Tom Sullivan at Digby’s Place, Josh Marshall at TPM, and others are making an important point.
Democrats have just won a major victory for the American People — but that’s not enough. People need to KNOW Democrats did it, and what it means for them. They also need to know Republicans fought it all the way and not one of them voted for it. Period.
The final form of the bill that is expected to land on Joe Biden’s desk still has to undergo resolution in the House, but overall it is a big win even without the $15 minimum wage.
Sullivan links to Dan Pfeiffer:
...The passage of such a big, progressive plan this early in the Presidency is a huge accomplishment for Biden, Senate Democrats, and everyone who worked so hard to win the 2020 election. But it is also the beginning of the battle for the 2022 elections. Democrats will only get credit for doing the right thing, and Republicans will only get the blame for doing the wrong thing if people know about it.
This task is even more challenging than it sounds. The next election is a long way off. Americans currently have the long-term memory of a sea cucumber, and bad news always tends to overwhelm good news in our Twitter-driven media ecosystem. Just look at the amount of attention Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s oddly enthusiastic vote to exclude the minimum wage increases received compared to the inclusion of $27 billion in rental assistance that will keep a roof over the heads of millions of families.
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Pfeiffer has information on how popular the American Rescue Plan really is, and which parts have the most support. He also has links to messages to share to promote it. (The graphic at the top of this post comes from one of them.) Getting the word out is as important as getting the bill passed, maybe more so. As Pfeiffer says:
I spent much of 2009 and 2010 banging my head against the proverbial wall because not enough people knew about how Barack Obama had helped prevent the economy from tumbling into a second Great Depression. Let’s not do that again. The dominance of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms since that time has mostly been a disaster for the world. But the one upside is that all of us now have the ability to help Joe Biden spread the word about the American Rescue Plan.
The Republicans and Right-Wing media are going into overdrive to change the subject with apocalyptic tales of gender-neutral potatoes and bigotry about the undocumented and trans community. They have a huge megaphone and may succeed if we pat ourselves on the back and move on. Selling this bill is essential and it’s not just Joe Biden’s job.
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We have to do it as much as possible. The mainstream media will look for the most negative ways to frame the story — it’s a reflex because people pay attention to bad news and it is because they channel what comes from right wing media to be ‘fair and balanced’ lest they be accused of ‘liberal bias’.
The GOP has the usual reflex sound bite: “It’s full of pork.”
Digby has a take-down of a New York Times article that attacks part of the American Rescue Plan as unrelated to Covid relief because it rescues failing pension plans that are supposed to cover millions of retired workers. Per the Times framing:
Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic.
Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income….
...Both the House and Senate stimulus measures would give the weakest plans enough money to pay hundreds of thousands of retirees — a number that will grow in the future — their full pensions for the next 30 years. The provision does not require the plans to pay back the bailout, freeze accruals or to end the practices that led to their current distress, which means their troubles could recur. Nor does it explain what will happen when the taxpayer money runs out 30 years from now.
The comments on the article are dominated by people complaining about greedy unions, Cadillac pensions, etc. etc. and why are their taxpayer dollars going to support these other people? Digby:
The tone of this story is that it’s some kind of corrupt giveaway to people who don’t deserve it. That’s buillshit. The workers should not have to pay for the fact that our retirement system is screwed up beyond measure when they paid in for years in good faith. This is the right thing to do.
Republicans are having a fit, of course. So much for that newfound right wing populist commitment to the working class.
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People are hurting, and not just from the pandemic. This is happening now and has been happening for some time. This is a chance to stop kicking the pension can down the road and deal with it as part of the larger economic crunch. We have a lot of issues to deal with — while the Republican Party is obsessed with Dr. Suess and Mr. Potato Head.
Seriously, we really can’t count on the story getting out there as long as the mainstream media has one set of rules for Republicans and one for Democrats. Eric Boehlert at Press Run Media lays out how the press has been getting the relief story wrong for an entire year.
...Reporting on the six most important "takeaways" from the bill's Senate passage this weekend, guess what USA Today ranked as the most significant detail about the American Rescue Plan? Answer: The fact that Biden wasn't able to win over Republican backing for the wildly popular bill, which has 83 percent public support.
...Republican behavior over Covid relief last weekend at times bordered on madness, as they tried to drown the process with sure-to-fail amendments. At one point, they even tried to strip out funds specifically targeted for poor women and children. But that was definitely not the dominant media narrative in recent days. The New York Timesinsisted it was Democrats who faced an "awkward episode" on late Friday when details over extending unemployment payments had to be ironed out after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) raised objections. The event "threatened to defect and derail" passage, the paper reported excitedly.
...Over the last twelve months, Republicans sabotaged all Covid relief negotiations, including Trump who routinely, and publicly, gave wildly contradictory statements about the need for assistance. Yet since last April, the press tagged Both Sides for failing to pass a relief package that was universally seen as crucial to the country's economic survival. ("Capitol Hill's failure to compromise" is hurting America, CNN emphasized.)
There’s more at the link. The failure of bipartisanship is always the fault of the Democrats as far as the MSM (mainstream media) is concerned — even though it has been dead a long time.
Unfortunately, the establishment press still hasn’t absorbed the evidence that bipartisanship is dead and that the Republican Party has gone full fascist. The New York Times ‘comedy’ duo of Gail Collins and Brett Stephens let their delusions show while nattering about about Andrew Cuomo today.
Bret: Fair enough. But I think there’s a larger point, which has to do with the perils of de facto one-party rule. Cuomo behaved the way he did, in part at least, because he felt his power was unchecked and unlimited. That kind of power always corrupts. At this rate, maybe there could even be a Republican comeback in the Empire State.
Gail: You know, voters in super-Democratic places aren’t always scared of electing Republicans to high office. Look at Gov. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts — not to mention Mitt Romney. We’ve had Republican governors in New York. We’ve had Republican mayors in New York City. Voters don’t think they can do much harm when they’re blocked by Democratic legislators. And I think they imagine it might save some money.
Don’t have much faith in that last part of the theory myself, but hope springs eternal.
Bret: I’ve always been a fan of blue or purple-state Republican governors, like Larry Hogan or Chris Sununu. They’re good at taking care of the nuts-and-bolts of governance while steering clear of the moralistic thunder and lightning.
(Word of advice — don’t even look at the part where they ‘discuss’ the sex scandal aspects of the Cuomo situation. It’s not even close to funny.)
BOTTOM LINE:
Sure there are things we might have liked to have gotten in the bill, things we would prefer differently, but overall this is a huge win! Let’s celebrate it and spread the word. Dan Pfeiffer has some good links to share. Digby comes up with good ones here. Josh Marshall gets the last word:
But I’ll say this again. A big, consistent and concerted messaging plan is critical to explain to the public just what is in the bill, how those things which are in it will connect to events over the next year and where everyone stood. There’s time. But I see little evidence of that happening so far. And it is critical because – as I keep saying – everything that happens from January 20th on needs to be part of an argument to voters (an explicit and voluble argument) about why they should keep Democrats in power in the 2022 midterm election.
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And, one last picture: the American Rescue Plan versus the Trump tax cuts.