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Particularly when McConnell, who clearly does not care about who gets killed with guns as long as it is not conservative Supreme Court justices, keeps talking about not doing anything in this bill that is actually gun-related, but instead focusing on mental health and school safety, both of which are problematic issues for progressives and won’t stop the carnage.
There was a low-key win for everyone in Congress Monday when the House passed the bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act. That’s intended to help ease supply chain issues, and passed the Senate unanimously back in March and the House under an expedited process Monday. The bill summary say that it “aims to level the playing field for American exporters
and importers by providing the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) the tools it needs to improve
oversight over international ocean carriers and crack down on rising shipping fees facing consumers.” It’s surprising that just 42 Republicans—all in the House—opposed the legislation that is actually allowing a federal agency to create and enforce new regulations.
In a statement supporting the bill’s passage, President Joe Biden said that “During the pandemic, ocean carriers increased their prices by as much as 1,000%. And, too often, these ocean carriers are refusing to take American exports back to Asia, leaving with empty containers instead. That’s costing farmers and ranchers—and our economy—a lot of money.” The bill is supposed to fix it. Biden will sign it as soon as it reaches his desk.
That’s one thing helping the economy. Thanks to Sen. Joe Manchin, very little else is. The West Virginia Democrat continues to string Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along in talks about how to revive the budget reconciliation bill Democrats can pass on their own to address climate change, health care, and economic assistance. Manchin insisted to Axios nearly three weeks ago that he is negotiating in good faith—“earnestly engaged in talks” is how Axios put it. At the same time, he told them, “There could be nothing. […] There could be truly nothing. That’s all I can tell you.”
Manchin’s side project, another supposedly bipartisan energy and climate bill, seems to have fallen apart according to recent reports, so maybe there will be something from Manchin. It’s possible that Republicans feel they’ve engaged him enough on the not-gun gun talks and the not-voting rights election reform bill to distract him from having substantive negotiations with Schumer on stuff that will help people.
On the other side is some very not-subtle advertising from Big Pharma telling Congress that they really, really need to extend the increased subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans. That’s another thing that Manchin is letting languish, leading to what could be a really bad October surprise for Democrats, when people start getting their new premium notices and see massive increases. Oh, and that ad is on the Axios website, where Manchin will be more likely to see it.
As of last week, fellow Senate Democrats were cautiously optimistic that Schumer was getting somewhere with Manchin on the reconciliation bill, though whether he’ll agree to continue to help people get affordable insurance isn’t clear. Whether he’ll agree to anything at any given moment depends on how the wind is blowing, so we all remain in suspense. He seems to prefer it that way.
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