DL Open Thread: Thursday, October 21, 2021

Bleepin’ Joe Manchin:  His pathological need to be the center of attention is the only way in which he can be described as a ‘centrist’.  A total dick.  Of course he’d float the idea of leaving the D Caucus.  After killing key climate change legislation.

Yet More Rollbacks Of Popular Proposed Policies In Biden Package.  Control Of Drug Pricing…:

But with at least three House Democrats opposing the toughest version of the measure, and at least one Senate Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, against it, government negotiating power appears almost certain to be curtailed, if not jettisoned. The loss would be akin to Republicans’ failure under Mr. Trump to repeal the Affordable Care Act, after solemn pledges for eight years to dismantle the health law “root and branch.”

…Raising Corporate And Individual Taxes:

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are moving toward dropping their push to raise corporate and individual income tax rates to pay for their sprawling domestic policy bill, instead drafting a plan that includes new ways to tax the wealthy and multinational corporations, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The conversations have been driven in large part by the concerns of a crucial centrist senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who has been resisting any increase in either rate for more than a month.

Two bomb throwers ruining a highly-popular package.  Because they can.  Hey, Al, what’s the price of housing in France?  And is the wine cheaper over there?  And do I have to learn how to conjugate verbs in French?

For Those Of You Clinging To The Fiction Of An Independent Redistricting Commission:

The bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission nearly gave up on drawing a congressional map on Wednesday after coming to blunt terms with their reality: Partisanship is the real motivating factor — even on a commission created expressly to avoid it.

Yet again, the commission gridlocked after trying to reach a consensus on a direction of a new congressional map. Following hours of largely fruitless debate, several commissioners said it was time to cut to the chase and be upfront about the political biases that have been derailing progress.

“That’s the elephant in the room we’re all talking about,” said Democratic citizen member James Abrenio, arguing it was futile to continue debating different maps if the only real data influencing decisions was how each political party would fare.

Del. Marcus Simon (D-Fairfax) said that he would not support a map that equally gave Republicans and Democrats five safe seats while only one seat, the 2nd District in Hampton Roads, would be competitive. Such a map would represent a gain for Republicans that the commission’s Democrats have argued does not reflect the changing demographics and voting patterns of the state; Republicans currently hold only four of the state’s 11 seats and have not won a statewide election since 2009.