A Ban On Arctic Drilling Remains In Democrats’ New Reconciliation Framework While Gas Prices Soar

Quote:House Democrats unveiled a revamped version of the “Build Back Better” plan on Thursday, watered down to a still-colossal $1.75 trillion price tag from the $3.5 trillion that failed to pass earlier last month.

The sweeping social spending bill with $550 billion allocated to climate change alone was released hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Europe for a global summit on emissions.

“It’s a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people,” Biden said at the White House before boarding a flight to Rome. “[It will] turn the climate crisis into an opportunity and put us in a path not only to compete, but win the economic competition for the 21st century against China and every other major country in the world.”

Except the Democrats’ package implements an energy policy that’s an across-the-board win for American adversaries from the Middle East to East Asia. The new bill continues to suppress domestic oil and gas production, leading Biden to beg for increased output from OPEC while depending on more solar power, placing greater reliance on panels produced by slave labor in China.

While the outlined framework published by the White House made no mention of drilling leases in the Arctic, the nearly 1,700-page text of the bill from the House Rules Committee maintains the permanent protections of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge present in the original draft.


The provision seeks to lock off between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil under the 1002 area previously opened for leasing in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as gas prices soar to seven-year highs. While the text is subject to change, the ban on Arctic drilling has been supported by the president. In August, Biden suspended leasing on the 1.6 million-acre stretch of the nearly 20 million-acre refuge when he reinstated temporary protections until the Interior Department conducted a redundant review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

During a CNN town hall last week, Biden said he had no plan for rising gas prices. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Democrat lawmakers held a six-hour hearing to demonize the oil industry.

“I don’t see anything that’s going to happen in the meantime that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices,” Biden said, going on to blame OPEC for withholding supply increases as Biden suppresses those same increases at home. “My guess is you’ll start to see prices come down as we get … into next year, 2022.”

The president’s outright ban on Arctic drilling 60 miles east of where operations have been conducted for decades in Prudhoe Bay complements a cascade of taxes and regulation embedded in the “Build Back Better” plan to the industry’s detriment. Biden’s months-long illegal suspension of new oil and gas leases combined with pressure on Wall Street to restrict investment in a capital-intensive industry has also driven the spike in prices at the pump.

Local indigenous groups within the refuge have lobbied for decades to open up their backyard for drilling, only to be stopped by D.C. Democrats who demand the flat-tundra surface of Alaska’s north slope remain a museum they would maybe one day like to visit. Opposition from a rival tribe hundreds of miles south has been exploited to cloak Arctic protections under the left’s moral imperative of social justice, even though drilling in the adjacent Prudhoe Bay has shown no harm to the region’s major wildlife such as caribou.

Biden, Pelosi, Sanders, And The Squad Are Squabbling Over A Bill They Never Promised In The First Place

Quote:Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delayed a vote on the infrastructure bill on Thursday night after the most radical lawmakers in her party threw yet another round of fits about the legislation’s contents and the related $1.75 trillion spending bill that acts as a free pass for key elements of the leftist agenda.

Despite never promising to deliver on every talking point lodged in each of the legislative packages, President Joe Biden, Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the progressive “squad” have devoted weeks to bickering over these key bills. Their attempts to pass just one piece of legislation that the administration and vulnerable Democrat members could use to boost the public’s image of them ahead of the 2022 midterms, however, has failed up to this point.

The president even delayed his European summit trip in hopes of convincing progressives to give him just one legislative victory but ended up pushing Democrat House leaders to bail on a vote.

While progressives appear more open to Biden’s begging for a $1.75 trillion reconciliation bill that would win over holdout Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, they plan to hold out on the infrastructure bill until the final “Build Back Better” plan is passed.

“The reality is that while talks around the infrastructure bill lasted months in the Senate, there has only been serious discussion around the specifics of the larger Build Back Better Act in recent weeks, thanks to the Progressive Caucus holding the line and putting both parts of the agenda back on the table,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in a statement on Thursday. “Members of our Caucus will not vote for the infrastructure bill without the Build Back Better Act. We will work immediately to finalize and pass both pieces of legislation through the House together.”

Sanders, who touted the reconciliation bill as an opportunity to move the nation even further left, seems less willing to compromise on the legislation packages unless the new round of proposals fills “major gaps” in his agenda to socialize health care.

“At the same time, he did not draw any red lines and praised the plan as ‘the most consequential bill since the 1960s,’” Politico noted in its Friday morning “Playbook.”

Cori Bush's Letter to Joe Manchin Is the Democrat Civil War Moment You've Been Waiting For

Quote:As RedState reported yesterday, Joe Manchin signaled he could scuttle the entirety of Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. While Democrats had “agreed” to most of his terms in regards to a top-line number, they did so with a variety of budget gimmicks, many of which were used during the Obamacare debacle as well. Namely, projecting the use of multiple years of tax receipts to “pay for” lesser years of various entitlement programs.

In the real world, we call that a Ponzi scheme. In Washington, it’s called business as usual, at least for the left side of the aisle on Capitol Hill. Yet, Manchin wasn’t having it this time, pledging that he will not be voting for a bill that contains such sleight-of-hand.

Naturally, that has the progressive wing apoplectic and led to Cori Bush (who I nominate for craziest Congressional member) launching a vicious attack on Manchin. Truly, it’s one of the most insane statements by a national politician I’ve ever seen.

Let’s just start at the beginning where Bush asserts that “Joe Manchin does not get to dictate the future of the country.” That’s actually correct, but not in the way Bush means it. Manchin is not dictating the future of the country. Rather, 52 duly-elected senators are. The Republican Party does still exist, and they hold 50 seats in the US Senate. Their votes count just as much as Bernie Sanders’ does. That Manchin isn’t voting party-line on Biden’s wildest dreams does not mean the system isn’t working or that a single person is controlling the country. Math is hard, but it’s not that hard.

Bush then continues by inadvertently admitting her biggest problem: She never should have made promises she can’t keep. Missouri is not New York and the United States is not California. Telling voters that she was going to give them nothing but unicorns and rainbows was dishonest. Now, she has to live with her own failure. That’s not on Joe Manchin. That’s on Cori Bush.

Then we get to the Democrat civil war moment you’ve been waiting for.

With Democrats needing Manchin on board to pass absolutely anything at this point, Bush doesn’t try to find common ground. Instead, she laughably accuses him of racism, chauvinism, and xenophobia all in one sentence. Bush then ends by demanding he bend the knee and do what she wants.

Yeah, good luck with that. Manchin knows where his bread is buttered, and it’s not by members of the “squad.” It’s by voters in West Virginia. The more these radicals attack him, the more hardened his opposition is likely to become. Yet, Bush is so intellectually vapid that she can’t even grasp the most basic rule of legislating: When you’ve got no leverage, you do not trash those who have it.

Missouri is not sending its best.

(10-29-2021 11:14 AM)bearcat65 Wrote:  

(10-29-2021 04:54 AM)scorpius Wrote:  

(10-28-2021 12:29 PM)bearcat65 Wrote:  

(10-26-2021 11:32 PM)scorpius Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 09:20 AM)Jugnaut Wrote:  Hell the Nazis were the national socialist workers party.

The party’s socialist orientation was basically a demagogic gambit designed to attract support from the working class. By 1921 Hitler had ousted the party’s other leaders and taken over.

This is similar to how today's Republican party's evangelical orientation is basically a demagogic gambit to attract support from social conservatives. But just like how Hitler and the Nazi's turned their backs on socialism (literally went to war with them), the same could easily be true with Republicans and evangelicals once they no longer have to answer to them.

And this begs the questions of what else is actually a demagogic gambit with Republicans. When lying has emerged as their first form of defense, it could be anything. We really don't know WHAT they stand for because if they get their way, all that will matter is whoever ends up being the authoritarian. Trump would be worse than Hitler as far as trying to decode what he would do if he no longer had to answer to anyone.

That's rich given the totalitarian proposals and actions of democrats. You continue to point to Trump as dictator even as Biden issues executive orders which threaten American's ability to earn a living if they don't take a vaccine. You also champion the party wanting to know when Americans make bank transactions at $600.00. Make no mistake it's democrats who champion socialism and that makes them an enemy to what this country was founded on.

See this is the lies I'm talking about. And you fall for it hook line and sinker. The bank stuff has been going on for decades. Banks have been required to report 20k+ transfers as long as I can remember, or any lesser amounts that were suspicious. Many states for decades have had a reporting limit (I believe $600) on private electronic transfers. I remember 10 years ago I had a debit card cancelled because I funneled too much cash through it. And I have perfect credit. The supervisor finally told me point blank they didn't want to hassle with the reporting requirements. That's when I read up on it. And why I just laugh at you when you act as if this is a new thing.

As far as the vaccine stuff, all I can say is "The good of the many outweigh the good of the few, or the one." Maybe you should watch more Star Trek.

Dear lord.

Bwahahahaha

The Lord cant help that looney toon

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

I sometimes wonder if he isn’t a right-winger playing the role of a left-wing parody. I don’t really believe that. And yet, if he wanted to make liberals appear to be stupid and uninformed, what would he do differently?

Pelosi's Latest Move Shows Build Back Better Is Toast as Manchin Delivers Final Blow

Quote:In the wake of the red wave that swept Republicans in and handed Democrats a disastrous message, where does that leave Joe Biden’s legislative agenda when the Democrats’ extremism has been so soundly rejected? It’s not looking good for him — more like stick a fork in it, at this point.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she would be catering to that extremism even more by her actions after the election.

Pelosi appeared to throw caution to the wind with a challenge to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) by putting paid family leave back into the what is now the $1.75 trillion (by Democratic counting) Build Back Better bill. The White House had ultimately removed that in their final “framework” after pressures from Manchin about costs.

“It had been my intention throughout this process to put on the House floor and pass a bill that would pass the Senate in the same form. Because I have been informed by a senator of opposition to a few of the priorities contained in our bill and because we must have legislation agreed to by the House and the Senate in the final version of the Build Back Better Act that we will send to the President’s desk, we must strive to find common ground in the legislation,” she wrote.

“As we are reviewing priorities and at the urging of many Members of the Caucus, I have asked the Ways and Means Committee for its legislation for Paid Family and Medical Leave to be included in this morning’s hearing.”

The provision is expected to call for four weeks of paid family leave, a senior Democratic aide confirmed to The Post.

Manchin’s response? It shouldn’t be done through reconciliation.

“That’s the first I’m hearing of it,” Manchin told reporters. “That’s a challenge. Very much of a challenge, and [top Democrats] know how I feel about that.” He said that he wasn’t against paid leave per se but said he wanted “do it in a bipartisan way.” He also said he didn’t think that the proper way to address it was through the reconciliation process. “Let’s do that in a proper [way]. We’re trying to force it through reconciliation, which has guardrails and rules and regulations. Let’s do it and do it right.”

Democratic leadership asked their members to let them know by Thursday how they intended to vote.

But it wasn’t just Manchin and folks in the upper chamber of the Senate with issues.

“There needs to be some level of understanding as to whether or not this bill as written can survive the Senate procedural process, because after all, we’re using the reconciliation process so that we can get these this proposal signed into law,” Blue Dog Coalition Chair Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) told reporters.

“The infrastructure bill is ready to go. It has been written. It has a CBO score. It was passed in a bipartisan way out of the Senate and it is ready for passage. I believe with all I just said about what has transpired with the BBB in the last 24-48 hours that it’s not quite ready yet. If we want to take action the action should be taken on the infrastructure vote because we’re ready for that vote.”

What does all this mean? I think it’s actually an indication that Pelosi has lost and she knows it. Pelosi made this move after the elections knowing that they have no real mandate to do this and that she likely knows the Build Back Better bill is not going to pass. So she’s throwing all caution to the wind and putting paid leave back in, knowing it and other provisions are going to make Manchin and others balk. But this way, she looks like she did all she could to the folks on the left that want those provisions and she can put the blame for the “failure” on Manchin and the moderates. She can go out, saying she did everything she could but the mean ones loused it up for everyone when the Republicans take over control in 2022.

House Moderates Throw Down Against Pelosi Call for Vote on Biden Bills

Quote:How many times has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) tried to shove that Build Back Better bill through for a vote at this point? She must like stacking up those failures.

Pelosi is gearing up for another try again today. She’s announced a floor vote today on the Build Back Better bill, and then the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

But once again, moderate Democrats are balking. This time, it’s the House moderates who have this funny little problem — they’d actually like people to have time to read the text of the mammoth, 2,000-plus page bill, and they’d like to know how much the extravaganza is truly going to cost — not just the spin number from the White House or Pelosi.

Wow, what a concept: actually knowing what you are voting on, not just voting on it so that you can “find out what’s in it” — the Pelosi standard we saw with Obamacare.

From Fox News:

Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Jared Golden, D-Maine, Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., and Ed Case, D-Hawaii, all signed a letter Tuesday demanding 72 hours to review the final bill text, “the proper CBO/JCT scoring information” and clearance with the Senate that the bill will not be changed once the House passes it.

There is a Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) score for the bill, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released nothing, and it’s not clear when it will. There’s been no effort to pre-conference the bill with the Senate, and it is now widely expected the upper chamber will make significant changes to it.

There were changes made to the bill yesterday, so that means the moderates are still asking for three more days to review it, until Sunday. They don’t expect a CBO score until after Thanksgiving, according to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca).

As we previously reported, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has already indicated that the House bill — as presently constructed — has a variety of non-starters and isn’t going to make it through the Senate without changes. Manchin killed the progressives’ dreams even more when he said that the United States was a “center-right” country. The House also hasn’t done any work with the Senate to come together on the issues in the text, to work them out.

Basically, as I said, this is Pelosi’s effort to shove through something she knows isn’t going to make it in the Senate, so she can then say: blame the failure on the other chamber — and folks like Manchin. If they actually wanted it to pass, they would be all over trying to make sure that the text was acceptable to the Senate. But they’re not. It’s a game — legislative theater to perform for their base and pretend they’re doing all they can. It’s that kind of theater that’s lends to the demonizing of Manchin and activists harassing both him and Sinema, as we saw yesterday with activists stalking him and surrounding his car.

It says something about any Democrat who would vote on this without having read it — and without knowing how much it costs. That’s an abrogation of their responsibilities. It shows they don’t care about doing their job.

Democrats can only lose three votes if they hope to pass it, and at this point, there are certainly more than three in question. But even if it manages to squeak through, it’s dead on arrival — as presently constructed — in the Senate.