Nancy Pelosi Has Her Ideas About What The Country Wants And Expects If She Gets The Gavel Back-- Reach For The No-Doz

My guess is that Pelosi will be the Speaker starting in January. That's predicated on two things happening-- that the Democrats take back the House and that a majority of House Democrats elect her to be their leader again. According to a report from Mike Allen at Axios yesterday, she's got her plans for what she wants to accomplish between January and the crucial 2020 election when there's likely to be a Democratic president who will sign bills (also likely to be a Democratic Senate). In any case, Pelosi is still impeachment iadverse. She's claiming all the establishment-variety of the identity groups had input into "the plan." 

Allen reports that "The first three legislative packages will cover health-care costs, $1 trillion in federal infrastructure investment, and ethics and lobbying reform. Medicare-For-All? Job Guarantee? Are you kidding?

Although "polls show that health care and wages are voters' top concerns," Pelosi-- and the overwhelming majority of her leadership team-- is incapable of a grand, bold vision. Her plans are basically baby steps and the status quo ante. They're going to focus on some of Trump's 2016 promises that the GOP renegged on. One of her aides told Allen that "We're ready from Day 1 to fight for the people. These priorities took months and months of conversation with members to boil down." Wow, I would have thought they were put together while someone was taking a dump and re-reading the dull Better Deal thing that no one ever thought about twice and certainly never caught on with the voters.

Committees will investigate the Trump Regime, but will not move forward with impeachment until it's a bipartisan endeavor, which means never.

• Health care would be divided into two buckets: cost containment, including reining in premiums, and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.
• The $1 trillion in infrastructure spending would be sold as a way to boost jobs and wages.
• Drain the Swamp for real means "sweeping lobbying reform, changes in internal rules (something the public may care about, but not all that much, and not at all compared to things like Medicare-For-All).

Stephanie and Rob are referring to Pelosi's Pay-Go idiocy

Allen also points out that "Pelosi, despite opposition from some progressives, is committed to reviving the 'pay-go' (or pay as you go) rule she had during her previous run as speaker, requiring that new spending be paid for by budget cuts or revenue offsets. It's almost as if she's hoping to build up a surplus for the next Republican Congress to squander instead of doing anything useful for the American people. This is why more and more people are calling them Democraps instead of Democrats. Except for the hatred of Trump, this plan would keep people from bothering to even get out to vote in November.

So what happened to that "We're the party that isn't afraid to think big" thing? No transformative policy agenda here. What do progressives want that Pelosi and her team are ignoring? Obviously, Medicare-For-All, but also free state colleges and universities, spending real money to tackle the opioid crisis, passing a paid medical and family leave program, job guarantee, incentivizing veteran hiring, a massive investment in green infrastructure, moving towards 100% renewable energy, student loan debt relief. Not a hint of any of that in the Pelosi Plan. For one perspective, her plan is more conservative than the Republicans'. They both sing from the same hymnal but the GOP is always ready to abandon fiscal responsibility for their priorities-- tax cuts, corporate subsidies, the military-- while Democratic leadership is too scared to. Pelosi is sending a message that makes the Democratic Party sound like the GOP of the 1950's-- "We're the party of responsible budgets. Elect us if you're mad about Trump and his congressional enablers racking up trillion-dollar deficits with his gigantic tax cut."

It was just a few weeks ago that Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) told NBC that "The instinct that some Democrats have, which is born out of a sense of responsibility as the 'governing' party, is to explain exactly how you're going to pay for everything and how it all adds up. It puts you at a total disadvantage because you're already constraining your priorities." Schatz also said that "the GOP is skillful about never talking about paying for what they want and Dems are always trying to satisfy the 13 people who are doing Third Way work on K Street. It’s a game that disadvantages Democrats. I don’t want to play it anymore."

That's the clarion call the Democrats on the Senate Buget Committee learned from their 2015-16 Chief Economist, Stephanie Kelton,who left that position to work as the Bernie campaign's economic advisor. "I have a strong sense the American people would care very little about the government's budget outcome if the government was delivering a good economy." Kelton added that "PAYGO is a self-imposed, economically illiterate approach to budgeting. Republicans know this. They understand that deficits pose no risk to our national solvency and that the budget can be used to improve the financial well-being of the donor class. So they have unabashedly used their power to expand deficits and, hence, deliver windfall gains for big corporations and the already well-to-do. Instead of vowing budget chastity, Democrats should be articulating an agenda that will excite voters so that-- when the time comes-- they can unleash the full power of the public purse on their behalf-- a cleaner planet, good jobs, a secure retirement, affordable child care, debt-free college, and Medicare-for-All."

Rashida Tlaib, who won her primary in Michigan and is guaranteed a seat in Congress. Having served in the state legislature she very much understands this austerity trick Pelosi and Hoyer are buying into. "Our families in MI-13 reside in the second poorest congressional district in the country, and they need real help from the federal government. House Democrats insisting on paying for progressive legislation that elevates working families with budget cuts elsewhere needlessly ties our hands before we even begin to fight. If Democratic leadership is going to buy into right-wing talking points and stand in the way of progress for our families, we will replace them with representatives more in touch with the families we represent."