Building on Adam’s post below, the House has released their reconciliation text. This is likely to move fast, but the critical thing is 218-51-1. Nothing is final until everything is final.
Significant chunks (like immigration) are still placeholders and will change in the best case rapid pass scenarios.
Baud
Thanks, David.
Adam L Silverman
This doesn’t matter. This legislation doesn’t start in the House, because it is reconciliation it has to start in the Senate. This is not the bill. There is NO BILL until there is a Senate bill!
David Anderson
@Adam L Silverman: Reconciliation can and does start in the HOuse all the time (Repeal and Replace was a House bill with Senate amendments). And given that this is a revenue bill, the Senate bill must be an amendment of a House bill (can be a dummy dead bill that gets re-purposed/re-animated)
Adam L Silverman
@David Anderson: But not this time. All the action on this is in the Senate. Until the Senate Democrats draft a bill there is no bill. This is vaporware from the House.
chopper
@David Anderson:
right. reconciliation instructions are required in both house and senate versions of the bill, but there’s no requirement at all that it pass the senate first.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
And the Senate bill will be vaporware until it gets voted on. So what?
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: There is no Senate bill.
cain
When front pagers argue, do we all win?
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: Hence my use of the future tense.
cain
@Adam L Silverman: oh sure, and now you’ll be telling us there is no spoon! I got your number, buddy! There is a spoon!
Kropacetic
@Baud: And nothing’s getting voted on til I’ve had breakfast.
Baud
@Kropacetic: Of course. We’re not animals.
chopper
@Baud:
exactly. there’s a house bill apparently, it can go first.
Ohio Mom
Oh god. I am trying to step away from this roller coaster. I step away from my phone to putter around the house, sit down to eat something, open up Balloon Juice and I’m back on the roller coaster.
I’m off to look at decorating sites, wake me up when it’s over.
Kropacetic
@Baud: Thanks. Can you spot me an extra power grid so I can use the stove?
West of the Cascades
Don’t appropriations bills HAVE to start in the House per the Constitution? I understand Adam’s point that a House bill, alone, doesn’t matter because “all the action is in the Senate” and more specifically in ManchinSinemalandia, but as a formal matter isn’t a House bill the right place to start
ETA I’m thinking of Article I, Section 7:
Section 7: Legislative Process
All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.
Kenneth Krasity
My word search of 218 shows 5 items, none of which have anything to do with finality. What am I missing?
Baud
@West of the Cascades: I believe tax bills do. I’m not sure about appropriations. It’s a pretty toothless rule, although I don’t know if there are special rules for reconciliation.
Raven
And for all of you hysterical about Florida I give you a car in downtown Panama City!
https://flic.kr/p/2mESUNK
Baud
@Raven: Nice.
misterpuff
Facebook changing its name to Meta.
The mind boggles.
Twitter will be in fine form this afternoon
https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/facebook-meta-name-change-zuckerberg-51635446245?mod=mw_latestnews
James E Powell
I’m traveling & won’t have time, but can someone go through it and list all the ways that Biden has betrayed us?
Wait! Never mind. I can just check the Twitter Left.
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic:
Are you in Texas?
Leto
Introduction to Budget “Reconciliation” by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
As always, a lot more information at the link.
gvg
@Ohio Mom: I have been shopping(browsing) for flooring online. It is soothing even though the nicest stuff is kind of pricey.
germy
Kropacetic
@mrmoshpotato: Massachusetts. Major nor’easter ended yesterday. They said power may not be back til Saturday.
Leto
@Raven: that’s funny. I didn’t know you went on a fishing trip with actor Johnathan Banks, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame. That’s pretty cool! (Although I’m sure you’ll try to say that’s you; we’re on to you and your Hollywood friends! :P )
Baud
@germy:
That’s one of the things we get wrong about the U.S. system. We don’t vote for parties. That’s how they do it in parliamentary systems. We vote for individuals who are most often, but not always, associated with a party (sometimes strongly, sometimes weakly). And in this Congress, 98% of the people associated with the Democratic that voters voted into office have been solid. And 98% of the candidates in 2022–none of whom will be Manchin and Sinema–will be the same.
chopper
@West of the Cascades:
appropriations don’t, but if it raises revenue then yes it does. again, there’s no requirement that a reconciliation bill originate in or pass the senate first, only that it contain the proper reconciliation instructions and, as with all bills, the same bill pass both houses.
Kay
Truly incredible work they do. It’s not even passed yet and they have idenitified the “bigger problem”.
You thought it was Dems in Disarray because we said that for the last 3 months? Wrong! It’s a DIFFERENT problem we’ll now hammer for the next 3.
Old School
@Kenneth Krasity:
That’s how many votes are needed to pass the House.
(51 for the Senate, 1 for the President.)
Baud
@Kay: Haha. On MJ this morning, they were already shifting to all of Biden’s foreign policy woes (the French sub!)
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Should be “Ignorant Millhiser.” Everyone knows it’s tire rims and anthrax. Jeez.
hueyplong
@Kay: Perhaps Adam could tell Amy that it’s not quite time to pivot away from “Dems in Disarray.” Give it at day, Amy.
James E Powell
@Kay:
They never want to touch that story that best explains why everything is fucked up and bullshit: REPUBLICANS ARE ASSHOLES WHO ONLY CARE ABOUT RICH PEOPLE!
But in this Ohio diner, the bigots are totally okay with that.
Baud
@Old School: I’m concerned about Biden’s veto.
Gin & Tonic
@Kropacetic: So why the fuck are you eating breakfast at 3 in the afternoon?
Leto
@Baud: something I didn’t know until Maddow pointed it out last night, but as Biden heads into the G20 summit meeting, he has exactly 4 ambassadors to those countries. 2 hold overs from Trumpov, and 2 former Senators (including Jeff Fucking Flake) that they voted on out of former collegial respect. Even though we have a majority in the Senate, Republicans are still able to kill everything. (Maddow’s point was Republicans are still fucking everything up. Blame placed squarely where it should. Don’t know what morning BJ yaks about.)
Kropacetic
@Gin & Tonic: Woke up early today.
cain
@Gin & Tonic: Why not? This is why God invented Dennys.
cain
@Kropacetic: my boss and others in the boston metro area lost power, he’s nothing but an aimless wanderer, looking for wifi so he can find out what’s going on at work :D
Baud
@Leto: The Senate is the country’s most intractable problem.
marklar
There are four lights.
Kropacetic
@cain: Facts. But I think I’d have to go to Rhode Island for that.
Kenneth Krasity
@Old School: Whoa, dumb me, LOL. I though it was a section of or reference in the bill. Thanks!
VeniceRiley
Blerg. Going offtopic for laughs: https://www.saynotosmokedetectors.com/
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: FFS, Adam, your point has been made. Don’t be an ass about it.
Kropacetic
@cain: Everyone in my neck of the woods is using their cars as phone chargers. I get home 2 am last night and a huge chunk of my neighborhood still had cars on outside.
Ksmiami
@Baud: nuke it from orbit…
markregan
Has anyone besides Tim Jost noticed that the legislation has two almost-but-not-quite-identical Medicaid sections, presumably because the committees of origin (House Energy and Commerce and House Ways and Means) were both marking the Medicaid proposals up?
cain
@Kropacetic: Yikes.. that is crazy. But I suppose if that’s all you got for comms.
guachi
What piffle.
Take a step back and when you have value to add to this website then come back and post.
Juju
@cain: I think maybe an Angel gets it’s wings?
cain
@Kropacetic: Not worth it then :-)
Juju
@Ohio Mom: I’m picking tile out for a bathroom redo. Wayfair has a nice selection.
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic: Ah. Hopefully it’s back on sooner.
Just Chuck
@West of the Cascades:
Yes, but it’s a meaningless fig leaf. There’s always several “placeholder” bills from each house that are “amended” by the other when needed by way of completely rewriting them into something different.
randy khan
The reality is that reconciliation bills generally don’t have actual texts until minutes before the vote. Heck, a lot of budget bills don’t have texts until minutes before the vote.
It’s not ideal, but it is how things work.
rikyrah
I love that you are so numbers oriented:
SFBayAreaGal
@marklar: I saw what you did there
Kathleen
@James E Powell: Also please let me know How The Democrats Disappointed Them Today. Thank you.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am sorry, can some please update me on what fantasy I am naively believing in? I really want to know what dreams of mine are being crushed. Also, side question, is there any for me to change my posts retroactively to make sure I was always wrong on my expectations and deserve a “told you so”?
Ken
That would be courteous, but isn’t necessary. We’re all human, so have no problem at all finding some nit-picking point on which to say “I told you so”.
lowtechcyclist
I think this notation started back in the teens when people were bitching about how this or that should have been part of the ACA.
Basically, if something desirable wasn’t in the bill (the argument went) it was because it couldn’t get 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate and Obama’s signature and would have passed SCOTUS muster. And 218-60-1-5 became the shorthand for that.
With reconciliation, the 60 becomes 51, and there probably won’t be any SCOTUS involvement, so the 5 goes away.
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I see a lot of commenters* framing matters in a way so that they can later say, “See, I told you so!” Of course, if things don’t turn out the way they framed them they’re never gonna say “I told you so, but I was wrong.”
* Not commenters here, just ones in that crazy world beyond Balloon Juice. It’s a jungle out there!
Raven
@Leto: That be me!
zhena gogolia
@Raven: YOU KNOW JONATHAN BANKS?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
All this arguing is a downer. That’s why I stick to uplifting sites like Pornhub.
Raven
@zhena gogolia: No but Mike and I could be twins.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Kay: but, but… critical race theory!
but, but…. mandates!
but, but… recall!
but, but….. afghanistan!
but, but…. Thems in Disway!
but, but…. tea economy!
This is like when Obama was president and every two weeks The Village desperately tried to frame someting-someting into his Katrina. By the end it was so ridiculous they tried to frame his tan suit as Katrina.
gwangung
@Raven:
Um, I’ve liked Jonathan Banks since his Wiseguy days….
zhena gogolia
@Raven: Oh, you got me all excited there. He was brilliant as McPike on Wiseguy.
James E Powell
@Kathleen:
There should probably be a nightly half hour show for that
?BillinGlendaleCA
@cain:
Maybe, but there is no mustard, the mustard is a myth.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Heh, and always a happy ending!
Another Scott
@David Anderson: I think this is the closest to what’s going on. But in general this time everything is going to happen nearly at once. They’ve spent weeks negotiating on what’s going to be in it with the Senate, now the House is going to write a bill that can pass the Senate and have enough Democrats on board.
The actual Constitutional mechanics (revenue bills start in the House, yada yada) will be handled as always (even if ala the PPACA they just keep the title and bill number and strip out the rest).
Things are moving very quickly now, actual legislation to fit the framework is underway, but it still might extend into November (so they’d have to pass another extension to the Highway authorizations), but I don’t really expect that.
We’ll see!
Cheers,
Scott.
Hildebrand
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you. The doom-singong is tiresome and counterproductive.
Another Scott
If that was the other $1.75T then, well, …
;-)
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
More…
The final bill is going to do an amazing amount of good. Long overdue good.
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Another Scott:
TheHill:
Good, so the BIF and the BBB/Reconciliation Bill are still going to be acted on as a coupled unit.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I know you were talking about people elsewhere, but I gotta say that ever since 2016, I’ve not even tried to predict anything. This timeline is just too weird.
The one prediction I did make, really not thinking it even amounted to that, was on the morning of January 6th. My wife was worried about the Trumpist protesters, and I told her not to worry, there’d be a couple thousand law enforcement officers waiting for them at the Capitol, and that would be the end of it. I figured it was just plain obvious that they’d be out in sufficient strength to discourage the protesters from trying anything.
Of course, they weren’t, and we all know how that turned out. So I’m not making any predictions about the bill, or about next week’s election in your fair Commonwealth, or much of anything. I just don’t have a clue.
Another Scott
Things are continuing to move rapidly. TheHill:
This is a good sign. People know that a big important bill is going to pass soon, and they want to be part of it. S&M are still an issue, of course, but there are ways to work with them.
Cheers,
Scott.