> If they haven't saved any money, and can't bail themselves out, they deserve bankruptcy
Agree.
What we need is a revocation of the Exchange Stabilisation Fund [1] as well as hard limits on the Defense Production Act’s Title III [2] and whatever the fuck in the CHIPS Act let the President unilaterally invest taxpayer funds in Intel.
This announcement of a non-binding resolution does none of that. It’s pure puffery.
And in case anyone thinks this is hateful or harsh, remember: bankruptcy doesn’t mean we space laser these companies. Shareholders get wiped. Creditors take over. Services probably keep getting rendered, GPUs probably keep running.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Stabilization_Fund
[2] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-8323/pdf/COMPS-832...
"It's pure puffery"
How exactly are House Democrats supposed to revoke the Exchange Stabilization Fund or change the Defense Production Act when they don't have a majority in the House? All they can do is signal what they intend to do if they regain the majority.
> How exactly are House Democrats supposed to revoke the Exchange Stabilization Fund or change the Defense Production Act when they don't have a majority in the House?
Introduce an actual bill. Draft and debate something specific so that when they are in power they don’t have to start from scratch.
Use procedure to try and bring it up for a vote. At least try to legislate.
I believe it was mitch mcconnell back during obama that said he never wanted to see another democratic bill passed again-to the point he voted against his own bill he signed just because it received dem support
> to the point he voted against his own bill he signed just because it received dem support
Who cares. Write a damn bill. Get agreement among your members that specific text works. That is the first step to any legislating. It’s also something Democrats know how to do—even the CPC has an energy bill drafted. It’s what you do when you’re being serious about prioritizing legislating versus tweeting.
If you care about this issue and have D representation, call and demand an actual bill.
Never forget that McConnell is responsible for the shit state of the country. His Supreme Court bullshit was treason.
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Irony of ironies, McConnell's seat is up for grabs Tuesday, with a bright young go-getter on the Democratic ticket, and a wishy-washy, Trump-brown-nosing nepobaby on the Republican side, in a state that stunned everyone by electing a Democratic governor last go-round. One might say that the Democrat is about to get stomped for obvious and unmentionable reasons (it's Kentucky, he's black), but it's actually because the DSCC is still bitter that he almost beat their preferred candidate in the 2020 primary; they've contributed a fraction to his general election campaign of what they spent defeating him so that Temu Mitch could lose to the Real McConnell.
Everyone is complaining that the current Democratic candidate has had basically no ad presence. The Republican would be in the same boat, as they both received about the same amount in individual donations, but the latter actually got national and PAC support to run ads.
We do this to ourselves.
One might say that the Democrat is about to get stomped for obvious and unmentionable reasons (it's Kentucky, he's black)
Middle school level opinion. Laughable, almost. What possible authoritative source could you point to to even remotely beg this case that isn’t silly conjecture in 2026?
https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/state-specific-informatio...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/kentucky-sena...
https://eji.org/news/kentucky-felony-disenfranchisement-up-6...
I can't imagine people in Kentucky are any less racist than the ones in my red state.
> Use procedure to try and bring it up for a vote. At least try to legislate.
They do introduce bills in committee. Which are shot down in committee by the instrangient Republicans that lead the committees refusing to compromise often before the bill can come to the full congress. You are asking Dems to do something they literally cannot do while minority party. You are asking Dems to do an impossible thing and then complaining they cannot.
> Introduce an actual bill. Draft and debate something specific so that when they are in power they don’t have to start from scratch.
You're also complainging about democrats not introducing bills... on a post from Democrats proposing bills (well, resolution. whatever, still not starting from scratch then)!!!! You're complaining about something that literally already exists! Stop being so blind.
> They do introduce bills in committee
Sure. They also publish draft bills.
That lets folks comment and edit and build consensus while the other guys are in power. (Or snatch some across-the-aisle votes.)
It’s how effective shadow governments work in parliamentary systems. It’s what the GOP was up to while it was out of power. It’s what the Congressional Progressive Caucus does when it actually plans on passing laws about something [1].
Just not here. Because this is puffery.
> on a post from Democrats proposing bills (well, resolution
Big difference! You float a resolution when you want to tweet about it. You publish a draft bill when you want to legislate.
[1] https://progressives.house.gov/endorsed-bills
So try to pass it, let it fail, and then publish the bill text as an example of what you’ll pass when you win the election. Then when you win, actually pass the damn bill. “Promises kept.” It’s not rocket science.
Edit: love the downvotes, keep them coming. “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.” Classic Big D.
speaker controls the floor. republicans dont have to even let debate happen. the only way to force a vote is discharge petition.
but then the speaker also controls the schedule so republicans will just shut it down and not work for 2 months to avoid the vote.
It doesn’t have to reach the floor. Even introducing an advanced draft in committee can be a signal of intent to voters and a plank for campaigning.
Resolutions are cheap theater. There’s been a huge number from both parties over the last decade, with very few tangible results except from some joint resolutions that stripped away regulations.
That's what they're doing now in this exact case!! omg.
Well great, then stop saying that people who want this are somehow wrong for wanting it. You were responding negatively to someone who was asking for more of this, saying it’s somehow not possible.
He wasn’t saying that it had to actually get into the floor. Just make an effort and use that as an explicit position when campaigning, then follow through.
No, that is not what they are saying. Can we stop pretending like people are saying things other than they are
From them:
"Use procedure to try and bring it up for a vote. At least try to legislate."
"Edit: love the downvotes, keep them coming. “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.” Classic Big D."
They literally are. This guys is explicitly bitching about things actively happening.
From you:
"Just make an effort and use that as an explicit position when campaigning, then follow through."
He literally called making an explicit promises "pure puffery" and they cannot follow through until they are seated so no, they are not saying that. This person isn't worth defending and is not saying any of the things you are assigning to them.
Promises aren’t worth anything without action. Drawing up an actual bill and gathering early feedback/support is action, as real work is being accomplished through that process. Better to do the bulk of the work early and use it as proof to voters that there is real intent.
Which has nothing to do with what the other person was saying. Saying this is fine, assigning this language to someone else who was saying the opposite is not
> That's what they're doing now in this exact case
They’re absolutely not. This is a non-binding resolution. It’s had none of the hard discussions around what should be revoked and how what isn’t revoked should be revised. It’s a nothing burger.
And you think there'd be that from a draft bill? That also will have none of the "hard discussions" that you want in a committee led by Republicans who don't let anything Dems to come to the table to even be talked about. The difference between them is negligible. But hey, you work in private equity, so of course you're just gonna try to hate on Dems no matter what
Then bypass them. Shop it internally among the party, and privately with defecting Rs who see which way the wind is blowing. Bring the results to the committee as a “show your work” moment for voters and draw a line in the sand.
> you think there'd be that from a draft bill?
Yes. I just had a markup of one floated to me by a New York member. This is what you do when you’re preparing to go back into power.
> You are asking Dems to do something they literally cannot do while minority party. You are asking Dems to do an impossible thing and then complaining they cannot.
It's Murc's law all the way down.
>At least try to legislate.
It is still "puffery" if they don't have the needed majority to pass it. I am sorry, I can see you try to find any excuse, purity test, "no true Scotsman" fallacy, to rationalize not voting for the Democrats, but you will have to if you want anything to happen.
It's difficult for a politician to do something that isn't political, so I think we can let them off the hook for making symbolic gestures.
However, putting legislation up for a vote is not puffery. Establishing what parties vote against and why is actually an important part of what the opposition does. Otherwise they may as well not turn up.
Yeah, so, it won't be put up for a vote before the midterms. So? Are you going to vote for the party that at least proposes to do something you want, or will you vote, or leave in place, the party that has proposed nothing or the opposite?
Why should someone vote for the Democrats when they will just throw us under the bus the moment it becomes convenient?
Democrats aren’t a unified block, and they have some bright stars coming into their own this year. Their future looks bright, if people vote their interests the signal is getting through and change is possible.
And because republicans are a unified block whose entire platform is to serve you for dinner. Their whole existence is dedicated to reversing any change.
I would say the same about Republicans.
Yeah, "all" the Democrats will throw you under the bus. All of them. You aren't delusional at all. How much better you are under the Republicans!
You would like a third, fourth choice outside of Democrats and Republicans? Well, you would need a ranked-choice voting system for that. Remind me, who is pushing to extend that system of voting? And who is completely opposed to it and is even banning it wherever they can? Dare to answer?
Perhaps, just maybe, like i mean its possible, we live in a world where chains of events happen, markov style. So that when a bill that can't currently passed gets voted on, there is an event where the politicians who opposed it can be held accountable by thier constituent in later elections.
I know it sounds strange, but what if the math is right, and there can actually be casual relationships?
Sounds reasonable. Doesn't appear to match reality. People have very short memories and are subjected to way to many campaign ads (aka propaganda).
Calling on legislators (in any odds) to perform legislation “Puffery” is a hand wavey way to beg the assertion that “alternative tactics” need to be implemented to get around the process. This is how corruption happens.
Change the rules legally if they don’t work. Rouse your base with actual arguments legally if they don’t work.
Haha nope. It’s the opposite actually. They need to run candidates willing to say things that I agree with in order for me to vote for them.
Which they did, so your point is?
I mean, generally speaking they actually haven't. Look at all the candidates who abandoned trans rights.
A voter who won’t vote for anyone but their perfect candidate is electorally useless in a country of hundreds of millions. Democracy is about compromise, and compromise often means nobody is particularly happy about the outcome because nobody gets all of exactly what they want.
Trans people want to exist without being harassed, assaulted or killed, without being classified as degenerates by the government. They're in the same social space that gay people were 40 years ago.
You aren't talking about compromise on fiscal policy, you're talking about compromise on basic human rights and decency. Accepting transphobia from the Democratic party just means the transphobes get everything they want.
There is a huge difference between being on the wrong side of an issue and choosing not to take sides. In a lot of America, the trans kid in sports thing has turned into a clusterfuck. We probably don't have the votes to see that through. That does't mean someone should be against making trans a protected class for employment, et cetera purposes.
>There is a huge difference between being on the wrong side of an issue and choosing not to take sides
Democrats aren't choosing not to take sides, they're choosing to take the anti-trans side because they feel (likely correctly) that it holds more political currency in the current right-wing authoritarian climate.
>That doesn't mean someone should be against making trans a protected class for employment, et cetera purposes.
But that's just the thing - they will turn against that for the same reason, naked political opportunism. Republicans seem to actually care about principles, odious as those principles sometimes are, whereas the Democrats are constantly trying to curry favor with centrists and conservatives because they're afraid to be labelled "leftist."
> Republicans seem to actually care about principles
Which principles straddle Reagan, Gingrich, Bush and Trump?
for some reason I can't replay to jumpcrisscross below, so I'll put this here: Just cuz you can't get everything you want, doesn't mean you should have no 'hard lines' you're not willing to compromise on. So no, the past 20-30 years of 'the lesser of two evils' doesn't cut it anymore. I've voted for Dems. my whole life, but if they don't get a lot more effective, I wont be doing it in the future. When they had all 3 branches of legislature, they couldn't get stuff passed - everything got gutted or given away (remember the last shutdown when people begged them not to cave ?). Anyway, here's hoping for more independents and BrandNewCongress to pickup steam.
> When they had all 3 branches of legislature, they couldn't get stuff passed
And why? Aren't you forgetting something?
Who is hurt most by a government shutdown? What does it solve? Would Democrats have gained something politcally or lost more support?
Look at the opponents of Democrats (the party), and where they stand on trans rights. Most Democrats support trans rights, almost no Republicans do. We can all close our eyes and wish we had a system that didn't reduce down to two parties, but at the end of the day we're all going to get either a Democrat or a Republican representing us unless you live in a hyper specific part of the country.
Earlier today I had to grit my teeth and vote for Josh Turek in Iowa, even though I think he's a shithead who threw trans people under the bus just to eke out a few more votes from conservative fence sitters. I could've made a protest vote, but the realpolitik of the situation is I'm either getting Turek or his Republican opponent, and I think Turek will do a much better job representing me despite his dumbass about-face on trans issues, whereas the Republican will be actively harmful.
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In what way? Trans people are .01% of the US population. You're just repeating BS propaganda.
In many ways. Perhaps the worst is men being incarcerated in women's prisons because of prison housing policy that allows male prisoners to self-identify as women. These men have subsequently raped, sexually assaulted and impregnated female prisoners.
This has been a direct consequence of policy in multiple Democrat-led states which prioritizes self-declared gender identification over biological sex.
Just so you know, these are the opinions of a crazy person. And when you share these opinions IRL amongst normal people, they absolutely secretly start to realize you’re a crazy person.
No, this is real. Look up Ramel Blount, for example. A male prisoner, incarcerated in a women's prison, who was convicted and sentenced to seven years for raping a female prisoner who was housed with him.
He was in a women's facility because New York Department of Corrections policy (Directive 4498R-A) allowed him to self-identify there. Without this harmful policy, he would not have had access to women he could attack. This was policy introduced by mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democratic Party politician.
Then that specifically should be dealt with. It is not enough for the response people like you have had against ALL trans people.
Is this bait?
No I'm genuinely pleased with this change in direction by some Democrats. Hoping more will do the same.
So you think you are better? What have you achieved? Your own purity, at the expense of your trans friends' rights? "Yeah, you are hounded now by crass Republicans who use every lever of power to make your life hell, but at least I didn't vote for a Democrat who may or may not have lied about his support! Praise me!"
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You're an example of what's wrong with the system, you hold Democrats to the standard of a functional political party, while the other party is openly corrupt with respect to this topic and hasn't even bother with "puffery" legislation even though they dominate every branch of government.
The other party in question is the problem, and you're nitpicking an utterly powerless minority party's efforts to make things better.
to the dead reply: "is currently the problem" then. The party alignments have completetly flipped in 150 years. Nothing is permanent, and I thought that didn't have to be explicitly stated. Since I was incorrect about that I'm talking about the current state of the world, with no naive attachement to a particular label.
> you hold Democrats to the standard of a functional political party, while the other party is openly corrupt
I’m holding the party that has a hope of saving our republic to account for not repeating the messaging-BS mistakes from the later Biden years.
Non-binding resolutions are a mockable waste of time. They do nothing for affordability or corruption or reducing the chances of an AI bail-out.
That's defeatist. Everything they do right now is a mockable waste of time by those standards. This is better than nothing and signals intent.
> The other party in question is the problem
And this is how the game works, as easy as taking candy from babies
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Is that an impossibility? Is WWII's good/bad guy split genuine?
Nobody's perfect, sure. But can one side be significantly better than the other in politics at times?
If you can't see the rather stark difference between the two parties, and which one is obviously better for the country and not just the wealthy or hateful, then you are a broken person. And there are a lot of broken people so you've got plenty of company.
If they win congress and the senate every bill will be vetoed anyway and they won’t have the votes to override the veto. It will be two years of paralysis.
> How exactly are House Democrats supposed to revoke the Exchange Stabilization Fund or change the Defense Production Act when they don't have a majority in the House?
https://polymarket.com/predictions/midterms
Shut up. Only morons care what gambling markets say.
There's a long history of using bookies odds to predict election results. This has been a thing for decades, as bookies have a financial interest in being impartial.
Do we have any history yet for polymarket + us elections?
I checked a few recent global elections of note, and it seems Polymarket isn't really good at predicting outcomes of those, but they called the 2024 Trump win pretty solidly months before, so my guess would be they are much more accurate on topics the US public is well informed on.
> How exactly are House Democrats supposed to revoke the Exchange Stabilization Fund or change the Defense Production Act when they don't have a majority in the House?
They're going to have a majority in about 3 days. They won't have a veto proof majority but they will have a majority.
Then we’ll see what they do in four days. This is indeed campaigning.
> Then we’ll see what they do in four days
They’ll try to pass the bills they’ve actually written and published and debated and built consensus around.
No, not until January
after many rounds of frivolous law suits if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly
The lawsuits won't stop people from taking office.
The newly elected Congress critters can't take office until they are sworn in by they speaker. As we've already seen from the pettiness of the current Squeaker of the House Mike Johnson, he has already used skullduggery to delay the swearing in of new members. I'm sure claiming that a seat's validity being questioned by ongoing litigation would be cause to delay that person being sworn in.
Over the years I've seen way way too many off-by-one errors when people reflect on who was "in charge" at the time.
without a veto proof majority, they might as well not be in the majority. Trump could become the most veto happy POTUS ever and stay his course. If they do not have a veto proof majority, they also won't have enough to convict on any potential impeachement. So all of this hope/prayer for a "blue wave" is not going to be worth much.
> without a veto proof majority, they might as well not be in the majority.
I don't understand this position. Two years of stalled government would be a godsend after the past two years. Dear lord, if we could just slow the daily assaults on people and the environment, domestically and abroad, I'd sing Hallelujah.
Next election everyone will be bitching about how dems do nothing when in power and vote for republicans.
If all they do is non-binding resolutions, yeah!
No it wouldn't. The vast majority of shitty things have been done via executive order. Republicans are completely fine with congress being dysfunctional. That serves their goals.
Impeachment requires a simple majority in the House.
Conviction requires 2/3rd of those present in the Senate.
There's no veto possible.The power is exclusive to the legislative branch, the other two branches have no say at all.
> they also won't have enough to convict on any potential impeachement
They can force compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and release the documents currently being illegally hidden.
No, it means Trump can continue doing pretty much whatever he wants with little consequence. He certainly didn’t need Republican consent for bombing Iran or his trade wars or for cutting off Ukraine and buddying up to Putin
All Dems do is act weak.
Even when they’re in the majority they play victim. “Oh no Mitch McConnell doesn’t like our bill :( We can’t do anything”. The party is too busy trying to court Republicans to get anything done.
Or they sabotage themselves. Pushing Hillary and losing was preferred to risking a Sanders win and losing corporate funding. Pushing Biden, who promised to run one term, then running him a second. Only to undemocratically replace him cause people didn’t want a senile candidate.
You have Bush-era never-MAGA Republicans publicly making statements on how they’re voting Democrat. They seem more willing to vote D than their actual base. It’s ridiculous.
Meanwhile, Republicans actively court their base and seem to accomplish things when they’re the minority party.
Many of the US Democrat party apparently love this kind of thing
In the past couple days I’ve heard glee and celebration at the idea of more non-binding things “getting things onto the record so everyone can see where loyalties lies”
So if you are a politician catering to your constituents, that makes sense to do
US Democrat Party are expected to obtain a majority in the House and Senate, remaining unable to pass any law through the Senate except an annual budget reconciliation, the vessel will continue to be stalled by the Filibuster needing 60 seats, vote to remove power that needs 67 seats, veto override ability that also needs 67 seats. Nobody in the opposition party will vote in favor, barring one or two, which will not be enough. This effectively keeps the US legislative body paralyzed but even more so than now. It will now also stall appointments from the President, so additional agency heads and judges won’t be installed but the Federal Government already did that for the last 2 years and will continue all of its own causes unabated
I think one criticism of that party are the performative nature of its constituents and representatives, where a “virtue” is demanded to be shown more than legislative change, as opposed to focusing on things that could garner consensus of which there are many, revisiting other causes when the seats are actually there. Seems to match the criticism, I suppose the other party does it too? Thats what is generally revealed to me when I make an observation. Just doesn’t seem like an identity of the other party as their control of the executive branch, military and courts is more than performative.
Everybody hates AI, even Republicans hate AI. Republican members of congress might not want to explain to their constituents why they are going to vote against an anti-bailout bill for AI, so some of them might opt to support such bill, fearing their constituents may vote them out of office.
I know AI is generally unpopular, but isn't the government using it pretty heavily to do their jobs? From the outside it seems ingrained.
The entire republican party is built on the image of Donald trump who loves AI so much that he tried to rename it to his liking. The reps who owe their power and grift to him may not like it personally but they have to support it which amounts to effectively the same thing as liking it.
It's unclear to me that Republican unity in Congress will continue to hold if there really is a giant blue wave. It certainly isn't holding out in the infosphere, pundits are peeling off from MAGA left and right. And obviously it isn't holding among the voters.
I think so too. The “I get elected if I am pro Trump” factor seems to have flipped in spots to where he is a negative. Seems obvious when a wannabe king dies there is a power struggle that can rip the party apart. That might be the only hope for America to salvage a decent future, if like 1/3 of republicans started thinking about what’s best for their constituents and voters instead of how to funnel the most money to their pockets. There will still be a lot of grifters trying to hold on to squeeze out a few dollars but maybe a couple of the party grow some principles.
LOL I don't hate AI, am I part of "everybody"?
We should have let the auto industry fail in 2008 too. The factories and IP still would be there for more innovative entrepreneurs to buy and make use of. Instead we have 3 legacy companies that can't even deliver an EV to compete with Tesla after 15 years of pretending to try.
The factory equipment would've just been sold to foreign competitors in China and Mexico though.
You can argue that did actually happen. China invested in GM through their partnership during that crisis and in exchange got anything that was left worth having from GM. Now GM is an old husk lumbering along waiting to die.
Was it not? Grandstanding nonwithstanting, 15 years ago GM (and VW/Benz) were very active shifting assembly to Russia of all places.
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Not necessarily; the goodwill & trademarks (such as it was) plus facilities could remain w/ US buyers.
So I watch a lot of auto industry news and from their point of view and everything that has happened has made perfect sense. They react to the demands from the government in power. They got a mandate from Biden to go EV so they invested heavily into retooling and dropping their ICE programs. They were not going to piss off whoever was in power, especially not the Democrats so they did it.
When Trump took over, he scrapped so many of these programs and the companies were forced to take massive writeoffs in their investments. Those executives that championed these moves to EVs are persona non grata now in the industry(at least for the time being). These back and forth demands is really causing a lot of trouble for the legacy makers.
Tesla managing to be able to detach themselves from having to answer to wallstreet and not actually caring about what the government says has allowed them to go at their own pace. The other American EV companies are on life support and the Chinese companies have always answered to one entity: the CCP.
Disagree. The auto industry was not the cause of the great recession, and the money put into the auto manufacturers did help to remove excess capacity. Their subsequent failure to innovate is not Obama's fault.
I still think it was a waste of tax payer money. If your company can't survive without subsidies, then it probably shouldn't exist anymore.