Posted on 10/09/2021 9:54:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I was a decent hockey player and an average baseball player, but there is no sporting event that exists that I don’t know exactly what the participants should have done. If they had all, and I do mean all, listened to me, they would have easily won or succeeded at whatever personal objective they were attempting to achieve. You’re probably the same way. It’s called “Monday Morning Quarterbacking” for a reason, and everyone is guilty of it. Sometimes, however, no matter how insistent the “quarterbacks” are after the fact, there really weren’t that many options at the time. You get that when the people playing quarterback never actually played football in real life.
Politics is the ultimate sport for the un-athletic. It’s really easy, there are no barriers to entry and no consequences for being wildly wrong. Opinions are, after all, like exactly what the old saying says and for that very reason.
That being said, we all do have them. And in today’s day an age, nearly everyone has a show somewhere: cable, online, radio, podcast, whatever. All of those venues are now like what opinions are like, only with more people are literally the things “everyone has.”
Watching what transpired in the fight, if you can call it that, over the debt ceiling this week, that analogy, biological obscenity and all (and especially), is appropriate. Who is “right” and who isn’t in your Monday Morning Quarterbacking depends on how deeply you want to pander and to whom. The reality, as is usually the case, is completely different.
Blowhards insist “Mitch McConnell sold out!” It’s easy to make this claim, and there’s no real downside. Their audiences aren’t going to question them, they trust these people. That trust makes the nature of the lack of accuracy all the more problematic. I hesitate to call it a lie simply because some of these people may not know any better – in the pundit game it is much easier to be bombastic than it is to know what you’re talking about, and you’re rewarded handsomely.
So, when they say McConnell “sold out,” maybe they think he did.
And maybe he did, we’ll never really know. But there are other options to consider before jumping to the easy conclusion.
The most obvious possible alternative, and frankly the most likely, is that what McConnell did saved the filibuster, at least for now. Democrats desperately want to get rid of it, this fight would’ve been perfect cover.
Yes, Democrats could have raised the debt ceiling on their own through a reconciliation vote, but I don’t believe they wanted Republican votes to end a filibuster so they could say both sides were to blame for the trillions Democrats are looking to add to the debt.
Let me tell you why that doesn’t matter. First, so few people in Congress of either party actually care about the debt to matter, same for the public. Second, if Democrats had blown up the filibuster, which this was a tactic to do, it would have given them cover to ram through their massive “human infrastructure” bill. Hear me out on this.
Remember the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court? Democrats had already ended the filibuster on every judicial nomination except the Supreme Court. When Gorsuch was chosen to replace Antonin Scalina, it wasn’t going to make a difference in the balance of the court. There was no reason to filibuster, there was nothing on the line. They did it anyway, knowing full-well Republicans would do what Democrats had done and gotten rid of the 60 vote threshold, which is what happened.
No one cared, and barely anyone noticed. Then came the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the ultimate “swing vote” on the court, and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace him. That would impact the court, and Democrats had absolutely nothing they could to block it. They tried, but lies can’t replace procedure.
Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster, desperately, but they know if they simply do it to ram a massive entitlement program or giant spending bill the public would punish them. There’s also the problem that many of their Members are on record saying they wouldn’t get rid of the filibuster. There’s a difference if they break their word to protect the country from default and financial ruin, which they claim about the debt ceiling, and if they break it for a massive spending bill that subsidizes their donors and friends.
By ending their filibuster on the debt limit vote, McConnell prevented Democrats from ending the filibuster for any reason other than naked politics, which is exactly what they don’t want to happen. Their cover was gone and they’d been boxed in.
When you can’t get your way, it’s best to create a scenario where your opponents have to pay the highest price possible for getting theirs. It’s the only thing that’ll give them pause, and your only remaining shot an ultimate victory.
What will Democrats do now? We don’t know. But we do know they would’ve gutted the filibuster under the guise of “saving the country from default.” With it gone, it would’ve been game on for whatever else they wanted to pass. But that dam wasn’t broken, it’s still there now. Which makes it harder and costlier politically if they do it in the future for issues that aren’t “emergency” matters.
You can hate Mitch McConnell for a lot of things, any reason you want, really, what the hell do I care? But whatever reason you want to hate him for should be based on reality. And the reality is, no matter how much blowhards whine and pander to their audiences to sounds “super conservative,” what transpired this week was the smart play. Every honest Monday Morning Quarterback knows that’s the case.
Bullcrap.
RE: Bullcrap.
Can you elaborate?
He’ll just cave in December, all he did is kick the can down the road.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4002079/posts?page=47#47
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4002079/posts?page=60#60
The fact of the matter is that A: in a free society our government shouldn’t be playing this kind of trickster politics. B: if McConnell was such a smart player why didn’t he play this skillful gamesmanship on Jan 6? Lastly C: what’s the difference of shutting the country down in December or October? What did the GOP gain by giving the DNC “more time”? Nothing. Except saving the DNCs ass as McConnell and the other RINOs have done time and time again.
I’m done with this “strategery”. Our nation, our Republic deserves BETTER.
And the Democrats can gut the filibuster then, too.
Please explain what Mitch should do. Be specific in your answer.
Keep in mind that the Democrats have a trifecta (thanks to morons who decided not to vote in Georgia) and absent Sinema and Manchin can nuke the filibuster and then pass whatever they want.
So, what exactly do you want Mitch to do? If Sinema and Manchin change their minds on the filibuster, it’s over:
A packed Supreme Court, Puerto Rico and DC will be States and that means 4 more Democrat Senators and a few more Democrats in the House, the 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendments will be read out of the Constitution, HR 1 will be passed, Roe will codified, the Green New Deal will pass and a nationwide gun ban will follow.
The only thing stopping that right now are Manchin and Sinema. Mitch can do nothing but try to run the clock to November of 2022.
Since you seem to have so much more political experience, let’s hear solutions rather than whining.
So you admit that Mitch surrendered and let the Democrats save face.
My response is simple and specific.
STAND UP TO THE DAMN DEMOCRATS AND FIGHT BACK.
All I’ve heard all summer, all last year is CRICKETS from the GOP leadership about plans, counter plans. I’ve heard NOTHING from McConnell offering a counter bill to the people. McConnell and the GOP are purely reactionary to whatever the DNC wants to do and are defacto COMPLICIT, DNC actors!
So - I’ll explain it to you again you sycophant - FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO EITHER DEFAULT THE NATION, DESTROY THE CONSTITUTION OR GET THEM TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE.
It’s not a difficult thing to do - that’s the point of power and leverage and i really wish YOU people would understand that you’re not being served by these RINOs
I’m not hearing any specifics in your rant.
The vague notions that you put forward? Mitch has no power to force any of those things.
Again, with the trifecta, the democrats can do whatever they want.
I really would like to hear a very specific plan about how you would do things differently, while avoiding the outcome that I posted above.
How do you thread that needle?
Um - those are the specifics, regardless of your reading comprehension.
But you seem to think Democrats control the board - if this were actually TRUE - they would’ve already passed the legislation.
Mitch had the leverage and, again as I posted above, ALLOWED the DNC 2 MONTHS instead of 2 WEEKS to force Manchin and Sinema to capitulate and force the bill through reconciliation (you know - that simple thing that’s “holding them back”).
Rather than play a game of chicken and force the DNC to the negotiating table.
Mitch had the leverage all along and just pissed it away.
BUMP!
Why don’t you explain it to Trump. He spoke out about this, and against Mich and the traitor republicans tonight at his rally.
It really depends how this all turns out. If the dems pass the killer legislation then it was not the right move.
It is easy to agree with that view ... but we are on swampy ground here, and discernment requires better knowledge.
For example, not mentioned in the article is the rule of reconciliation. That rule suspends the fillibuster and allows a simple majority vote. HOWEVER, reconciliation can only be used on voting on budget bills and, as I understand it, only once each fiscal year.
In holding out, I presumed McConnell was hoping to force the Dems to use reconciliation to raise the debt ceiling, thus deep sixing their $3.5 trillion (cum $5.5 trillion) boondoggle bill. That idea of mine has been knocked into a cocked hat; therefore, McConnell folded.
But then we encounter another misleading factor in the article: does Joe Manchin want to eliminate the fillibuster? It virtually eliminates the power of the Senate and places it somewhat under the auspices of the Speaker of the House. Also, IMO, it could weaken the separation of powers - also strengthening the hand of the Speaker.
Of course it totally undermines our Constitutional form of government. Perhaps Joe Manchin does not want to go back to West Virginia with that tattooed on his hand, especially to also explain why he killed the state's number one source of income: coal! I once had a chance to work in the coal mines; believe me, miners don't want to hear that they can do as well as computer programmers - Hildabeest notwithstanding.
There is the possibility that McConnell and the GOP can hold firm in December . . . . No, I don't believe that either, really. The GOP is reverting back into the Whigs and the outcome could be the same as the last time the Whigs could have diverted a national disaster.
The clock is actually Jan 2023. They could still do damage as lame ducks.
Anyone who makes fun of people for claiming to be super conservative probably is neither super or conservative
Belt logic
I think Mitch asked for something he wanted personally or for his home state
That's a close understanding, but not entirely.
By rule, Congress can use reconciliation three times per fiscal year: for a revenue bill (taxes), for a spending bill, and for a debt ceiling bill. They can do each of them via reconciliation only once, but they can combine them in a single bill (example being that a tax and spend bill uses up two reconciliation slots in one bill).
So, if Democrats used reconciliation to raise the debt limit, they cannot do that again via reconciliation until the next fiscal year, but they can still do a tax bill and a spending bill via reconciliation.
-PJ
Thanks for explaining. But here’s the problem, the radical left will eventually do what they want. This isn’t going to stop them, they’ll simply wait for the opportune time then make their move. My guess…before the end of the year. They’re playing for keeps this time and they’re not negotiating they’re simply setting everything up. It’s going to happen…we all know it.
December will be the hail mary, my guess is he is corrupt and in deep with these rats and helped the rats get rid of trump, we will see but I am not optimistic he’s done this before and cant be trusted
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