Here’s one of those things that drive me to distraction but I at least enjoy flagging to everyone’s attention when it’s so egregious. Mitch McConnell is now claiming Republicans have somehow been hoodwinked, double-crossed, done dirty by Democrats springing ‘linkage’ on them: Basically, that the White House and the Democratic caucus will support the bipartisan mini-infrastructure bill as long as they can put the rest of their plan in a reconciliation bill.
Then I noticed an AP reporter, apparently new to the White House beat, flagged a new AP story with this: “This is the catch for the WH on the infrastructure deal right now: Senators who were part of the bipartisan group were never told of such an explicit linking of the two packages, the two people familiar with the discussions said.”
The article itself, by Lisa Mascaro, manages to be even more credulous.
The former president hid in his bunker when country-wide protests flared up in Washington, D.C. over the police killing of George Floyd last summer.
He was mocked with a variety of entertaining “bunker boy” related nicknames (not hard to get creative with that alliteration) and ultimately decided to show his strength by violently clearing out Lafayette Square and taking a picture in front of a historic church flinging around a Bible.
Here’s another key question a lot of people are trying to figure out.
If Joe Biden gets most of his infrastructure agenda passed through combination of a mini-hard infrastructure bipartisan deal and the bulk of it through a 50 vote reconciliation bill that will be a big win on policy and politically.
So why did this deal – even if it falls apart – get to the White House press event level? Why did Mitch McConnell allow that to happen?
I’m still trying make sense of the ‘deal’ negotiated yesterday on infrastructure. But there are a few key issues I can share with you that are pretty interesting. Let me start with one about the so-called ‘payfors’.