Robert Reich has a substack posting account. One recent post was on "The Incredible Shrinking Biden Plan Don't blame Biden. It's not entirely due to Manchin and Sinema, either. Go Deeper. "
Next, this link, Reich suggests the oligarchs are steadfast and aggressive in wanting to derail Build Back Better change; or to trim it, thus "incredibly shrinking" it. He wrote:
It’s easy to blame the two holdout senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten
Sinema, who have demanded that Biden’s ambitious plan be whittled back.
But they’re not alone. Some other Democratic senators have quietly
assured their biggest financial backers that the package would be far
smaller. And remember: Not a single Republican in the Senate will
support any of it, and most Republicans in the House are opposed.
Look
behind all of them and what do you see? The American oligarchy – the
CEOs of America’s largest corporations, the billionaire class, the
inhabitants of Wall Street, and the platoons of Washington operators and
influence-peddlers on their payrolls. For six months, the oligarchy has
been waging all-out war on Biden’s plan.
Why?
Not simply because the oligarchs don’t want to pay more taxes (the
super-rich pay little or no taxes as it is). There’s a deeper reason.
They oppose social programs that give average working Americans more
security. They want working people to be insecure. Insecurity
leads to a more tractable workforce. A tractable workforce accepts low
pay and lousy jobs, which leaves more for top executives and big
investors.
My warning to the oligarchy: There’s more
anti-establishment anger in America today than at any time in the last
century. Some of that anger fueled Donald Trump’s vicious racist
nationalism, and continues to do so. Some of it fueled Bernie Sanders’s
reform candidacy, and progressives remain the the most energized part of
the Democratic Party.
Four weeks paid leave is better than no
paid leave, and $1.75 trillion for social infrastructure is better than
nothing. The question is whether it’s enough. Americans want better pay
and more economic security. The oligarchy wants them to be insecure,
which will only stoke more anger. If that anger finds its ways into
constructive reforms, we’ll all be the better for it. But if those
reforms are stymied, that anger could threaten everything in coming
years: our economy, our democracy, our future.
That’s my view. What do you think?
I think Reich hits the nail on the head. That "make 'em insecure, get 'em on payments, and they become more pliant" mentality is exactly what Biden displayed back when "bankruptcy reform" made it impossible to get bankruptcy relief on student debt; back when Biden had Senate power and when students were protesting instead of docile. Fuck 'em and fead 'em beans. That's another way to say it.
That remains my key Biden image, and he surely seems amenable to his fronting team, Manchin, Sinema, and House Blue Dogs going chop, chop, chop to where he's not the first one blamed and he skates, while the people take a hit - with nothing fundamentally changed. Trust Joe? Once the dust settles and something gets passed, where the money ends up will be non-transparent, and while half a loaf logic prevails, it is still only half a loaf. And if it is chopped to a half-slice, enjoy, Crabgrass might just publish "I told you so."
If anything ends up passed, it is better than Trump's sole accomplishment, lowering taxes on the wealthy and their business activities, corporate and otherwise, which was an accomplishment in the eyes of the 0.1% and a poke with a sharp stick in the eye for each and every jackass who voted for him. Against the Clintons, okay, voting against them did have its necessity - but after four years, jackasses still, go figure.
Trump as good as those he pardoned. Had to go.
Yes, Biden/Harris was an egregious offering, indefensibly so, but Trump/Pence had proven worse. The inner party Dems did us all in, and that betrayal starts with Clyburn.
Bernie would have decisively won, 2016 and 2020 - WITH COATTAILS.
Biden squeaked in, 2020, sans coattails.
And all that stuff is precisely why the Schumers and Clyburns and Pelosis of the Dem Party deserve scorn after they did US and Bernie in. The Clintons and Podesta brothers on the 2020 sidelines smug about the fraud being foisted off on US, that is reality.
Warren during primary time being done in also. It is why Build Back Better "reform" will only be half-assed and inadequate, even as a bandaid. And why the Dem Party will have hard-sell times, 2022.
