Biden is acquiescing to the gutting of the reconciliation bill

Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°126 | 25 October 2021

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*See updated chart at the bottom of this piece*

The spending level the reconciliation bill is now at

The 10-year, $3.5 trillion social spending plan was announced in July and released in August. Originally it was higher (like, at $6 trillion total), but Biden preemptively compromised down to $350 billion annually. Now it’s at $200 billion per year, or maybe $175 billion per year—nobody’s sure.

Whatever figure it eventually drops to, blame is to be put on senators Manchin and Sinema for demanding the topline be lower, but also on Biden for acquiescing to these two. 

Among the tools Biden could have used to force Manchin and Sinema to fall in line vary, but one could have been to call out the hypocrisy behind their purported ‘fiscal conservatism’ or ‘fiscal responsibility’ that they say is at the heart of their opposition to Biden’s social spending plan.

Manchin and Sinema, like Republicans, aren’t against government spending or subsidies per se. They’re only against it when federal funds/subsidies are used for social uplift; when government provisions start screwing around with social hierarchy by providing working-class people access to basic goods and services. Military spending, which Manchin and Sinema routinely vote to increase, doesn’t do this.

So why didn’t/doesn’t Biden demonstrate this publicly by juxtaposing Manchin and Sinema’s opposition to his social spending plan with their voting record on military spending? Wouldn’t this be useful to put out there anyway, considering most are unaware of this?

19 Dec 2021 Update: Manchin says he won’t vote for the Build Back Better Act, now at $1.75 trillion (which was the number that was supposed to guarantee his vote), purportedly over its cost. But he voted for the $778 billion Pentagon budget last week (BBB would cost $175B/year, on average) and, like the chart above indicates, he’s voted for last 10 Pentagon budgets before that, too. Deficit dogmatists are always hypocrites.

Thanks for your time,

Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

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