Biden Blows Build Back Better

To Be Honest, It Never Had a Chance

It appears that the the signature, terms-changing piece of legislation that the Biden Administration wished to pass is pretty much dead. Joe Manchin repeated what he’s been saying all along, that the Build Back Better Act was too expensive, but at a time of rising inflation, was also unwise. He never said he was a yes, he indicated a dollar figure that they had to stay under (including accounting tricks), and they never met his terms. Keep in mind that those terms were shared by fifty other members of the Senate, which last time I checked, makes for a majority in that body. This blabbering on the left of “one man holding things up” is silly. He was joined by fifty.

There was about fifteen minutes in the early part of the Biden Administration where it looked like they were going to get some important things done and build some momentum. They passed a big COVID relief bill, after a couple of big COVID relief bills late in the Trump Administration, and then they started talking about an infrastructure bill. Keen readers will remember the great deal of emphasis put on infrastructure in the previous administration, and they ultimately put together (with a good deal of Joe Manchin’s influence) a considerable infrastructure bill that gained 19 GOP votes in the Senate. With a slim majority in the House, they seemingly could get another big win on the board.

But then they overplayed their hand, the most predictable thing American political parties do. They made passage of the infrastructure bill contingent on votes on the giant (without accounting tricks, somewhere between $4-$5 billion) Building Back Better Act, and all of a sudden, a good (or at least not terrible) piece of bipartisan legislation was being held hostage by the most progressive elements of the Democratic Party. They held it hostage through the summer and the fall, eventually agreeing to vote on the infrastructure bill in order to get a promised vote on the BBBA. The infrastructure bill—the non-looney-tunes bill—passed and is now law.

Then the House voted on the BBBA, and lots and lots of arm-twisting of moderate Democrats led to a number of them voting for a massive spending bill that they will hear about in their 2022 races. The House passed the bill, knowing full well what Senator Manchin had been saying all along. Speaker Pelosi forced her members to walk the plank, and they did. This was all so predictable.

There has been some grousing on the left, and some ridiculous talk of Manchin having played dirty, telling the White House he’d vote for X and then saying he wasn’t going to vote for the bill. The problem is that the bill wasn’t X. It was X + $3.3 billion. Joe held his ground, and the country is better off for it.

Let’s Talk About Hallmark Christmas Movies

I’ve mentioned my great love of Hallmark Christmas movies here before, but it was at the very beginning of this year’s cornucopia of wonderfulness, before the forces of evil have had a chance to reprise their annual assault on all that is good and wholesome in America.

What is the most often lodged charge against America’s favorite entertainment? Well, that they are formulaic.

No shit. That’s why we watch them. We know that there are going to be a couple of young lovers (no Hallmark, I don’t like when you try for love among the older demo…keep it under 40) who have to overcome some kind of adversity to find romance. We know that there will be a disproportionate emphasis on small towns, snow angels, hot chocolate, gingerbread houses, Christmas tree lightings, town dances, mistletoe awkwardness, Christmas pageants, Christmas parades, career compromise, Christmas tree lots, old pick-up trucks, snowball fights, and family farms.

Don’t you get it, haters? We know all this. What YOU criticize as formulaic, WE lap up as delivering the mail. We are there for the schmaltz. We are there for the obviousness of it all. We are there, day in and day out, for the predictability of love, and the ubiquity of the happy ending. So much of this world is utter sewage, the chance to spend two hours (and yes, that’s another wonderful thing—they spectacularly rigid timing and schedule that Hallmark maintains) having one’s spirits lifted should not be lightly passed up.

But no, you go ahead and make fun of us, look down your noses at us, shake your heads and roll your eyes. We are above your curmudgeonly carping.

Merry Christmas

Rarely in the history of coupling has a man with a child-like love of Christmas stumbled into union with a woman whose seasonal decorating talents exceed even his wildest dreams. My gratitude is boundless. Merry Christmas to everyone, but most of all to my beloved Catherine, who occasionally reads my stuff.