Liberal Time Magazine Wishcasts Status of Klobuchar Bill

Time Magazine recently published an article providing a unjustifiably optimistic depiction of the status regarding Senator Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) radical American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992). The article presents this legislation as having vast support in Congress. This liberal fantasy, however, has been debunked numerous times.

The author states that the legislation has the support of “virtually every Democrat not from California.” This is demonstrably false. Just last week, POLITICO reported that as many as 10 Senate aides have told them that senators facing reelection in the upcoming midterm elections are worried that voting for the bill “the measure could threaten [Democrats’] slim majority.” Behind closed doors, POLITICO goes on to indicate that, “several Democratic senators have privately expressed deep reservations about voting for the legislation, particularly with a midterm election looming, in their conversations with Schumer and other Democratic offices.” 

While few Democrats have come out against the legislation publicly, it is an open secret in Washington that the bill does not have the near-unanimous support that TIME suggests it does in this article. In own reporting, TIME actually received the evidence that it needs to in order to come to a similar conclusion as “a Congressional aide familiar with the matter tells TIME the bill has the votes to pass the House once it makes it out of the Senate.” Much of the article refers to the confidence that individuals within the House have in the passage of the bill there, but TIME neglects to mention the stark reality that it will face difficulty passing the Senate. 

The needs of voters complicate the passage of this legislature further. When asked their issue of greatest concern in a recent Gallup poll, tackling Big Tech or antitrust legislation did not even rank on the survey. Rather, voters are predictably more focused on seeking resolution for the economic issues plaguing the country, such as inflation. Senators facing midterm elections are going to be wary of passing legislation that most voters are not asking for. This fear is especially likely when economic experts, such as former Obama Administration National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, are sounding alarm bells that this bill could exacerbate our current inflationary crisis.

TIME Magazine’s “journalism” ignores the procedural and political reality that the American Innovation and Choice Online Act faces. While TIME’s depiction of the status of the legislation reflects a liberal fantasy, the reality is one of justified concern and trepidation of its effects.