House Democrats "demoted" the poverty ratchet rule, "Paygo", by adopting exceptions for laws that address the consequences of the climate crisis or Covid-19.

I call it the "poverty ratchet rule" because it said that change would give the poor more support had to be counteracted by a change to cut other support for the poor. The result was that any change that cut support for the poor without any accompanying increment, that reduction was effectively permanent.

Adopting a rule like Paygo represents prioritizing the interests of the rich over the interests of giving he poor a decent life. In other words, the rule is a triumph of neoliberalism and dooH niboR.