Noah: Give it up for Kyrsten Sinema. Who'd ever thought we'd see the day in American politics when a

[TexasTowelie]

90. I know what was in the BBB so don't insult me by assuming that I'm ignorant.

The delay was what--three months? The BBB legislation wasn't introduced in Congress until September 27 and died in Congress in December. I doubt that three months would have any significant effect on any of the green energy development to reach consumers before the mid-terms. Therefore, the primary beneficiaries are those in occupations such as engineers, electricians, lab researchers, and similar fields. I don't believe that there are that many unemployed people in those fields so I see how the bill could have resulted in more inflation.

I also view the expansion of childcare benefits and healthcare benefits as inflationary when considering the laws of supply and demand at the macro level. From a personal perspective, the BBB wouldn't have any significant effect for me since I don't have children and I'm on Medicaid. It may have even added more frustration in my life since it would make it more difficult to schedule visits with my health care providers.

Direct payments to families with children were nice, but it is also important to remember that those payments were created as a temporary relief measure to offset some of the additional costs that parents were experiencing due to COVID. Nobody should have expected those benefits to continue forever regardless of who is in Congress. Those payments also contributed to inflation as it increased the supply of money chasing after goods while not increasing the quantity of goods available for purchase.

Even with all of those considerations, I still wanted the BBB to pass because I'm willing to make sacrifices to that others may benefit. However, I was very realistic about the possibility of BBB passing. If it weren't for Senators Manchin and Sinema stated opposition, there may have been other Democrats in the Senate that would have opposed the bill--those senators were fortunate that Senators Manchin and Sinema provided cover for them so that they never had to vote on the legislation.