Joint Town Hall with Rep. Huffman on the Build Back Better Act - YouTube
He's Jared Huffman at CA-02, along the California coast from Marin County to the Oregon border.
She says that it isn't a labor shortage, it's a dignified-work shortage, it's a living-wage shortage, it's a healthcare shortage.
Who is staying home? Women, working-class people, lower-wage employees.
What kind of work? Child care, teaching, retail, food service.
Universal pre-K, child care, expansion of Medicare, climate stuff, investments in mass transit, ...
As to the Democrats fighting, she says that 96% of the party agrees on passing on the two bills. It's only two Senators who disagree with the rest of the party.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill doesn't include NYC Housing Authority funding, a lot of transit funding, but it does include a lot of highway funding.
She asks why the BBB bill is presented as a 10-year cost while things like the military are presented as 1-year costs. Thus, the $3.5T bill would be $350 B/yr. It's now down to $1.8T or thereabouts -- $180 B/yr -- but the principle is the same. It doesn't look like very big spending compared to the military budget.
Then JH spoke. He said that she is a great ally and one of the most effective communicators in Congress in many years. Then he stated his agreement with AOC that only a small fraction of Congress opposes BBB.
JH then said that while BBB is fully paid for, BIF isn't. BIF was negotiated behind closed doors with a lot of concessions to the fossil-fuel industry.
AOC talked about how requiring union labor in contracts is a big support of labor unions, and then she noted that we are not allowed to talk about how bought some Congresspeople are in Congress itself.
She then slammed Kyrsten Sinema for claiming that she does not negotiate in the press, for not stating her preferences while making demands of others.
Then a question of why we don't talk about closing tax loopholes and improving tax enforcement. JH deferred to AOC on account of her Met-gala dress, that dress with "Tax the Rich" on it.
She said that we need to close tax loopholes and also to improve IRS enforcement. JS mentioned the Pandora Papers on oligarch tax evasion in Caribbean islands and the like.
Then about bypassing Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. She said that it would nice to be able to do so, but that we are stuck with having to get their votes. But the House is different, she said -- it is more progressive.
Then about a path to citizenship in the BBB. The parliamentarian said no. Doing so violates something called the "Byrd rule", saying that something has to be about spending to be under reconciliation.
What can each of us do to help BBB pass? Get involved in activism to support it. JH noted that that was what kept Obamacare going despite Republican efforts to repeal it. AOC said that it's good to contact one's Congresspeople even if you like them and agree with them. She said that she fights for immigrants because many people in her district make a big issue out of it.
JH talked about an offshore-wind-energy project in Humboldt Bay, one that will use floating wind turbines. They will be anchored to the seabed,
AOC asked questions about Rikers Island and climate action. The US ought to try to be a global leader and pacesetter, she says. She noted an Exxon lobbyist who talked about his company's lobbying efforts.
About hydrogen, a big problem is what it's produced from. From electrolysis with renewable energy ("green"), or else from fossil-fuel sources ("blue" and "gray"). AOC seems very up on that most recent trend in renewable-energy development.
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It strikes me as rather narcissistic for her to chime in like that, as though Biden (or anyone for that matter) is beholden to her often extreme beliefs and points of view. She needs to realize she is just one of hundreds of Representatives with an opinion.* And an inexperienced and naive one at that. Her political beliefs align with only a very tiny minority of the US population.
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