Ah, the workings of the mind of a genius. Who among us can possibly comprehend how the brains of such luminaries as Einstein, Newton, and Buck Showalter operate, leaving us poor, befuddled folk to simply gaze in wonder over their obvious superhuman qualities?
Kentucky is fortunate indeed to have its own, awe-inspiring mental giant to appreciate and observe. Ask anyone in the DC cognoscenti and they will immediately tell you that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, is a legislative master beyond compare, that anyone challenging his
noted brilliance is doomed to despair.
McConnell is a “masterful tactician with an expansive knowledge of legislative procedures,” according to the website Citizen Truth, echoing what has been said about Addison Mitchell McConnell ad infinitum over the decades. To The Washington Post, he is “maddingly brilliant.” And, of course, the word genius is bandied about so often that it’s too frequent to cite.
We are not worthy.
These unsurpassed mental qualities, and don’t think for a moment that Mitch disputes their existence, are on full display these days regarding two key pieces of legislation wending their way through the Senate.
Both of which McConnell is poised to deep six.
The first measure to consider, the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), is intended to address the worldwide semiconductor chip shortage, which is wreaking havoc on the economy while disrupting the nation’s supply chain, leading to shortages of certain goods, particularly automobiles, thus driving up prices.
“Not that long ago, America led the world in making leading-edge semiconductor chips,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a congressional committee earlier this year. ”Today we produce zero percent of those chips in America – zero percent. That’s a national security risk and an economic security risk.”
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, urging quick action, wrote to legislative leaders, “Semiconductors play a unique role in our economic and national security, enabling advances in medical devices and health care, communications, computing, defense, transportation, clean energy, and technologies of the future such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced wireless networks.”
Enhancing the U.S. position is also considered an opportunity to get a leg up over China on the international stage. But any action is likely to prove costly. A grand-spanking new semiconductor fabrication facility would likely cost about $10 billion to build, according to The Hill, which noted, “The capital investment is, quite simply, enormous.”
The bottom line is the U.S. is losing ground in developing new technologies since semiconductor chips are so vital to many new products. The House and Senate have gone back-and-forth over the best way to address the issue, offering competing legislation. The upper chamber is considering a proposal scaled down from the House version that would invest $52 billion in semiconductor production incentives along with an investment-tax credit for U.S. semiconductor manufacturers.
The funding is desperately needed. Intel announced plans in January to build a $20 billion chipmaking facility in Ohio but said it would only proceed if the federal government came through with the cash. According to The Hill, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger “warned that if Congress doesn’t pass the bill, the company could instead expand its facilities in Europe, where lawmakers have authorized $46 billion to spur semiconductor production.”
That’s the first measure – keep it in mind a moment. The second, totally unrelated proposal is aimed at lowering prescription drug prices in the Medicare program. Democrats, who hold the slimmest of majorities imaginable in the Senate, are working on a plan that would authorize Medicare, the national health insurance plan for those over 65, to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs with the pharmaceutical industry. It would also cap out-of-pocket expenses for Part D prescription drug plan members at $2,000 a year, and levy tax penalties on drugmakers that increase the prices of their products more than the rate of inflation.
The Congressional Budget Office determined that such legislation would cut the budget deficit for the 2022-2031 period by $249.2 billion while increasing revenues by $38.4 billion.
Medicare prescription drug costs is a controversy of longstanding. In a poll released a year ago, West Health and Gallup found that 77 percent of U.S. adults believe the government should limit price hikes for prescription drugs and 81 percent support letting Medicare negotiate drug prices. More recently, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported in May that 83 percent of those questioned believe the cost of prescription drugs is unreasonable.
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, is reportedly close to a deal with renegade lawmaker Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WVa, on acceptable Medicare language. Should those talks prosper as expected, Schumer likely will roll the agreed upon provision into a reconciliation package with a handful of other budget items, perhaps including a climate change provision and a tax hike on the wealthy.
Such a move would effectively thwart a potential Republican filibuster.
Now, to a mere mortal, it would appear these two measures – boosting semiconductor chip production and permitting Medicare to negotiate drug prices – have little in common and should rise or fall on their own merits.
But the genius Mitch sees an opportunity.
McConnel opposes the Medicare bill, preferring that the nation’s senior citizens continue paying for their prescription drugs out the wazoo. He claims it would impact on necessary pharmaceutical research needed to put new, life-saving products on the market, a questionable notion given the enormity of industry profits.
What he fails to mention is the campaign cash that flows into Republican coffers as a result of protecting an industry that has unleashed products like oxycontin into the marketplace. In order to put more dollars into the wallets of GOP candidates, Mitch is more that willing to pluck a few bills from the pockets of 80-year-old retirees.
What genius!
At any rate, McConnell reacted strongly last week, asserting that Republicans won’t help pass the semiconductor bill if the Democrats pursue reconciliation on the package containing the Medicare provision.
“Let me be perfectly clear,” McConnell said in a tweet, reviving the phraseology of that other great Republican, President Richard M. Nixon, with whom he shares several characteristics, “there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill.”
It should be noted that McConnell supported the semiconductor bill the first time it ran through the chamber. Now he appears to be raising the specter of a filibuster if Democrats proceed as planned on a completely separate, unrelated bill.
“Senate Republicans are literally choosing to help China out-compete the U.S. in order to protect big drug companies,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
So, this is the way the brain of our genius works. In order to get what he wants, McConnell will stand in the way of a manufacturing bill sure to increase employment, increase international status and poke China in the eye. He also wants to shred a bill that will save hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare costs.
Both are tremendously popular with the voting public. And you think the great genius gives a damn about such trivia?
Ultimately, all this shows is just what a failure Mitch McConnell is, as a legislative leader and a human being. Polls show people are losing faith in the American system of government. Mitch McConnell, consistently, fuels that loss of trust.
He is also showing that the term genius has been deeply and indelibly diminished.
You’re absolutely right — Buck Showalter is a certified genius.