Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) attends a rally on the House steps of the U.S. Capitol to oppose the Build Back Better Act, November 17, 2021.
The House Democrats came together this morning and passed a larger-than-expected Build Back Better bill valued at about $2.1 trillion. This may be whittled down somewhat in the Senate, but it is still one impressive achievement.
And even though Biden’s own approval ratings are down, the provisions of the bill are popular.
Polls show that 88 percent of Americans support Build Back Better’s measures to cut prescription drug prices; 84 percent support the provisions to lower health insurance premiums; 73 percent favor the funding for paid family leave; 72 percent back Build Back Better’s creation of clean-energy jobs to combat climate change; and 67 percent of Americans support the funding for universal pre-K.
This will all serve Democrats well next November. And what will also play to the Democratic advantage is the Republicans’ increasingly crackpot behavior in the days leading up to the House vote.
The week began with all but two Republicans voting to condone Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar for circulating a video depicting him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Gosar initially tried to claim he meant no harm, but minutes after the vote he tweeted out the offending video again.
Then, on the eve of the vote, the Republican House leader, Kevin McCarthy, under fire from some Trumpers for not being abjectly supportive enough, delayed the proceedings with a rambling eight-hour filibuster in which he came across as unhinged.
All of this—the positive achievements of Build Back Better, and the lunatic negativity of the Republicans—will be pure gold for Democrats next November. It will serve to remind voters, who may have forgotten what is at stake when they stayed home or voted Republican in the recent off-off-year elections, that this is not a normal time or a normal Republican Party.
Trump was not in evidence in the recent election, but he will be ubiquitous next year, reminding non-hardcore MAGA voters why he was and is such a menace. And the Republicans running for Congress will be joined to Trump at the hip.
This kind of nationalized election may play well deep in Trump country, but not in most of America. Memo to pundits who are counting Democrats out a year in advance of November 2022: Reports of their death are exaggerated.
