Well, as taxpayers, we can be proud that the United States Senate was hard at work last night, finally clearing their busy calendar a couple minutes before 0500 this morning. I don’t know how they do it. I am not sure that our elected members actually stayed awake and in session for the whole night, or if there is some Senior Body procedure to allow naps or showers and grooming to explain whatever happened before their names were read as being present. Whatever it is, it was great.
I was doing the weekly summary, and realized with a start that the massive bills allegedly about “Infrastructure” had been passed. I used to follow this stuff loosely as a condition of employment, but I could not find the Defense Bill- what they call the National Defense Authorization. Imagine losing track of a line-item worth $753 Billion dollars! Is this a great system, or what?
Anyway, we are well on our way to a fundamental change in what our Government does for everyone who happens to be on this side of the Rio Grande. I won’t drag things down by differentiating citizens from non-citizens. We have non-citizens put up in hotels at taxpayer expense and citizens living in tents on the street. Also at taxpayer expense, in terms of some sort of services, or at least washing needles and excrement off the sidewalks where they live.
The matter came up at the pre-meeting. With everything so polarized, it is difficult to differentiate anything from politics. Loma stayed up to try to follow what was happening, and he gave a non-partisan account of what went on. There was some debate about the mini-omnibus bill that included funding for 7 of the 12 regular order funding bills. Defense was part of another package, but only a trillion dollars, so no one seemed to pay much attention.
The House is already on recess. In the Senate, the main play was about the two Infrastructure bills. The first one, the “bipartisan” one worth $1.2 Trillion, was supported by 17 GOP Senators. It generally sounded like they would fix some stuff that needs fixing. Roads, Bridges, Ports (air and sea) and new stuff, like Broadband service to people out in the country. The story of it is complex, since it includes ladling some unspent cash from last year’s emergency that we couldn’t find anything to spend on. But a little more than half is “new spending.”
The Writer’s Section doesn’t pay as much in taxes as it used to, but there was still some interest in how this was all going to be paid for, since the usual process of funding the Government apparently happened while we weren’t looking. That enabled us to concentrate on the Emerging Emergencies. This first one is not as much of an emergency as the second one, but they managed to layer enough stuff in it that seemed sort of reasonable that it would get past any attempt to use the Filibuster to stop it.
What Loma explained was the surprising part. He said the Infrastructure #2 Bill- the other one that costs $3.5 Trillion bucks, or the equivalent of the entire Federal Budget- was slipped in with a procedural vote that will enable the House to kick it back in a way not subject to delay by Filibuster. That means a straight party line vote- 50-50- could enable Vice President Harris to cast a deciding vote in favor of really important emergency stuff. Here are the answers to the crisis we apparently don’t have the cash to pay for, nor time to discuss because of vacation plans and non-refundable airline tickets:
Universal pre-kindergarten!
Free two-year community college!
Tax incentives to fight climate change!
Expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing!
Costs partly covered with tax hikes on corps & high-earning families!
DeMille was copying the topics down in his notebook. Rocket laughed. “Senator John Kennedy, a GOP guy from Louisiana, summed it up pretty nicely. He said the Senate was like a dumpster fire with animals.” There were a mixture of nods and shaking of heads around the circle, imagining what might be frolicking around the flames.
DeMille closed his notebook with a swack. He grimaced with authority. “Considering there are a lot of people who have some questions about what emergency we are dealing with, it is all pretty impressive.”
Rocket said we ought to enjoy August. It will be humid with some thundershowers. But he smiled at the end. “There are going to be some real fireworks when all our public servants come back from Summer Emergency Vacation.”
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com