House Republicans Save Biden Infrastructure Plan

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It took House Republicans to overcome Democrats voting last night against sending infrastructure bill to the President for signature – – or it would not have passed.

Thanks to Marjorie Taylor Greene providing phone numbers of who she called “Communist” House Republicans voting for infrastructure, we should call and thank them. Give them a pleasant break between death threats.

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72 thoughts on “House Republicans Save Biden Infrastructure Plan”

  2. Joe Biden gets his infrastructure win and an education on a new Washington (msn.com)

    Final passage of a massive public works bill Friday provided President Joe Biden what had increasingly seemed like a vanishing ideal: A major, bipartisan accomplishment that has the power to improve the lives of millions of Americans.
    […]
    Yet after a string of setbacks and delays — including in the frenzied final hours before the bill passed — Biden emerged having accomplished what many had written off as impossible in a political era marred by dysfunction and mistrust. The bill represents the largest single infrastructure investment in American history.
    “Tonight, we took a monumental step forward as a nation,” Biden said in a statement that touted what he called the “once-in-generation bipartisan infrastructure bill” and praised his larger economic package, known as the Build Back Better Act, which has not yet been voted on by the House.
    […]
    Around 9 p.m. ET, Biden brought the pleas he’d been making in private into public view: “I am urging all members to vote for both the rule for consideration of the Build Back Better Act and final passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill tonight,” he wrote in a statement released by the White House. “I am confident that during the week of Nov. 15, the House will pass the Build Back Better Act.”
    Before long, both sides had released the requisite statements, allowing the process to move ahead. But even as the vote commenced on the House floor, it remained uncertain that every Democrat would back the bill.
    Biden and his aides watched from the White House with some trepidation as the voting got underway, but their anxiety eased as 13 Republicans cast votes in favor of the bill, allowing it to pass 228-206.
    […]
    On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the President devoted hours to holding individual conversations with moderates, who raised concerns about the cost of the Build Back Better agenda, and progressives, who were pushing to restore programs that had been cut from the bill.
    Lawmakers who spoke to the President said he had a firm grasp on the nuts and bolts of the proposals and was trying to raise their comfort levels. His approach was less arm-twisting, one Democratic congressman told CNN, and more simply listening and explaining the popularity of the individual programs on education, the environment and more.
    Three lawmakers who had such conversations, and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, described the President as sharp and focused with a strong sense of humor, even as he recited specific numbers and fine print of the legislation.
    [continues]

  3. bill’s best line last night: “I think the democrats should study critical race theory – which is the theory that it’s critical to win races”

    Bill recaps the top issues of the week, including the Democrats’ defeat in Virginia, new anti-Covid pills and the latest QAnon frenzy.

  4. Infrastructure bill passes House, goes to Biden for enactment – The Washington Post

    […]
    The bill now heads to the White House for Biden’s signature more than two months after Senate lawmakers approved it on a rare and overwhelming 69-to-30 bipartisan vote. Its success reflected Biden’s considerable toils alongside Democrats and Republicans — including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), two of its lead negotiators.
    In the end, though, it was the Democratic Party’s unexpected struggles in two key elections Tuesday that provided the most resonant catalyst for action. A loss in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, and a tighter-than-expected victory in the fight for the governor’s mansion in New Jersey, left Democrats reeling and ready to forge ahead on their long-stalled priorities.
    Taking to the House floor, some Democrats even appeared to acknowledge that their rare and narrow majority remains at risk unless they can deliver on their wider array of campaign promises before the 2022 midterms. “This legislation will mean that our majority will have delivered a major victory for the American people in a bipartisan way,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a speech.
    […]
    With congressional approval in hand, the vote on infrastructure still marked an end to decades of inaction in Washington over investments that both parties have previously described as critical.
    For years, Democrats and Republicans alike had labored in pursuit of a massive infrastructure package only to stumble in their legislating as a result of infighting, lobbying and political distraction. The refrain for public-works investments became so commonplace under President Donald Trump that his days-long bursts of activity, known from time to time as “infrastructure week,” became a running joke in Washington about federal dysfunction.
    Biden resurrected the conversation this spring, beginning with the March release of a roughly $2 trillion blueprint known as the American Jobs Plan, which called for massive investments to improve the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections.
    Republicans shared a desire to improve the country’s inner-workings. But many initially opposed Biden’s plan to couple infrastructure investments with other spending that improve federal safety net programs, which they called superfluous and wasteful. The dispute at first sank talks between Biden and Republican lawmakers, threatening to deny the president — who arrived in office preaching a spirit of unity — an early bipartisan achievement.
    But a collection of Senate Democrats and Republicans including Portman, Sinema and Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) revived the talks. Through marathon meetings that repeatedly verged on collapse, they produced a $1.2 trillion plan that proffered significant new spending to fix the country’s known deficiencies.
    […]
    “This is not a plan that tinkers around the edges. It is a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we’ve done since we built the Interstate Highway System and the Space Race,” in the 1950s and ’60s, Biden said.
    “We have to move now. I’m convinced that if we act now, in 50 years people will look back and say, ‘This was the moment America won the future.’ ”

  5. Let us think about this.  A big important act passes through the House late on a Friday evening.  Friday news dumps are usually to hide bad things.  Once again the Dems succeed, only political news junkies will know.  And, that is pretty much it for the year.  The Senate is on vacation until the next vacation and the next . . . you get the idea.
     
    Good thing the Dems pulled up most of the traitor statues in Virginia before losing the state.  Too bad those were not melted down instead of being put in storage.  For all the shouting about “parents dictating education” I am very positive that the white supremacists were outraged to the point of peeing their pants about all those “historical” statues being removed.  The state is not as “blue” as many want to believe.  The backlash against some progress of moving the state to the twentieth century (not even the twentyfirst century) is what did the election change from Dem to gqp.

  7. I’m more interested in which Democrats voted against the bill. I could probably guess they are all members of the House progressive caucus. If so two things happened yesterday- the weakness of the influence of the CPC was demonstrated and the weakness of the influence of Dumbass was demonstrated.  I’m not making more of either than should be made, but there is a third thing we saw – Nancy can read the room (including the Republicans). Regardless of how all that alchemy came together, it was a good day for Biden’s agenda.

  8. House Democrats who voted against infrastructure:

        Rep. Jamaal Bowman

        Rep. Cori Bush

        Rep. AOC

        Rep. Ilhan Omar

        Rep. Ayanna Pressley

        Rep. Rashida Tlaib

  9. It is bandied about, here and there, (at least one guy on Brian Williams show) that the Progs only voted against because they knew the gop renegades were taking up the slack.  To what end?  I ain’t know. A statement perhaps. I know they thought it was too watered down from what was needed.

  11. now there’s a primary ad just waiting to be put together by anyone wanting to run against any of the recalcitrant — just say goofy goper greene supports their opponent

  13. Biden, Pelosi, Schumer Screwed Up

    House progressives dug in, don’t blame them. Biden, Pelosi, Schumer have lost control, gave up community college, paid family leave, drug price negotiations, Medicare expansion, and thought they could bully libs. Didn’t work.

  14. how is it that biden is incompetent? no other prez this century in his 1st 9 months ever got 2 major (shall we say humongous) bills passed like the amer. rescue bill and the infrastructure bill within that brief span.

    so what did the former guy get done his first year? or the former former guys? 

  15. Even Joe Walsh (gop politician) is lauding Biden getting done in months what the orange seditionist couldn’t get done in 4 years.

  16. kinda throws a monkey wrench into nicki’s cognitive tests idea for old politicians.  that’s only if she meant to diss joe. 

    could be she was thinking of primarying the former guy in a round about way.  also she’s throwing a lot of shade on other high-powered fellow GOPers like mitch, chuck grassley, shelby and others. cillizza reported that there are more GOPer than dem senators who are over 65 in the current senate.

  17. Joe Biden gets his infrastructure win and an education on a new Washington (msn.com)

    “Finally — infrastructure week,” Biden said with a laugh as he strode into the State Dining Room on Saturday morning to trumpet his victory, an unsubtle dig at the futile, Groundhog Day-like efforts to pass a roads-and-bridges improvement during the last administration.
    “We did something that’s long overdue, that’s long been talked about in Washington, but never has actually been done,” Biden said.
    […]
    As he celebrated the bill’s passage on Saturday morning, Biden acknowledged the fraught conditions in Congress and conceded they would not end with one bipartisan accomplishment.
    “I know we’re divided. I know how mean it can get and I know there are extremes on both ends that make it more difficult than it’s been in a long, long time,” he said. “But I’m convinced the American people know that we’re committed to enhancing their ability to make their way and all do better.”
    […]
    “I spent a lot of time, as you probably heard, with a lot of people,” Biden said, describing a carefully honed process built upon developing personal relationships with his interlocutors.
    “Everybody at the end of the day, I have to admit, dealt with me fairly,” Biden said. “This is probably more than you need to know, but part of the process is getting to know all the people personally again.”
    After dire election results Tuesday caused a flurry of recrimination among Democrats, Friday amounted to a dramatic turnabout of fortunes for a President desperately in need of a win.
    “All the talk about the elections and what do they mean — they want us to deliver. They want us to deliver. Democrats, they want us to deliver,” Biden said on Saturday morning. “Last night, we proved we can on one big item. We delivered.”
    [continues]

     

    at the very end of the presser questions he spoke at length about his faith in the american people which was rather moving.  too bad no one is reporting all that he said. 

  18. here’s the whole presser.  starting at 29.46 to the end is the part i was referring to about his “enormous faith in the ingenuity and the integrity of the american people….”

    Watch live coverage as President Biden delivers remarks on the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure deal that will allow the passage of the Build Back Better Act.

  19. Great news!
     
    CBob…  I just had a chance to watch the Chaco Canyon video you posted…  thanks!  Rick and I didn’t see those ruins… but did see lots of similar ruins and petroglyphs when we were in New Mexico.

  20. Gotta hand it to Nancy. At her last press conference before the vote, when pressed about apparent lack of votes, with a coy look on her face she said something like “i’ve got a secret count”. I couldn’t figure out what she was up to. Turns out she did an end run around progressives to Republicans. As they always say, never bet against that woman.

  21. Maybe progressives knew she had a “secret count” so they could go on the record, voting FOR the American people.

    Maybe.

    But again, yeah, Pelosi is the only one playing chess. The rest are still playing tiddlywinks.

  22. shades of watergate plumbers, money bags and oval office tapes or the 2016 “russia are you listening” bot works, the 2020 craziness now being uncovered tops any of that.  here’s an example of one of the latest dirty tricks perpetrated

    Michael Schmidt, Washington correspondent for the New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about the strange story of an FBI raid on right-wing activists in an investigation related to the theft of President Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary.

  24. Where I crossed today, tide was extra high but hadn’t come into the road.  It did flood downtown like it always does. I think someone living down town could probably notice some long term changes.  It might be flooding more streets and more often.  

  25. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/06/business/aaron-rodgers-prevea-health-covid-vaccine/index.html

    “I realize I’m in the crosshairs of the woke mob right now,” Rodgers said. “So, before my final nail gets put in my cancel culture casket, I think I would like to set the record straight on so many of the blatant lies that are out there about myself.”
    Rodgers said the media was on a “witch hunt” to find out which players were vaccinated…”

    Woke
    Cancel culture
    Witch hunt

    He sounds like another willfully-ignorant dumbass.

  27. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/06/economy/texas-ports-california-port-delays/index.html

    Greg Abbott’s supply chain ~solution~ is just lies.

    “There are many problems and inaccuracies with the governor’s video, not the least of which is port delays are nowhere near 100 days in California. Earlier this fall they were averaging about 10 days. Now the delays to get into ports has dropped to seven to eight days, according to data from Spire Global, a data analytics firm that provides global vessel tracking data.“

    “Even with the port delays, it’s faster to put a container unloaded in Los Angeles or Long Beach on a rail car and send it anywhere in the country, including Texas, than it is to sail all the way to a Gulf Coast or East Coast port. “

  28. One more opinion:

    Pro tip: when a bill passes but a few members of the majority party vote against it, it’s usually 100% choreographed. They know how many votes they need and how many of them can symbolically vote no, and they generally have the permission of their party leader.

  30. A little more post mortem of the lead up to Tuesday’s results, Dems don’t do agriculture.  This is one of the hardest things for me to grasp.  Growing up I spent a lot of time in Iowa.  The state is agriculture.  I grew up in Michigan.  The state is agriculture and industry, both blue collar and sweat collar.  I grew up with FDR Dems.  What I cannot comprehend is where that went.  Why does the media state that Dems are elitists and only for urban life.
     
    Where did this start.  Dems, FDR Dems, Obama Dems, regular Dems are to support everybody.  And that includes the trillionaires and billionaires. But, we do not penalize people for being poor.  That I know irritates the rich who consider that giving money away, but they need to understand we do n ot care about that.  The poor need to eat, they need to survive, and most importantly, they need a chance to leave poverty.
     
    So, what do we Dems do?  Something hardcore like talking to farmers?  I enjoy talking to them.  But, I grew up in agriculture.  I know what the smell of a dairy barn is like.   I know what it feels like to do in a chicken and then pluck it so I can clean it for dinner. 
    I know where my food comes from.  That is something Dems need to talk about.  I don’t care if you are against eating animals.  It is important to talk about wheat farming, or rice farming.  Learn about American Agriculture.  It is more than chickens or cows.

  31. Industrial farming is bad for the environment, for the animals, for our healthcare system. That needs to be addressed, and, farmers need to grow food for human consumption without feeding it to cattle, hogs and chickens first. I grew up in the rural, Midwest, too. Farming has changed.

  34. https://reasonstobecheerful.world/human-composting-death-funerals-natural-organic-decomposition/

    “Conventional burial involves injecting a body with formaldehyde and then placing it in a heavy-duty casket or a concrete tomb; cremation burns fossil fuels and releases carbon dioxide.“

    We need to think about what we do with our bodies, ultimately, as well. I’d like a natural burial, no embalming, but composting is a possibility. Surprisingly, there are green burial sites in Texas, although I hope I’ve retired elsewhere and I won’t be planted in a red state.

  35. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/06/australia/australia-koala-chlamydia-intl-dst-hnk/index.html

    “A paper published in September 2020 in FEMS Microbiology Reviews said the more dangerous strain of chlamydia may have originated in domestic livestock brought to Australia by European colonizers in the 19th century.”

    “The disease spreads in koala populations through reproduction and social behavior connected to mating, though joeys — baby koalas — can catch the disease from their mothers.“

    “If you think about it, that’s not a viable population anymore because of infertility. Pretty much every female that’s infected with chlamydia becomes infertile within a year, maybe two years maximum … Even if they survive, they’re not breeding,” he said.“

  37. Whenever i see or hear a woman using the possession of “testicles” as a metaphor for “courage”, i’m like, “aw man, the patriarchy got to you, too, eh?”

  44. Phoebe uses the word “hate” a lot- don’t love that, but her voice…

    fuck it, let’s put on some Phoebe

  50. if the Stones wrote a better lyric than “i wanted to see the world through your eyes until it happened/ then i changed mind” i’m all fucking ears

  52. Don’t tell me to “fuck off “ immediately after i make an expression of love, please, Pogo😒

    … not that i bear grudges in perpetuity

  53. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered the lyrics to “Shattered” weren’t -life is a taco party on the street.

  54. Ah, that Seu Jorge track from “Life Aquatic with Steve Zsissou”, Wes Anderson’s like the white Tyler Perry (stolen joke)

  56. I love that soundtrack.

    Not a fan of that movie.

    Oy, shots. I had to ask a temp to leave the office on their first morning because another employee threatened to walk out…because the temp was newly vaccinated. They said they got vaccinated on Thursday, in order to get the job but, of course, there’s no immunity the next day. My manager is on vacation and I am not cut out to deal with people problems. I saved the temp who’s been there for two months so they wouldn’t leave. I felt terrible and have no idea if I handled it right. I apologized and said I “respectfully “ asked them to leave. One had angry tears at feeling lied to about someone’s vaccination status (and they were going to have to sit with/train them) and the other had tears of their job being taken away.

  58. ah “Life Aquatic” is about about misplaced priorities and righting them, good flick 👍 

    it’s basically “what if Captain Ahab let the Great White Whale live in peace?”

  61. if you remember, the last scene is Bill Murray embracing a child (the future)

    he carries that little bastard past the calamity of modern culture

  65. Only once in my life did i make a casual “Moby Dick “ reference to someone who had actually read it, and that person was like “i hate that fucking book”😒

  68. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/06/middleeast/iraq-prime-minister-drone-attack-intl-hnk/index.html

    “Parties representing Iran-backed militias called for protests after losing Parliament seats during Iraq’s elections last month, angering militia leaders and sparking several protests and sit-ins over the past weeks.“

    “As he was just entering his residence, a booby-trapped drone targeted that location, wounding a few of his residence guards…”

    That’ll be the next thing our homegrown, sore losers will do.

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