President Joe Biden’s potentially greatest ally in 2022 may be Senator Joe Manchin.
H.R. 5776’s clock is running out as the new year draws near and H.R. 5376, the ambitious social agenda of the Build Back Better Act dims like an old era giving way to the dawn of America’s next election year.
Notwithstanding Sunday’s Washington Post op-ed by Progressive Democrat Representative Pramila Jayapal, “Broken promises cannot deter the path to Build Back Better”, calling on President Biden to resort to Obama and Trump-style government by executive action, the political tenor of the coming year is already well down the road of both Democrats and Republicans realizing that 2022 is going to be about triangulating to find America’s center lest the mid-term election be lost.
Joe Manchin’s rejection of H.R. 5376 as presently constructed is, in my view, a legitimate reflection of the American people’s growing unease with the brashness of “woke” theory. Senator Manchin’s epiphany is that the national interest is already being overcome by events.
Jayapal is incorrect in her assertion that “Your word is all that matters” in government. Sorry, ma’am, but the national interest is all the matters in government. It is a cold fact that national interests change as the nation develops.
The policy advice I have for President Biden is to look carefully at H.R. 2021’s social agenda proposal. 5376 and think about what “nice to haves,” using the term from the Obama era, need to be “thrown under the bus.”
It won’t make the progressives happy. However, they may not be as many after 2022. For two additional years, President Biden is still in the White House. This is his national interest task, regardless of the opinions expressed by activists.
Extremist activity on both the left and right has been evident for more than a decade. We also see anarchic elements entering the American discussion, fuelled by the internet’s ability to generate both destructive and constructive viral storms. It’s America. It’s America.
This has caused the American Dream to fracture and ordinary Americans no longer recognize one another as citizens or neighbors. Many people feel that the collapse is limiting their ability to freely express themselves. Americans are tired, no matter their party affiliation. They feel increasingly angry and depressed.
Adding to the stress of politics, the promise of “two weeks to flatten the curve” by the government from the entirety of the federal, state, counties, and municipal “betters” to deal with COVID-19 compounds the weariness.
Fact is, the COVID-19 story will reach its third year in 2022. The latest Omicron Omicron variant appears to be capable of infecting both unvaccinated as well as vaccinated Americans.
We all know someone with three jabs faithfully done who’s tested positive. Last-minute cancelations of Christmas parties are a sad sign of the times.
People are now debating whether the virus could become as widespread as the common cold, adding to their depression.
More significantly, gaming theory analysts increasingly discuss what catastrophic failure modes may come, not from the virus itself, but from unforeseen effects of mankind’s attempts to control it. In the same manner, political analysts are concerned about political activists’ hubris in dealing with the virus, they worry about their hubris about it.
However, there are other structural problems as well. The COVID-19 financial aid packages 2020-2021 expire.
There are three million US homeowners at high risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. This could result in a man-made Katrina-like displacement. It would be devastating for communities that have been able to benefit from over 50 years worth of housing and urban planning programs dating back to 1960s Civil Rights and Great Society.
After a decade-long period of artificially quantitative easing after the 2008 financial crisis ended, the US will face inflation in 2022. This could create new economic stressors. The global economy’s adaptation to climate and energy policies has already increased market uncertainty. It’s exacerbated by COVID-19 compressing at least a decade of workforce evolution into a two-year shock to people and the economy.
Theoretically, the free market can adapt to it. Many academics have said so during Zoom meetings. But we aren’t following an entirely free-market economic model owing to both politically motivated government mandates and, even more dangerous, opinion-driven sustainability activism.
That’s a hyper-controlled economy that is driven by instinct instead of data. It is very rare that this approach gets the right answer.
Biden and Manchin need to build alliances and use this chance to continue working together to deconstruct all of the pork in the Agenda of 2022 Version of Build Back Better Package. They should insist on using proper rigor to each request from special interests instead of accepting blindly the Christmas tree ornaments 2021 H.R. All the leftovers of the Infrastructure Act were placed into 5376.
Just like all the ordinary people’s party plans were overcome by events this year due to Omicron, it’s time for the Washington establishment to do the same.
P.S.
When 2022 comes, I’ll be extracting sections of the next version of the BBB bill and analyzing them from a national policy and special interest perspective, particularly with respect to how to suggest constructive amendment to the language that legislators can consider.
Whether you agree with the thoughts or not, I hope you’ll come along and participate in contacting your representatives and senators with your opinions in 2022; because that’s what we’re going to need.
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