By Craig Fahle 

Crafting a bipartisan deal on something as expensive, and extensive as infrastructure is always a difficult prospect, especially when Democrats and Republicans can’t even agree on what the term means.  But an even bigger problem for President Biden is trying to negotiate with a party that isn’t really interested in making a deal at all.  

Biden’s original plan called for $2.3 trillion in spending, to be paid for with a partial rollback of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Naturally, Republicans balked, and their latest counteroffer includes less than half of what Biden is seeking in total, with only $237 billion in new spending … most of it paid for by using unspent COVID relief funds, and possible user fees like gas tax increases and tolls. Biden smartly rejected the proposal as wholly inadequate to meet his policy goals.

HR 3684, the INVEST in America Act sponsored by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-OR, is canted much closer to various Republican offers than even the White House’s latest $1.2-trillion bid, and thus isn’t much better. Even with a price tag of just $574 billion and a concentration on “traditional” infrastructure needs, there’s no guarantee the Senate counterpart to HR 3684 would pass with the 10 Republican votes necessary to avoid a filibuster. 

Republicans have made clear that Biden’s policy goals are not in their interest.  They also aren’t interested in any realistic discussion on how to pay for our infrastructure needs. Any conversation that does not include raising taxes on corporations, even a little bit, isn’t serious.  

Republicans have called tax increases a “red line” they won’t cross. Believe them. 

Without tax increases on corporations and rich people, the bill will naturally fall to the middle and lower classes. Biden shouldn’t take the Republican bait. The Republican “offer” simply allows them to go home to their districts, take credit for projects already paid for, and hammer Democrats for raising taxes on the middle class just in time for the midterms. Meanwhile, left leaning Democrats once again feel betrayed, and bitter about another lost opportunity, and the unwillingness to directly confront Mitch McConnell and his obstructionist methods. A perfect storm for the 2022.

Lastly, what guarantees are there that McConnell and his Senate minions would even honor a deal? Republicans just a few days ago undermined their own negotiator on a January 6^th investigation when they ditched a “bipartisan” agreement on a commission because they were worried about political fallout. That’s all Biden needs to know. If one side isn’t negotiating in good faith, walk away from the table and try to go it alone.  At least that way, everyone will be on record voting against huge infusions of investment into their communities.  That’s the kind of thing that voters will notice. 

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By Todd Lassa

Hopes continue to fade that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, and President Biden will negotiate an infrastructure bill that could pick up sufficient bipartisan support –

60 votes – in the Senate. Biden and Capito plan to meet for negotiations one more time before the president leaves for a weeklong European trip Wednesday, although the gap between the White House’s latest best offer of a $1.2 trillion package and Capito’s sub-trillion-dollar counteroffer is farther apart than the dollar amounts show. That’s because a large chunk of the Republican’s top bid includes very little new money, most of it leftover COVID-19 relief funds. Meanwhile, the president seems to have given up on funding infrastructure by returning the corporate tax rate to 28%.

“The timing is not unlimited here,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki Monday, The Hill reports. “Nor is the president’s willingness to compromise.”

If Biden-Capito talks go no further – and that would be the way to bet – option two, says The Hill, would be alternative proposals individually from Republican Sens. Rob Portman, of Ohio, Mitt Romney, of Utah or Susan Collins, of Maine, or from Capito’s Democratic counterpart from West Virginia, Joe Manchin III, who has no interest in ending the legislative filibuster and is a likely “no” vote if other Senate Democrats try to push it through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.

Option Three is a bill circulating through the House of Representatives by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-OR, called the Invest in America Act [< https://thehustings.news/daily-news/> News & Notes, Friday, June 4].

Congress members like acronyms but INVEST is relatively descriptive – it stands for Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation for America. While DeFazio’s bill addresses the nuts-and-bolts fixing and building that Republicans insist the bill should consider exclusively, it leaves cold progressive Democrats who thought some version of Biden’s original proposal would survive to bring FDR-LBJ-level funding to reweave the nation’s social safety net.

In his address to the joint session of Congress, Biden did not hold back on his plans to replace 40 years of supply-side economics with the Keynesian economics President Reagan took apart in the early 1980s.

“Trickle-down economics has never worked,” Biden told the House of Representatives and Senate in April. “It’s time to grow the economy from the middle out.”

Of course, the Trump Administration corporate tax cut to 21%, which apparently will remain in place, is the very epitome of trickle-down economics.

DeFazio’s INVEST in America Act throws out all of the social program funding without cheapening out by reusing unspent funding, as in the Capito proposal. The five-year, $574 billion plan would fund roads, bridges and highway safety to the tune of $343 billion, with another $109 billion for mass transit and $95 billion for rail. That will seem to progressive Democrats what the federal government should have been doing all along, at least as far back as 1981. No doubt, senators and congress members in some oil-producing states – looking at you, Texas and Oklahoma – will raise objections to DeFazio’s de-emphasis on private vehicle travel. The infrastructure bill, he says, is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to move our transportation planning out of the 1950s and toward our clean energy future.”

Depending on how confident the GOP is about success with Trump-backed candidates in the mid-term elections, even the DeFazio proposal could meet stiff opposition among the more strident MAGA Republicans. If Democrats can get some “unity” on this issue, it will be up to their leaders to parlay it into some unexpected victories in November 2022.

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By Stephen Macaulay

On the homepage of Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) on June 5 there were three items under the heading “Latest News.” Two out of three give a good sense of what DeFazio, who was one of the founders—with Bernie Sanders, Ron Dellums, Maxine Waters, Lane Evans, and Thomas Andrews—of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, evidently thinks infrastructure means.

One of the press releases announces the restoration of Amtrak service in Oregon (“As Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, DeFazio negotiated $1.7 billion for Amtrak in the American Rescue Plan, so service could be restored.”).

The other says that DeFazio managed to get a $5.5 million grant from the Department of Transportation to fix the runway and taxiway lighting system of the Eugene Airport, which is within the boundaries of the district DeFazio represents.

On June 4, a $547 billion bill was presented by DeFazio for infrastructure spending. The monies are to be spent over five years.

Included in the proposal is an increase in investment for roads and bridges by about 54%; this would be $343 billion, or about 63% of the total. Then $109 billion goes to public transit programs (not everyone owns a sport utility vehicle or pickup truck despite what might seem to be the case); and $95 billion for rail, for both people (e.g., Amtrak) and goods (somehow things need to get to those giant Amazon warehouses before they are loaded into Prime trucks).

And there’s your $547 billion.

The devil is in the details, of course, and one of the pointiest portions for conservatives is the part where there is some sense of how this is going to be paid for.

That said, if looked at in the macro, roads, bridges, and rail seem to be reasonable places to spend. And as for the revenue part, well arguably a portion can be received by productivity increases.

That is, according to Infrastructurereportcard.org:

“The U.S. has been underfunding its highway system for years, resulting in a $836 billion backlog of highway and bridge capital needs. The bulk of the backlog ($420 billion) is in repairing existing highways, while $123 billion is needed for bridge repair, $167 billion for system expansion, and $126 for system enhancement (which includes safety enhancements, operational improvements, and environmental projects). The Federal Highway Administration estimates that each dollar spent on road, highway, and bridge improvements returns $5.20 in the form of lower vehicle maintenance costs, decreased delays, reduced fuel consumption, improved safety, lower road and bridge maintenance costs, and reduced emissions as a result of improved traffic flow.”

That was written in 2017.

Does anyone think there have been notable improvements since then?

One of the things that there seems to be bipartisan support on is that there needs to be more reshoring of products that are now largely produced in other countries, things like the PPE and ventilators and such that hobbled the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. — hobbled it for months. And there are plenty of consumer goods that are produced in other countries.

But given the state of the roadways and rail lines in the U.S., does a corporate executive with fiduciary responsibilities think that a country with an infrastructure that has been treated like a brain tumor at an urgent care (“Take two aspirin and call me in the morning”) rather than at Johns Hopkins is a good place to setup shop? Just-in-time inventory doesn’t work particularly well when one’s trucks are stuck in traffic or one’s inventory is delayed in a railyard.

As Voltaire allegedly said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

On the one hand we have President Biden going for the perfect and on the other we have some Republicans who are, at the end of the day, simply providing a dash of spice to the status quo, which is woefully insufficient.

We need the good.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Read comments from advocates of HR 1, the For The People Act, as part of our coverage of last week’s Braver Angels National Coliseum debate last week on Voting in America, in this column. 

Also on the home page …

•The Hustings debate on a gas tax hike in place of corporate tax increases to pay for an infrastructure plan.

•A debate on the House of Representatives Republican Caucus’ stripping Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, from her committee chairwomanship.

•A debate on the return of Congressional budget earmarks.

…and more.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

MONDAY, JUNE 7, 2021

Coming this afternoon on the home page: Craig Fahle and Stephen Macaulay debate the state of infrastructure negotiations between the Biden administration and Senate Republicans, including HR 3684, the INVEST in America Act introduced by House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Pete DeFazio, D-OR.

•••

MONDAY, JUNE 7, 2021 -- Today begins the Week of Reckoning for Capitol Hill Democrats, whose majority isn’t really a majority. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, will meet today with President Biden to try and reach a compromise over the Republican and White House proposals on an infrastructure bill, making today a sort of deadline (though we’re dubious about that). Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, has told Fox News he supports a bi-partisan compromise, though he also says he opposes the election overhaul bill, passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year as HR 1. Meanwhile, ex-President Trump spent last Saturday night gearing up for a run for a second term, again, in 2024.

On Tuesday – Stephen Macaulay comments on Sen. Joe Manchin and his quest for bi-partisanship, exclusively in our substack newsletter. Subscribe at thehustings.substack.com

Also this week – The Hustings debates infrastructure, again, in light of the latest Biden vs. Senate Republicans negotiations, coming Tuesday. Coming Thursday; Our debate previewing left-column and right-column arguments for the Thursday, June 17, Braver Angels National Coliseum debate on the role of violence in politics. To read these, click on The Hustings logo to return to the home page. 

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FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2021

THIS WEEKEND: Pro-Trump Republicans will run the Georgia state GOP’s convention this weekend on Jekyll Island. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (who is not running for re-election), both of whom have criticized Donald J. Trump for refusing to accept his defeat last November, are not invited.

Read Today’s News & Notes … by clicking on the News & Notes tab above. To subscribe to The Hustings newsletter, go to thehustings.substack.com

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THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2021

 Click on the News & Notes tab, above, for today’s file.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 2021

Click on News & Notes, above, for today's daily file.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2021

President Biden is scheduled to meet with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, tomorrow, Punchbowl News reports, citing sources. Capito introduced Senate Republicans’ alternative infrastructure bill before leaving Washington for the Memorial Day break. Over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned of a need for ‘clear direction’ on infrastructure by June 7, when Congress returns from the recess. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has a markup of its own bill scheduled for June 9. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, wants the markup completed in time for the July 4 recess.

Biden Goes to Tulsa for 100^th Anniversary of Destruction of ‘Black Wall Street’ –President Biden is in Tulsa today to help commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the destruction there of “Black Wall Street” by a white mob, the AP reports. From May 31 to June 1, 1921, Tulsa’s white residents and civil society leaders looted and burned the city’s Greenwood District and used airplanes to drop explosives on it, thus leveling Black Wall Street and driving away prosperous businesses and residents.

•••

Democrats Walk Out of Texas House, Scuttle Voting Rules Bill – Republicans in the Texas legislature were set to approve a strict voting rights bill passed earlier by the state Senate, so it could be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, R, Sunday night when 60 Democratic members of the chamber walked out, thus removing the quorum necessary for a vote. The bill would have become the most strict in the nation, including language inserted at the last minute “making it easier to overturn an election, no longer requiring evidence that fraud actually altered the outcome of a race,” The Washington Post reported before the walkout Sunday, “but rather only that enough ballots were illegally cast that could have made a difference.” 

Exact rules and language of the 67-page state legislation remains fluid at best, and confusing, at worst, as the Republicans have reportedly have held the provisions close to their vests, making last-minute changes and withholding numerous drafts from the press.

Abbott Tuesday had threatened to shut off pay for state legislators, an action that would affect Republicans as well as Democrats. Sunday night’s vote was to mark the end of the Texas legislature’s session, and now Abbott also has threatened to call a special session for lawmakers to “do their job” so the bill can be sent to his desk. 

Note: It has become increasingly apparent to Democratic Party leaders that the only way for President Biden to get any significant part of his agenda passed by the Senate before next year’s midterm elections -- including the For The People Act written to restore parts of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and to counter several states’ new voting laws -- would be for his party to put an end to the legislative filibuster. The eternal question is whether Democrats have convinced Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, to join 49 others in the party to vote to kill it.

•••

Did Flynn Call for a ‘Myanmar-Style’ Coup? – By now, the exchange between keynote speaker Michael Flynn and an audience member at QAnon’s “For God and Country Patriot Roundup” in Texas last weekend is well-documented, if not fully agreed upon. The audience question, shouted by someone identified as a “simple Marine” was; “I wanna know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here.” 

Flynn replied, according to the HuffPost; “No reason. It should happen.”

Of course, Flynn, the retired Army lieutenant general who served 22 days as Donald Trump’s national security advisor before it was revealed he lied to Vice President Pence about a conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, effectively said in a tweet that he had been misquoted, that he said something along the lines of “no reason it should happen.”

QAnon followers are fans of the Myanmar coup of early this year, in which the military overturned the just-elected government led by Aung San Sui Kyi, and reportedly have killed more than 700 protesters.

Note: Perhaps the most startling issue here is the mainstreaming of QAnon and its followers, who continue to spin conspiracy theories in support of claims from the GOP’s de facto leader, ex-President Trump, that November’s election was stolen from him. But Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey have publicly suggested that Flynn’s comments be considered seditious. Army Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who was fired from the National Security Council by the Trump Administration after his twin, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, testified in Trump’s first impeachment hearing, says Flynn should be called back to active duty so he could be court-martialed. – Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Read comments from opponents of HR 1, the For The People Act, as part of our coverage of last week’s Braver Angels National Coliseum debate last week on Voting in America in this column.

Also on the home page …

•The Hustings debate on a gas tax hike in place of corporate tax increases to pay for an infrastructure plan.

•A debate on the House of Representatives Republican Caucus’ stripping Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, from her committee chairwomanship.

•A debate on the return of Congressional budget earmarks.

…and more.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

In this column are comments from debate audience members who lean in favor of the resolution, in support of (affirmatives) making HR 1 law. …

There are few legitimate problems with illegal or fake votes that have been discovered but many known problems that make it hard to vote for many citizens. That being the case,  allowing your state to perpetuate rules that continue to make it difficult is working against your own interests. Unless of course you fear you are going to be outvoted by those who disagree with you. Look into your own heart - do you really want to act on fear? Or do you want to provide for a society that can resolve issues with healthy, informed debate followed by voting? --Barbara Watts

I agreed with the speaker who pointed out that the current bill at 800 pages is unlikely to pass the Senate.  Suggest paring it down to essential elements that need fixing, e.g., independent commissions to review redistricting to avoid gerrymandering, and automatic voter registration.  --Ginny Haver

Participating in American elections by voting should be the final step in a longer deliberation, come out of a totally different medium of exchange between citizens. At present voting cements in place the Us-Against-Them of party politics. It short-circuits not only rational thought but any sense that we are one country. Despite loud claims of what "the American People" want, there is no such thing. We are riven by more than factionalism. We take each other as positions, as representatives of some generalization about truth or morality or justice. To recapture American exceptionalism, we need infrastructure for generating another universe to live in: We-For-Each-Other. --Henry McHenry Jr.

[Note: Comments are edited for length and clarity. Braver Angels and The Hustings standards of civil discourse apply.]

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To comment on the Braver Angels debate resolution, or to any of the comments on this page, please email editors@thehustings.news

By Todd Lassa

In the end, affirmatives and negatives in last Tuesday’s Braver Angels National Coliseum Debate, “Resolved: Pass HR 1” agreed that the For the People Act is flawed, over-written at 800 pages and has no chance of passing a U.S. Senate blocked by a Republican filibuster advantage that Democrats cannot overcome. [The House passed HR 1 mostly along party lines last March.] They also agreed that Florida, almost counter-intuitively, has a good system, allowing for deep early and mail-in voting, a reversal of its “hanging chad” image from the 2000 presidential election.

Affirmatives argued that the minority is blocking the majority’s will, and that legislation making its way through Republican-controlled states will only make matters worse. Negatives countered that voting laws always have varied state-to-state, and that the federal government should not have overreaching control over the process. [See The Hustings’ pre-debate arguments by David Amaya in the left/affirmative column and Bryan Williams in the right/negative column by scrolling down this page.

In the face of Founding Father James Madison’s dictum that the will of the people should prevail, “they’re being overruled right now,” with the smaller populations of rural states controlling the vote of larger, more urban states through Republican Party rule, argued Zach Beauchamp, a writer for Vox.

Georgia’s recent voting rules bill “cuts the number of polling places to cut the number of minorities able to vote,” he said. “… there is one party that rejects minority rule – it’s not the Democratic Party. It’s the Republican Party.”

Asked in the parliamentary style Q&A why the federal government should insert itself into the states’ systems, Beauchamp noted that HR 1 would restore the pre-clearance requirement of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which restricted states with histories of minority-voter suppression to seek pre-approval[VJ1]  for any substantive changes to voting laws from federal courts or the Department of Justice. The U.S. Supreme Court removed the requirement in Shelby v. Holder (2013), because a majority of justices found it outdated and no longer necessary.

“I would argue it was justified in ’65, and it’s justified now.”

The debate’s first negative, Craig Engle, head of political law at the firm Arent Fox, says the U.S. form of voting laws creates two layers of government.

“And when they compete with each other, then I think the people win,” Engle said. “There are no federal elections. There are state elections for federal offices.” 

Engle doesn’t see HR 1 as a Democratic vs. Republican bill, “I look at this as a Washington, D.C. bill. If you’re a fan of the federal government and that’s all you know, then this bill is for you. … If I were a member of Congress, I would vote against this bill.”

Why should each state should have different laws for voting? “Because each state is different. Western[VJ2]  states (with sparse urban populations) have different rules than urban states.”

In the affirmative, Osita Nwanevu argued that the issue stems from the United States’ status as a republic, not a democracy. 

“We actually don’t have a voter fraud problem in this country,” The New Republic journalist said. “We have a system that confers more importance on some parts of the country.” Especially true, he said, in the Senate, where sparsely populated states each get two members, just like New York, California, and Texas. 

“I’m a fan of democracy, personally,” Nwanevu said, though he doubts Congress can pass a voter bill that would protect the American people.

The second negative, Kaylee McGee White, of The Washington Examiner described HR 1 as “a power grab by Democrats who think they’re being disenfranchised, when that’s not the case at all.” Supporting the key issue of her fellow negatives in this debate, she said; “Quite frankly, the federal government does not have the power to do any of this.”

She called last November’s election “a disaster,” with no final results for days. “You’re asking for disorganized chaos every time.”

In White’s Q&A, The Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell disagreed with White’s assertion that the election was a “disaster,” especially taking place during a pandemic, but that results would have come more quickly if all states were allowed to count early mail-in ballots before November 3. 

The third affirmative, Sheba Williams, founder of Nolef Turns, said that the Jamestown Settlement 402 years ago was known for its slavery, poll taxes, lynching, mass incarceration and disenfranchisement. 

“Tonight, on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, “lynching, mass incarceration and disenfranchisement still exist. … If we all love this country and believe people should have the right to civic engagement, then we should support HR 1.”

In Q&A, Williams said she favors a national holiday for elections. “It should be as accessible as possible.”

While Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark served as the third negative, she agreed with much of Zach Beauchamp’s arguments in the affirmative. 

“Donald Trump has told a lie to the American public,” the publisher of the never-Trumper conservative outlet said. “And many of the laws going through states right now codify that lie.”

One-third of the 800-page HR 1, especially campaign finance reform with matching taxpayer funds are “a bad idea,” Longwell said. 

“I think we should do something with voters’ rights, and I think the Voting Rights Act needs to be restored.”

The final affirmative, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, a Democrat, said of his state, “It’s easy to vote in Minnesota, and I had no idea other people didn’t have the same rights.” 

“HR 1 empowers voters, not politicians,” Phillips added. “The only place these proposals do not have bipartisan support is Washington, D.C.” 

He also supports redistricting that would be independent of the two parties. “I would definitely ban gerrymandering, in which politicians choose their voters.”

Retired U.S. Rep. Dennis A. Ross, R-FL, wrapped up the negative side saying, “I am a states’ rights person, and I always have been.” Ross was a member of the Florida state legislature when the 2000 presidential election vote from the state was “solved” by the Supreme Court.

“There are enough factions within each party that it always creates a multi-party system,” Ross said. He is worried HR 1 would lead to more “ballot-harvesting” and that its finance-reform provisions would be ineffective. 

The federal government’s role in elections should be to “make sure states do what they’re supposed to do,” Ross said.

---

 [VJ1]We should really put pre-approval of what…which I think is any changes that the state wants to make in the voting law. I would put that, but I’m not sure what it is.

 [VJ2]I mean, this is his quote, but…every state in the West has urban areas and, well, every state has urban areas. This is informative bollocks to me.

I think you can safely cut everything after “different.”

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We welcome your comments on this Braver Angels debate coverage and/or any of the individual comments within. To comment, please email editors@thehustings.news

In this column is a comment from a debate audience member who leans against the resolution, in opposition (negative) to making HR 1 law. …

The key to maintaining voter security and avoiding voter suppression is voter registration. Both parties in the duopoly have partisan policies that each, often mistakenly, believes will aid their party in winning elections. Mostly its false or at least misleading. 

Personally, I love early voting. I have been a regular voter since 1956 and I don't remember how we managed to have everybody vote "on Election Day"! There should be enough days and places of early voting that long lines and waits -- 10 to 20 minutes should be avoided. Flow of voters into polling places is irregular no matter what we do, so there will be times of being able to walk right in and times of having to wait in line. But we should not expect to pay people to be idle for hours at unused polling places for days on end. I don't see any reason not to have a 11 day "election season" ending on Tuesday, "Election Day": That would give us two weekends, two Mondays, two Tuesdays, and one Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. 

I never had occasion to "vote absentee" until Covid and election 2020. My wife and I did so, and I loved the convenience. Encourage mail in ballots that must be postmarked before the end of Election Day. I do see how this paper floating around offers up increased opportunities for fraudulent votes. Proper voter registration obliterates most of these opportunities.

Personally, I know of voters in the nursing home with severe dementia being "voted" in the same way I know of my nephew's parents voting far more regularly after they died than they did while alive. Proper registration greatly mitigates the opportunity for this, and the board of elections that maintains the voter rolls should be automatically notified when a death certificate is filed and the name removed from the roll. Persons who scream that voter fraud is non-existent are either 1.) naive, 2.) ignorant of history, 3.) in a partisan echo-chamber, or 4.) equating being caught with committing the act. 

Either way, proper registered voter roll maintenance is the key, so registering to vote at the same time and place as voting is an invitation to uninformed voting if not to fraud. --Dr. John R. Dykers Jr.

. 

[Note: Comments are edited for length and clarity. Braver Angels and The Hustings standards of civil discourse apply.]

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To comment on the Braver Angels debate resolution, or to any of the comments on this page, please email editors@thehustings.news

By David Amaya

It is human nature's desire to be heard. It is the essence of democracy. Democracy in America changed the world forever, for democracy is the reason the word patriotism exists. Patriotic Crystal Mason cast a provisional ballot and was sentenced to five years in prison. Never mind the nuances of Mason's case; look to the 15^th Amendment for guidance. 

The 15^th Amendment states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." One can make many deductions from this single sentence that stems from the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. We pay attention to race because inequities are denied, hence the question of voter fraud versus voter suppression. What is race, color, and previous servitude without a distinction of privilege and disadvantage?

Many public-school textbooks hide the truth when it comes to race and color, but BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) were even at one point considered to be three-fifths of a person. When it comes to every citizen’s right to vote, race and color should be a threshold that is a vital signifier of a healthy democracy. H.R. 1, the For the People Act, upholds Section 2 of the 15^thAmendment: that “Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Race and color (even "previous servitude") have many derivative consequences, as well as causes when it comes to equity and just legislation in our nation. Mason is a resident of the most prominent Republican city in the country, Fort Worth, Texas. Voter turnout is highest in urban areas, including states like Texas. There is no homogeny in urban areas except the idea that "I will do better." That is to say, areas of high voter turnout are made up of people like Mason -- those who are disadvantaged but have hope for themselves and selflessly, for others.

While many will argue, "states retain the right to set voting laws within their borders," please direct them not only to the 15^thAmendment but the history behind it as well. Alleged widespread voter fraud does not justify abridging the voting rights of millions of citizens when the instances of voter fraud (1,328, according to The Heritage Foundation’s most recent numbers) are less than the 11,780 votes requested be found in Georgia by suspicious Donald Trump in 2020. The justice system exists to make voting wrongs right. When an individual cannot vote at all, democracy loses faith and, with it, the suppression of a voice that wants liberty and justice for all.  

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We welcome comments on these posts on Voting in America, especially from those attending Tuesday evening’s Braver Angels National Coliseum debate. Please email your comments and opinions to editors@thehustings.news

(Click on the tab above for Thursday, May 27 News & Notes.)

By Todd Lassa

As many Capitol Hill Republicans have re-coalesced behind former President Trump in the last couple of months, the chances the Senate passes the For The People Act, House Resolution 1 (of the 117^th Congress) have dimmed.

What’s more, several Republican-controlled state legislatures--including those of Georgia, Texas, Iowa and Arizona--have passed bills designed ostensibly to crack down on voter fraud by making it harder to mail in an absentee ballot, for example. 

The House of Representatives passed HR 1 last March. (Past is prologue: it passed in the House during the 116^th Congress but died in the Senate). It expands early voting and allow same-day registration, loosens voter identification requirements, and triggers automatic voter registration for federal elections. The bill also restricts the purging of voters from the rolls (which some states’ laws require for those on the rolls who miss a certain number of consecutive elections) and allows registration of felons who have served their sentences.

HR 1 passed the House 220-210, with one Democrat joining Republicans in opposing the bill. Two House Republicans did not vote. It faces a much steeper hill in the Senate, where it needs the support of 10 Republicans to overcome a filibuster. Not only have no Republicans voiced support so far, Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, has not committed his support.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO, summarized his party’s objections to HR 1 in a Senate Hearing after it was passed by the House, calling it a “federal takeover of the election process” and describing it as “an unmitigated disaster for our democracy.”

Senate Bill 1 (yes, there was a similar bill for during the 116^th Congress that went nowhere like its House counterpart), renamed for the late civil rights leader and Rep. John R. Lewis, D-GA, was written to address the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Shelby v. Holder (2013), which removed a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires states with a history of minority voter suppression (mostly in the South) to have any new voting requirements pre-cleared by federal courts or the Justice Department. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has languished on Capitol Hill this year even more than HR 1, if such a thing is possible.

As mentioned, several states’ legislatures, especially in “swing” states where Donald J. Trump narrowly lost last November’s presidential election to Joseph R. Biden, are rushing to tighten voter requirements, thereby countering the federal proposals. At least 43 states had more than 250 such bills being circulated as of March, The Brennan Center for Justice estimated (https://thehustings.news/voter-fraud-or-voter-suppression/)

The first, and perhaps the most prominent of these, signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, makes these changes:

•Additional identification for absentee voting.

•Cuts the number of ballot drop boxes.

•Limits weekend days for early voting.

•Restricts handing out food and drink to voters waiting in long lines (“self-service” water stands are still allowed). 

•Faster vote reporting.

•Runoff elections are five weeks shorter.

•The state election board won’t be chaired by the secretary of state.

The last provision is aimed at Georgia’s current secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, who refused to “find” 11,780 votes from last November, enough to overturn Joseph R. Biden’s victory over Donald J. Trump in the state, as the former president pressured him to do in a phone call last December.

The fight for two different kinds of voter reform -- state legislation proponents say is written to clamp down on perceived fraud after mail-in ballots were made more accessible in 2020 during the pandemic, versus federal legislation that its proponents say makes it easier for citizens to vote, especially minorities and working class people – appears to be headed for a clash just in time for the November 2022 midterms.

Note: The Hustings debated “Voter Rights vs. Voter Suppression” on March 9, with 

https://thehustings.news/voter-fraud-or-voter-suppression/

https://thehustings.news/second-wave-mccarthyism/

https://thehustings.news/elections-need-safeguards/

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We welcome comments on the Voting in America posts, especially from those attending Tuesday evening’s Braver Angels National Coliseum debate. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

By Bryan Williams

Consulting the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the definition of “suppression” does not alleviate the confusion with “fraud” as raised by the center column. The first definition is “to put an end to the activities of (a person, body of persons, etc.), and the second: “to do away with by, or as by authority; abolish; stop.”

Even in the much-maligned Georgia law, there is not much a conservative or Republican, or any thinking person really, should have a problem with, save for the removal of the secretary of state from the election’s board.

Where does the new law restrict the right to vote? Sure, there was some tightening, but for the most part, the Georgia law makes sense. No politician should be able to hand out bottles of water with her or his name on it to people in line at the polling place.

Years ago as a Republican Party volunteer, I was running to various polling sites across my city I, checking the rolls to see who had voted. I would write down the names of those who hadn’t, race back to HQ, and call them to see if they intended to vote and whether they needed a ride or any such assistance. I was wearing a “Reagan for President” shirt that day, Election Day 2012. I was ushered out by a county poll worker who said my shirt advocated for a certain party and I couldn’t be there.

So I left. Even though Reagan wasn’t on the ballot. And this was in California, land of the easiest, least restrictive voting laws.

It is my firm belief that voting has gone out of control in the United States. In my last column on this subject, I said voting should be easy and available within reason.  Americans love decentralized power, and for the most part, this is a good thing. All those arguments between the Federalist John Adams and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson were very worthy, and the blend of their two world views gave us the country, culture, and norms we have today. Overarching state laws that streamline and standardize voting laws, reigning in disparate counties that are small and rural and may not have the ability, funding, or manpower to have polling places open as often as they should be are necessary. Where do most poor people live, who have the hardest time getting to the polling place after work? In rural or small-town/county regions of America. The Georgia bill addresses this.

Zoom out now and use that argument above for an overarching federal voting law. That’s where I have a problem. We are made up of 50 smaller, more local governments formed together in a union. “All politics is local,” right? What’s good or what works in microscopic Delaware doesn’t work in complex, spread-out California. 

Also, mark me down as one who says you should produce an ID when you ask for a ballot. It just makes sense. Likewise, same-day voter registration. Liberals are usually in tune with the “plight” of the government worker, so give them a break! Give them a week or two to process new voter registration cards.

The resistance to passing HR 1 represents our government at work here. Yes, it’s frustrating and slow and it is easy to blame Republicans for gumming up the system when something needs to be done now.  But we have the government we asked for because we voted for it to be this way. Massage the bill so it can be passed, or just let the states and courts work it out. Adams and Jefferson, I think, would agree.

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We invite comments on these posts on Voting in America, especially by those attending Braver Angels’ National Coliseum Debate Tuesday evening. Please email your comments and opinions to editors@thehustings.news

Subscribe to our weekdaily email newsletter. Go to thehustings.substack.com

Scroll down this column to read:

•Michelle Naranjo’s commentary on a proposed gas tax increase to pay for part of President Biden’s infrastructure plan.

•Stephen Macaulay’s take on the House Republican caucus’ stripping of Rep. Liz Cheney of her committee chair position.

•Jim McCraw’s commentary on the Gaetz/Greene America First Tour in his backyard at The Villages, Florida.

•Keith Tipton’s commentary on the reintroduction of Congressional earmarks to the budgetary process.

Comment on any of our political news and opinion at our substack page, or email us at editors@thehustings.news, and help us make The Hustings a new, civil type of social medium.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news, or go to the comments section of thehusting.substack.com

TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021 

Sign up for the Braver Angels National Coliseum Debate, Voting in America, held 8-10 p.m. EDT Tuesday on Zoom. Coming in The Hustings, a home page debate preview on the issue between David Amaya in the left column, and Bryan Williams in the right column.

To Register for the Debate – Go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-debate-voting-in-america-registration-154335111473

See https://www.braverangels.org 

for more information. After the debate, we will post your comments and opinions on Voting in America in the left and right columns of this page. Please email comments to editors@thehustings.news.

For Today’s News & Notes – Click on the “News & Notes” tab above.

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MONDAY, MAY 24, 2021
Coming Tuesday – A home page debate on House Resolution 1, the For The People Act on voting rights, and state legislatures’ efforts to tighten voting standards. The Hustings debate is presented as a preview of Tuesday evening’s Braver Angels National Coliseum Debate on Voting in America. Scroll to the bottom of News & Notes for details. 

International Outcry Over Jetliner Forced to Land in Belarus – A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania Sunday was forced to land by a MiG-29 fighter jet in Minsk, Belarus, under orders of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Roman Protasevich, a journalist and anti-Lukashenko activist was arrested upon its landing. The Belarus government claims the plane was diverted because there was a bomb on board. There wasn’t.

It’s “a case of state-sponsored hijacking,” Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, told The Wall Street Journal.

The Biden Administration is looking into appropriate U.S. sanctions, though Russia will continue to economically support Belarus.

Protasevich had contested the results of last August’s Belarus elections, in which Lukashenko was re-elected president with 80% of the vote, according to Reporting Democracy. Lukashenko’s government insists the jetliner was diverted because it believed a bomb was aboard the plane. 

•••

Memorials for Floyd Begin – George Floyd’s family members and others who have lost loved ones to police violence held a march in Minneapolis Sunday in memory of Floyd’s death. It was the first of several commemorations, including a White House meeting with the Floyd family scheduled for Tuesday, one year after he was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of the killing last month. Former officer Chauvin is scheduled to be sentenced by a Hennepin County judge on June 25.

•••

On Biden’s Infrastructure Price Cut – President Biden announced a “price cut” in his American Jobs Plan infrastructure proposal, from $2.3 trillion down to $1.7 trillion this past weekend, in an effort to close in on a deal with Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has floated an infrastructure budget on the order of $600-800 billion.

On ABC News This Week Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican moderate whom the White House figures in among the 10 members of the opposition party Democrats need to avoid a filibuster and get to bi-partisan agreement, said “the heart of negotiations is to get to the scope of the bill,” by which she means that Republicans want the White House to strip out what they consider social programs in the Biden proposal, and fix only roads, bridges, broadband and the like. No indication yet, however, that any Republicans will go for a rollback of the Trump Administration tax cuts from the 21% corporate tax rate back up to the 28% rate.

Note: The White House has given to Memorial Day to reach an agreement with Republican senators on a bi-partisan infrastructure compromise. But Biden doesn’t even have Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, on board, so the chances of a Democratic bill to scuttle the legislative filibuster is nil. That leaves the possibility of passing a more ambitious Biden plan under reconciliation, though the smart bet appears to be on a package price closer to the low-end of a trillion dollars.

•••

Axios Poll Shows Things Republicans Might Not Like -- Two hot-button issues that Republicans are working to create more friction about are (1) alleged voter fraud and (2) resistance to the creation of a 9/11-type commission to look into the events of 1/6. An Axios-sponsored poll conducted by Survey Monkey has results for both of those topics that don’t look good for McConnell, McCarthy and the random Minions.

That is, when asked about “how much, if any” voter fraud occurred in one’s state, 18% answered “a lot,” 28% “some,” 25% “not much” and 24% “not at all.”

On the subject of support for a bipartisan 1/6 congressional commission, 44% “strongly support,” 21% “somewhat support,” 12% “somewhat oppose” and 17% “strongly oppose.”

Note: For the fraud question, let’s face it, statistically one might assume that “some” or “not much” occurred because that are sufficiently CYA answers. Of course, the minority that say “a lot” are more vocal than those who answer “not at all” because who can get all worked up about something that didn’t happen? Still, this seems to be not an advantageous approach for the Republicans, as putting doubt in the minds of their voters — witness the results in Georgia this past January.

As for the commission on 1/6, the Republican approach seems to be one that if they don’t permit one to go forward then there won’t be any “distraction” for the 2022 elections. Wouldn’t it be more likely the case is that if you have 65% supporting something that they’re going to try to quash that they’re going to get more attention than they’d like on their obstruction?

•••

Leahy Considering a Run for Senate Longevity Record – Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, is considering a run for a ninth term, Poltico reports. Leahy, 81, is the only Democrat ever elected senator from the state. (Although Bernie Sanders caucuses with the Dems, he is officially an Independent.) First elected in 1975, Leahy would not be the oldest senator, but he would pass the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s, D-WV, record 51 years in the upper chamber if he completed his ninth term in 2029. Vermont has a late primary next year, August 9, so Leahy has until May 26, 2022, to file for re-election. 

•••

Braver Angels National Coliseum Debate, Voting in America – The debate is scheduled for 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Tuesday, May 25 on Zoom. Audience members are encouraged to participate as debaters or in the Q&A sessions. After the debate, The Hustings will post audience comments and opinions in the left and right columns at https://thehustings.news. Go to https://www.braverangels.org for more information, or register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-debate-voting-in-america-registration-154335111473

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021

Should a gas tax increase pay for part of President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan? Michelle Naranjo and Bryan Williams debate that proposal on the home page of The Hustings. To comment on this and other issues, email us at editors@thehustings.news, or at thehustings.substack.com.

Israel and Hamas Reach Cease-Fire – After 11 days of missile attacks that left at least 212 Palestinians and about a dozen Israelis dead in the worst battle on the Gaza strip since 2014, Israel’s security cabinet unanimously accepted Egypt’s proposal for an unconditional cease-fire, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu announced Thursday evening. The cease-fire commenced early Friday morning local time, The New York Times reports. 

Both Israel and Hamas declared victory in the very “fragile” cease-fire.

President Biden, who was involved very quietly and “behind the scenes” in talks between Israel and Egypt, had reiterated his support for Israel’s “right to defend itself,” while also facing pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to support human rights for Palestinians in the Gaza strip.

Note: The Abraham Accord of 2020, heretofore former President Trump’s most notable foreign relations accomplishment, although achieved by his son-in-law Jared Kushner without input from the Palestinians now becomes forgotten history. While Netanyahu had been considered a close ally of Trump, the NYT recalled in its radio show this week how he and Biden had forged a relationship back in the 1990s, when Biden was in the Senate and Netanyahu was in the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. The relationship continued when Netanyahu became Israeli prime minister during the Obama/Biden administration, and was undoubtedly a factor in the U.S. president’s ability to take a tough stand in this week’s negotiations.

•••

CARB, Uber  & GHG — The California Air Resources Board announced yesterday that rideshare companies must begin electrification of their fleets starting in 2023. This is pursuant to SB 1014 of 2018, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 2030 to 40% of 1990 levels, and for the state to be carbon neutral by 2045. The “Clean Miles Standard” requires that rideshare companies have zero emissions by 2030 and for 90% of the miles traveled by their vehicles be fully electric. According to CARB head Liane M. Randolph, ‘The transportation sector is responsible for nearly half of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, the vast majority of which come from light-duty vehicles.”

Note — “Light-duty vehicles” are conveyances like Toyota Camrys and Ford F-150s. Lyft and Uber are in the process of transitioning their fleets to EVs. Of course, this means that private individuals are going to have to make that transition, as they’re the ones who own the vehicles. There is a bit of a fly in the proverbial ointment. According to Experian, there were 99,030 light-duty electric vehicles registered in California in the first quarter of 2021. That’s a mere 1.7% of all vehicle registrations in the state. Not a whole lot by any measure. In addition to which, 40,772 of those 99,030 light-duty EVs were Tesla Model Ys. How many Tesla owners are likely to have ride-sharing strangers in their back seats?

•••

Trump DOJ Obtained CNN Reporter’s Phone and Email Records – President Trump’s Department of Justice “secretly” obtained phone call and email records of CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, the cable news network reports. The Justice Department informed Starr in a May 13 letter that the records were sought from the courts for her calls and emails from June 1 to July 31, 2017. The Justice department provided no further comment nor context, but an official said Starr was not the subject of any official investigation.

•••

Russian-Built Teslas? – Tesla CEO Elon Musk told students at a Kremlin-sponsored event he would be open to expanding electric vehicle manufacturing into Russia, The Hill reports Friday morning. Musk’s statement was immediately greeted with enthusiasm, including a tweet from politician Aleksandr Brechalov, who welcomed Tesla production to the country. 

But Musk’s comments were more tempered; “Over time, we will look to have factories in other parts of the world, potentially Russia at some point.” That’s not an aggressive plan from a Silicon Valley mogul known for aggressive plans. 

Last year, Tesla opened a quickly built assembly plant in China without having to set up a 50-50 partnership with the local government, as all other foreign auto manufacturers in China are forced to do. While the Chinese government is pushing for more EV sales in the country, in Russia, electric-powered vehicles make up just 0.7% of the market, The Hill says, citing Bloomberg.

Note: Musk did not raise the possibility of opening an operation in Russia for his other tech company, outer-space rocket manufacturer SpaceX.

•••

Will Eastern Oregon Secede to Idaho? – Five sparsely populated, conservative counties in eastern Oregon voted this week to leave the state and the stereotypically latte/kale/craft beer headquarters of Portland behind to join adjacent Idaho, The Washington Post reports. The political and cultural gulf between Greater Portland and the five eastern counties has only grown since the TV show Portlandia was a thing. Mike McCarter, group president of the non-profit Citizens for Greater Idaho noted to the WaPo that if Baker, Grant, Malheur and Sherman counties left the Beaver State for Famous Potatoes, the new Idaho would become the state with the third-largest land mass in the U.S. – Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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Support independent political journalism and civil debate. Subscribe to thehustings.substack.com

Subscribe to our weekdaily email newsletter. Go to thehustings.substack.com

Comment on any of our political news and opinion at our substack page, or email us at editors@thehustings.news, and help us make The Hustings a new, civil type of political social medium.

Scroll down this column to read:

•Bryan Williams’ commentary on a proposed gas tax increase to pay for part of President Biden’s infrastructure plan.

•Williams’ take on the House Republican caucus’ stripping of Rep. Liz Cheney of her committee chair position, and the prospects for a third party.

•A reader’s comments on our home page debate on Congressional earmarks.

•Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on the reintroduction of Congressional earmarks to the budgetary process.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news