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Hi Elliott,

I think Democrats have learned lessons from the Republican obstruction during the Obama Presidency. Even Biden himself appears less interested in working with Republicans if they outright reject his policies and threaten to undermine his agenda. It is likely that Democrats will end up using reconciliation to pass a COVID relief bill.

Republicans want to be able to hit Democrats in 2022 and in 2024 because Biden didn't get enough COVID relief. This worked for Republicans in 2010, when Republican won back the House with a large majority and picked up Senate seats. Republicans thought the worse Obama did in handling the recovery, the more Republicans benefited electorally. I don't see any reason why Democrats should not pass COVID relief or other popular bills based on a policy or electoral perspective.

I look forward to reading your book when it comes out!

-Elliot

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Elliot,

Always good to hear from you!

Elliott

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<3 Not Elliot, nor Elliott -- took me a while to tell you apart

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I wonder how many people think I’ve just been replying to myself all this time...

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LOL. I'm a talking Panda though. Plus our names are spelled differently.

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Do you see any supporting evidence that Democrats have learned their lesson?

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"Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is set to launch next week a fast-track procedure known as budget reconciliation that would allow Democrats to jam much of Biden’s proposal through with a simple 51-vote majority."

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-01-29/democrats-and-biden-go-big-learning-from-obama-era-frustrations-with-republicans

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thank you for sharing! I keep wondering if they learned their lesson. Though.. they'll have to twist Manchin's arm to get anything done :(

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In my view, Democrats are lucky to even have Manchin at all — any other senator from WV would be a GOP member. So they’ll probably do whatever is necessary to keep him from changing parties.

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I'll wait to find out. I dont like that any one person has so much power over the group

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