(Complex? This is an account fo what is in the smaller of the Infrastructure bills under discussion on the Hill today. You should see what is in the other one, but we don’t have a pie that large).

We are in another crisis, which is no surprise. That seems to be the way things work in our “representative democracy” these days. We used to call it “crisis management,” but the second part of that simple phrase doesn’t seem to be working very well. To deal with the confusion, the U.S. House of Representatives will actually work today, a Saturday, to see if they can move forward on the “Build Back Better” agenda. It could be a fun day.

A center point of the discussion involving hundreds of votes on the Hill Friday was the goal of wiggling through the budget process. As best we understand it, that means appropriating the equivalent of a couple annual budgets of the entire U.S. government to pass the two-part Infrastructure component of the ambitious Administration social agenda. As you may have heard, this is the one that would expand the “social safety net” and build a “better, more equitable America society.”

Or something. The crowd at the Writer’s Section is irritable this morning. It is Saturday, so Belmont Farms is open to provide liquid libation if someone’s credit card can be found that hasn’t exceeded current limits. Despite the crisis, the distillery is closed tomorrow in honor of Sunday’s religious observances. What we understand this morning is that the legislation under consideration would include the items contained in the pie-chart above. But that is the smaller of the two measures under consideration.

The other, larger plan would cost $3.5 trillion over 10 years and expand programs devoted to either changing or not-changing the climate, fixing the education problem by giving us more of it and showering expanded health care on people who never paid a cent into it. To ensure fairness, taxes will be raised on corporations and Americans making more than $400,000 a year.

That is wrong, of course, since anyone who needs gas for their car or tuna-noodle casserole for dinner is already paying more. But it is a just summation of the many programs contained in the mountainous morass of the legislation. Some of these at least sound good- who could oppose such a mountain of goodness? Better Medicaid benefits would expand to include dental, vision and hearing coverage. Free Community College and universal pre-Kindergarden care would be provided to those who could use it, paid for by those who already figured out how to do it themselves. And in a tribute to the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps, we will establish a Civilian Climate Corps to attack the weather. That hasn’t worked out that well for many of us, regardless of how loudly we yell at the clouds, but who knows?

The plan also contains provisions tied to immigration and labor. Huge changes, but though covered in the law, the provisions have not been explained. Nor is raising the debt ceiling, or whatever they are going to do to avoid shutting down the government. All of this sets up another showdown between the two parties. All next week. It is surprising we are as relaxed as we are.

The Writer’s Section is a little skeptical about all the goodness and how the badness to pay for the goodness is supposed to happen. That is why some of the circle is interested in what is actually in the vast bill. There is a new and querulous voice on the periphery. Splash is choosing to spend more time at the Fire Pit, mostly because there is no one to contribute to his occasional need to bum a smoke, or borrow a breakfast out there by the fence line. He claims there is more behind the Goodness Stuff, which properly should be termed “Goodness Enabling” provisions. Some of it is actually a little disconcerting.

The President was medicated properly enough on Friday to give a moderately coherent speech of what he thinks is in the bill. He says it will cost nothing extra, and things like universal child care is actually a “tax cut.” None of us were able to follow that one. And much of the Green Stuff, which is replete with Goodness, doesn’t include the inflationary pinch that directly affects anyone who still relies on fossil fuels to get around. Or uses something called “food.” So, there is all that stuff in the mix.

We took a sample poll of the matter to calibrate our response. First, we are proud that we all support Goodness stuff and oppose Badness. But we don’t talk about the details about what is in these bills anymore. Do we need another 89,000 IRS personnel to look at any expenditure in our personal bank accounts that is over $600 a year?

For example, Chairman Socotra has a cleaning crew who sweeps through the Headquarters complex on a monthly basis. They don’t do a meticulous job, mostly just clearing out accumulated debris. But the crew normally gets a hundred bucks per visit. We don’t know if the Chairman’s people monitor the cleaning crew for immigration status, vaccination preference or OSHA Emergency Temporary Rule compliance. We do know that a simple payment of a hundred a month to the cleaning crew could be used as justification to impose more detailed analysis and arbitrary fines to Socotra House. That would certainly contribute to lower unemployment for tax lawyers, right?

Naturally, there is more. We were all military in our time, and naturally have some opinions about how the systems devoted to Defense worked. But one provision, apparently contained in the separate National Defense Authorization Act, is said to require young women to register for the Draft. You can imagine the discussion about that matter might go on for a few minutes, but instead, it is just another thing embedded in a law no one has actually read except those who drafted the language.

Both of the bills about infrastructure contain stuff like that- things worthy of discussion before becoming law. Instead, like the Budget ceiling, they have become something else. Talk on this Saturday work-day is that House Democrats will honor their commitment to moderate members and vote Monday on the smaller- $1.2 trillion- bipartisan infrastructure bill. Others have been lining up by the (almost) dozen to oppose it. Their opposition is not to protest the policy, but because they want to vote first on the larger, $3.5 trillion social spending package.

That is the headache this weekend. Negotiations about the size of the social legislation is bouncing between the House, Senate and White House. They have been busy negotiating the details of the larger “family” package. It is controversial enough just on the amount of Goodness stuff contained in it. Accordingly, the biggest single bill ever advanced as a package in Congress is going to go through a process called “reconciliation,” which avoids the traditional Senate mechanism known as “the filibuster,” a means by which 60 Senators have to agree to vote for it.

Thus, the leviathan of legislation would be passed on a simple majority vote, with the margin provided by the participation of the Vice President. We have all been to the old Civics part of high school education, but that is no longer what we remember. Nor, apparently, does anyone else. So, we have resolved to ensure we stop by Belmont Farms and ensure we can get through Sunday, and be ready for Monday.

Given the outstanding divisions between House liberals and Senate centrists on the larger bill, it’s unclear if the negotiations this weekend will produce enough progress in time to meet the ambitious schedule that is supposed to get everything clear by the end of the fiscal year Thursday night.

That includes the demands for expanding the safety net programs, tackling climate change and overhauling the immigration system. All three of those issues would be worth some serious discussion and compromise. But that is not likely. Instead, like the Continuing Resolution that simply says “whatever we did in last year’s budget is fine again.” Which of course we know it is not.

A previously unknown figure known by her title as Senate Parliamentarian had the gall to state that an immigration reform program has no place in “reconciliation,” which is intended only to work out some minor details in money bills between House and Senate, not reform the way the government works.

The Constitution has a process for that which has been utilized a few dozen times. Unfortunately, that requires actually discussing what is about to be changed, and hence is unacceptable. That is why our Congress is working today. The House Budget Committee will gather to mark up the huge reconciliation bill. As a procedural matter, it will then move to the Rules Committee on Monday. That will involve more changes before it is sent to the House floor, where Speaker Pelosi has a three-vote margin to make it pass.

The Writer’s Section anticipates an interesting week. Based on the complexity of the process and the narrow margin for success, we will likely see some sort of temporary fix- like, the Government will keep operating until December and the total amount of money to be spent will be reduced.

What will be reduced, and when a shut down might loom- beyond this coming Thursday- are just two of the exciting prospects that might be revealed. They didn’t teach any of this in the Civics classes we took, so it will be a learning experience for all of us.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com