Sanders says the White House's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better framework is 'by far the most signif

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

significant piece of legislation ever passed in the world' to tackle the climate crisis

Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a champion of the Build Back Better social spending bill, endorsed a new White House proposal released Thursday that would shrink the bill from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion and leaves out many progressive priorities.

"Amidst all of the dickering and the concerns, let us understand: this is by far the most significant piece of legislation ever passed in the world, I think, to deal with climate," Sanders told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

While expressing disappointment that many of his priorities had been dropped from the bill, Sanders sounded an overall positive note, saying that the kinds of provisions contained in the bill hadn't been passed by Congress since the 1960s.

"It goes a very long way to protecting the needs of working people, the elderly, children, the sick, and the poor," he said. "And obviously, it does far, far more than ever before in terms of dealing with climate."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sanders-says-white-houses-1-165426577.html

But but but Bernie's being a sellout.

[msongs]

1. gee bernie u coulda adopted this stance months ago and we'd have a passed bill already nt

[Mister Ed]

3. I'm not so sure.

I think he and other legislators had to fight like hell to drag the other side to this middle ground. I don't think they would have just trotted up to the middle ground all of their own accord.

[qazplm135]

4. How so?

Sinema and Manchin weren't agreeing to much of anything months ago.

[msongs]

5. $6 tril was an absurd ask IMO nt

[Arazi]

6. That $6 trillion was Biden's initial proposal

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/business/economy/biden-plan.html

But please do carry on with today's daily Bernie hate-fest.

[ColinC]

12. +1

Thank you. Bernie has been one of Biden's #1 allies in the Senate.

[ShazzieB]

13. Yes, Bernie's been great.

I haven't always been a huge Bernie fan,, but I am at this point in time. I've been really impressed with how he's been working with Joe and supporting his agenda, and if Bernie says this is still a damned good bill, I believe him.

As for starting with something smaller that would have never worked. No matter what Joe and
the Dems in Congress started with, the end result would have been less. I suspect that's at least partly why Joe started so high. He knew it was going to get dragged down, so he allowed for some bargaining room.

[qazplm135]

23. So was Manchin's initial stance

Which one moved more significantly off their initial stance and which one didn't?

[ColinC]

11. He has been the staunchest advocate for the President's proposals from day 1.

[Autumn]

20. Guess what? This has been his stance for months now. Since Biden first laid out his agenda.

But you keep doing you.

[lagomorph777]

22. Bernie was never the problem. The problem is our "moderate" right-wing caucus (SineManchin).

[BlueTsunami2018]

2. Politics is the art of the possible.

This is all that might be possible. Who knows if the terrible twosome will go along with this?

[Metaphorical]

7. I feel this

I'd far rather count legislative victories, even if scaled back, than legislative defeats because of overreach.

We have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, and even in the House the Dems aren't invulnerable. I think a lot of more ideological Democrats keep expecting 40 yard passes rather than fighting the ground game, but I think Biden's well aware that every victory is going to be a slog. We as Democrats need to focus on GOTV for 2022 so that we can get past the small incremental wins, but those small incremental wins DO add up over time.

It's also worth keeping perspective. Obama's stimulus package in 2008 was only for $800 billion, and it went through a congress that was much more firmly in the hands of the Democrats at the time.

[Hortensis]

8. I'm glad he's proud of it. We're all disappointed about what was cut

and we still have to work toward, of course.

Who'd have thought, though, that progressive advances could be achieved by working within the Democratic establishment's center of great power?

[betsuni]

15. Yes. Good for Bernie!

Incrementalism isn't evil! The Democratic Party aren't out-of-touch corrupt establishment elites! Democrats want progressive policies! It's great that he's proud of his work.

[wellst0nev0ter]

9. "But but but Bernie's being a sellout"

Bernie has been the biggest adult in the room throughout this whole mess.

[Tribetime]

10. It would be nice if we didn't need a st. Jude's Hospital

Since so many young children are at the mercy of insurance companies denying their operations and care hopefully this bill will help

[demosurvivor]

14. There are many

that claim that Sanders is an independent and will never be a democrat. Yet he strongly supports the progressive part of the democratic party.

Every policy he supports is "for the people". I happen to support that viewpoint. The things they had to drop to get this thru was horrendous. And unlike Manchin and Sinema, the progressive part of the party were apparently willing to give up some of their policies. Medicare expansion? Free college tuition? Those are some big losses. People going bankrupt over medical bills is wrong. Not educating our population will come back and bite us in the ass down the road.

And then all along, I thought the constitution was built around "We the people"? Somehow, over the decades, this has become more about the corporations, and lobbyists, and not so much the people. Eventually the party will get back to the constitutional basics and I hope it happens sooner, than later.

Bottom line. Everyone knows we have to do something to move forward. They will pass something, but it wont be as nearly robust as it should be. It's a start and I'm OK with that.

[Arazi]

16. After these bills are passed next step is to work to build a bigger Dem majority

Then we move on the items that got cut

[Hortensis]

21. The votes of way over 200M citizens decide who gets power,

what they are supposed to do with it, and who gets to keep it. Seeing the citizenry as helpless victims of evil controlling powers is extremely unrealistic.

What's been cut out of the Democratic Party's current to-do list makes me sick and sad to think about.

But, the conservative majorities of red WV and red AZ were in special position this time to make their wishes felt, and conservatives normally want less spending on social programs. Even when they want the social programs, they always want to go smaller and more cautious than us. And that's what's happening. Bernie certainly knows that. And so does Manchin, who may have other, less respectable influences but whose actions are in line with what polls say his majority wants.

Of course "the corporations" do direct a lot of MSM coverage. But even without their manipulations and deceits, and even in less crazy times, the mere fact that Democrats support something is always at very least big caution flag to the conservative half of our nation.

Btw, I heard last night that conservative Manchin was pretty much okay with the initial plans for funding via the now missing "billionaires' tax," etc. Sinema was their protector, at least the one out front.

[marmar]

17. For all the grief that Bernie takes around here.....

..... is there anyone who has done more to get this passed, save for Biden himself?

[demosurvivor]

19. I can't name one person,,,,,

And if I do, it's one of the progressive democrats.

[MineralMan]

18. Thanks, Senator Sanders.

We needed that!