The Actual Human Stakes of the Reconciliation Bill Are Being Ignored in Favor of “Left vs Moderate’ Horse Race Coverage.

The public is left with vague reporting about a “$3.5 trillion” “price tag” that should be “slimmed down,” with no sense of what would actually be gutted or who would be harmed if it is.

After weeks of wall-to-wall coverage of the “$3.5 trillion” reconciliation bill (or more accurately, $350 billion a year over 10 years), the average media consumer could not be blamed for not knowing what is actually in the bill or, more importantly, the human stakes of attempts to gut the bill by so-called “moderates.” Little sense is given at all that the bill provides, over the course of 10 years, $75 billion for Housing Choice Vouchers to help alleviate America’s homelessness crisis; $450 billion in universal pre-K for three and four year olds; $85 billion to repair run-down schools; $35 billion in child nutrition programs to allow an additional 9 million kids to receive free school lunch; $111 billion for two years of tuition-free community college; expanded eligibility for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients; the expansion of Medicare to include dental, hearing, and vision benefits; the lowering of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 60, guaranteeing healthcare to millions more seniors; and $150 billion in clean energy incentives to combat climate chaos. 

While the bill is far from complete (nor do its climate change provisions come close to meeting the scientific reality of the carbon emission economy), it would be a massive improvement to the lives of millions of poor, elderly, Black and Brown, homeless, and vulnerable communities. But one would not know any of this watching television coverage of the “showdown” over the bill between “progressives and moderates.” 

A survey of news reports on CBS News, NBC News, ABC Sinclair affiliates, and CNN over the past week shows a TV media largely uninterested in what is actually in the bill or what is likely to be cut in the event that the bill is “slimmed down” to the counter offer proposed by Senator Joe Manchin of “$1.5 trillion” ($150 billion annually). Instead, these outlets are interested in the political melodrama of “progressives” facing off against “moderates” Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.

Read more: https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/the-actual-human-stakes-of-the-reconciliation