{"id":198619,"date":"2021-03-10T02:46:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T23:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/in-hyperpartisan-washington-truth-is-out-window-spending-has-no-limit\/"},"modified":"2021-03-10T02:46:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T23:46:12","slug":"in-hyperpartisan-washington-truth-is-out-window-spending-has-no-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/in-hyperpartisan-washington-truth-is-out-window-spending-has-no-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"#In hyperpartisan Washington, truth is out window, spending has no limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#In hyperpartisan Washington, truth is out window, spending has no limit<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n

After the Senate passed the $1.9 trillion \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan,\u201d President Biden came out to take a bow. This measure came \u201cnot a moment too soon,\u201d he said. \u201cFor over a year, the American people were told they were on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the kind of thing presidents say when partisanship defines reality.<\/p>\n

One of the hallmarks of hyper-partisanship is to live entirely in the moment. The nearest weapon to hand is fair game<\/a>. Precedents only matter as a way to show that the other side is hypocritical for violating them. <\/p>\n

Because President Donald Trump lived in the moment, with no historical memory and no foresight beyond the lifespan of a tweet, his administration was a constant demonstration of this dynamic. For example, he frequently insisted that the military had been run into the ground under his predecessor \u2014 \u201cWe had no ammunition!\u201d \u2014 and that he completely rebuilt it. Neither was true.<\/p>\n

Biden may have a longer memory and broader time horizon, but he is acting like a player in the same game. When his administration took office, it immedia<\/a>tely floated the claim that nothing had been done to combat the pandemic and that Team Biden would have to start \u201cfrom scratch.\u201d The simple fact that about 1 million people a day were already getting vaccinated when Biden was sworn in proves that was wrong.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the idea that Americans have been told they were \u201con their own\u201d is ahistorical claptrap.<\/p>\n

The $1.9 trillion is just the latest installment in an unprecedented spending spree. This time last year, Congress passed the CARES Act, which spent more than $2 trillion on relief. In December, Congress extended the act to the tune of an additional $900 billion. That\u2019s slightly more than the entire GDP of Turkey ($852 billion).<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell fairly chastised the Democrats for passing another round of massive spending on a party-line vote. \u201cIn 2020, we passed five historic pandemic rescue packages totaling $4 trillion,\u201d he said. \u201cNot one of them got fewer than 90 votes in the Senate or about 80 percent of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one told Americans they were \u201con their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

McConnell is also right that it would take a hernia-inducing effort to connect some of the rescue plan\u2019s provisions to the pandemic, such as $130 billion for K-12 education, even though $113 billion of education subsidies from earlier relief packages are still unspent. There is $30.5 billion for mass transit, including $1.7 billion for Biden\u2019s beloved Amtrak. No wonder House Majority Whip James Clyburn has said the pandemic creates \u201ca tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the idea that this package comes \u201cnot a moment too soon\u201d for an ailing economy is preposterous. Yes, there are millions of Americans suffering from the economic consequences of the pandemic, but signs point to an economy about to skyrocket. Employment is surging, and US households have $1.6 trillion in excess savings they are probably dying to dip into once they get the all-clear. Relief targeted where needed isn\u2019t just defensible, it\u2019s necessary. It would also cost vastly less than $1.9 trillion.<\/p>\n

But the dilemma for McConnell, and Republicans general<\/a>ly, is that this is the world they helped create. Under Trump, spending and debt exploded, even before the pandemic. And while McConnell has a point about the bipartisan nature of COVID-19 relief efforts, he would be hard-pressed to show other examples of significant bipartisanship when he was majority leader under Trump.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say this story begins with Trump. One could tell a similar tale about the George W. Bush and Obama eras. Indeed, that\u2019s the point. The partisan need for wins at any cost, as fast as possible \u2014 fueled by a fear that party members only have so much time before voters punish them for overreaching by electing another set of partisans who will then overreach \u2014 has created bipartisan dysfunction. Complaints about debt and spending lose credibility when politicians spout them only when it\u2019s the other party doing the borrowing and spending.<\/p>\n

Voters have noticed. The Biden administration likes to point out that while the bill passed along partisan lines in Congress, it enjoys bipartisan support with the public. And why shouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

If you spend decades flip-flopping on debt and spending, depending on whether or not you are in power, you shouldn\u2019t be shocked if voters say, \u201cYeah, yeah, whatever. Send me my money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twitter: @JonahDispatch<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#In hyperpartisan Washington, truth is out window, spending has no limit” After the Senate passed the $1.9 trillion \u201cAmerican Rescue Plan,\u201d President Biden came out to take a bow. This measure came \u201cnot a moment too soon,\u201d he said. \u201cFor over a year, the American people were told they were on their own.\u201d This is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS_USA-CONGRESS.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[96854,991,41445,97083],"class_list":["post-198619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-9-21","tag-joe-biden","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-partisanship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}