Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Friday that 50 House Democrats will oppose the $1.2 trillion “bipartisan” infrastructure bill, which is scheduled for a vote Monday. “Pramila Jayapal told me at least 50 of her progressive members still plan to vote to sink the infrastructure bill if it goes forward Monday,” a CNN reporter tweeted . “She added that leadership taking some steps to move ahead on the big reconciliation bill is ‘not enough.'” Jayapal is the chair of the 94-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, a powerful force within the Democrat Party. Pramila Jayapal told me at least 50 of her progressive members still plan to vote to sink the infrastructure bill if it goes forward Monday. She added that leadership taking some steps to move ahead on the big reconcilation bill is “not enough.” — Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 24, 2021 When Jayapal was interviewed Wednesday on CNN, she explained she is concerned the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package will not pass the …
GOP should grab the chance to upend Pelosi’s plan on reconciliation
House Republicans have an unusual opportunity this week both to enhance the nation’s infrastructure and reduce the chances that the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill will ever become law. The American people strongly support spending on physical infrastructure, a degree of support buttressed by hurricane Ida’s destructive flooding earlier this month. The sharp reduction in deaths from Ida — when compared to Katrina 16 years ago — is directly attributable to an infrastructure project, the newly-built levees around New Orleans . The progressives in the House know this, too, and are relying on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate in early August to be the engine that drags along the fiscally dangerous — and much less popular or necessary — $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill now under negotiation by the Democrats in both the Senate and House. From all indications, the Biden administration also believes that passing a combined infrastructure and …
Continue Reading about GOP should grab the chance to upend Pelosi’s plan on reconciliation →
Democrats’ Spending Fight Carries High Stakes for Their Candidates
WASHINGTON — With President Biden’s approval ratings falling below 50 percent after the most trying stretch of his young administration, pushing through his ambitious legislative agenda has taken on a new urgency for Democratic lawmakers. Recognizing that a president’s popularity is the best indicator for how his party will fare in the midterm elections, Democrats are confronting a stark prospect: If Mr. Biden doesn’t succeed in the halls of Congress this fall, it could doom his party’s majorities at the polls next fall. Not that such a do-or-die dilemma is itself sufficient to stop Democrats’ intraparty squabbling, which the president on Friday termed a “stalemate.” Divisions between moderates and liberals over the substance, the price tag and even the legislative timing of Mr. Biden’s twin priorities, a bipartisan public works bill and broader social welfare legislation, could still undermine the proposals. But it is increasingly clear to Democratic officials that beyond …
Continue Reading about Democrats’ Spending Fight Carries High Stakes for Their Candidates →
EXCLUSIVE: Top Republican Explains How Biden’s Budget Package Raises Taxes, Hurts Working Class
The highest-ranking Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee slammed Democrats’ massive trillion-dollar budget reconciliation package, arguing it raises taxes on working class Americans. Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady said the $3.5 trillion legislation, titled the Build Back Better Act, would fuel inflation, devastate small business and set the U.S. back economically relative to competing nations. “There is a steep price that Americans will pay for this bill,” Brady told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “Our government has never wasted so much money that kills so many American jobs, drives prices even higher and hooks a whole new generation of the poor on government dependency.” The highest-ranking Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee slammed Democrats’ massive trillion-dollar budget reconciliation package, arguing it raises taxes on working class Americans. Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady said …
Sharpton Delivers Eulogy
Here’s what you need to know: Officials across the country move to ban chokeholds and defund the police. A New Jersey corrections officer is suspended after mocking George Floyd’s death during a protest. George Floyd is remembered as a father, son, nephew and ‘Superman.’ Plea deal negotiations with Chauvin broke down the day before he was charged with murder, prosecutors say. Trump promotes a conspiracy theory about an injured Buffalo protester. Evoking history, black cowboys and cowgirls are riding at protests. A New York City officer who shoved a protester surrenders to face charges. Officials across the country move to ban chokeholds and defund the police. More than two weeks after George Floyd gasped under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer that he could not breathe — an embodiment of the suffocation long felt by black Americans — the mayor of Houston stood at his funeral on Tuesday and announced that he would ban the city’s police from …
What Alex Padilla Wants California Voters to Know
Good morning. Early voting, including voting by mail, in this election has decimated records in states across the country, including California , where more than 6.5 million ballots have already been returned, according to the state . Still, over the weekend, California voters lined up to cast their ballots early at dozens of newly open polling places, including, for the first time , Staples Center , home of the Los Angeles Lakers. Hundreds more will open on Oct. 30. On Thursday, I talked with California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla , about what voters should know in the homestretch, especially if they’re planning to vote in person. Here’s our conversation, lightly edited for clarity: How are things going? What’s the biggest challenge on your mind right now? Californians are voting in big numbers. We’re about 2.5 times where we were at this point in 2016, if that’s any indicator. We’ve been planning and preparing for months. And if voter …
Continue Reading about What Alex Padilla Wants California Voters to Know →
Why a New Mexico House Race Is a Crucial Test of the G.O.P. Focus on Crime
ALBUQUERQUE — In theory, the special election to fill Interior Secretary Deb Haaland ’s seat in the House should not be competitive. President Biden carried the Albuquerque-based district by 23 points last year, and there has not been a close race for Congress here since George W. Bush was president. Democrats in Washington and New Mexico , however, are not taking any chances ahead of the election Tuesday. They have flooded Melanie Stansbury , their nominee, with an infusion of late money, dispatched Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff to appear with her in the state, and sought to energize volunteers on her behalf. “This race is the highest priority for us,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told nearly a thousand national progressive activists on a conference call Thursday night, adding: “Any victory is good, but we want a nice, decisive victory.” Ms. Pelosi’s eagerness to notch a resounding win reflects the party’s anxiety over one of the most pressing challenges it faces: defusing …
Continue Reading about Why a New Mexico House Race Is a Crucial Test of the G.O.P. Focus on Crime →