Even as I write this, Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are dictating which parts of the Biden Administration's $350 billion/year over 10 years budget reconciliation bill gets enacted. Most media reports refer to the bill as "the Democrats' $3.5 trillion dollar" bill, neglecting to add it stretches over a 10 year period and is fully paid for by new taxes. Manchin, cheered on by Republicans says the plan is too ambitious and the tax rate hikes fall too heavily on the wealthiest among us.
It doesn't help the bill's prospects when the majority of our congresscritters are millionaires or well on their way to being so. In contrast to the New Deal era, congress has come to represent the interests of the 1% far more than the rest of us. As one op-ed title opined, our congress is hard wired to pass tax cuts and (non military) spending cuts.
Unless and until we elect more ordinary Americans as out representatives we will not have nice things.
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