Senate Democrats Land On $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Infrastructure Proposal

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: (R-L) U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (D-VT) holding a meeting with Senate Budget Committee Democrats in the Mansfield Room at the U.S. Capitol building on June 16, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Majority Leader and Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee are meeting to discus how to move forward with the Biden Administrations budget proposal. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Chuck Schumer; Bernie Sanders
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (D-VT) holding a meeting with Budget Committee Democrats at the U.S. Capitol building on June 16, 2021. (Photo by Samuel... Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (D-VT) holding a meeting with Budget Committee Democrats at the U.S. Capitol building on June 16, 2021. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

Go Big Now

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced last night that the Democratic senators involved in hammering out a reconciliation bill for infrastructure (and a lot of other stuff) landed on a $3.5 trillion proposal. 

  • Schumer stated that “every major program” that Biden originally proposed in his infrastructure plan is funded “in a robust way.”
  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), a key centrist in the negotiations, said the bill would be “fully paid for.”
  • Senate Budget Committee chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) declared that the budget was “the most significant piece of legislation passed since the Great Depression.”
  • The next step is getting all 50 Senate Democrats on board. 
  • Beyond the topline number, most of the details of the proposal are still unknown. 
  • Biden will discuss the proposal with the senators today during a caucus lunch.

Meanwhile, GOP senators are still playing the phony outrage game over Democrats doing both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a reconciliation bill on their own–a move Republicans were well aware would happen in advance despite their current bellyaching.

  • Key analysis: “How Republicans hope to scam Democrats into committing political suicide” – The Washington Post

Tennessee Republicans Go Full Anti-Vaxxer

It turns out the state’s GOP lawmakers aren’t just trying to block the Tennessee Department of Health’s teen outreach efforts for the COVID-19 vaccine; they’ve successfully pressured the agency into stopping teen outreach for all vaccines, the Tennessean reports.

Follow The Money Trail To The GOP’s CRT Boogeyman

The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has poured more than $12.7 million into 21 right-wing groups that’ve led the charge in conservatives’ obsessive culture war against critical race theory, an investigation by Popular Information found.

Behind Closed Doors

Trump had a huge meltdown over a media leak reporting that he had hidden away in a White House bunker during a George Floyd protest nearby last summer–and suggested that whoever had leaked that story ought to be executed, according to a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender.

  • “Whoever did that, they should be charged with treason!” the then-president yelled during a meeting with aides, according to an excerpt of the book obtained by CNN. ‘They should be executed!'”

The (Literal) Cost Of Shooting Down Florida GOP’s Absurd Laws

Florida taxpayers are shelling out a whopping $675 per hour for lawyers hired by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Republicans to defend their blatantly unconstitutional laws that inevitably get struck down in court, like their pro-Trump ban on social media platforms suspending politicians.

A Lot Going On Here

“QAnon-Loving Pastor Running for Congress Accused of Satanism by, uh, QAnon” – Vice

Roy Moore Fails Once More

Two-time Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s $9.5 million defamation suit against comedian Sacha Cohen Baron got tossed out by a federal judge.

  • Moore, whose 2017 campaign for U.S. Senate was upended by allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls, was previously removed from the state Supreme Court … twice.
  • In case you don’t remember, Cohen tricked Moore into participating in a TV bit where the comedian repeatedly waved a beeping pedophile detector over the disgraced Republican:

Murder On Air At Fox Studios

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), who was invited on Fox News to discuss his colleagues’ fleeing from the state to block the GOP’s voter suppression bill, roasted the network for its complicity in Trumpland’s crusade to undermine the 2020 election.

Checking Off All The Crackpot Boxes

It turns out that in addition to spending thousands of dollars on charter buses to the Trump rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection, being present at said insurrection, and spearheading a “forensic investigation” of the 2020 election in his state, Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) promoted the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory more than 50 times on Twitter before he entered office.

  • One of the truly spectacular tweets MediaMatters dug up features Trump fan art depicting the ex-president as a sparkly anime hunk: 

Insurrectionisting Is Hard

An alleged Capitol insurrectionist recorded himself repeatedly boasting that he and the rest of the pro-Trump mob were breaking into … the White House.

Are there things that are happening that you want to see in tomorrow’s Morning Memo? Send us the things.

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Notable Replies

  1. GO BIG.

    I also dig that virtually every file photo released has Chuck & Bernie shoulder-to-shoulder. Sending some messages there…

  2. Avatar for jtx jtx says:

    Haven’t we seen this act?

    After we get all 50 aboard, then we need to end the filibuster.

    Around and around we go, where it ends nobody knows.

  3. Avatar for maryq maryq says:

    Finally! Bernie accomplished something!

  4. To those who have asked if Sen. Manchin will vote for it, here is an architect’s rendering of West Virginia in five years:

  5. Avatar for tsp tsp says:

    Tennessee Republicans Go Full Anti-Vaxxer

    It turns out the state’s GOP lawmakers aren’t just trying to block the Tennessee Department of Health’s teen outreach efforts for the COVID-19 vaccine; they’ve successfully pressured the agency into stopping teen outreach for all vaccines, the Tennessean reports.

    Is this not child endangerment?

    Does Tennessee not have laws against child abuse?

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