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I love Yahoo! News’ “perspectives” collages.
This is about Joe Biden’s “6uild 6ack 6etter” spending bill, which is now only a mere $1.75 trillion.
Optimists
Despite the cuts, the bill is still enormous
“I think it’s fair to say many of the compromises along the way are going to make the legislation both materially and politically worse and less popular. But it also is the case that a $1.75 trillion package is a lot.” — Chris Hayes, MSNBC
It would be a mistake to overlook the all the great things in the bill
“Democrats have the chance to pass and sign into law transformational investments in the nation’s human and physical infrastructure. They should go ahead and get it done — and then they should stop focusing on what had to be left out of these spending packages and begin loudly celebrating all that is included.” — Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
It’s remarkable how much Democrats have accomplished with zero room for error
“All of these reforms come on top of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. … Taken together — including a few hundred billion dollars of public investment in domestic infrastructure and manufacturing across Biden’s bipartisan bills — and you have a pretty solid haul for a Democratic trifecta that barely exists.” — Eric Levitz, New York
A trimmed-down bill is a better fit for the current economic situation
“The U.S. economy has changed dramatically in the last nine months — and so have the political and policy implications of the Build Back Better plan. Viewed in this context, Sinema and Manchin aren’t stifling the Democratic agenda so much as saving it from overreach. For that, Democrats should be grateful.” — Karl W. Smith, Bloomberg
The bill’s climate spending makes up for its other shortcomings
“While details continue to emerge and negotiations are ongoing, it seems we’re ending up with a shockingly good climate bill attached to a somewhat depressing everything else bill.” — Jordan Weissman, Slate
Conservatives can take some solace that the bill has shrunk substantially
“From a conservative standpoint, nothing good was ever going to come out of a massive reconciliation bill passed by President Biden and congressional Democrats. All along, the only question was how bad the final legislation was going to be.” — Philip Klein, National Review
Critics
Democrats are making a huge political mistake by cutting down the bill
“More than a decade ago, in the early stages of Barack Obama’s presidency, progressives were repeatedly told that they had to compromise and accept a less ambitious response to the Great Recession than Obama had proposed and that most Democrats wanted. Ultimately, they settled for a smaller package because they were told it was necessary to act quickly. But the quick action proved insufficient and uninspiring to voters the following election.” — John Nichols, The Nation
The climate provisions are good, but not nearly enough
“The $500 billion Democrats have promised for climate funding would represent historic congressional investment, and roughly a third of the funding in the possible Build Back Better plan. But it still would not make up for the policies that have been cut.” — Rebecca Leber, Vox
The messy negotiation process over the bill will drastically limit its impact
“Last-minute, closed-door haggling is a hallmark of Washington and unique neither to the Democratic Party nor to Biden. … But it’s nobody’s idea of good government, and the rushed compromise raises the risk that Biden’s supposedly transformative legislation will have a far shorter legacy than its supporters would like and its considerable price tag would suggest.” — Russell Berman, Atlantic
The social programs in the bill have been pared down too much
“In the end, I don’t see how you can say this meets the test of simple, permanent, and meaningful. Almost nothing is permanent.” — David Dayen, American Prospect
Leaving out paid leave is inexcusable
“One might think, following a tragedy of unimaginable scale, that there would be political will to provide some assistance to people to allow them to weather the unexpected without ruining their lives. But even under the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, the congresspeople who work far less than most Americans … have declined to offer their constituents the most basic and widespread form of state support.” — Molly Osberg, New Republic
Even the smaller version of the bill is way too much
“The blueprint the White House released is more frame than work. The jerry-rigged plan is an enormous expansion of government with quarter-baked entitlement programs that will retard work and $1.85 trillion in tax increases that will distort and limit investment.” — Editorial, Wall Street Journal
The actual amount of money is going to be much, much larger. The number they put on it is more or less irrelevant, because all of these guarantees are written in.
