That $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Package
It’s Not That It’s Bad; It Just Should Not Be Tied To Infrastructure Vote
We previously vilified Nancy Pelosi for giving in to the progressive Democrats’ demands to hold off on the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure plan until Congress takes up the “human infrastructure” package that they are proposing. Some Democrats say they will not vote for traditional infrastructure unless they get to roll out their $3.5 trillion reconciliation package at the same time.
The problem is that such an approach makes a mockery of the efforts to achieve a bipartisan plan. They’ve already said they plan to pass the human infrastructure plan through the reconciliation process, which means they won’t need any votes from across the aisle to push it through. The only reason for linking it to the infrastructure plan is to grandstand, making sure everyone knows that the Republicans are voting to deny help to families and the elderly.
In fact, the $3.5 trillian plan is not a bad package, although it could do with some critical review. It is an extension of the American Rescue Plan which successfully carried Americans through the economic upheavals associated with the pandemic. The new package, although expensive, counterbalances the Republican tax cuts that gave a like amount to the wealthiest Americans who certainly did not need the extra money. And before anyone claims that wealth for the wealthy trickles down to the rest of the country’s citizens, that myth has now been exposed as false.
Senator Bernie Sanders explained in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that what Democrats are asking for includes negotiating prescription drug prices that currently are higher in the United States than in any other country. They want to extend dental benefits to senior citizens receiving Medicare. They want to provide preschool education to four- and five-year-olds and cover community college education for adults. He points out that the United States — the wealthiest country in the world — is the only industrialized country that does not provide family leave to enable parents to spend time with newborns.
Not everything in the package may be necessary, and by cutting out Republicans’ opportunity to meaningfully participate in the bill’s passage, the Democrats will succeed in passing a flawed bill. Yet, given the Republicans’ history of sabotaging anything proposed by a Democrat, and the Republicans’ own tactics to cut out the Democrats’ participation in their pet bills, their decision is understandable.
Both parties have become an abomination as they focus on party power at the expense of good policies for the American people.
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