So, Joe Manchin has finally told us exactly what he finds so objectionable with Biden's infrastructure plan. And, while I wouldn't beat this dead horse, given my ideological distaste for him and his demands, I feel like I have to cover it.
Basically, he wants work requirements on the child tax credits, and means testing where households over $60k can't get it. And he wants to means test a bunch of other stuff Biden supports.
As I said, screw this guy, he should join the republicans already.
Like, this is why we can't have nice things. We can't have nice universal solutions. No, people like Manchin have to means test everything. Never mind that Biden's solutions are already milquetoast and mediocre. He has to take the few nice things about them and squeeze the life out of them.
My big issue with the child tax credit is essentially that I'd rather have a full UBI, rather than something for kids only. And I am afraid of the tax credit approach BECAUSE I fear frickers like Manchin doing exactly what he's doing and sabotaging the programs. If you give a UBI, and frame it as a fundamental right, it becomes like social security reform, something that's impossible to do and political suicide for anyone who tries it. But a tax credit just lends itself to arbitrary requirements like this. And Manchin is going there.
This much be what he meant by "entitlement society", ya know what, Joe, screw off to the GOP already. I know I don't consider myself a democrat any more because they're too conservative for me in some ways (and because they do crap like this), but this guy might as well be a flat out republican. If I were Biden I'd try to do everything possible to make this guy's life miserable. I'd want to Arlen Specter him. Unfortunately, the democrats celebrate their moderates instead of run them out of the party. Instead they run people like me out of the party who actually want comprehensive progressive solutions without compromises.
Again, Biden's proposal was mild and moderate enough and now this guy has to completely ruin what good there was in it. We can't have nice things, because democrats don't fight for them, and on occasion they go full blown republican and then sabotage them while screaming about "entitlements". And then they wonder why they lose elections. This is why. You guys can't even given Biden, a dude who is already as moderate and compromised as crap, a break on his milquetoast policy that most Americans want and many Americans see as moderate.
And let's discuss his $60,000 limit on this tax credit. That's not individually, that's per HOUSEHOLD. And as we know from my UBI studies, the median household is around $70k. My UBI plan would benefit people making up to like $66-70k individually, and households, generally speaking in the $100-200k range depending on family size. This plan is a joke. It was already mild, and Manchin's just making it suck. Most Americans will likely turn against it, and Biden now. But I assume that's the point. Make the programs so bad they lack majority support so they can be cut back later and used as bargaining chips to remain in office (vote for me or the big bad republicans will repeal this).
I hate politics in the US, man. I feel like we can never have nice things. As I said, it's bad the democrats are as moderate and ineffective as they are and then you got "moderates" acting like republicans and basically making these ideas suck in general. There's a reason people just wanna bring down both parties and push for third parties. This is why. Because we can't ever have good things from the two parties. it sickens me.
No comments:
Post a Comment