Back on the Trail, Sanders Campaigns for a Legislative Legacy
(snip)
Pelosi and Schumer have enormously difficult jobs they really do and its easy to disparage them, to criticize them, but they have no margins with which to deal with, Mr. Sanders said in an interview. Its not a job that I envy, a job that I could do for three minutes.
Mr. Sanders has decided the best way to make the case for his vision is through outreach to Republican voters, including in-person conversations in Republican-leaning districts in Indiana and Iowa. Having relished his past interactions with voters on the campaign trail, he was back in his element, far from the staid corridors of Capitol Hill.
This is way outside of what normal budget committees do, but on the other hand, I feel very fortunate to be in this position at this moment, Mr. Sanders said, drinking iced tea on the patio of Midtown Station, a restaurant near the fire station, after his question-and-answer session. In fact, if I werent so preoccupied with the reconciliation package and having to deal with members of Congress, etc., etc., I would probably take the Budget Committee on the road all over this country.
Thats what we should be doing, he added. Weve got to explain to the American people what were doing here for them, and it cant simply be an inside-the-Beltway process.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/us/politics/bernie-sanders-budget-bill.html
markie
(22,755 posts)"town hall" in my town... preaching to the choir, he was... I left early because I had to put my chickens back in the coop
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)Sanders uses Labor Day to pitch plan he says will help workers
https://www.wcax.com/2021/09/06/sanders-uses-labor-day-pitch-plan-he-says-will-help-workers/
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)Thank you Bernie!
Moebym
(989 posts)although I'm not sure Republican voters will be too receptive to a guy who's been painted as a radical socialist.
Beastly Boy
(9,060 posts)you have to forgive me for being skeptical.
For the past eight years Bernie has tried and failed to generate enough support for his vision among Democrats, who represent, roughly, the center-left of America's political spectrum. I fail to see how he can muster any meaningful support among the center-right, let alone the far right of that same spectrum.
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)that this should be an ongoing policy, strategy or tradition in the United States Congress?
This is way outside of what normal budget committees do, but on the other hand, I feel very fortunate to be in this position at this moment, Mr. Sanders said, drinking iced tea on the patio of Midtown Station, a restaurant near the fire station, after his question-and-answer session. In fact, if I werent so preoccupied with the reconciliation package and having to deal with members of Congress, etc., etc., I would probably take the Budget Committee on the road all over this country.
Beastly Boy
(9,060 posts)The same goes for doing things way outside what normal budget committees do. A budget committee is tasked with addressing budget matters as a legislative body. It is their job. Having a budget committee travel the country to attend town halls is not their job. First, the members of a budget committee are free to do this as individual legislators on their own time, and second, when they address audiences who are ignorant of the minutia that goes into examining matters of budget, communicating what their jobs are about can only be conducted on the most rudimentary and overly simplistic manner. It cannot be conducted in the context other than showing up and posing for the cameras. The effort/effect ratio of such shows is prohibitively unproductive. It does precious little as far as educating or enlightening their (relatively tiny) audiences, and it takes them away from the jobs they were elected (or appointed) to do. Besides, such unproductive spectacles are disrespectful to the committee members and the high office they hold. It would be equivalent to army generals traveling to boot camps to discuss strategic considerations that go into US troop deployments in Europe. There is a reason why they don't do it.