Sanders as head of the powerful Budget committee plans to go big and use reconciliation as much as possible: "[Republicans] should be worried," but their constituents should not

[SaysWho?]

Atop the Powerful Budget Committee at Last, Bernie Sanders Wants to Go Big - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

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To the chagrin of Republicans, the democratic socialist senator will play a central role in shepherding Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda through Congress.

 

 

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Asked about conservatives’ fears, Mr. Sanders was pointed. He said polls showed the tax and spending increases he planned to bring forward were popular among wide swaths of voters, including Republicans, even though the party’s lawmakers tended to dislike them.

 

“They should be worried,” he said, referring to his Republican colleagues. But their constituents, he said, should not be.

 

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Despite Democrats’ narrow control of the Senate, Mr. Sanders is expected to exert heavy influence over taxes, health care, climate change and several other domestic issues. That is because his role as budget chairman will give him control over a little-known but incredibly powerful congressional tool that allows certain types of legislation to win Senate approval with just a simple majority.

 

That tool — a budget mechanism called reconciliation — allows Congress to move some legislation without gaining 60 votes. It has become the vehicle for several major legislative efforts this century, including tax cuts under President Trump and President George W. Bush, and the final version of President Barack Obama’s signature health care bill.

The reconciliation process begins with lawmakers adopting a budget resolution, originating in the House and Senate Budget Committees, which can include directions to congressional committees on how much to increase federal spending or taxes.

The nature of the process effectively gives Mr. Sanders a leading role in deciding how expansive — and expensive — Mr. Biden’s ambitions for new taxes and spending will be.

 

Mr. Sanders said in the interview that he wanted an initial, emergency stimulus package to be “big.” He thinks it must include an additional $1,400 in direct payments for adults and children, on top of the $600 that Congress just passed, along with money for states and cities to fund coronavirus vaccine distribution, testing and contact tracing. He also wants to create an emergency universal health care program, so that anyone can get medical treatment during the pandemic, whether they currently have insurance or not.

 

 

This was him on Seth Meyers:

 

Seth Meyers: President Biden made, I think, a great effort yesterday to send a message of unity, and as someone who talked in the lead up to the election about how he is the kind of politician who has friends on the other side aisle; he wants to work with republicans, yet we're already seeing even today that Mitch McConnell is taking steps to limit what the democrats in the senate can do. Do you think there is some sort of bipartisan work that can be done in the senate or are you expecting a sort of McConnell-inspired gridlock?

 

Bernie Sanders: Look, I think we should do our best to reach out to republicans who represent communities that are suffering terribly in terms of unemployment, lack of healthcare, and other very serious problems --- but --- I don't think our reaching out should go on indefinitely. This country today is hurting and people are hurting really, really badly. We're looking [sic] about people and people who cannot feed their kids (literally) who are worried about being evicted, can't afford to go to the doctor even when they are sick. We have got to move and move quickly. So I think we should reach out republicans, [but] if they choose to not come on board --- which I suspect will probably be the case --- we have the majority, we should use that majority in a very aggressive way. Now I'm gonna be chairman of the budget committee which handles what we call 'reconciliation' and that is a senate process by which you can pass not all kinds of legislation but a whole lot of very important legislation with a [simple] majority vote, not 60 votes, and it is my view that we should make sure that we address the needs of the American people in that reconciliation bill, and if we pass it with 51 votes, we pass it with 51 votes.

 

 

[Comet]

Let’s see it happen then. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

When/if congress actually legislates, this gives him a more powerful position than as president

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

When/if congress actually legislates, this gives him a more powerful position than as president

 

So what you're saying is, Bernie won the long game. 

[silentbob]

Bernie must of been a huge fan of Hamilton.  I can’t wait to hear this missing Hamilton track “ The Room Where it Happen Part#2”

[Greatoneshere]

This is probably the thing I am most excited for. This could change things.