A Kinder Means Testing

Now that congressional Democrats have moved past the Republican's latest political showboating (this time in the form of a twelve hour vote-a-rama) the non-fascist party can move forward with a COVID relief bill. They'll likely do so through reconciliation, a process that allows certain bills to pass with only 51 votes in the Senate instead of 60. Since it's apparently not possible to get ten Republicans on board with a relief package if they don't control the White House.

The catch with reconciliation is that it can only be used once per fiscal year, and only for laws related to taxes and spending. Who and what determines whether a bill is related to taxes and spending? The Byrd Rule, named after West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, provides a six pronged test of the bills. And the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough (the first woman to hold the position), will deem which parts of the bill adheres to the Byrd Rule.

Okay, now that I've scared off most of the readers with parliamentary wonk links, the three of us can get to what I really want to talk about: what's being reported about the Democrats' misguided plans to provide relief checks to fewer Americans than was provided under the Trump Administration & the prior split Congress.