FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2021
•Germany holds national elections this coming Sunday as Chancellor Angela Merkel steps down as the country’s leader after 16 years.
•President Biden leads a meeting of “The Quad” today at the White House, along with leaders of Japan, India and Australia. Their big issue for discussion is over China’s military dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.
•The CDC last night gave green light to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine booster and added health care workers and others whose job puts them at risk, as eligible, along with seniors 65 and older, and those 18 and older with a high risk of illness.
Pelosi, Schumer Announce ‘Framework’ on Social Infrastructure – House Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, have announced a “framework” that is to bring moderate and progressive Democrats together on the $3.5-trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation package, Politico reports. But progressives want to delay the September 27 vote deadline on the $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill that Pelosi has attached to the bigger reconciliation bill, while moderates want to stick with next Monday’s deadline on what they see as a sure thing and rare win for President Biden.
Note: The Pelosi-Schumer announcement has left most pundits scratching their heads over whether this framework means anything substantial at all. Regardless, there are going to a whole lot of people spending the first weekend of fall crunching numbers in their offices and others twisting arms. Politico reports Friday that Pelosi plans to meet her obligation to hold a vote on infrastructure Monday, so with this framework she can also call for a vote on the $3.5 trillion spending bill framework without forcing a final vote on the bigger package.
•••
House 1/6 Committee Subpoenas Four Trump Aides – The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol Thursday subpoenaed three Trump White House officials and advisor Steve Bannon, the Associated Press reports. The committee has “also requested a trove of records from the White House,” which the AP says President Biden has authority to decide whether to release.
Subpoenas went to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, Defense Department official Kashyap Patel, and Bannon. All are believed to have close contact with Trump January 5 and leading up to the pro-Trump riots January 6. Democrats cite Bannon’s January 5 prediction, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
•••
Dog Bites Man in Arizona — The six-month, $6-million audit of election results in the 2020 presidential election conducted by Cyber Ninjas in Maricopa County, Arizona, found that Joe Biden had 99 more votes than had been originally tabulated and Donald Trump had 261 fewer votes, according to a draft report of the review that had been obtained by The New York Times. Yes, Biden won Arizona.
Maricopa County, Arizona’s Twitter account put it this wayt: “The #azaudit draft report from Cyber Ninjas confirms the county’s canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winners did, in fact, win.” … In a second tweet, it added; “Unfortunately, the report is also littered with errors & faulty conclusions about how Maricopa County audited the 2020 General Election.”
Note: It should come as no surprise that Texas, which Trump won, will conduct an audit of the results in four countries (Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant,” TheNYTreports, in response to Trump’s request to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for a “Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election.” As is sometimes said in the Lone Star State, “He don’t know nothing from nothing.” And the pronoun could apply to either of the individuals.
•••
Bush Backs Cheney – No, it’s not a long-lost headline from 2000. Former Republican President George W. Bush will hold a fundraiser October 18 in Dallas for the re-election campaign of his vice president’s daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, the Associated Press reports. While this might seem uncharacteristic of the 43rd president, who has kept a low political profile, the AP quotes Bush’s spokesman Freddy Ford as saysing, Bush “has historically helped a few key candidates and friends each cycle, so this one shouldn’t come as any surprise.”
Cheney has ticked off former Republican President Donald J. Trump by voting for his second impeachment last January and joining the House select committee investigation into the January 6 Capitol attacks.
Trump is leading the “primarying” of Republican congress members “disloyal” to him in next year’s midterm election and backs Wyoming attorney Harriet Hageman’s challenge next year.
Underscoring how much the GOP has changed in just the last decade, Trump called Bush 43 a “RINO,” in a statement, and accused Cheney of being “warmongering,” and being “so bad for Wyoming.”
Note: Which is to say Cheney is “so bad” for Wyoming’s blindly diehard Trump supporters.
•••
Primary Challenge Unlikely Here – Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, announced early Friday on Twitter he will run for an eighth term, The Hill reports. Grassley managed to stay in Donald Trump’s good graces while not closely aligning with the former president. Grassley, already the oldest U.S. senator, turned 88 last Friday, which means should he win re-election – a good bet as he beat a Democratic challenger five years ago by 25 points – he will be 94 at the end of his next term as senator.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
____________________________________
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
•Leaders of African countries will speak before the UN General Assembly today about global inequity in COVID-19 vaccine supplies, NPR reports.
•The FDA may sign off as early as today on Pfizer BioNTech booster shots for its COVID-19 vaccinations, but only for those 65 and older and those at high risk. The booster shots could be available next week, The Washington Post reports.
Special Envoy to Haiti Resigns Over Biden Policy – Daniel Foote, appointed special envoy to Haiti following the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moise, has resigned, citing the Biden administration’s “inhumane, counterproductive decision” to send Haitian refugees from Texas back to their native country, The New York Times reports. Since its president’s assassination in July, Haiti has also been hit by a deadly earthquake.
Note: An estimated 14,000 Haitian refugees had gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas over the last several days, and the White House came under criticism from advocates who say President Biden is simply continuing Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. It should be noted, however, that most of the Haitian refugees are being identified as having come from South American countries, gathering in southern Mexico in recent weeks, according to a report on NPR’s Morning Editon.
•••
Highway Bill Becomes a Bargaining Chip – The law that allows federal highway and transit spending expires September 30, three days after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA, date for a House of Representatives vote on the Senate’s bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, Roll Call says. Pelosi continues to insist the House will get the $3.5 trillion “soft infrastructure” budget reconciliation bill and the bipartisan bridges-and-roads infrastructure done in time, while nearly everyone else on Capitol Hill is panicking.
Note: However, several progressives making the rounds of media outlets insist they have a mandate on the bigger reconciliation bill and appear confident that their priority – the “soft infrastructure” bill that includes environmental and child-welfare programs – will get passed in time.
“We are on schedule. And we’re calm and everybody’s good and our work is almost done,” Pelosi said. House progressives seem to have left some room to negotiate the $3.5 trillion down to placate Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV. Also worth noting is that the House will have completed its work, per Pelosi, if it passes the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and sends it to President Biden’s resolute desk, while approving the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill and then sending it back to the Senate. Pelosi’s task is to make sure that both moderate and progressive Democrats vote in favor of the reconciliation bill.
Furthermore: Biden extracted a concession from moderates in a five-hour meeting with 23 legislators in the Oval Office, ending 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to Politico Playbook. “Moderates agreed that they need to coalesce around an offer to the liberals,” a senior White House official told Politico, to which the online publication added; “The White House views the commitment from the Manch-ema wing as ‘a real breakthrough.’”
What Would it Take to Get You Into this Reconciliation Bill Today?: Biden remains frustrated, however, that the Manch-ema wing, which includes Manchin, Sen. Krysten Sinema, R-AZ, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-FL and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, would not give him a specific “this is my final deal” number anywhere south of the $3.5 trillion price tag.
•••
Coal & Climate & West Virginia — It’s not all about the price tag for Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV. After leaving the Oval Office meeting with President Biden yesterday evening, Manchin said of the climate provisions that are part of the infrastructure package, “I have big problems” and added, “Probably [the president] and I are in a different place on that,” Politico reports. There is some $150 billion in the package for “clean energy,” which doesn’t mean coal.
Note: Think what you may about Manchin’s intransigence, coal is hugely important to West Virginia’s economy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on 2019 data, it is the second-largest coal producer in the nation, accounting for 13% of total U.S. coal production, and more than one-third of the 93 million short tons of coal mined is exported to foreign markets. In terms of consumption of coal vs. other fuels, it consumes 621.7 trillion BTU from coal and 238 trillion BTU from second-place natural gas. Manchin does represent a state that has a huge amount riding on coal.
•••
Federal Reserve to ‘Taper’ Bond Purchases – The Federal Reserve indicated it would begin to “taper” – that’s the technical economic term – off its $120 billion monthly purchase of bonds and other assets at the end of its rate-setting committee’s two-day meeting Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reports. Such tapering would help alleviate inflation in the U.S., although the Fed believes the current inflation rate of 5.3% annually is “transitory,” and will come down as workers return to factories and production ramps up to normal again. The Fed’s target rate for inflation is 2%
“The purpose of that language,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said, referring to the signal of a tapering, “is to put notice out that that could come as soon as the next meeting,” which is scheduled for November 2-3, the WSJ says.
Note: Federal bond purchases, industrial production and delivery (freight ships are stacked up in the waters outside most of the nation’s ports, thanks to a shortage of truck drivers and rail capacity, PRI’s Marketplace reports), and the inflation rate will affect the success of whatever combo of President Biden’s infrastructure program and reconciliation bill gets signed in the next couple of months. Although “tapering” will start to relieve inflationary pain, it will take months, at best, to reduce the inflation rate from 5.3% to just 2%. It’s yet another issue that will affect the November 2022 midterm elections.
•••
Senate Compromise on Police Overhaul Stalls – Months of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans on police reform legislation came to an abrupt halt Wednesday, Roll Call reports. Efforts to negotiate a package that would placate Republicans in their opposition “ran out of steam,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, said.
Rep. Karen Bass, D-CA, lead sponsor of a bill the House passed in March criticized Senate Republicans for being “unwilling to compromise.” The House bill includes a ban on chokeholds by federal officers, would end qualified immunity for police departments against civil lawsuits and create a national standard for policing, Roll Call notes. Bass has been negotiating with Booker and Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, on the bill.
•••
EPA Regulates Hydrofluorocarbons – The Environmental Protection 0Agency is issuing a new rule that cuts use and production of hydrofluorocarbons found in refrigerant and air conditioning by 85% over the next 15 years, The Washington Postreports. The regulation implements a law Congress passed last year, although it has broad bipartisan support as a likely job source from the production of green alternatives
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods
____________________________________
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
•As if budget reconciliation, infrastructure, the debt limit and next Thursday’s federal budget deadline aren’t enough, the House of Representatives has begun debate of the $778-billion fiscal 2022 defense spending bill, with 476 amendments proposed, Roll Call reports.
•More than a dozen shots were fired at a car carrying Serhiy Shefir, principal aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky, Politico reports, via Ukrainian media. Shefir was unhurt, but his driver was injured, and hospitalized. Speculation is that the assassination attempt stems from Zelinsky’s campaign to punish corruption in Ukraine. He is best-known in the U.S. as the recipient of the “perfect call” that led to President Trump’s first impeachment, in 2019.
•The Taliban wants to send a high-ranking official to the UN General Assembly being held in New York City this week, The Washington Post reports. The Taliban has sent the request to UN Secretary Gen. Antonio Guterres asking that Mohammed Suhail Shaheen be named the group’s permanent representative. A State Department official told reporters that such requests take time to deliberate.
End of Month Showdown on the Debt Limit – Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page regarding the federal budget and the debt limit. Without a vote on a budget, federal agencies run out of funding and shut down after September 30 –a week from tomorrow. Meanwhile, if Congress fails to raise the federal debt limit, we run out of funds for federal programs in October, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin.
The House of Representatives last night passed a short-term funding bill that would keep federal agencies open through December 3, while raising the debt limit through December 2022, Punchbowl News reports. The 220-211 vote was along party lines, with Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-AZ, not voting. The House bill goes to the Senate today where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, will call for cloture (to subvert a filibuster), but that vote won’t happen until Friday, the Capitol Hill newsletter says.
Republican senators are expected to vote to keep the federal government open, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, has made it clear budget reconciliation with the debt limit increase is dead on arrival, even as Democratic senators complain they voted for such an increase when the Trump tax cuts passed. The question, according to Punchbowl News, is whether Democrats continue to push the budget reconciliation bill, all $3.5-trillion of it, with the debt limit increase attached or “find another path”?
Note: The “other path” comes down to the months-old issue of how to get progressive House Democrats on board and pass the $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill separately from the budget reconciliation bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, has scheduled September 27, which is next Monday, as deadline for House passage in order to send it to President Biden's desk for signature. The $3.5-trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation bill simply will not get through the Senate as-is, without removing the legislative filibuster, and Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, are not going to vote for the filibuster suspension.
As several news outlets have pointed out, the ongoing fight between moderate and progressive Democrats threatens to “derail” Biden’s agenda.
•••
Trump Family Feud – Donald J. Trump has filed suit against his niece, Mary L. Trump, The New York Times and three of its reporters, accusing them of conspiring on an “insidious plot” to improperly obtain the real estate developer, former president and reality TV star’s tax records “and exploit their use in news articles and a book,” the Times reports. The lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County was first reported by the DailyBeast Wednesday morning.
Trump’s lawsuit claims the reporters “relentlessly” sought out his niece – a psychologist and frequent cable news pundit the last four years who criticized the ex-prez and her family in the 2020 book Too Much and Never Enough – and “persuaded” her to smuggle the tax records out of her attorney's office. This breached a confidentiality agreement that was part of a litigation settlement involving the will of Trump’s late father, Fred C. Trump, who died in 1999. The lawsuit says Times reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner, and Ms. Trump “engaged in an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly-sensitive records which they exploited for their own benefit and utilized as a means of falsely legitimizing their publicized works.”
The suit follows scheduling by a Manhattan criminal judge’s scheduling Monday of the trial of the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who are accused of dodging taxes. The trial is set for late summer of 2022 and alleges Weisselberg avoided $1.7 million of taxes on fringe benefits received from the Trump Organization.
Note: The AP reports that Susanne Craig, reacting to this claim of an “insidious plot,” tweeted, “I knocked on Mary Trump’s door. She opened it. I think they call that journalism.” Drop the mic.
•••
Biden Says Government Will Buy Half-Billion Vaccines for Developing Nations – Following his speech to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, President Biden announced the U.S. will buy a half-billion COVID-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer BioNTech to be donated to developing nations in need. The announcement comes after Biden re-committed the U.S. to re-engage with the global community, which comes after four years of Trump administration nationalism.
“Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes on devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future: ending this pandemic; addressing the climate crisis; managing the shifts in global power dynamics; shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber, and emerging technologies; and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today,” Biden said.
“We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan. And as we close this period of relentless war, we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy…”
Note: Of course, Biden’s words glossed over an end to the Afghan war largely criticized for its poor organization. Meanwhile, the French government is still reeling – and has called its ambassador back to Paris from Washington, D.C., over the U.S.-U.K.-Australian nuclear submarine deal.
And as for the vaccines, according to the BBC, only 4% of the African population, for example, have been vaccinated -- there are some 1.3-billion people who live there. As the Pfizer vaccination requires two shots, half-a-billion doses doesn’t go too far in a place like that.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021
•President Biden is scheduled to lead off the United Nations General Assembly in New York City Tuesday with a speech expected to address climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
•Johnson & Johnson is promoting its COVID-19 vaccine as an efficacious booster, announcing that it prompts a strong response months after patients have received the first dose. “A booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine further increases antibody responses among study participants who had previously received our vaccine,” said the drugmaker’s research & development global chief, Dr. Mathai Mammen (per the AP).
•Jessica Gottlieb On the Left and Bryan Williams On the Right comment on the lessons for last week’s recall election of California Gov. Gavin Newsom to the Republican Party. Scroll down to the next file using the trackbar on the far right of this page to read news analysis in the center column, and then their commentaries to the left and right.
House to Vote on Short-Term Funding – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, has scheduled a House of Representatives vote on short-term federal funding that will extend the debt limit to 2022 to avoid a government shutdown. But the extension faces a wall known as the U.S. Senate, where Republicans are firmly with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, on filibustering the bill, notes Punchbowl News.
“Republicans, from Sen. Mitt Romney” of Utah, “to Shelley Moore Capito” of West Virginia are committed to following McConnell’s lead on opposing raising the debt limit, the online publication says. While Punchbowl News reports that Pelosi hopes a sufficient number of Senate Republicans will change their minds, it reports that Democrats have “No Plan B” so far.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin has warned in a guest editorial in The Wall Street Journal that the government could hit its debt ceiling by next month.
Note: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, was quoted on NPR’s Morning Edition that Democrats voted with Republicans to raise the debt limit for President Trump’s massive tax cuts for the rich and corporations a few years ago, suggesting there is room for Republicans to reciprocate … as if that would trigger any empathy from the minority leader. In addition to being the Republican leader who greeted the Obama administration by promising to essentially block everything he proposed, McConnell now has the potential to exert his partisan power and chip away control of the GOP from Donald Trump, with whom he has fallen out over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The former president has said he wants to replace McConnell at the top of Senate Republican leadership.
•••
First Suit Filed in Controversial Texas Abortion Law – A self-described “disbarred and disgraced former Arkansas lawyer” has filed the first suit connected to Texas’ controversial abortion law, which calls on individuals to file suit against virtually anyone connected with delivering or accepting an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, The Washington Post reports. Plaintiff Oscar Stilley has sued San Antonio physician Alan Braid, who wrote an op-ed for the WaPo saying he performed an early abortion that nevertheless exceeded the parameters of the law, as his duty as a doctor, and “because she has the fundamental right to receive this care.”
Thus the next showdown for Roe v. Wade is set for the Supreme Court.
•••
Trudeau Wins Another Minority Government – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau managed to hang on to his minority leadership in Monday’s snap elections, which he called two years early in an attempt to push his Liberal Party to a majority of Parliament’s 339 seats. The Globe and Mail calls the Liberal’s third straight win a “status quo” government, with the party having won or elected 158 seats as of Tuesday morning. Conservatives have 119, Bloc Quebecois 34, NDP 25 and the Green Party, two according to the early returns.
Some of Trudeau’s erstwhile supporters reportedly resented his calling the snap elections during the pandemic. He will have to continue to work with other parties in order to get legislation passed.
Note: Perhaps there’s a lesson here for progressive Democrats in our democratic republic?
•••
Customs Investigates Border Patrol on Horseback – The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility has begun an investigation regarding footage of Border Patrol agents on horseback “menacingly” using what appears to be whips on migrants at the U.S-Mexican border, Politico reports. The Department of Homeland Security also has dispatched personnel to oversee border patrol operations.
The investigation comes as an estimated 14,000-plus Haitian refugees gather in Del Rio, Texas. The Biden administration is extending use of a Trump-era policy to return refugees to the country from which they came on health concerns because they risk spreading the coronavirus. Many of the Haitian refugees reportedly have immigrated north from countries in South America, where they were most recently living.
Note: Monday’s News & Notes noted that the Senate parliamentarian ruled in favor of the Republican caucus to prevent Democrats’ plan to attach immigration reform to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. In other words, it’s the White House’s problem, and there’s little relief in sight from either party in working to alleviate the ongoing border crisis.
•••
Kim Jong Un Unhappy — AUKUS, the defense pact created by Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. (see where the acronym came from?), has caused consternation in Pyongyang, North Korea, with the Korean Central News Agency (part of the government) quoting a Foreign Ministry official (part of the government) as saying “It is quite natural that neighboring countries including China condemned these actions as irresponsible ones of destroying the peace and stability of the region and the international nuclear nonproliferation system and of catalyzing the arms race,” The Washington Post reported.
Note: On the subject of stability, it is worth noting that North Korea is expanding its Yongbyon nuclear enrichment facility and has recently conducted long-range missile tests. Exactly the sort of thing that a country not at all interested in proliferation and arms races would do.
It also brings to mind Donald Trump’s bromance with Kim Jong Un, which was to lead to something — a treaty? a Trump Hotel in downtown Pyongyang? — that never materialized, just a photo ops between the two leaders with some of the most bizarre tonsorial looks on the planet. (We now learn from Peril that Trump reportedly described the man from whom he received “love letters” as a “f**king lunatic.”)
Which brings to mind that Trump really had a problem with accomplishment. While Biden is being raked over the coals for the seemingly bungled departure from Afghanistan, note how Trump had agreed to a May 1, 2021, withdrawal deadline that was set for after his single term in office – although he obviously figured the deadline would come during his second term in office.
And while we are seeing problems at the southern border of the U.S., not only did Trump not finish the big, beautiful Wall, but Mexico hasn’t ponied up the building costs like he said it would.
•••
U.S. COVID Deaths Surpass that of 1918-19 Influenza – The number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States has surpassed 675,000, which is roughly the number of deaths from influenza in 1918-19, The Washington Post reports, citing newly released CDC numbers. While it is the case that the number, 675,000, represented a much bigger percentage of the U.S. population a century ago – it reached 106 million in the 1920 Census versus 331 million last year (per Wikipedia) – the U.S. has recorded a much bigger share of global deaths for the coronavirus than for the influenza.
There were about 49 million influenza deaths globally, the CDC says, which means U.S. deaths equaled 1.4%. There have been 4.7 million COVID-19 deaths globally so far, with the U.S. taking about 14.4% of that.
Note: “A lot of people think that it goes away in April, with the heat.” – President Donald J. Trump in February 2020.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods
____________________________________
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
•Scroll down using the trackbar on the far right, for debate on what last week’s California recall election means for the future of the Republican Party under Donald Trump. Jessica Gottlieb opines from the left, with Bryan Williams on the right. Tip: Read the center column first.
•Canada holds “snap” federal elections today. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for the elections two years early, in hopes of building his Liberal Party’s numbers in Parliament, but Canadian polls say the party may actually lose strength and threaten Trudeau’s leadership.
•The United Nations 76th General Assembly holds its annual gathering this week in New York City, beginning Tuesday.
•Pfizer BioNTech reports Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children 5 years old and up, says NPR’s Morning Edition.
Senate Democrats Can’t Attach Immigration to Budget Reconciliation – The Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has ruled that Democrats cannot attach to the $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation package an immigration plan that would give several categories of immigrants permanent residence and possible U.S. citizenship, the Associated Press reports. The ruling ends Senate Democrats’ hopes that immigration reform could be passed by a simple majority vote along with the rest of budget reconciliation. Instead, any separate immigration bill will need 60 votes, including 10 Republicans, to avoid a filibuster.
Note: Fate of immigration reform passes back to the Republicans, again. How has that worked out for the last 20 or so years?
•••
Politico Scoop: Sinema Hands Biden Ultimatum on Budget – Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, reportedly told President Biden last Wednesday she will not back his $3.5-trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation package if the House fails to vote for, and pass, the $1.2-trillion infrastructure plan by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA, September 27 deadline, according to Politico. Sinema is one of two Senate Democrats – the other is West Virginia’s Joe Manchin III, of course – who could torpedo the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill, needing just 50 votes to pass.
Politico Playbook further notes there are at least 10 moderate Democratic House members playing hardball over infrastructure vs. reconciliation, including Rep. Kurt Schrader, of Oregon. “If they delay the vote,” Schrader told Playbook, referring to progressive House Democrats, “or it goes down – then I think you can kiss reconciliation goodbye. Reconciliation would be dead.”
Note: Finally, outward signs that moderate House Democrats are playing hardball with the progs. The White House’s weakened position on its agenda following the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is almost certainly fortifying the moderates’ position.
•••
Cassidy Looks Forward—In an interview Sunday with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, with Todd using the decision by Rep. Anthony Gonzales, R-OH, not to seek re-election and former President Trump describing the representative as “a grandstanding RINO, not respected in D.C. who voted for the unhinged, unconstitutional, illegal impeachment witch hunt” as the setup, Cassidy made several comments which seem to indicate that there are some in the Republican Party who are not focusing on grievances of days past, as these following quotes indicate:
- “The broader question, frankly, is do Republicans continue to relitigate 2020, or do we look to the forward -- look forward with a positive agenda? If we relitigate 2020 over and over again, it won't change the result in 2020, but we're sure to lose in 2024.”
- “And so if we don't answer to voters in a positive way, we lose. It's kind of a market-based economy, and it's ruthless. If all you do is talk about the past, you're yesterday's news. If you talk about the future in a way which gives a positive alternative to a Biden administration, whether it's inflation, Afghanistan, immigration -- I could go on -- which is failing, then we win. Now, folks can choose to be bullied and relitigate. We can choose to go forward and win. I choose to go forward and serve my constituents.”
- “Politicians are not victims. We choose who we answer to. Either you can choose to answer to someone who is off-screen, if you will, or you can choose to answer to your constituents, your state, your country.”
- “If we relitigate the past, we lose. We've got to speak about the future.”
- “Again, if we relitigate an election from 2020, we lose. I'm about winning.”
Note: Cassidy was one of seven senators who voted to impeach Trump during his second impeachment trial. Cassidy was re-elected to the Senate in 2020 so he has no immediate concern vis-à-vis his own position.
It is interesting to note that statements like these, as well as reports that there are several Republican politicians who are grumbling that Trump won’t leave the stage, the deflated protest that was “Justice for J6,” and Gavin Newsom’s convincing showing in the recall election, may indicate that when the Republicans get serious about 2022 and 2024 Trump may not be the force to be reckoned with that he is now — or has been, up until now.
•••
And Yet, Trump Wants a New Republican Senate Leader – Flying in the face of Sen. Cassidy’s comments above, Donald Trump is shopping for a new Senate leader to depose Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, The Wall Street Journal reports. Here’s a surprise: No one wants it. There’s “little appetite” to replace McConnell, even among such Trump sycophants as Sen. Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama, who has already declined, the Journal says.
McConnell, whose eighth term as GOP Senate leader runs to January 2023, voted against Trump’s second impeachment conviction. But his relationship with Trump has been frosty, to say the least, since the minority leader denounced the former president in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor. McConnell holds Trump’s constant repeat of his Big Lie responsible for his own demotion from majority leader after two Democrats took Georgia’s Senate seats, pushing Democrats into the majority, in the January runoffs.
Note: The WSJ piece notes that Trump has raised $102 million in political cash in the first six months of the year but hasn’t paid any of it off to GOP candidates. The newspaper also notes that Trump’s discussions “risk driving a deeper wedge” between McConnell and Trump. One of the savviest Capitol Hill strategists, McConnell must now be considering whether holding firm against President Biden’s agenda, or whether negotiating for better bi-partisanship is his better path to firming up his power. We’d bet on the former. And while Trump allegedly wants his previous job back, too, given how that’s been working out, odds are McConnell is not overly concerned.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash