REPUBLICANS REALLY DID THIS

“Don’t screw with us. Because we’ll hurt people if you do.”

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced a deal on a reconciliation bill to address climate change, drug pricing and corporate taxes, titled “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.” And Republican senators are throwing a fit.

Previously, Moscow Mitch McConnell had threatened to kill the CHIPS bill to support domestic production of computer chips - something that contributes to creating more jobs and protecting national security - if the Democrats continued pressing for their reconciliation bill. Manchin’s scuttling of that bill then made McConnell’s threat moot. But negotiations continued and Shumer and Manchin announced the deal an hour after Republicans voted to pass the CHIPS bill.

To show their anger at the Democrats, Senate Republicans proceeded to block passage of a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.

The bill would significantly change how the Department of Veterans Affairs cares for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances by compelling VA to presume that certain illnesses are linked to exposure to hazardous waste incineration, mostly focused on the issue of burn pits from recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would remove the burden of proof from the injured veterans. This is a big deal, as big a deal as the Agent Orange bill was for Vietnam veterans.

A version of the legislation was approved by the Senate by a vote of 84-14 in June. It was back in the Senate on Wednesday because the House made modest changes before passing the bill on a 342-88 vote about two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, the revised measure drew 55 votes in the Senate, five votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Twenty-five Republicans who previously supported the bill voted against the procedural vote.

According to Senator Toomey, who has had no problem voting annually for the Overseas Committments and Operations bill, which gives the Pentagon $200 billion to spend as they see fit without congressional oversight, the very definition of a “slush fund,” claims that defining all the $400 million committed in the PACT bill as “mandatory” rather than “discretionary” (i.e., funding must be passed annually by Congress in the amount Congress decides is “appropriate’) creates a “slush fund,” and this is what the Republicans claim is their opposition to the bill’s passage.

The modern GOP’s sheer level of political cynicism is simply remarkable. In retaliation for Democrats outwitting McConnell with their climate bill, House Republicans voted against the semiconductors bill most of them actually support. Amazingly, 24 House Republicans bucked their leadership and voted for the bill.

Now Susan Collins that the legislative coup now likely means Republicans won’t allow a vote on the bill to protect same sex marriage rights. “I just think the timing could not have been worse and it came totally out of the blue,” Collins, explaining that it will now be much harder for her and other GOP moderates to secure GOP votes. Collins once again demonstrates that she cannot be trusted farther than one can see her with their eyes closed.

Politics ain’t beanbag. But just as Republicans see any Democratic electoral victory as “suspect” and “possibly fradulent,” they see any Democratic legislative victory as unacceptable.

The issues is simple: same sex married couples in the United States should either have protections or they shouldn’t. Same-sex marriage is supported by 78% of Americans, including 55% of Republicans. It is under direct threat by the Clarence Thomas-Samuel Alito rogue sham masquerading as a “Supreme” Court.

In the most brass tacks sense Democrats have what they want here. They passed the CHIPS bill which actually has deep bipartisan support - and will likely see Republican congressmen holding press conferences to announce projects in their districts, like they regularly do for the bipartisan infrastructure bill most of them voted against.

Sticking it to veterans and same-sex couples won’t prevent the health care and climate bill, though I would not consider that a done deal until it’s actually a done deal, with Kyrsten Sinema signing on - letting her have any final say like this is the equivalent of giving a teenage gangbanger a can of spray paint and a blank wall.

What this demonstrates is that in our current politics, it is up to Democrats to handle things that are in the normal course of decency or responsibility.

Republicans need to get something in return. That was what the legislative hostage takings and debt ceiling dramas have been about since 2010.

Most Republicans really believe that same sex marriages are wrong or at least shouldn’t be put on an equal standing by the state with “traditional” marriages. But at least ten Republicans don’t believe that and up until today would have been fine with allowing this bill to pass. But now that may be off because of this climate bill. Because their fee-fees got hurted.

Modern conservatives are devoted to defending their rights to do what they want against what they claim is an “oppressive” majority. But they also claim the right to force everyone else to act in accordance with their beliefs.

None of this is “conservative.” These are pseudo-conservatives.

As Theodore Adorno wrote 70 years ago: “The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”

That’s just how it is. That’s how they operate.

Late Thursday, Schumer said the Senate would try again on Monday night to advance the bill.

Tom Porter, executive vice president for government relations at IAVA, predicted that the GOP senators will bow to the political reality that “nobody is going to slap you around for spending money on sick veterans.” “We’re going to win this, but it just isn’t going to be as pretty as we had hoped.”

All of which proves that Adlai Stevenson was right 70 years ago when he ran against Eisenhower for president and said during the campaign, “The strange alchemy of time, has somehow converted the Democrats into the truly conservative party of this country — the party dedicated to conserving all that is best, and building solidly and safely on these foundations.”

Whatever Republicans are, they most definitely are not “conservative.”

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