With Utterly Leftist COVID “Stimulus” Package, China Joe Calls For Bipartisanship

In Democrat World, the word bipartisanship is a word, not an action. Not a piece of legislation

In Stimulus Push, Biden Calls for Setting Partisanship Aside

As Joe Biden presses his case for Republicans to set partisanship aside and support his Covid-19 relief bill in Congress this week, the President reminded Americans of his own history working across the aisle with his visit Saturday evening to his ailing friend Bob Dole.

The friendship between Biden and Dole, the former Senate Republican leader who recently revealed that he has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, was forged over the many years that the two men served together in the Senate. Biden often speaks with nostalgia about his working relationships with GOP leaders during that less polarizing time when negotiation was the rule rather than the exception.

Having a friendship with someone on the other side of the aisle is about friendship, not about passing legislation that goes against political beliefs. Reagan and Tip O’Neill could go out and have a beer after a day of thundering at each other. Because, with politics, they used to say this was not personal. And the personal was mostly left out. There’s an old saying about politics, that it’s a dirty, nasty business with a veneer of civility. Democrats eliminated that veneer, and not only have to destroy their opponents politically, but personally.

The new President’s desire to create more consensus in Washington will clearly be on his mind as he tries to steer his $1.9 trillion stimulus package through the US House this week and prepares for the legislation’s more difficult path through the US Senate. The Senate will also take up more of his nominees this week as he looks to fill out his Cabinet. But not all of them have full Democratic support. He’ll need GOP votes, for example, to get Office of Management and Budget director nominee Neera Tanden confirmed.

Who remembers when Joe and his House and Senate Comrades never bothered talking about forging a bipartisan bill, but, rather immediately going the reconciliation route the moment they heard they won the redo elections in Georgia?

But on the pandemic, at least, he is leaning in with the limited political capital he has in a narrowly divided Congress, while taking his case for the package directly to the American people as he tries to overcome Republican opposition.

So, he’s not going to bother going the bipartisan route, but, attempt to browbeat Republicans who aren’t interested in passing his silly, chock full of leftist garbage, raising the minimum wage and killing jobs package? Which, BTW, still doesn’t have the $2,000 Joe promised. No, his promise was not for an additional $1,400 to add to the $600. It was $2,000.

In this first glimpse of Biden’s presidential salesmanship, he has not been shy about calling out Republicans who are wary of supporting his American Rescue Plan, despite its popularity — urging them to offer their ideas for potential compromise. On Friday, at a Pfizer plant in Michigan manufacturing vaccines, he made an impassioned case for the bill while pushing back on Republican critics who have said it is too big and too expensive.

“Let me ask them: What would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out?” Biden asked. “Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? Should we not invest $290 (billion) to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans who are unemployed so they can get by while they get back to work? Should we not invest $50 billion to help small businesses stay open, when tens of thousands have had to close permanently? … Should we not invest $130 (billion) to help schools across the nation open safely?”

So, calling out, not calling on. What to cut? Start with the $15 minimum wage, which is unrelated to COVID. Cut everything unrelated. Cut the school spending, it’s unnecessary, schools have plenty of money. Cut local and state money, it’s mostly unnecessary. How about cutting $91 million for outreach to student loan borrowers? $135 million for the NEA and $135 million for the National Endowment for Humanities, railroad bailout money, and so much more?

Anyhow, the article cannot mention anything bipartisan in the bill, cannot mention Joe actually working the phones and meeting in person to woo Republicans. If the GOP was smart and went on the offensive (most have already forgotten the Trump Lesson, that you have to attack and sustain that attack), they’d use Joe’s own words about what to cut and say exactly what to cut, along with saying that the $1,400 should be voted on separately and that the rest could be negotiated on.