BabyBoomer50s
Capitalist
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2018
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Smart piece by Dan Henninger in today’s WSJ. It’s paywalled so I’ve pasted some snippets for your reading pleasure.
“One of Mr. Biden’s first acts as president was to meet with Democratic congressional leaders to discuss his legislative plans. He told them: “Go big.” Less than a year later, he’s gone small.
“Mr. Biden set a Fourth of July deadline to have 70% of U.S. adults vaccinated at least once against Covid-19. It failed.
“Speaker Pelosi set a Sept. 30 deadline for a vote on both the infrastructure bill and the then-$3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill. Official Washington stopped to watch this political equivalent of a total solar eclipse—and nothing happened.
“The president set a Sept. 11 deadline for U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan, then moved it to Aug. 31. Advisers on all sides told him to push back the deadline to avert catastrophe. The chaos damaged his foreign-policy standing.
“The original Build Back Better proposal had a price tag of $3.5 trillion, but more realistic assessments said the sticker shock looked greater than $5 trillion. In early October, Mr. Biden said maybe it could be $2 trillion. Now it’s looking like $1.5 trillion. On Tuesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her caucus, “This is not going to be fun.”
“Build Back Better is starting to look like a condemned building, with chunks falling off almost daily. The “free” community college entitlement is almost certainly gone. The entitlement subsidy for paid leave fell to four weeks, then got dropped completely on Wednesday. Sen. Joe Manchin said this week that expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision care should be put off until Medicare’s current finances are stabilized. What a novel thought.
“Now the Build Whatever We Can bill is sifting through Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden’s cats-and-dogs list of alternative revenue raisers
“His approval rating with independent voters, who put him in office, is over the cliff. In the 2020 election, he won independents by 9 points. His approval rating among them now is 34%.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-in...nema-11635368064?mod=hp_trending_now_opn_pos3
“One of Mr. Biden’s first acts as president was to meet with Democratic congressional leaders to discuss his legislative plans. He told them: “Go big.” Less than a year later, he’s gone small.
“Mr. Biden set a Fourth of July deadline to have 70% of U.S. adults vaccinated at least once against Covid-19. It failed.
“Speaker Pelosi set a Sept. 30 deadline for a vote on both the infrastructure bill and the then-$3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill. Official Washington stopped to watch this political equivalent of a total solar eclipse—and nothing happened.
“The president set a Sept. 11 deadline for U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan, then moved it to Aug. 31. Advisers on all sides told him to push back the deadline to avert catastrophe. The chaos damaged his foreign-policy standing.
“The original Build Back Better proposal had a price tag of $3.5 trillion, but more realistic assessments said the sticker shock looked greater than $5 trillion. In early October, Mr. Biden said maybe it could be $2 trillion. Now it’s looking like $1.5 trillion. On Tuesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her caucus, “This is not going to be fun.”
“Build Back Better is starting to look like a condemned building, with chunks falling off almost daily. The “free” community college entitlement is almost certainly gone. The entitlement subsidy for paid leave fell to four weeks, then got dropped completely on Wednesday. Sen. Joe Manchin said this week that expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision care should be put off until Medicare’s current finances are stabilized. What a novel thought.
“Now the Build Whatever We Can bill is sifting through Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden’s cats-and-dogs list of alternative revenue raisers
“His approval rating with independent voters, who put him in office, is over the cliff. In the 2020 election, he won independents by 9 points. His approval rating among them now is 34%.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-in...nema-11635368064?mod=hp_trending_now_opn_pos3
