Not One Republican

 

Yesterday, the Senate Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It's accurate to say Senate Democrats, because not one Republican helped pass it. Not one.  This bill brings significant benefits for health care costs and fighting climate change, and could have been even better, but Republicans spitefully blocked a provision that would have capped insulin costs to $35 a month. 

Why do I say they spitefully did that? Well, they could have just left in in the bill. But just as with their snit fit over the PACT Act, I really suspect they didn't want to be remotely helpful and were mad that this significant legislation would be passed at all. It's not like they seem to especially care about the environment, anyway, and they complain about prescription medicine costs--but doing something about them smacks too much of making government do stuff.

I could be disappointed, but not surprised. Remember, it was at this point in Barack Obama's presidency that Senator Mitch McConnell made clear that obstruction in order to hopefully deny Obama a second term was the actual goal of congressional Republicans. It didn't work for them, but here they are, looking for all the world like they have the same obstructionist strategy. 

The bill is expected to reduce the deficit and moderately curb inflation. To hear Republicans tell it, you would think inflation (a global phenomenon brought on by digging out of the COVID-19 recession and supply chain issues) was a purely local phenomenon and all Joe Biden's fault. You think if they wanted to demonstrate the genius of fiscal conservatism, they would offer suggestions?

Uh, no. They are just going to complain. This is why I am fed up with people who blow smoke about bipartisanship and unity and so on. Instead of being a part of the solution by passing meaningful legislation, they seem happy to gesture in the direction of progress and say "See, I tried to black that. You're welcome."

Not one Republican voted for this bill. As far as I'm concerned, not one Republican should stay in office.

The "Crowding Out" Argument

 

I'm just going to stick with the previous blog post for a bit because I really wanted to know what the pro-life reason for denying WIC expansion so poor families could feed their children was, and now I have it. You want me to share? Here it is:

The undeserving poor are using their WIC-privilege to make it harder for the hard-working Americans to get their hands on the baby formula. 

In other words, and I mean, to use the exact words, if we make it easy for WIC families to buy formula, they will "crowd out" other folks' access. And I really did think it was going to be something like that. Here's our star explainer of things, MTG, breaking it down:

Marjorie Taylor Greene blames WIC, an assistance program that helps poor moms buy baby formula, for contributing to the supply shortage: “The WIC program is making it more difficult for [parents not on WIC] to buy baby formula.” pic.twitter.com/EvYBaWqiHW

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) May 19, 2022

So, to get this completely straight, she believes that with the WIC vouchers, the food insecure are going to corner the entire Enfamil market because they don't have shit else to buy. She's saying that like she has received a special insight into how broke people work the system. But WIC isn't the customer--the families are. And they have limits on their vouchers that just wouldn't make her scenario likely. 

Her partner in awfulness, Matt Gaetz, has the following to say:

I don't know how many families he thinks are on WIC, but saying they are "crowding out many hard-working American families" is some pretty deliberate language. He might not be aware how many WIC participants are working poor, such as military families, and also, and I want to careful how I put this--how many are white. When I hear Republicans put the words "hard-working" and "American" together, I feel pretty cool saying they are implying it's a matter of white folks vs. welfare queens. In other words, the message is: this is a giveaway to those people. You need to starve those people before they starve you. (Seems familiar, doesn't it?) 

But as to the rest of his Twitter message: the Biden Administration is sourcing formula from overseas now, undoing the stupid trade restrictions put in place by the previous administration. Gaetz wants to make it appear that it's Biden who is useless, when I don't see all the help his posse are offering. And the message these Republicans are sending is very much what George Carlin said long ago about these conservatives. 

Putting Their Money Where Their Mouths Are?

192 Republicans vote against $28 million for baby formula shortage pic.twitter.com/7hZv4DUe8p

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 19, 2022

In a word: no. To expand on that a little bit, apparently it's Biden's fault (actually, it is not) and they are very concerned but it is simply wrong to ask them to, you know--do stuff. 

UPDATE: They don't care about domestic terrorism, either. I don't even wonder why.

ADDENDUM: Why no, Elise Stefanik was not one of the twelve who voted for funding to fix the baby formula supply issue, but if you knew there were only twelve, you would find overlap between them and Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill. 

There was also a bipartisan vote on expanding access to paying for different brands of formula via WIC, and if I told you the nine Republicans who voted against it were Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Clay Higgins (La.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Chip Roy (Texas), well, that would sound exactly right, wouldn't it?  

And I'm sure every one of them would tell you there was a "pro-life" reason why poor families should have a harder time finding food for their babies.

Abbott and Audacity

 

INBOX: ⁦@GovAbbott⁩ slams ⁦@JoeBiden⁩ ⁦@POTUS⁩ for providing baby formula to undocumented immigrants during a national shortage #txlege #tx2022 pic.twitter.com/OGhLYVl1Q5

— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) May 12, 2022

It seems to me that the complaint Gov. Abbott makes that the Biden Administration is feeding babies in immigrant detention is an obvious example of Adam Serwer's axiom: "The cruelty is the point."  There isn't an option here--you feed the kids or they die of starvation. Texas Governor Greg Abbott understands that, but he also understands that there are people who really don't care if that happens. And those are his people. He doesn't have a solution to the issue of fixing the food supply or actually taking care of these children.

What? Greg Abbott, concerned about the supply chain or child welfare? 

It really feels like he doesn't care if children are endangered so long as he is making a culture war point.  He comes up with complaints about things, not real solutions even while real people can be harmed. So of course he has something to say about even the babies of undocumented immigrants--he has made the border his business, and threatening babies I guess makes him look tough. 

Or it makes him look like a sick SOB. I know how I see it.