Quote (thundercock @ 6 Oct 2021 06:15)
You're right about the climate spending but that's a relatively small portion of the bill. The largest chunk of the cost is the child tax credit, followed by Medicare expansion (ensuring old people get dental, vision, and hearing), and then universal Pre-K. Subsidies for community colleges IS strengthening working-class people. Who do you think attends them? I'll give you a hint: it's not the rich! You can't have it both ways though. You either support strengthening the welfare state (which costs money) or you'd rather save money and give the working class the finger. You know where I stand: fuck the working class. But to call it an "outrageously pricey slush fund for liberal priorities" is really unfair when your socialist ass supports the most expensive provisions in the bill!
As for the pathway to citizenship, it has nothing to do with the budget. That's why the parliamentarian ruled the way she did...I really don't fault the Democrats for TRYING because the GOP did similar things under Trump. Acting is part of the job.
Community colleges make for dope TV series, but are pretty useless when it comes to helping careers. This money should go into actual vocational training rather than a watered down degree whose academic level stands barely above that of high school... at a time when even BSc's are increasingly not cutting it anymore in many fields. What the spending on community colleges would do, however, is subsidize their teachers and personnel, which - like all teachers and professors - are an incredibly Dem-leaning demographic.
My gripe is not just with general programs into which Dems want to pour money, it's also with the scope and indiscriminate nature of the spending. Rich parents (say those with a family income above $120k) don't need child tax credits or state-funded pre-K. Entitlements for paid days off would be enough, no need to introduce generous paid family leave.
Dems are trying to hook not just the working- and lower-middle class but everyone onto these programs. This is wrong on economic justice grounds (dito for the proposed repeal of the SALT deduction cap), but also carries the risk of backfiring. Indiscriminately showering everyone in money will only exacerbate the already alarming inflation. You know who suffers the most from surging inflation? It's not the rich. By being too reckless with their spending, Dems risk triggering an inflation which eats up the benefits of their bill for the poor and working-class, flipping the net impact of the bill on its head.