullet
Andy Thompson
Voyeur cam?
I think just not being Trump has clouded things - I think he's done what I'd expect any competent leader to do but not a lot more. In particular he de-classified the Saudi report but then bottled taking action against Salman and if he believed in the $15 minimum wage he could have put it in the bill anyway (or at least something that would get them there in a couple of years) - as I read it was just advice but it still should have been put in the bill. I've not seen much bi-partisanship working either that he promised to do but it's still early days.
Danishfurniturelover
the prettiest spice girl
Bloody hell who is talking about him being like FDR and what has he actually done?
Trump was and is crap but let's not over play Biden just because he is not Trump.
Rorschach
Sonny Walters
Yes, there is an element of 'thank GHod it's not Trump' but it goes way beyond that IMO. A lot of the commentators that I keep a keen eye on and trust their opinions, and who are largely progressives I might add, have all come about-face on their opinion of him already. These would previously have Biden nowhere near their preferred choice of candidate to run against Trump or as president and are now to a person all saying they were 100% wrong in their assessment of him. As was I to be fair. Biden is still seen as a nice safe centrist and but is enacting the most progressive set of policies in US history.
The $15 min wage would have scuppered the whole covid bill. Manchin (and some others) were not budging on this and with a 50/50 senate, they needed everyone on board. Even without that measure, the bill is regarded as truly historic in scope. It has broad public support (70%+ approve of it) so the min wage was a casualty to make it happen. It will be back I would think at some later point.
As for bipartisanship, no Republican voted for this bill even though their base will still receive the lion's share of the benefits. In fact, there were some GOP amendments added to the bill and the same assholes still voted against it. They honestly couldn't care less about the well-being of their own constituents. They are only interested in feeding their base culture war nonsense to keep them riled.
The Biden admin has learned the lessons of past admins in that there is no benefit at all in achieving bipartisanship as a goal in itself. It gets you absolutely nothing except worse outcomes and dropping poll numbers in the next elections. The GOP has been operating in bad faith calling for this, as they always do, so Biden has rightly cut them out of the picture and will live or die by the results of his policies.