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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho wants to write a big check without knowing what you are buying?
I assume polling for that would be in the single digits
What vendor would advertise an expensive product without simultaneously pointing out to potential buyers that, after the manufacturer's rebate, the cost to them would essentially be zero? None who want to stay in business.
But for all practical purposes that is what a handful of so called moderate Democrats have done with President Biden's Build Back Better program. They are hyping a 3.5 trillion dollar price tag without extolling the benefits of the product. They are letting a false impression take root that a 3.5 trillion dollar payment comes due immediately without stressing how the costs will be spread out over ten years. And then they neglect to emphasize that the tab for dozens of social programs that lift tens of millions out of poverty, while easing life's burdens for scores of millions of middle class and working class Americans, will predominantly be picked up by the "folks in the mansions on the hills."
Those erecting roadblocks to President Biden's full agenda are not representing a "moderate agenda". They are defending a "special interests" agenda that benefit the few at the expense of the many. In the House there are perhaps a dozen Democrats in this category, but the Progressive Caucus in the House represents less than half of the Democrats in that Chamber. The vast majority of "moderate" Democrats support Joe Biden's full Build Back Better agenda. Those who are fighting it do not deserve to claim the "moderate" label for their own.
Bayard
(22,063 posts)And well said.
Midnight Writer
(21,753 posts)They allow the Republicans to frame the issues every single time.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,912 posts)When President Biden speaks on this he has been good as well, but perhaps not always as forceful as he could be. Maybe that's because he is engaged in backroom talks with holdout Democrats and doesn't want to be seen as the point man in public for holding them to account. If so, I'm not sure that is the wisest strategy, but even so other leading Democrats can do more to get the messaging right on this. Overall the framing has been horrible.