Infrastructure Stalemate

On today’s podcast, Steve is joined by Haley Byrd Wilt, who writes Uphill for The ...

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On today’s podcast, Steve is joined by Haley Byrd Wilt, who writes Uphill for The Dispatch, and John McCormack, Washington correspondent for National Review, to discuss what exactly has been happening on Capitol Hill this week. After House Democrats delayed a vote on the infrastructure bill, can both factions find a way to end the stalemate? 

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Angie

    This was interesting, informative and fascinating...thanks..and way cool you have this job Haley, and you do it well

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    Ben Connelly

    Congratulations again, Haley, and welcome back. Glad to have your reporting again. Ryan and Harvest did a good job in your absence.

    That bit at the end about what reporting is actually like was fascinating!

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  3. DJ

    Really enjoyed learning about the reporting process, and I really appreciate the work Haley and John do. Not Steve, though🤪

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  4. anonvet

    More discussion of the "$3.5 trillion bill," compared to how many new deals it is, how many Obamacares it is, etc.

    But then, seemingly subconsciously, all three of you talk about the reason we have a bill with such a huge dollar about in the first place and it's not liberalism. It's the filibuster.

    Granted, any given liberal bill would be larger than any given conservative bill, but if it weren't for the filibuster, this $3.5 trillion bill would be multiple bills, the parts of which would be debated on their merits rather what we have now, a dumb discussion based on the overall size of the bill.

    Yet another example of how Congress is broken.

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      George.Skinner

      I'm just not sure how the filibuster is the big problem when the Democrats can't even secure the votes of 50 Democrats in the Senate to get their package through with reconciliation. Perhaps the bigger problem here is a lack of support for these programs.

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      1. anonvet

        adam jentleson's kill switch is a great explainer re the significance of the filibuster.

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    2. anonvet

      (And when I say "dumb" I just mean that we're not talking about the substance of the bill.)

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    Jason Gibson

    I love getting this on the ground view. That’s why I treasure uphill newsletter

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    Adicesa14

    As usual, a fine discussion. Thank you

    John McCormack said (paraphrase) “reconciliation once a year, twice a year, whatever.” How often this exception can be used has never been sufficiently explained. It seems an important matter. So, what is the periodicity?

    Many Congresspersons are performers, not legislators. Many of the progressive Congresspersons are activists, not legislators. Certainly, the lack of widespread legislative expertise is a problem, but a bigger problem may be that activists are revolutionaries that will not cooperate unless they get their way. If this hypothesis is correct, both bills will pass as originally advertised or neither will be enacted.

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