Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) is a dreamer. And the dream he's having this week during the Democratic National Convention isn't of sugar plums and dancing fairies.
Schumer dreams of a Democratic majority in the House and Senate and a Democratic president to ram through an agenda that would not only be ruinously expensive but alter the character of the American experiment.
First up would be carving out an exemption to the filibuster to pass voting rights and abortion legislation. Currently, Democrats in the Senate are stymied by the 60-vote minimum to get legislation passed. Schumer wants to change Senate rules to allow for a majority vote on selected legislation. From there, it's just a small step to get rid of the filibuster completely.
“We got it up to 48, but, of course, Sinema and Manchin voted no; that’s why we couldn’t change the rules. Well, they’re both gone,” Schumer told reporters here Tuesday during the week of the Democratic convention. “Ruben Gallego is for it, and we have 51. So even losing Manchin, we still have 50.”
Gallego is facing off against Kari Lake in the Arizona Senate race to succeed the retiring Krysten Sinema. Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) is also retiring, but he's almost certain to be replaced by Republican Gov. Jim Justice.
The nightmare scenario is that all the threatened Democratic Senate incumbents beat their Republican challengers. The Senate would then remain in the Democrats' hands, giving Tim Walz the tie-breaking vote as vice president.
“I’m not predicting this, but Donald Trump may lose by more than people think, helping us in the Senate and the House," Schumer told NBC News.
It's not likely, but it's not impossible either.
At a separate Politico event Monday, Schumer specified that the two bills he’d try to pass under the rule change are the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. He predicted there will be “consensus in my caucus to try and do that,” calling the two measures “very, very important.”
Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats will also discuss potential rule changes to codify abortion rights in federal law, a party priority after Roe v. Wade was overturned, which similarly faces Republican opposition and lacks a path to 60 Senate votes.
What is more than possible is what the Democrats could do with slim majorities in the House and Senate and Kamala Harris in the White House. Budget reconciliation is the process used by Biden to pass nearly $4 trillion in pandemic relief aid. A spending bill only needs a simple majority to pass.
“In terms of reconciliation, we believe we have to do stuff on housing,” Schumer said. “It’s not just in urban areas like New York City; it’s in rural areas. They’re desperate for housing.”
He says that Harris's plan to give first-time home buyers a $25,000 tax credit is a "great proposal." Other more grounded and realistic observers think differently. He also believes that the Child Tax Credit should be made permanent and increased.
Schumer also wants to build on clean energy goals, including the reduction of carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 and get it to zero by 2050. Get used to sitting in the dark and playing charades with your kids.
On taxes, it's more for everyone even though the Democrats promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. It used to be that those making under $200,000 were immune to tax increases. The amount kind of slipped when Biden took office.
Any of these budget proposals we might have called "budget busters" fifteen years ago. Today, it's just the way that Congress does business. Budgets are irrelevant. Taxes are irrelevant. What matters is shoveling money to favored Democratic constituencies and billionaires so that the Democrats can, in the immortal words of FDR's pal Harry Hopkins, "tax and tax and spend and spend..."
"...and elect and elect."
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