#5SmartReads - August 2, 2022

Hitha on the PACT Act, dispelling the myth of New York, and Nichelle Nichols

August 02, 2022

“She’s a legend, she’s an icon, she IS the moment.”

Nichelle Nichols is the OG of this quote. The impact she made on culture, on American history, and on expanding diversity in less diverse spaces is impactful (to say the least).

This is one of my favorite Nichelle Nichols stories, and one that would pave her way as an activist:

“As the story goes, Nichols was at an event when she was told a "Star Trek" fan wanted to meet her. "She's thinking it's going to be this pimply-faced kid," comic book designer Afua Richardson recounts to Bell. "But it turned out to be Martin Luther King Jr. He said, 'Your show is the only show that I will allow my kids to watch.' She eventually told him that she was planning on leaving the show, and he gave a command, and he said, 'No, you cannot leave the show, it is too important.’”

Less than a decade after Trek wrapped, Nichols took her mandate to recruit women and candidates of color into the astronaut program incredibly seriously:

"I am going to bring you so many qualified women and minority astronaut applicants for this position," Nichols has recalled saying, "that if you don't choose one ... everybody in the newspapers across the country will know about it."

To borrow the words of the wise Stacey Abrams, “may she forever dwell among the stars.”

I love living in New York. It’s one of the few places I’ve lived that feels familiar and comfortable and like home.

But New York - like all places - is not perfect, can certainly test you in ways I’ve rarely been tested in the other places I’ve lived, and I have my fair share of moments of “whyyyyyy do I have to deal with this?” (mostly targeted to dog owners who don’t pick up their pets’ droppings).

I have plenty of thoughts about this, but Haley shared them more eloquently than I ever could, and I loved and felt every word of this smart piece.

“New York is a rambling, heart-throbbing maze of everything. Incredible food, fascinating people—it means something to be the backdrop of so many people’s dreams and creative ambitions. It has a palpable effect. You can feel the history here, and also the sense that history is being made, and it’s thrilling to stand in the middle of that. But in a more practical sense, New York is a dense urban center plagued by political corruption and economic disparity. It’s suffering and complicated and drowning in hype.”

No president is perfect and I have my fair criticism of Biden and his predecessors (honestly, why he hasn’t cancelled the interest on federally held student debt - something he easily can do via executive order).

But I think he will go down as one of the most impactful presidents in American history, once we’ve seen the impact of the legislation he’s signed into law and what he’s done via executive order. And I think it’s because of his long experience in government service - and getting significant legislation passed as a senator and helping whip votes as vice president - that is the reason behind his successes.

Meaningful (if overdue) gun safety reform. Infrastructure. Boosting domestic manufacturing of technology and vaccines. All of these are signed into law, and we could see a significant bill (albeit narrower than most Democrats wanted to see) to combat climate change while helping American taxpayers.

Progress isn’t absolute or a one-and-done thing, but a series of small steps in the right direction and shaking yourself off when setbacks happen (and they definitely will happen). When it’s all laid out, the progress made in the past 2 years - in the midst of a pandemic and a war and the aftermath of an attempted coup - is remarkable.

And if the Democrats hold onto the House and win seats in the Senate, imagine what could be done in the next two years.

Something you may not know about me - I’m a little woo, and definitely believe in the power of manifesting (I manifested our Rhoshan Pharma deal (alongside a lot of hard work) by writing down my ideal deal terms every single day for 3 years, and even manifested my husband - true story!)

So when I see a new-to-me manifestation technique flood my TikTok feed and make its way to one of my favorite publications, you know I have to give it a try and to share it.

No, I am not a host on The View (yet), nor has our lead product finished development and gained FDA approval (yet). But I’m whispering the conferences and places I want to speak at, the books I want to write next, the beach house I want someday, and that Rhaki will be potty trained (I’ve learned to take his cues and be relaxed about it after traumatizing Rho and myself the first go around).

Will this technique work? Who knows. But I find practicing manifestation to be a great reminder of checking in with myself about what I actually want and to carve out some space to visualize it and whisper it into the ether every day.

If you’re wondering why Senate Republicans unanimously voted against the PACT Act - which would fund healthcare expenses to veterans exposed to burn pits for those injuries and later-onset diseases - you’re not alone.

It takes a beat to find the right article to explain this issue without partisan rancor, and this article clearly explains some of the budgetary concerns over discretionary vs. mandatory spending that Republicans cite as their cause of concern:

“In federal budgeting, spending classified as mandatory (which includes things like veterans benefits checks and Social Security payouts) is set in law and renewed annually. Discretionary spending, which includes program operations, can change each year depending on the whims of lawmakers.

Toomey has said he does not have concerns with categorizing the new benefits included in the PACT Act (about $279 billion over 10 years) as mandatory spending.

But he insists that provisions to move other existing toxic exposure benefits spending in the annual VA budget from the discretionary budget to the mandatory one opens up the door for budgetary gimmicks down the road.”

Here’s the thing - this provision was in an earlier version of the bill that received overwhelming bipartisan support, and this theoretical spending that Toomey cites isn’t even in this particular bill. And the appropriations process - held every year - is where the debate of moving discretionary spending into other programs before moving forward to passage.

This is politics (and the Democrats do it too, with conservative media attacking them for it and liberal media staying mum on the issue, just like what’s happening now on the opposite sides). But I hope this helps explain why the PACT Act is stalled, and how this is more the norm than the exception when it comes to getting bipartisan support for legislation.

Politics, baby.

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