After weeks of negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor on Sunday night by gleefully quipping: “I call up the Sinema-Portman substitute amendment!”
The finalization of the bipartisan infrastructure bill’s text, which runs more than 2,700 pages, came hours after negotiators Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) expressed confidence that the deal is on its way towards passage by the end of the week.
Schumer is now expected to detail the amendment process soon and has made clear that he is committed to a two-track process for passing infrastructure legislation. Following the bipartisan infrastructure legislation’s passage in the Senate, the majority leader plans to move onto “passing a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions.”
Democrats are now turning their focus to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation “human infrastructure” package.
We’ll be tracking what didn’t make the cut in the “physical infrastructure” bill that Democrats may try to include in their sweeping reconciliation bill, which can pass in the Senate without GOP support.
Follow along below:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) rise to Trumpy stardom is largely tied to his defiant stance against public health measures during most of the pandemic last year.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: DeSantis’ Balancing Act” →
Maricopa County, Arizona’s board of supervisors told the Republican-controlled state Senate to shove it in response to subpoenas for even more election materials.
Continue reading “Maricopa County Rejects New Subpoenas For ‘Never-Never Land’ AZ Audit” →
Former president Trump will keep fighting a House bid to get his tax returns, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Continue reading “WSJ: Trump To Contest Tax Return Disclosure To Congress” →
It’s a short jump from one Big Lie to another.
The man who Trump sought to appoint as his pocket attorney general is now working for a non-profit that is fighting COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health authorities issued during the pandemic.
Continue reading “Trump DOJ Flunkie Now Battles COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates At Right-Wing Legal Group” →
A third police officer who responded to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has died of suicide. Continue reading “Third Police Responder To Capitol Attack Dies Of Suicide” →
This lovefest between Tucker Carlson and Viktor Orbán is fascinating on a number of levels.
One thing that a number of us have been saying for some time is that increasingly over the last decade-plus, the GOP has continued to present itself as a center-right party of government while increasingly operating as a rightist revanchist party on the European model. This intentionally conspicuous hobnobbing with Orbán is part of that story. Obviously, Carlson isn’t formally representing the GOP. But in practice he does. He’s far more influential in conservative politics than any elected official currently in office.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson is billed as a speaker at a far-right conference in Hungary on Saturday, according to a flier for the event. The appearance will come days after the Fox host met with the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Continue reading “Tucker Carlson Summers With Viktor Orban, Touted As Speaker At Budapest Far-right Gathering” →
Disgraced ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) — who was kicked out of office in 2009 before being convicted and sentenced to prison for more than a decade over corruption charges — is filing a federal lawsuit claiming his removal and the subsequent ban on him running for office was unconstitutional.
Continue reading “Blagojevich Fights To Overturn Ban On Running For Office: It’s A ‘Voting Rights’ Violation” →
A few weeks ago in my off-air brainstorming I had thought about simply paying people $100 to get vaccinated. It’s almost certainly a good investment for government. I mean, we’ve paid many thousands of dollars to individuals to maintain the economy through the stresses of COVID and other outreach efforts cost significant amounts of money too. The idea had occurred to me when reading articles about how many people have not gotten vaccinated simply because it requires taking time off work or having the risk of a couple days downtime from side effects. So I was excited to see that people at the White House were thinking along the same lines.
It is a good reminder that the vaccine ‘hesitancy’ issue is really two different issues, and they’re not even both hesitancy.
Continue reading “The Battle To Vaccinate” →
