Because that Democratic “control” was razor thin and included people like Manchin/Sinema. We need an actual majority to pass anything without their cooperation. Even if Biden wanted 50s era tax levels on the top tax brackets (90%+), he simply doesn’t have the votes in Congress. Last time they had anything resembling a workable majority was during the Obama administration, when they passed the ACA over several months. Even then they had to water it down because of Joe Lieberman. One more vote would’ve resulted in a public option. Luckily tax policy can be done in reconciliation so a simple majority works in the Senate. Or we can elect a few more Senators willing to nuke the fillibuster, it’s pretty close now.
Point is, it’s not just on Biden (or any POTUS). Congress (and internal Democratic party politics) are fucked. Yeah he could be doing more to get party members in line with his agenda, but they’re pretty insulated at this point. We need to capture more seats in the general while ideally primarying every moderate member of the Democratic party we can. We have to be able to cancel our the 2-3 fuckers waiting to block shit, on top of the entire other party of y’all qaeda who blocks any attempt at progress.
Disclaimer: POTUS is now king supposedly so most of what I said could be accomplished with some strategic deportations of congressmembers and judges under official act by the border patrol or some shit.
Not having the votes isn’t a convenient excuse, it’s reality. I literally just gave you major legislation passed by the Democrats the last time they had control of Congress and POTUS. You’re not asking for effort, you’re asking for them to pass stuff and that requires more votes.
There are plenty of great progressive policy proposals that are supported by large swaths of the Democratic Party. Healthcare, ubi, abortion rights, immigration reform, etc. If they had to votes to pass shit and didn’t, you’d have a solid point. But they don’t, and there’s plenty of evidence that if they had the votes they would pass more legislation. Can you point to a time in the last 50 years when the Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in congress w control of POTUS, and didn’t pass any major legislation?
I don’t take issue with your assertion that they don’t have the votes based on the way they play the game but I don’t agree that Manchin / Sinema / Lieberman are sufficient explanations for their lack of effort. There’s always a convenient scapegoat for failing to do what they promised but at some point they have to own that failure instead of blaming it on a couple people.
Also, the ACA is not a major piece of legislation to anyone outside of Congress. It’s a minor improvement over the completely unchecked shit show we had before but it is fundamentally no different than what we have always had. You’re framing it like they were so close to offering a public option but my recollection of those events is that they cut that from the proposal almost immediately and with little to no negotiation. That’s not fighting it’s letting your opponent dictate terms. Same goes with any number of other strategies and pieces of legislation from the same period or Bidens first 2 years. Dems could have gotten rid of the filibuster and actually fought for progress but they decided not to. That was party leadership’s decision, not Joe Manchin. People don’t give a shit what Dems say they support because they won’t even force a vote on most of it, much less actually implement it.
Because that Democratic “control” was razor thin and included people like Manchin/Sinema. We need an actual majority to pass anything without their cooperation. Even if Biden wanted 50s era tax levels on the top tax brackets (90%+), he simply doesn’t have the votes in Congress. Last time they had anything resembling a workable majority was during the Obama administration, when they passed the ACA over several months. Even then they had to water it down because of Joe Lieberman. One more vote would’ve resulted in a public option. Luckily tax policy can be done in reconciliation so a simple majority works in the Senate. Or we can elect a few more Senators willing to nuke the fillibuster, it’s pretty close now.
Point is, it’s not just on Biden (or any POTUS). Congress (and internal Democratic party politics) are fucked. Yeah he could be doing more to get party members in line with his agenda, but they’re pretty insulated at this point. We need to capture more seats in the general while ideally primarying every moderate member of the Democratic party we can. We have to be able to cancel our the 2-3 fuckers waiting to block shit, on top of the entire other party of y’all qaeda who blocks any attempt at progress.
Disclaimer: POTUS is now king supposedly so most of what I said could be accomplished with some strategic deportations of congressmembers and judges under official act by the border patrol or some shit.
Convenient excuses. This has been the reasoning used to justify Dems doing nothing for decades. Show me the effort or don’t talk about desire.
Not having the votes isn’t a convenient excuse, it’s reality. I literally just gave you major legislation passed by the Democrats the last time they had control of Congress and POTUS. You’re not asking for effort, you’re asking for them to pass stuff and that requires more votes.
There are plenty of great progressive policy proposals that are supported by large swaths of the Democratic Party. Healthcare, ubi, abortion rights, immigration reform, etc. If they had to votes to pass shit and didn’t, you’d have a solid point. But they don’t, and there’s plenty of evidence that if they had the votes they would pass more legislation. Can you point to a time in the last 50 years when the Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in congress w control of POTUS, and didn’t pass any major legislation?
I don’t take issue with your assertion that they don’t have the votes based on the way they play the game but I don’t agree that Manchin / Sinema / Lieberman are sufficient explanations for their lack of effort. There’s always a convenient scapegoat for failing to do what they promised but at some point they have to own that failure instead of blaming it on a couple people.
Also, the ACA is not a major piece of legislation to anyone outside of Congress. It’s a minor improvement over the completely unchecked shit show we had before but it is fundamentally no different than what we have always had. You’re framing it like they were so close to offering a public option but my recollection of those events is that they cut that from the proposal almost immediately and with little to no negotiation. That’s not fighting it’s letting your opponent dictate terms. Same goes with any number of other strategies and pieces of legislation from the same period or Bidens first 2 years. Dems could have gotten rid of the filibuster and actually fought for progress but they decided not to. That was party leadership’s decision, not Joe Manchin. People don’t give a shit what Dems say they support because they won’t even force a vote on most of it, much less actually implement it.