Can someone please explain to me what is happening in the Congress? In particular how the Democrats benefit from the course of action they’ve selected? The only explanation I have is that they’re doing what they’re doing when your highest priority is “owning” you opponent rather than accomplishing anything.
Not quite following. If you are talking about the budget are you asking why Dems voted to pass the bill in both the House and Senate?
Steve
steve
I dont want to put words in Dave’s mouth, but I suspect he is referring to the Dems strategy of doubling down on progressive issues and just being obstructionists always and everywhere.
After all, over at OTB Dr Taylor is on week 7 of his juvenile pouting over the election. Just read what he writes.
Still not getting it. I fail to remember Republicans supporting Dem bills but I dont remember Dave making the same accusation against then GOP. In fact, as we saw, the GOP couldn’t pass a budget without Dem help so the Dems helped. The Dems cant pass any bills since the GOP controls the House so again not sure what they are doing that prompted Dave’s comment. If he is referring to Biden’s pardons and commutations that is par for the course for nearly every POTUS. It’s abused, a number of them were a bad idea, but it’s not unique to Dems.
I think Taylor is obsessing too much about the election since the Dems were bound to lose. There was an international anti-incumbent wave and Biden was POTUS while we had high levels of inflation. It eventually became clear that while essentially every other economic number was positive inflation trumps everything.
Steve
I would place the blame on whoever told me winning flame wars means winning reelection. Another possibility is that some folks have not outgrown the elementary school play ground.
House Democrats voted almost unanimously against the first continuing resolution. That was self-defeating. The bill that passed had fewer of their priorities than the original CR.
In context, the Dems and GOP negotiated a budget. Musk vetoed it. The GOP then put together a new version with no Dem input so the Dems voted against it as it took out a lot of their priorities. I dont know which priorities you are referring to in the final bill but I know that the children’s cancer research and a couple of other priorities were passed separately the next day or two. So Johnson could say he got the bill Musk wanted and Democrats got what they wanted AND the Dems made sure there was not a shutdown which the GOP cant do even though they control the House. (Also note that the bill which was passed had more spending than the one that did not. It did have a lot fewer pages which counts as a victory on the right.)
As an aside I am surprised you and almost no one else has commented on the Social Security expansion in the bill so that public employees on pensions can also receive SS payments, or larger ones.
Steve
In context the Republicans used jiu jitsu on the Democrats. Had the House Democrats voted for the initial CR (the one negotiated by both parties) it would have passed. Instead they voted against it and the bill that passed stripped their “input”.
As far as Social Security expansion goes I have thought that federal employees should be enrolled in Social Security for 40 years and said so here for 20 years.
…….If Federal employees had been paying in 40 Years ago as I was, I would agree.
How about railroad workers Dave?
And retired state employees? I am in the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, and I only get SS payments for monies earned outside that system (e.g., private consulting). There was some discussion years ago about whether the federal government should confiscate all state and city pension plans and force state retirees into SS. When SS was first set up, people in state pension plans were excluded from SS.
The Ohio STRS is much better than SS, in part because it has actual, real assets (not promises from Congress), and it actually is a pension plan without a whole bunch of welfare benefits tacked on.
So you think fed employees should get both a pension and SS? I believe that is what they voter for and I dont believe they contributed to SS aside from outside income.
As I recall they never voted on the bill that more of the goodies. Mush vetoed it. Largely irrelevant if they did since if it did and I recalling wrong then the Senate would not have passed it after the Musk veto.
Steve
No. I think that federal employees should have FICA deducted from their paychecks just like the rest of us and the federal government should credit the trust fund with the employer amount. Federal employees should have a 401K-style retirement plan and nothing else.
No the first budget was voted on by the House. It failed because almost all Democrats voted against it.
The amendment probably effects more state/local government employees than federal. The feds switched to a SS program plus defined contribution benefits in 1984.
The people effected by the amendment worked significant time for both government and private sector. The examples I’m most familiar with are state employees that take early retirement in their early 50s, but their pension is insufficient to retire securely so they enter the private sector. They have to work ten years (i.e. pay FICA) to be able to claim SS benefits. However, those SS benefits are reduced due to a government pension, regardless of the size of the benefit. Here is an example from the comments in the WSJ article explaining (most of) the issues:
“I worked 10 years at a college in Ohio covered by state pension system and 20 odd years in jobs covered by social security. When I decided to claim SS early at age 64 I computed how much I would be paid based only on the years during which I was contributing to SS. If I had not worked at all those 10 years in Ohio outside the SS system, my computation would have been correct. Instead, it was reduced by about $500 per month – essentially a tax on my benefits. In that sense it seemed unfair to me.”
https://archive.ph/ax3Ug#selection-11037.0-11037.501
@Steve and @Dave: Probably too late but we Feds have been contributing to Social Security since January 1, 1984—four decades. The Federal Employees Retirement System is now essentially a 401k plan, not the old pension system, and factors in Social Security payments. The bill Congress passed and Biden signed just eliminates offsets for those who entered under the old system as well as those for teachers and other state/local government employees.