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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 22
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
2/22 Updates:
The House is expected to vote on the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill by Friday or Saturday. The biggest issue with the bill is going to be the minimum wage increase. Bernie Sanders is putting out some pressure on the Parliamentarian to allow this in the bill citing that repealing the individual mandate from the ACA was approved in the past for reconciliation. The House has a five-seat cushion to pass the bill, so if six democrats have a problem with the package, it could get canned. Look to Republicans to see if any jump ship and vote with the Democrats, allowing Joe Biden to claim the COVID relief bill is bi-partisan. In the Senate, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are opposed to raising the minimum wage, and a single no vote will completely upend this package.
On Biden's cabinet side, it appears that Neera Tanden will not be confirmed for OMB. Joe Manchin isn't voting for her and it appears that neither will the Republican moderate caucus. Susan Collins and Mitt Romeny have already said no to her. Potential alternative picks are Gene Sperling, Ann O'Leary, and Shalanda Young.
Other cabinet officials in the process of confirmation:
Nancy Pelosi has introduced some structuring around the 1/6 Commission. Democrats would get 7 appointments determined by Congressional leaders and the White House, Republicans would 4. Joe Biden would appoint the chair who will have subpoena power. The panel would disband at the end of 2021. Republicans hate this idea so be prepared for this to change.
Other random updates:
Supreme Court won’t take up challenge to Pennsylvania presidential election results
Here’s What’s Next in the Trump Taxes Investigation
Texas officials block electricity providers from sending bills, disconnecting utilities for nonpayment
Iran Curbs Nuclear Inspectors, but Appears to Leave Space for a Deal
Biden deprioritizes the Middle East
Beyond 100M: Biden team aiming for bigger vaccine numbers
Manhattan district attorney obtains Trump's long-sought tax records
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1364227842003767297?s=20
Despite the source saying "this wasn't related to his decision", c'mon, David Purdue does not suddenly become tired of public life without something forcing his hand.
I would generally say this is bad for the GOP chances at the Warnock seat in 2022, but then again it's very possible there would be a bloody primary which may be even worse. But apriori, Purdue would be a great candidate for the traditional midterm backlash "joe bidan is too liberal!" message as a very well known, long serving Georgian politician, but it seems that the Trump part of the party is decidely not going for a "I'm normal again, hey suburbs I'll lower your taxes" midterm message.
Equality Act with LGBTQ protections passes House, faces uncertain future in Senate
Lawmakers passed the legislation on a 224-206, mostly party-line vote. Three Republicans voted with all Democrats.
The minimum wage increase can't be included in the COVID-19 relief bill
Democrats Are Split Over How Much The Party And American Democracy Itself Are In Danger
Anyone catch Biden’s speech? Heard it on NPR, short and sweet, very moving. I could hear genuine emotion in his voice.
There's many forms of "unity", not all of which involve giving a voice to the Greens of the world. For example, the tit-for-tat response to the events in Texas (as compared to what happened with the California wildfires) would be a lot of snide remarks, dunking on Texas, "Texas deserves this", "How's succession going for you", jokingly(?) threatening to refuse federal aid because the state didn't vote for you, etc.
Of course, some of those are absurd, and others may be deserved - but the "unity" route would be to just give out the federal aid because there are Americans in trouble and that's what the federal government is for, no Twitter or press dunks included. And personally I think it's the right move that the current administration did not do any of that, even though the Texas GOP deserves some dunking. It's just not productive.
On the other hand, reducing the stimulus from 1.9T to 600b (the proposed plan from what's left of the "moderate" GOP bloc) for no other reason than to pass a bipartisan bill, I think, would be a poor decision, and those aren't even the unhinged members of the GOP. Which thankfully is not happening.
In terms of a "national" conversation, the issue is that much of the nation believes and supports the unhinged members of the GOP more than the hinged ones. You can't have a national conversation on why the GOP has gone off the deep end if the nation has gone off the deepend.
I have no idea why, but I mean QAnon is gaining popularity IN FRANCE, so clearly there is great deal of appeal... somewhere.
The 99% thing doesn’t seem like the right way to talk about the severe inequality we have? There are a lot of well-off people out there, many millions, enough to give a significant boost to the construction industry and bid up real estate in some places as they changed what they spend money on during the pandemic. Office workers who switched to working at home might be unhappy about it, but they’re still making money. Retirees are probably doing as well as before, better if they had investments.
By "Green" I mean Majorie Taylor Green. I know people call her MTG but I like Magic the Gathering too much to sully that acronym.
No, which is why I said "tit-for-tat". There was a lot of dunking on Democrats during the wildfires, including from the Presidency. Trump even threatened to not give aid, implicitly because California was full of Democrats who did not vote for him. Even when aid was approved, there was some FUD because it was then rescinded, then approved again, and it included much "lol you deserve this".
Hence it's very tempting to want a new administration to deal it back, and that decision is where, at least I think, the talk of "unity or not" is in play. But Dunkin' should be left to Donuts, Twitter, and the media. I think it is good that the presidency take more a stately approach and simply do what it should - give aid to its citizens, even the ones that think Biden is a pedophilic satanist.
That's not to say that there shouldn't be dunking - but it should not come from the federal government, who, while only elected by half, does represent the whole, at least ostensibly.
I think they ment "Greens" as in "people like Marjorie Taylor Green".