BREAKING: The Senate has voted 50-49 in favor of moving the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package forward using budget reconciliation.
No Republicans voted for the resolution.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 2, 2021
Open thread.
This post is in: Politics
BREAKING: The Senate has voted 50-49 in favor of moving the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package forward using budget reconciliation.
No Republicans voted for the resolution.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 2, 2021
Open thread.
Comments are closed.
WaterGirl
Why didn’t Toomey vote?
andy
@WaterGirl: Out of town, apparently. they didn’t even need the Vice President!
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the new thread.
WaterGirl
@andy: Nice!
With Toomey out of town, I wonder if that’s why they scheduled the vote now.
Mike in NC
Republicans always being Profiles in Courage.
Spanky
@WaterGirl:
Short-timer’s Disease? He wants to be accepted in polite company once he finishes the Senate gig, but doesn’t want to run afoul of the Qaucus. IOW, he’s spineless.
Baud
Good job. Heighten those contradictions.
danielx
Fuck those guys.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Do you know what all the next steps are for reconciliation? I thought I heard Jen P. say today that the soonest it could be voted on as reconciliation was 2/16.
I might have the date wrong, but it seemed like a long time from now.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
No idea.
Jeffro
Mrs. Fro and I are taking turns extolling the virtues of NFLTG Biden (with breaks for lulz over the GQP’s “efforts” at a “bipartisan” package, naturally)
It might be a while
Baud
Whitehouse looks chill.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I thought you knew everything.
edit: by which I mean “more than me”
Immanentize
Hmmmm. Which is most accurate:
All Democrats voted in favor of moving the bill forward.
No Republicans voted against moving the bill forward
Our media at work.
MattF
It’s almost as if… elections have consequences.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Where did you see that?
(Didn’t all the Rs vote against moving it forward?)
WaterGirl
@Baud: The senator or the building?
S. Cerevisiae
Has it already gone through the House? What comes next?
Someone here always knows.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I rely more on luck than knowledge when I get things right.
WaterGirl
I love seeing photos of Ossoff in Congress. Do all the guys wear suits every day, or is he still dressing for the new gig?
Baud
@WaterGirl: Senator.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Better to be lucky than good!
Ken
Is anyone keeping a list of Republican Senators who are calling this “unprecedented” or similar phrases? I want to compare it to those who pushed through the 2017 tax cuts.
Barbara
@WaterGirl:
I have a feeling Toomey will be disengaging a lot over the next two years.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Now both the House and the Senate have voted for reconciliation. Now, the House must produce and vote out a bill. Then, with the reconciliation orders just passed, the Senate Committees responsible must pass their portions of the bill.
I am AMAZED this all can happen in two short weeks.
Plus impeachment trial.
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl:
Come now, Jon Ossoff is no Gym Jordan.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: Fingers crossed!
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: not all of them. One Republican was not voting. All Republicans voting voted against. Yes. But not all Republicans. Period.
Immanentize
@Baud: best strategy ever.
cope
Thanks for the uplifting update. I admit to sweating a bit what with the Democrats being, well, Democrats. Let’s hope they get in the habit of doing this even when public support is not so widespread.
Immanentize
@Barbara: I wish Biden would give Toomey Ambassador to pick-your-favorite-place and let the Dem. Governor make it real.
Brachiator
I am not even surprised.
Doc Sardonic
@Immanentize: Tricky part is the Senate committees are still under GQP control so the likelihood of it coming out of committee is somewhere south of nil. Much like Judge Garland getting a quick hearing for confirmation as AG.
SFBayAreaGal
Yes, yes, yes. I love the take no prisoners approach.
Chetan Murthy
@Immanentize: He’s Catholic. Ambassador to the Vatican!
Jeffro
@Immanentize: that would be just excellent
Senator Fetterman, COME ON DOWN!
Immanentize
@Doc Sardonic: how so? The reorg has happened.
WaterGirl
@Chetan Murthy: Ossoff looks damn good in a suit. Gym Jordon is such a sneeze, he could never look good, no matter what he wore.
Immanentize
@Chetan Murthy: he’s also kinda Irish? Important position!!!!
West of the Rockies
The US has come up with several vaccines. The EU has one, I believe. Even Russia has one now. Has China produced a vaccine yet?
Immanentize
@Jeffro: Fetterman is so my current crush.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: I like “sneeze.”. Also, Jordan is pocket sized.
Brachiator
@Doc Sardonic:
Wait. What? This is potentially not good.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: It’s a typo, but I like it, too. I think i’ll refer to him as that going forward.
Brachiator
@West of the Rockies:
Pretty sure China has a vaccine. Aren’t they selling some of it to Pakistan?
nevsky42
This is what getting sh*t done looks like.
I love seeing Biden prove my dumb *ss wrong day after day for not picking him in the primaries.
West of the Rockies
@West of the Rockies:
China certainly has resources.
Doc Sardonic
@Immanentize: Not unless it got done today. McConnell has only agreed to the language of the reorganization, it still needs 60 and then 51 to get done if I recall correctly since it did not get unanimous consent.
ColoradoGuy
@West of the Rockies: The Chinese have two, I believe. Efficacy is not known yet, at least in the West.
Chetan Murthy
@West of the Rockies: Several. Google “Sinovac”, I think. But there are several, and they’re already exporting them widely. Though …. I think they’re not as effective as the first two the US approved. BTW, the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine was, fairly attributed, invented in Germany.
andy
@WaterGirl: who knows. but i imagine there must be a calendar or something. maybe he just noped out of there to avoid the vote.
WaterGirl
@Doc Sardonic: I do not believe it was formalized today. If it was, I did not hear about it, and neither did the Washington Post.
West of the Rockies
@Brachiator:
Are they? I haven’t heard. The more effective vaccines, the better.
andy
@Chetan Murthy: He’s a preacher, so he has at least one good Sunday suit.
Roger Moore
@West of the Rockies:
I don’t think any of the Chinese vaccines have been approved for general use. They have several that are in late stage clinical trials and have been approved (in China) to be given to high-risk individuals.
WhatsMyNym
@West of the Rockies:Check out the info at wikipedia if you want to keep updated.
ETA: Pfizer–BioNTech: BioNTech is a German biotech company.
Lyrebird
By Turkish immigrants or kids of Turkish immigrants, woo hoo! Immigrants, they get the job done! (only Hamilton quote I know, but it’s a good one)
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Has China produced a vaccine yet?
China may not be following Western protocols to secure approval. Neither is Russia.
From Al Jazeera:
raven
BREAKING NEWS: Georgia launches investigation into Trump lawyer Lin Wood for ‘voting illegally’ during the election after he championed the president’s fraud claims
Immanentize
@raven: Imm approves. One lower level conspirator in the frame.
Chetan Murthy
@Lyrebird: A-men!
MomSense
@Immanentize:
I like it. Henceforth he shall be Gym Jordan, pocket sized sneeze.
Immanentize
TPM
Baud
@raven:
Lin Wood never should have submitted that affidavit in support of Trump’s claims of election fraud.
JMS
Speaking of PA, this is kind of inside baseball, but our beleaguered mandated sole Republican commissioner here in Montgomery County is probably envious of Bruce Castor’s gig defending Trump and has referred to him (Castor) as “Shapiro’s lapdog” from their earlier time on the Montco Commission. Look up Joe Gale if you want to see more of his impotent lunacy and sigh with relief that he’s not your coworker. One assumes Shapiro is the favorite to take over for Tom Wolf. It would be too much to hope for Montco taking over all Pa (though why not?), but if Fetterman (wearing a suit no less) were promoted to the US Senate, we could do worse than our current Montco head Commissioner Val in higher office.
Jeffro
@raven: excellent! After all, voter fraud has consequences…right, GQP?
Barbara
@Immanentize:
Toomey’s biggest interest is trade policy but he probably isn’t simpatico with Biden’s priorities. He wasn’t simpatico with Trump’s either. Not sure what else he would be interested in. Ambassador to Ireland? That seems to appeal to quite a few ex-politicos.
CaseyL
GQP = Gross QAnon Party?
raven
@Jeffro: Mercer is on his ass too!
Doc Sardonic
@Immanentize: Good….however not holding my breath because because I would not be surprised if that colossal Texas armadillo turd Cruz or the Tribble headed Kentucky wonderment Paul decided to grab a little limelight and filibuster it. Hope I get surprised since I tend to expect the worst from people, that way I am rarely disappointed but sometimes happily surprised.
WaterGirl
@andy: Nope, Warnock is the preacher. :-) I love them both so much.
But Ossoff appears to have several good suits.
Just One More Canuck
@raven: That’s a truly dedicated lawyer, doing whatever he has to to prove his client’s case
WaterGirl
@Just One More Canuck: “There was vote fraud, and I’ll prove it!”
Talk about making an own goal.
Barbara
@Brachiator:
UK, India, China, Russia and US. Pfizer vaccine is actually the invention of a German company (headed by a husband wife duo of doctors with Turkish immigrant parents).
I’m a little surprised Japan and Israel haven’t come up with vaccines.
TS (the original)
How very bipartisan of the republicans. They won’t govern themselves and just hate that someone else may do the job they are elected to do.
Suzanne
@Immanentize: Fetterman is my not-secret crush. I even told Mr. Suzanne and he approved.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: First rule of appellate practice: argument is neither evidence or proof; but act like it is.
Chetan Murthy
@Barbara:
I read that Japan is having trouble sourcing vaccines; one supposes that after this, the Japanese government will be pushing their pharma sector to get the lead out and prepare for the next time so they don’t have to rely on other countries.
Spanky
Well, Obama sent Dan Rooney to Ireland as ambassador in 2009, so why shouldn’t Biden send Toomey?
A Rooney and a Toomey!
Barbara
@Immanentize: The first rule of appellate practice should be “write a damned good brief.”
Richard Guhl
@andy: If Toomey was home, he was literally snowed in. We got around 30 inches.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I just meant the he would commit voter fraud to prove that there was voter fraud. :-)
Is that saying the cousin of “if you have the facts, pound the facts, if you have the law, pound the law, if you don’t have either, pound the table”?
WaterGirl
@Spanky: Toomey better not go anywhere until we have gotten a lot of shit done, because those replacements don’t happen overnight.
Omnes Omnibus
I thought we were all supposed to be worried about Manchin and Sinema.
Barbara
@Richard Guhl:
Whoa! Eastern or Western PA? Received around 6 inches in DC.
WhatsMyNym
@Barbara: COVID-19 vaccines in early trials – from Japan, S. Korea, Australia, Canada, France, more from China, etc..
WaterGirl
OT but if you like Penzey’s spices, for today only – until midnight – you can buy a $50 gift card for $35.
Sometimes I give them as gifts, sometimes I keep them for myself. It’s a good deal.
Barbara
@WaterGirl:
There have been people who tried to do just that, to prove how easy it would be. They didn’t seem to factor in the felony charge if caught doing it.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Somebody got the memo? Or maybe they are fine with reconciliation but not fine with getting rid of the filibuster.
But yeah, there’s a lot of worrying that goes on.
randy khan
@Immanentize:
I’m actually in favor of the framing that no Republicans were willing to move the bill forward. This legislation is favored by a huge majority of the American people, so reminding them who is against it is a good thing.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
MVP took care of them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Guess that’s how he knew there was voter fraud.
Doc Sardonic
@Spanky:
Sounds like a truly odd Irish restaurant menu item or a snockered Lawrence Welk counting off the band.
Suzanne
@Richard Guhl: We got about 8” here in PGH.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: @MomSense: Or maybe they were always fine.
jonas
@randy khan: Due to gerrymandering in the House and the nature of the Senate over-representing the residents of rural, red states, Republicans have the luxury of not giving a shit what regular Americans want or don’t want from their government.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I thought Subaru Diane was the mob enforcer?
Ken
@Barbara: It’s not just voter fraud, either, though I have my doubts whenever the claim is made. “Of course you were running a sting operation, Senator; but don’t you think it would have been wise to inform the police or district attorney of your intention to solicit minors?”
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Could be. Even tonight Manchin was saying that he voted for this, but he doesn’t want the $15 minimum wage in the final package.
JMG
There are gonna be issues on which Manchin will not stand with the Democrats. But on money for people, he will. He’s like a 1958 guy in 2021.
randy khan
@jonas:
Lest we forget, formerly bright-red Georgia now has two Democratic Senators and gave its electoral votes to a Democrat. The Senate race, in particular, was people deciding that they didn’t like what the Republicans were selling. So making the Republicans own who they are can help.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: MVP is Joe’s enforcer.
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Who is MVP?
burnspbesq
@raven:
He’s likely to at least get suspended from practice, if not disbarred, after refusing to do the psych eval that was ordered by the disciplinary authorities. He said he will sue.
“Siri, corner the market for popcorn futures.”
burnspbesq
@zhena gogolia:
Madam Vice President.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia:
Madam Vice President.
Evap
@Barbara: the us ambassador to Ireland gets to live in an amazing house in Phoenix Park in Dublin, so it must be a nice gig
CatFacts
One step closer to passage is a good thing.
Somehow, I can comment in Visual mode again on Firefox 85.0. No idea why it’s suddenly working but so far so good.
Brachiator
@Barbara:
Ireland and the UK are becoming diplomatic hot spots. Ireland, in particular, is becoming a post-BREXIT hot zone.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Madame Vice President
WaterGirl
@CatFacts: A few people have reported that, but I am still thinking that’s a fluke and it won’t last, because we haven’t changed a thing.
If it really does seem consistently to work in visual mode, let me know! Or if you see an 85.x that is not 85.0
Starboard Tack
@Mike in NC:
Profiles in Avoiding Courage
Another Scott
TheWeek – Fire The Parliamentarian!!1:
Interesting, and well worth a click.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: suit plus flag pin=I love America; suit sans flag pin=I hate America and love communism/socialism/antifa/Canada
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Gosh, I didn’t notice whether Ossoff hd the flag or not. Besides, I thought it was only Obama who had to wear the f-ing flag pin or he hated America, but no one else had to do that.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud:
Have you ever been on Amazon and looked at the Q and A on a product where someone asks a question like “does this work with potatoes?” and some dude “answers” by saying something like “I don’t know; I’ve only tried it with squash”? You are that dude!
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I only skimmed it and am saving the article for tomorrow, but I think I’m good with all 5!
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: in addition, tan suit, without or without flag in=I hate America. As does being black, or a Democrat, etc. et al ad nauseum.
WaterGirl
Finally! (from the Washington Post)
Ken
I can see the attraction for economists, because there must be a trade barrier somewhere between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, but it’s impossible to identify where. It might even draw the attention of physicists; it sounds very quantum.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Personally I would have made the penalties $5000, then $10000, then a warning shot to the head, and finally expulsion from Congress, but I can see that might be more difficult to pass.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: If the media didn’t play along, that kind of crap wouldn’t happen nearly as much as it does.
My best friend’s wife is allergic to the cats, so when she is there, cats do not get to come upstairs where the bedrooms are. She spends a couple months in France at a time, and as soon as she leaves, they sleep in the bed until she returns.
No one has to tell them, or invite them into the bedroom once she’s gone, or has to kick them out when she returns. There is one set of rules when she’s there, and another when she’s not.
Pretty impressive for cats.
Not so impressive when it’s the fucking so-called “fourth estate” that is supposed to be one of the pillars of democracy.
They don’t even hide that there is one set of rules for when Dems are in charge, and another for Republicans. It’s infuriating.
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: infuriating indeed, though Jen Psaki seems to be addressing the issue rather impressively
Jeffro
@CaseyL: Grand Q Party
This Q shit ain’t old, and it needs to be front and (literally!) center
Jeffro
@raven: love it! rooting for injuries upon injuries…
Doc Sardonic
@WaterGirl: wonder which Dems voted no
Benno
@Brachiator:
Pakistan has the Chinese vaccine in trials right now.
jackmac
@WaterGirl: Our family loves Penzy’s spices!!
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: here’s hoping they also institute “do not pass” physical barriers to the House chamber…these Q crazies are nuts enough to blow off the fines and still “carry” down on the House floor, knowing their idiot followers will send them $$$ anytime they make a plea for funds against the “anti-2A Left”
(Also: nonzero chance that these wackaloons end up brandishing arms on the House floor…even during the SOTU or some other crazy shit. “You Lie!” would pale in comparison)
Bar them from entry if you must (and you must!) Nancy Smash!
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Getting good wear out of his bar mitzvah suit.
;)
Yutsano
@NotMax:
We joke, but we also know every Jewish man has that One Good Suit. No matter how old it is or how few occasions it’s worn. It’s always there in the closet.
Steeplejack
@Steve in the ATL:
Ad nauseam. Tsk.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Someone else has read Waiting for Hitler. Indeed, that worked so well for the Communists.