Being real, not woke, about the Status Quo Joe stimulus

A week ago, I blogged about how Jamelle Bouie and Jeff Greenfield (and probably many others among MSM inside-the-Beltway pundits) were peddling the Joe Biden Kool-Aid about a "transformational" stimulus package.

The reality of not just that package but the next two years is much different.

First, he's hostage to Kirsten Synema and Joe Manchin. Maybe another senator here and there on specific issues. Maybe several on that $15/hr minimum wage; maybe other Dem senators voting no opposed it in general, not just on rolling it into the stimulus package.

I've said before, speaking from rural America, that $15/hr is too much out here, and I prefer something like Oregon's rural/exurban-suburban/urban $10/$12/$15 split. I said long before THAT, though, in 2007, that minimum wage increases needed to include a cost of living adjustment after hitting the final level. No Democrap listened to me back then, and none will listen today.

Krystal Ball has a Substack post about this, but it's paywalled, and neither her insight nor opinions (given that she's a Tulsi Twerker, or was) are worth money. Since she is, or was, a paid TV talking head, they're even less worth my money.

Nicholas Lemann, as I noted back then, is Biden-woke, but also looked forward to Biden's planned Act 2, which he said could be called the "Build Back Better" bill. That has zero chance, unless it includes upping the ante on China and lingering currency issues, etc., as part of it. That, in turn, needs to be done in smart, non-Trumpian ways.

For a more in-depth take on what's real and what's not about Biden's stimulus and the mindset behind it, read Chris Hedges.