The president wants to close the chapter before traveling to the Glasgow summit to give credibility to his plans to fight climate change
Joe Biden is about to celebrate a political victory that will deeply disappoint his rank and file. The infrastructure law, which the Senate intends to approve by a simple majority by means of the budget reconciliation resource, will be its historical legacy, but it will not increase the age to access Medicare health insurance, nor will it provide dental benefits to retirees, nor will it make it free of charge. Public college education, to name a few of the expectations it will fail.
The president is a pragmatist, his bases are not. In the face of Trump’s all or nothing, Biden is willing to stick with what he can negotiate and celebrate it as a victory. The illusion that overwhelmed progressives of the opportunity that control of the two legislative chambers and the White House gives the Democratic Party to advance towards the elusive welfare has run into a reality: the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Obama is not, not by far, the left-wing party that many dream of.
Biden continues to negotiate with his own co-religionists to carry out the $ 3.5 billion plan outlined by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who came close to winning him the presidency. More than one will regret that he did not.
Negotiates with your own co-religionists to pass a $ 3.5 trillion program
According to the clues that the White House has given, the president will accept a law reduced by almost half to obtain the vote of the most conservative senators of his party who, like the Republicans, say that the law mortgages the future of the country. According to Biden, “it will not increase the deficit a penny” because it contemplates new collection formulas to “pay for everything.” There will be a tax for the rich to offset some of the new public spending, but according to congressional spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, it will only cover 10%. The rest will be saved with more creative formulas to be announced in which Senator Elizabeth Warren, another of her electoral rivals and one of the five congressmen who oversaw the 2008 bank bailout, is working.
Personal interests
Some of the law’s toughest opponents, like Joe Manchin, look out for the interests of the coal industry, whose actions have left this West Virginia senator with $ 4.5 million in personal gain. Others serve drug companies, auto companies, and a host of interests used to investing in lobbying.
On Sunday, Biden invited Manchin and Senator Chuck Schumer’s leader to his Delaware home to settle their differences face-to-face. The number they reached is unknown, but it is known that the president insisted on the need to close the negotiation before he travels to the Glasgow summit, because he believes that “the credibility of the United States is at stake.”
The infrastructure law will be, as New Jersey insisted on Monday, the largest investment in the country’s history, which will allow the modernization of roads, bridges, rails, power plants, automobile fleets, etc. It will also include important social benefits such as free preschool education and sick leave, but all far below what was proposed.
Facebook seeks to reinvent itself to survive revelations
Does Facebook have salvation? That’s how dramatic the situation at Mark Zuckerberg’s company is. The barrage of documents analyzed since Friday by a consortium of 17 media outlets, confirms that the company prioritized its profits over the public good promised to users, in a continuous trickle of damaging stories. Country by country. The earthquake may even lead to the demise of Facebook as it is known.
On Thursday, when Zuckerberg addresses the virtual developer conference called Connect, an announcement is expected that can range from new internal rules of conduct to reconversion of the company under a new name. But according to The Washington Post, he was the one who gave the order to silence employees who disagreed with his policies, the one who lifted the measures to censor hate speech, once the US elections passed, or the one who allowed the platform in India will be inundated with anti-Muslim propaganda.
The Facebook Papers collect the testimony of Frances Haugen, one of its senior engineers, analyst and product manager who testified before Congress, as well as internal documents, analyzes and dozens of interviews with employees that verified how the company was ignoring the notices about the social danger presented by the speeches published on its platform.
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