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hatrack

(59,436 posts)
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 10:06 AM Oct 2021

Sources Claim Sen. Flouncy McStrutmuppet Wants To Cut At Least $100 Billion In Climate Funding

Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who began her political career with the Green Party and who has voiced alarm over the warming planet, wants to cut at least $100 billion from climate programs in major legislation pending on Capitol Hill, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sinema is one of two centrist Democrats in the Senate whose votes are crucial to passing two bills that together would comprise President Biden’s legislative agenda: a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and a separate $3.5 trillion budget bill.
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Last month, Ms. Sinema told The Arizona Republic, “We know that a changing climate costs Arizonans. And right now, we have the opportunity to pass smart policies to address it — looking forward to that.” In her 2018 run for the Senate, Ms. Sinema was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters. And she has expressed an interest in using the spending bill to enact a tax or fee on carbon dioxide pollution, which experts say could be among the most effective ways to mitigate global warming.

But Ms. Sinema’s demand to cut spending on climate provisions in the budget bill could force Democrats to cut or shrink programs designed to help poor communities adapt to climate change as well as to help companies adjust as the economy transitions away from fossil fuels to clean energy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted in a letter to colleagues this week that the climate programs would remain. “The climate crisis is a health issue, jobs issue, national security issue and a moral issue to pass the planet on to future generations in a responsible way,” Ms. Pelosi wrote. “This challenge must be addressed with justice for vulnerable communities, who have been hit first and hardest by the climate crisis.”

A spokesman for Ms. Sinema, John LaBombard, forcefully denied that Ms. Sinema requested the cuts. “Neither Senator Sinema nor our office have requested or demanded such cuts, nor have we even heard of any such demands,” he wrote in an email. The people familiar with her request, who asked to speak anonymously because they were not authorized to speak on the record, said that she had asked for a cut to the climate program as part of a larger effort by Democrats to hunt for ways to lower the price tag of the broader spending legislation. Mr. Biden had initially envisioned a spending package of about $3.5 trillion, but Democrats are now trying to cut that to $2 trillion, in order to win support from Ms. Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, without whose votes the measure will not pass.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/climate/arizona-senator-sinema.html

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Sources Claim Sen. Flouncy McStrutmuppet Wants To Cut At Least $100 Billion In Climate Funding (Original Post) hatrack Oct 2021 OP
Too many people assume that Manchin/Sinema have similar motivations FBaggins Oct 2021 #1
The 3.5T was already a compromise lapfog_1 Oct 2021 #2
Senator Sinema and Senator Manchin are not centrist or moderate Democrats they are bought and ... Botany Oct 2021 #3
"Flouncy McStrutmuppet"! Perfect! Ocelot II Oct 2021 #4

FBaggins

(26,693 posts)
1. Too many people assume that Manchin/Sinema have similar motivations
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 10:16 AM
Oct 2021

But one of the things making a compromise difficult is that aren't aligned. Manchin pretty clearly wants to gut the climate provisions of BBB - but it's likely that those are parts that Sinema wants to keep. Conversely, it's reported that Sinema doesn't want many of the tax increases, while Manchin wants to at least undo most of the Trump cuts.

People are focusing on how difficult it is for progressives to cut from Biden's agenda... when it may be equally hard to craft something that both of these two will accept.

lapfog_1

(29,166 posts)
2. The 3.5T was already a compromise
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 10:24 AM
Oct 2021

but ok... Manchin wants only 1.5T, fine.

3.5 - 1.5 = 2.0 / 2 = 1T. So the "let's meet in the middle" is $2.5T

And, please, let's find $1T by losing some things out of the package and NOT by doing everything but at reduced funding (meaning that every program simply will not meet the goals).

As a senior... it sucks that Medicare doesn't cover vision or some dental and that you have to be 65 to qualify... etc But I'm ok with losing this. Not happy about it, but OK... free community college... ok we can lose that too. Again, not a great choice. Extend the ACA... I know... I want universal health care, Medicare for all... but we can wait more time for it.

Climate Change is everything. It is the whole ball of wax. The planet will be fine but the human race will not be. The Cons talk about saddling the children with a huge bill to be paid (the debt)... but if we don't deal with climate change, the "children" (and their children) will face death and destruction that we can't even imagine (famine, drought, storms, floods). Not to mention a huge bill to adapt that will cost more Trillions.

Botany

(70,281 posts)
3. Senator Sinema and Senator Manchin are not centrist or moderate Democrats they are bought and ...
Sat Oct 9, 2021, 10:28 AM
Oct 2021

... paid for agents of the pharmaceutical and fossil fuel industries and they really don't give
2 shits about people or the planet.

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