Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2021

Dems race to renovate Biden's domestic-policy foundation

The Democratic Party is desperately trying to figure out just how solid Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending framework really is. Different factions of the party are arguing that the outline the president presented this week is not final, hoping to add back in still-disputed provisions on immigration reform, taxes, Medicare expansion, paid leave and prescription drug prices before the social spending package gets a vote. The House has already released hundreds of pages of legislation to fully articulate Biden’s vision, the bulk of it devoted to climate change action and the social safety net. Yet even after the House passes its version of the bill, which could happen as soon as next week, some Democrats insist that it’s not the final word. “This deal is not done until the Senate acts,” said Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who still wants to add a billionaire tax to the bill that now includes a surtax on ultra high-income wage earners. “There’s a significant amount sti...
Post a Comment
Read more

Call logs, speech drafts among records Trump is trying to block from Jan. 6 investigators

Donald Trump is seeking to prevent Jan. 6 investigators from accessing daily presidential diaries, drafts of election-related speeches, logs of his phone calls, handwritten notes and files of top aides, the National Archives revealed in a Saturday morning court filing . According to the National Archives, the former president has sought to block about 750 pages out of nearly 1,600 identified by officials as relevant to the Jan. 6 investigation. Among them are hundreds of pages from “multiple binders of the former press secretary [Kayleigh McEnany] which is made up almost entirely of talking points and statements related to the 2020 election,” according to the court filing. The filing details are the clearest indication yet of what Trump is trying to withhold from congressional investigators seeking information about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his activities on the day that a mob of violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and disrupted the peaceful tran...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's still in the Dem megabill? Cheat sheet on 12 big topics

Democrats are making big sacrifices to slash the price tag of their social spending bill from $3.5 trillion to roughly $2 trillion as they close in on a deal that can satisfy both the party's moderate and progressive factions. Promises like free community college are dead altogether. Dreams of paid leave and expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing are at risk. Originally permanent expansions of Medicaid and the Child Tax Credit will now run for as little as one year. Those aren't the only pieces of Biden's agenda getting curtailed, thrown out or preserved as Democrats rev their engines toward an agreement as soon this week. The nation's corporate tax rate probably won't get hiked. And benefits like paid leave are expected to provide families with less assistance, for fewer weeks, with more strings. At the heart of the party's decision to embrace a far slimmer spending package than they first outlined this summer is a bet by top Democrats that...
Post a Comment
Read more

There’s another big Dem agenda holdup: A stalled China competitiveness bill

President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda isn’t the only stalled-out priority that’s driving congressional Democrats mad. A key national security initiative, a bill aimed at boosting U.S. competition with China and easing the supply-chain backlog, has languished on Capitol Hill amid disagreements between the Senate and the House, even as both parties acknowledge the need to push back on Beijing’s economic and geopolitical ambitions. Democrats in the Senate, where the bill passed overwhelmingly this past summer, are pressuring their House counterparts to act quickly on legislation with clear political benefits at a time when the president needs it most. They hope it would blunt criticisms from the right about rising prices stemming from supply-chain bottlenecks as well as help confront an increasingly aggressive Beijing. Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.), who co-authored a provision in the China package that would boost semiconductor production in the U.S., argued that even ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jan. 6 panel seeking information from Facebook and following the money, chair says

The chair of the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol said on Sunday that his panel is working with Facebook to obtain information and has a team looking into the financing of the rally before the attack. "We think the potential for co-mingling restricted funds for this purpose might be there. But, obviously, we'll look at it," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's just interesting to note a lot of people came to Washington by bus, by plane, by chartered vehicles, they stayed in hotels, motels. Somebody had to pay for that," Thompson added. "And we want to look at whether or not that paying for that participation was legal and whether or not it contributed to what occurred on Jan. 6." Thompson said the committee is "negotiating" with Facebook to get specific information and isn't yet ready to determine the social media giant's role in terms of s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Facebook is being deceitful, Sen. Blumenthal says

Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Sunday tore into Facebook, calling the company’s stated attitudes on regulation a sham. Speaking on “Reliable Sources” on CNN, Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, “What we are hearing from Facebook is platitudes and bromides. When it says it wants regulation, at the same time it is fighting that regulation tooth and nail, day and night, with armies of lawyers, millions of dollars in lobbying. And so, I must say, Facebook saying it wants regulation is the height of disingenuousness.“ Blumenthal’s remarks come after the recent revelations by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, as well as widespread reporting about a range of issues with Facebook, including the worldwide proliferation of hate speech on the platform. “The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was that there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” Haugen said on CBS earlier this month. Blumenthal said he expected other “disgusted” Facebo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dems weigh ditching Medicare expansion and paid leave in eleventh hour of social spending talks

Democrats are haggling over whether to drop two of the most popular elements of their social spending bill as negotiations reach the zero hour, according to a half-dozen sources close to the discussions. While high-level talks on the $1 trillion-plus package are ongoing, lawmakers, staffers, advocates and lobbyists said that a plan to expand Medicare with dental, vision and hearing benefits for tens of millions of seniors — as well as a pitch to guarantee paid family and medical leave to all U.S. workers — is now in danger of getting cut from the bill entirely. Democratic sources addressed the current status of the talks candidly on condition of anonymity, amid conflicting reports from those involved that speak to the closely guarded and sensitive nature of the back-and-forth as the party pushes for a deal in the next few days. President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders are racing to lock in centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) without alienating other ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dems to Biden: Don't leave people of color behind in Build Back Better negotiations

As he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus gathered with President Joe Biden earlier this year, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn made note of the portrait of FDR that was hanging on the Oval Office wall. It was important, he stressed, for Biden to not make the same missteps Roosevelt did in the New Deal when it came time to craft his own domestic agenda; to ensure that millions of people of color were not excluded in the final outcome. That moment, which was recounted by two sources in the room, continues to resonate months later. With Biden under pressure to reduce the price tag of his social spending and climate plan, Democratic lawmakers and advocates are keeping a close eye on likely cuts to provisions boosting health care and economic aid for people of color. Echoing Clyburn’s comments on the New Deal, some are concerned that programs benefiting Black and brown people could be cut altogether or significantly weakened, potentially widening inequities. Clyburn himse...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘This is the future’: Black Senate candidates crush fundraising expectations

In his bid to hold his Georgia Senate seat, Democrat Raphael Warnock collected a stunning $9.5 million over the last 90 days. Democrat Val Demings, who’s challenging GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, amassed an eye-popping $8.5 million. In South Carolina, Republican Sen. Tim Scott brought in $8.4 million. All across the Senate map — but particularly in the South — Black candidates posted blowout performances in the most recent campaign fundraising period, leading to an unprecedented cash windfall that stands to reshape the Senate in 2022 and beyond. It’s a dramatic turn of events for a group of candidates who have traditionally struggled to raise the huge sums of money necessary to win marquee statewide elections. As a result, they’ve frequently faced skepticism about their electoral viability or failed to achieve buy-in for their campaigns from party brass. “This may be an era where we can level the playing field,” said Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair. “I...
Post a Comment
Read more