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**MAY 28, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

Bipartisan Illusions Dashed Again

****

As expected, Senate Republicans used the power of the filibuster to
block consideration of the bill to create a bipartisan commission to
investigate the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The vote was
54-35 in favor, with six Republicans joining Democrats in support. In
the real world, that's a healthy majority. But in the U.S. Senate,
it's not enough to overcome a filibuster.

And if Republican senators, who were menaced right along with Democrats
by the invasion, won't display some bipartisanship on this one, we can
forget bipartisan support for voting rights or infrastructure spending.
The Republican offer to spend almost a trillion dollars on
infrastructure, ostensibly meeting Biden more than halfway, is bogus.
Most of this is money diverted from funds previously appropriated, such
as relief for the states and unemployment compensation.

This latest Republican blockage comes on the heels of a high-profile
speech by former House Speaker Paul Ryan, warning, "If the conservative
cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on
second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere." He added that
voters would "not be impressed by the sight of yes-men and flatterers
flocking to Mar-a-Lago."

This is the latest manifestation of center-right Republicans trying to
push back against Trump and Trumpism. The problem, however, is that most
Republicans in Congress are precisely the kind of yes-men and flatterers
whom Ryan is warning against. And it remains to be seen whether Trump
voters are having second thoughts.

One thing should be clear from these events-are you listening, Joe
Manchin? After the bipartisan footsie ends, anything worthwhile that
passes Congress will have to be Democrats-only.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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GURLEY

Some of the Worst Bridges in the Country Are in Kentucky

Yet Kentucky's Mitch McConnell is dragging out negotiations on federal
investments to fix bridges and other infrastructure. BY BRITTANY
GIBSON

Wrestling With the New Deal

The programs Roosevelt put together may not have met a Platonic ideal of
modern progress, but they saved American democracy itself. BY ZACHARY
D. CARTER

Altercation: Why Journalism Isn't Really Covering the Threat of
Fascism

Objectivity has no bias in favor of the truth. BY ERIC ALTERMAN

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