(03-18-2021 09:54 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 09:48 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-15-2021 08:44 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(03-14-2021 02:19 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  What difference does it make whether it's 95% unrelated, or 91%, or 55%, or 20%? The maximum acceptable percentage of pork unrelated to COVID is 0%.

I agree 0 is the ideal, but that is not what the vaunted Democratic leadership wants.
I think we all agree the title is misleading, we just disagree on HOW misleading. Even more misleading than the title is what the Democrats say it is for.

What Mitch should have done with the second COVID stimulus bill, the $600 one, is to have the senate amend it by substituting wording that eliminated the pork and gave all Americans $2,000. If republican candidates in the Georgia runoffs, which were at that point the most important political events on the calendar, had been able to run on, "You can get $2,000 or you can get $600 and we can bail out the Kennedy Center (or whomever). Take your pick," then I think we would have gotten a different result, even if the democrats cheated. But Mitch is an idiot, so he totally screwed it up.

I dont think Mitch had the leeway to amend it. Remember, the ability to amend in a Senate controlled by the opposition is highly limited.
Not a fan of the turtle, but in this regard I dont think he had to the power to do that.

He still had a majority in December. I'm not sure whether he could have done it with reconciliation or not, but forcing democrats to filibuster against giving money to the people instead of special interests would have drawn the lines very clearly. Georgians, you can vote for $2,000 or you can vote for $600, your choice.

But republicans don't think that way. They don't formulate every question in terms of electoral politics. Democrats do, which is why they win more elections than they should.