Amid Reconciliation Chaos the Fist of Power Punches Downward
With the clock ticking, the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill faces challenges ranging from Biden to Congress to that damn senate parliamentarian.
Legislative mediocrity and absurdity is striking yet again.
With force from the Biden administration to the senate parliamentarian to the House and prone to roll over Senate, the large fist of power has punched nowhere but down while simultaneously shrugging about the whole thing.
. . .A month and a half ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report on the impending doom that the climate crisis will deliver if humanity does not rush towards decarbonization and clean energy. It happened to be released in a summer where the world witnessed a cinematic-like fire pit in the Gulf of Mexico, extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest and raging wildfires on the West Coast, several weeks worth of rain falling in a day or so in places like Western Europe as well as along Ida's trip from Louisiana up through the Northeastern U.S., plus many other extreme weather events.
Among climate scientists, activists, and— at least at the time of the report— elected leaders, the message was clear: action towards mitigating the baked-in changes and preventing an influx of further emissions needs to happen, pronto.
"Lawmakers and top climate officials in President Joe Biden's administration sounded the alarm on Monday in response to a new report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, urging nations to swiftly limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius," read a CNN piece from early August.
Even as the alarm was sounded for an existential crisis that threatens most all of the world's life, the wailing sound in the backs of lawmakers' and administration officials' heads seemed short winded and grew hoarse before fading into silence.
Last week, just five weeks after the alarm bell sounded, the Biden administration declared that the IPCC report "does not present sufficient cause" to shift their plans for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, according to The Daily Poster.
The drilling plan is set to take place as the White House gives in to a court order that compels federal officials to lease 78.2 million acres for offshore fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico. This is occurring even as environmental groups and activists note that the federal government has full control over whether or not to approve such transactions.
This descent of will and submission to the whims of the fossil fuel industry and its venerators has been present throughout the eight months of the Biden Administration. His protection of Big Pharma's intellectual property rights and the failed global vaccination program is right up there, but this is a primary example.
In January, Biden signed, via executive order, a pause on all oil and gas related leases on public lands and in offshore sites. Shortly after that, the 78.2 million acre lease in the Gulf was canceled prior to its bidding process. Additionally, a lease sale was cancelled in Alaska's Cook Inlet on top of lease cancellations in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. So things looked to be headed in the right direction, right?
Without too much time passing, 13 Republican states sued Biden's administration to reinstate the leasing.
Come June, Louisiana federal judge Terry Doughty granted the 13 states a preliminary injunction against Biden's order (meaning it could no longer be carried out), citing the "billions of dollars at stake." In order to try and bring the Gulf lease sale back to life, the Republican States then filed a motion to hold the Interior Department in contempt for failing to comply with the ruling.
The administration did not hesitate to appeal the motion. However, not long after, on September 1 and in a stroke of luck for the fossil fuel industry, the White House released its Record of Decision that announced their ultimate intention to go along with the 78 million-plus acre lease while also downplaying the IPCC's dire report.
If Biden undermining his own agenda and legacy wasn't enough madness, remember this: when it rains it pours.
. . .Because in the world of the comically dark hilarity of the Biden administration, the order of power flows up from the president to the moderate Democratic senators and all the way up to the apex of power. . . the senate parliamentarian?
If one hasn't taken notice, perhaps the most vital periods for action— on climate change and so much more— this administration will ever get is happening right now with the fight to pass both the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and, moreover, the $3.5 trillion budget resolution that would be the most transformational piece of legislation in over eighty years— not that it has the best of competition looking back through the decades.
The bipartisan bill is set to focus on investment in hard infrastructure, such as power grids, roads and bridges, rail, broadband, and water systems, among others. It is the centerfold image for the bipartisan fantasy that has seemed to materialize with the Biden presidency. Having passed the Senate last month, there is a September 27 deadline to vote on it in the House, which is key to all legislatures in passing both bills together. In the big picture, it's not futile— especially since Trump failed to get around to passing an infrastructure package despite being eager to pass one priced around $2 trillion— and nor is it bad, but the bipartisan bill is not necessarily as wide scaled as it should be considering the challenges facing the nation and the world.
That's where the reconciliation bill comes in. It's centered on climate and soft, or human, infrastructure. On one hand it offers things like Medicare expansion, lower drug prices, universal pre-K, free community college, paid family leave, paths to permanent residency for immigrants, and a wealth tax, among other changes. In terms of climate provisions it offers investments in clean energy, a clean electricity standard of 80% by 2030, clean vehicle incentives, wildfire prevention and forestry services, border polluter taxes, and a Civilian Climate Corps.
In a theatrical blow to the reconciliation bill, the senate's unelected, nonpartisan parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that the bill cannot be used to implement the immigration provisions that would offer paths to permanent residency and, in some cases, citizenship, sending the whole state of the bill into further disorder.
As noted when the parliamentarian emerged from the fog back in March to strike down a $15 minimum wage from the American Rescue Plan, the Senate can overrule her decision or replace her if they chose, but they seem more content leaning into the theatrical chaos ensuing in Congress. Or rather, more simply, they have a newfound reflex of bowing down to the parliamentarian.
Of course, the parliamentarian hasn't struck down the climate provisions or the entirety of the reconciliation bill, but the decision and the lack of response to it does not evoke hope for the future battle to get the reconciliation bill through without completely slashing it to pieces.
Another way to put it is that in the process of trying to get these two bills passed together, the reconciliation bill, the price tag of which was already a compromise, is being chipped away at and even threatened altogether as power scurries away, leaving it in a vulnerable position. From the recent lobbying blitz to Manchin's op-ed about hitting a strategic "pause" to think about fiscal responsibility, this reconciliation bill has been a primary punching bag of corporate politicians.
President Biden, for months, has been urged by progressive pundits and activists to utilize his power to twist arms and whip senators into shape "LBJ style," but it has gone the other way completely with senators seeming to finagle the president around to do the bidding of their donors. This is because the transformational reconciliation bill that leaves such a bad taste in so many career politicians' mouths will require every Democratic vote in the Senate in order to pass 51-50.
Most notably, Senator Joe Manchin has scoffed at the climate provisions that threaten his fossil fuel donors and, instead, insisted on a price tag closer to $1 trillion, or $1.5 trillion at most. Manchin along with Kyrsten Sinema and the phony rogues known as moderate House Democrats form the conglomeration of the reconciliation bill's biggest threats.
Sinema has said to the president that if the House misses its September 27 deadline for the bipartisan bill or if the vote fails, then she won't back the reconciliation bill.
Progressives in the House have tried to play hardball, with many, including Pramila Jayapal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying they won't support the bipartisan bill if senators start pulling away from the reconciliation bill. However, the "moderates" in the senate and House don't seem eager to give them an inch. This is particularly problematic considering the reconciliation bill, as Politico notes, may not be ready for a vote next week on September 27, making the threat of decoupling the two bills a more distinct possibility.
"If they delay the vote — or it goes down — then I think you can kiss reconciliation goodbye," moderate Democrat Rep. Kurt Schrader told Politico. "Reconciliation would be dead."
The clock is ticking, and its only getting more clamorous as the threat of a government shutdown and debt ceiling issues emerge. If the budget can't get passed by September 30th there will be a shutdown. Accompanying this fact is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's announcement that it is unlikely that the nation will be able to pay its bills in October if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer announced in a joint statement that the House is planning to vote this week on a bill that would fund the government through December and suspend the debt ceiling through the end of 2022. Mitch McConnell, though, has signaled his party does not favor suspending the debt ceiling.
With a chaotic exhibition of juggling the tasks of completing the bipartisan bill, the reconciliation bill, the prevention of a government shutdown ahead of another COVID winter, and the suspension of the debt ceiling, it's all spelling out a potentially catastrophic shrinking or killing of the reconciliation bill. As a result, transformative social policies and pivots towards a greener future are put at risk of being buried along with any hope for real change.
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