It's 9:30 on 9/30.
I've been mulling over the Congressional Democrats blunder on linking the American Jobs Plan with the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan.
There was an agreement coming out of the Senate to pass the AJP and to support a budget that included the BBB. There was an understanding that the Senate would not pass a BBB with $3.5 trillion in new spending but that the "process" should be allowed to proceed.
Biden originally said the bills were linked but one day after saying that they were. He pulled back and said he wanted to sign both bills but realized he made a mistake by linking them too tightly.
In the House things quickly got more complicated. The House leadership wanted to pass the budget, then work on crafting the BBB legislation and then voting on both bills. The moderates in the House balked. They would not support the budget unless the AJP was voted on first. Pelosi then negotiated a deal where the budget would be passed and the AJP would be voted on by Sept. 27 irrespective of the BBB legislation. She hoped that Congress would create the BBB by that time.
Well they couldn't. The bill was too big, too controversial and too complicated. Pelosi reneged on her commitment to vote on the AJP on Sept. 27. The moderates did not make a big deal on this as Pelosi recommitted to a vote on the AJP that was "delinked' from the BBB.
In the meantime as today is the last day of the fiscal year Congress had to shift priorities to pass a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown.
So what's the path to victory?
Pass the AJP. Reconstruct the BBB to align with Biden's original American Family Plan. Include in the bill universal per-K, make the child credits permanent, make post high schools college education and jobs training affordable, subsidize child care, implement paid family leave - all except pre-K - with generous means testing.
Drop from the bill altogether anything to do with immigration, climate change, and Medicare expansion.
Pay for the new spending with increases in corporate tax and personal income taxes on the wealthy. The increase in revenues should slightly exceed the new spending so that this bill reduces the deficit by a small amount.
Then declare victory!
