Biden cuts climate funding in reconciliation bill
Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°124 | 20 October 2021
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Situation
In a private meeting this week with congressional Democrats, Joe Biden floated the idea of moving forward with a social spending plan between $1.75 trillion and $1.9 trillion.
In either case, Biden’s basically asking progressives to give up insisting that the original $3.5 trillion bill was the compromise and eschew their designation of $3.5 trillion as the proverbial ‘floor.’
Climate funding has yet to be finalized, but the fact that several reports have suggested $300 billion—spread out over a decade, per the bill—is enough to sound the alarm.
$300B/10 years, in context
Due to Biden’s endorsement of the Trump-level pace of military spending increases, the budget resolution of the Democrat-controlled Congress likewise endorses a similar trajectory in Pentagon spending. In the aggregate, it’s ugly, especially when compared to the reported climate funding in the revised reconciliation bill:
Due to the fate of the infrastructure plan, the reconciliation bill was the one bill progressives were counting on for climate funding. It may as well be Democrats’ last chance to make a difference on climate before the 2022 midterms, and they are absolutely messing it up.
Thanks for your time,
Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
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