Gutting Build Back Better A Big Loss For Democrats

It hardly takes an economics expert to tell you that if you spend 50% less on something but get only 10% of the original value, that’s not frugality, it’s stupidity. Yet, as we head into what seems to be the home stretch of the race to pass the so-called “Build Back Better Bill,” that’s just what Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are proposing. This bill is a waste of money, and, more importantly of political opportunity that may not recur in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the $3.5 trillion version would have been impactful and pragmatic, while also being a potentially game-changing political win for Democrats. Progressives should threaten to vote the whole package down, including both this bill and the bipartisan corporate welfare bill (mis-named “infrastructure bill”), unless some of what has been slashed is restored.

Recent days have been all about shifting the blame from right wing Democrats to progressives, with Joe Manchin’s pot-calling-the-kettle-black demand that progressive Democrats stop “playing politics” and “holding the infrastructure bill hostage.” But it’s not only Manchin and his partner in corruption, Kirsten Sinema. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demonstrated a similar bent when she implored progressives not to “embarrass” Biden by opposing the bill. The sad truth is, Biden has embarrassed himself throughout this entire affair.