Tag Archives: Infrastructure

Virginia and New Jersey — Gaffes and What’s Next

By tmess2 | Published November 6, 2021

It is a quadrennial tradition.  The party in the White House has poor results in the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and the pundits predict doom and gloom in the mid-term elections.  (Of course, then the party in the White House has losses in the House and maybe losses in the Senate and the pundits say “see we told you so.”  So what lessons should we take from this week’s results.

First, Terry McAuliffe did make a gaffe.  Using the classic definition of a gaffe, he told the truth that nobody wants to hear.  In his case, in response to questions about education, he noted that parents do not get to dictate to the schools what the schools teach.  This statement is partially true.   But as with most sound bites, explaining what was meant takes a lot of time and does not overcome the gut reaction to the original statement.

What is absolutely true is that public schools are not a system of private tutors.  Teachers are responsible for teaching a class of students.    For the system to work, Johnny has to be using the same books and Kathy.  So Johnny’s parents do not get to decide the materials that Johnny has to read for the course. Continue Reading...

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Mid-Summer Hodgepodge

By tmess2 | Published August 21, 2021

The last couple of weeks have had a mix of news that leaves so many possible topics for a post (and some may get a follow-up).

First, before taking their August recess (or in Congress-speak “District Work Period”), the Senate passed the infrastructure bill and the budget resolution that will be the basis for a reconciliation bill when Congress returns.  The House will take up these two items when the House returns.  Progressives want to table the infrastructure bill until the reconciliation bill passes (to force moderates to support the reconciliation bill).  Moderates want to finish up the infrastructure bill before something that happens that could doom that bill.

Second, the House will also be voting on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.  As expected, in the aftermath of this year’s Supreme Court decision in Brnovich undermining Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the bill has been expanded to fix both Section 2 and reinstate the preclearance requirements struck down in Shelby County.    While there will almost certainly be changes in the House, the real debate will be when it gets to the Senate.  The Republicans will attempt to block this bill, and it will be up to a handful of Democratic Senators to balance whether protecting the rights of African-Americans and other minority voters matters more than protecting the filibuster. Continue Reading...

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The Walk and Chew Gum Agenda

By tmess2 | Published May 25, 2019

Earlier this week, the petulant child-in-chief stated that Democrats on Capitol Hill can either choose to work on legislative issues or investigate him.  As we have gotten used to over the past several years, President Trump simply does not understand the rules for how government works.  This latest temper tantrum, however, is a challenge to Democrats on Capitol Hill.  It’s important that our leaders show that we can do both and do both in a big way.

Because President Trump can veto any legislation and because Senator Mitch McConnell is best at blocking legislation and lousy at getting anything done, it is unlikely that Democrats can actually get any significant laws passed until after the 2020 election.  But Democrats can make a big deal of the House passing a set of laws that will be the core of the legislative agenda in 2021. 

On infrastructure, the appropriate committee needs to draft a bill that will make a major down payment on the backlog of crucial infrastructure projects.  And then, the Rules committee can set aside a healthy block of time to debate that bill on the floor of the House.  During that debate, Democrats from every swing state and swing district can speak about what that bill will mean for their area — the type of speeches which can be blasted on you tube with highlights on the local news.  Then Democratic Senators can regularly ask when Mitch McConnell will let that bill come up for a vote in the Senate. Continue Reading...

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