Alon Preiss: How to Save “Build Back Better”

One hopes that Senator Manchin’s sudden announcement that he’s done with the Build Back Better bill will lead to a sensible resolution, and that, perhaps, the declaration was made with the White House’s secret support.

Let’s put this in perspective: I am all in favor of a bill that would balloon the deficit, and that would result, temporarily, in a sweeping loss of Democratic House and Senate seats. I am not in favor of a bill that, once passed, will result in the same loss of seats, but will expire shortly thereafter. What is the point of that?

The trick is this: the Dems have filled the bill with sunsetting provisions, essential programs that will shortly expire. This keeps the bill reasonably inexpensive but also pretty useless.

The Dems bet that the new programs would be so popular that the Republicans would not let them expire, that in reality these programs would indeed be permanent, pointing to the Republican inability to kill the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

But Obamacare is permanent. The Republicans faced an actual vote to kill it. Had they been able to let it expire without a vote, it would have expired without a vote.

Look at President Clinton’s ban on semi-automatic weapons. After this passed, the Democratic party was decimated at the polls. The ban was popular, but it stirred partisan anger. And when it was up for renewal, the Republicans quietly allowed it to expire, in spite of its popularity.

According to the New York Times, Senator Manchin has asked the White House to “drop[] some spending efforts in order to focus on a smaller list of programs that would last a full decade and be paid for largely by raising taxes on high earners and large corporations.” Slate reports that programs that last a decade require an affirmative vote to kill.

So Senator Manchin won’t vote on this bill. But he might still vote on a bill.

This seems not-unreasonable. Let’s hope there is a plan to move forward.

^^^

Alon Preiss is the author of In Love With Alice (2017). Read more, or pick up your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or from ANY BOOKSTORE IN ANY TOWN OR CITY IN AMERICA.