Analysis: Biden ambitions run into reality of Senate's rules

[DonViejo]

By JULIE PACE
today

WASHINGTON (AP) — The early ambitions of Joe Biden’s presidency are quickly running into the guardrails of archaic Senate rules, testing his willingness to remake an institution he reveres to fulfill many of the promises he has made to Americans.

It’s a wonky, Washington dilemma with real-world implications for millions of people, determining everything from the future of a minimum wage hike to voting access. It will also shape Biden’s ability to keep two restive wings of the Democratic Party united: swing state moderates wary of the appearance of effectively giving up on bipartisanship and more progressive Democrats who argue that Republicans aren’t coming along anyway.

Biden — who spent four decades as a senator and speaks of the institution with veneration, as well as some revisionist history about the good old days of cross-party cooperation — is so far trying to find the middle ground.

Liberal Democrats applauded his willingness to go it alone on a sprawling, $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, embracing an option known as budget reconciliation that allows certain legislation to pass with a simple majority — in other words, without any Republican votes. But that pathway comes with limitations, including strict rules on what can and can’t be included in a bill.

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https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-race-and-ethnicity-voting-voting-rights-coronavirus-pandemic-79588182fe7dea3093fb743c9c6b22ab

[abqtommy]

1. With the reTHUGS going full-bore fascist there's no possibility of the reality of any political

"middle ground" in this country. Things will get worse as the far-right winds down their existence
but in the end they'll destroy themselves. We can help that process along!