Starting with an article about Bernie as Senate Budget Chair
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The Democratic wins in Georgia have elevated Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to a key legislative role in the new Congress.
President-elect Joe Biden’s former primary rival is now set to become chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, where he will wield influence over some of the biggest legislative priorities under the Democratic majority.
The panel sets the terms for budget reconciliation, a procedure that allows senators to approve certain tax and spending bills with a simple majority and sidestep the 60-vote threshold needed for most legislation.
With a 50-50 split that will often require tie-breaking votes cast by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Democrats are likely to find themselves relying on reconciliation to advance the parts of their legislative agenda most likely to draw full GOP opposition, from more COVID-19 relief, including another round of stimulus checks, to infrastructure, health and climate legislation.
As Budget chair, Sanders will have the opportunity to shape each reconciliation bill, a role fellow progressives are relishing.
“Everybody on the Democratic side wins if we pass the most maximalist proposals that all 50 Democrats can agree on. What Bernie Sanders being Budget chair means is that there will be at least one strong advocate in the room for the maximalist equation,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
The liberal group is advocating for a $5 trillion package combining coronavirus relief and infrastructure spending. That amount, Green argued, would be much smaller if the decision making was left to lawmakers like Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).
“You could see a scenario where it was Schumer, Manchin and Coons in the room, where they’d find things to agree on, but it would be $2 trillion less than what they could have passed,” Green said.
But some argue that the particulars of the budget reconciliation process, combined with a razor-thin Democratic majority in both chambers, could lead to a scenario where Sanders and his committee gavel aren’t as powerful.
“There are things you can do through reconciliation that you couldn’t do otherwise, but if you don’t have a majority that already agrees on the policy, the rules won’t save you,” said Molly Reynolds, a budget expert at the Brookings Institution.
“The fact that the majority is so slim really does mean that Democrats are going to have to get all their members on board.”
While Sanders will be in the room and oversee the process in the Senate Budget Committee, the 50-50 split means just one Democratic senator could sink a reconciliation bill, essentially giving everyone in the caucus the power to torpedo major legislation.
Reconciliation was originally intended as a tool to let Congress adjust mandatory spending and taxation in order to hit its budget goals.
The rules allow every individual section of reconciliation legislation to be challenged individually.
Any one part can be excluded if the Senate parliamentarian determines that it does not adhere to the requirements. For example, reconciliation bills cannot touch Social Security, nor can they approve discretionary spending. Instead, they must have a clear budgetary effect, and policies cannot be deemed to be “merely incidental” to that effect.
“It’s difficult to say exactly what they can and can’t do, because any individual provision has to be approved by the parliamentarian,” said Reynolds.
While it should be possible to pass stimulus checks, change tax rates and fund emergency vaccine spending through reconciliation, it becomes far more complicated when dealing with infrastructure, climate or even long-held Democratic goals such as raising the minimum wage.
That means that Democrats, and Sanders, may have to think of clever ways to advance their policy goals, without a clear indication of whether or not they will hold up.
“It’s a very complicated process, it’s like a chess game, there are many moves here,” said Hoagland.
A day after the orchestrated mob assault at the Capitol, Bernie Sanders appeared on CNN and provided a cogent summary of what must be done to effectively push back against the Republicans. In contrast to standard-issue Democratic Party talking points, what he had to say went to the core of key economic and political realities.
While countless Democratic politicians and pundits were taking the easy route of only condemning Trump and his acolytes, Sanders went far deeper.
“We must not lose sight of the unprecedented pain and desperation felt by working people across the country as the pandemic surges and the economy declines,” Sanders wrote to supporters on Sunday. “We must, immediately, address those needs.”
Such help will not come from merely denouncing the villainy of Trump and other Republicans. And it won’t come from reflexively deferring to the Biden administration. On the contrary, it can come from insisting that there must be no honeymoon for the incoming administration if we want to meet the crying needs of working-class people.
Some progressives believe that we should give Biden a break as his presidency gets underway. But in early 1993, we were told to give President Clinton a break. Wall Streeters went into the Cabinet, NAFTA soon followed—and, in 1994, Republicans roared back and took Congress. Later came cruel “welfare reform,” deregulation of the banking industry, and much more.
In early 2009, we were told to give a break to President Obama. Wall Streeters went into the Cabinet, big banks were bailed out while people with their houses under water lost their homes—and, in 2010, Republicans roared back and took Congress. Later came economic policies that undermined support and turnout from the Democratic Party base, helping Trump win four years ago.
As Bernie Sanders says, “The old way of thinking is what brought us Donald Trump.”
The Sanders prescriptions for antidotes to right-wing poisons are absolutely correct. Along with ending Trump’s toxic political career, Sanders wrote four days after the Capitol events, “we must also start passing an aggressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class in this country: income and wealth inequality, health care, climate change, education, racial justice, immigration and so many other vitally important issues. We must lift people out of poverty, revitalize American democracy, end the collapse of the middle class, and make certain our children and grandchildren are able to enjoy a quality of life that brings them health, prosperity, security and joy.”
Now it is vital that President-elect Joe Biden launch his administration with immediate, bold reforms to address the cascading crises facing the country, and not be mired in the residual effort to punish Trump or his Republican enablers. Thus far, Biden wisely has condemned the mob and Trump’s instigation but left the dispensation of justice to prosecutors, the Congress and the Cabinet.
Will Biden meet the moment? He ran on a bolder and more progressive agenda than anticipated. Yet his appointments have been far more diverse in identity than in ideology, with the progressive wing of the party frequently left in the cold. He went out of his way to lecture civil rights leaders about the use of executive orders. He’s treated his opposition to Medicare-for-all as though standing with the private insurance companies were a badge of courage.
But it is progressives who offer the best advice on how to turn the page on the Trump years. Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, have laid out comprehensive plans, including expansive covid-19 relief, large investments in clean energy and infrastructure to meet the climate challenge and put people back to work, lowering the eligibility age of Medicare, comprehensive criminal justice and immigration reform, and making the tax system more progressive.
Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has detailed the excitement Biden could create by accompanying a bold legislative agenda with a flurry of executive orders in his first days — canceling billions in student loan debt, lowering drug prices on critical drugs, issuing enforceable health and safety standards for workplaces, raising the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour, declaring the climate crisis a national emergency to begin marshaling resources, and issuing comprehensive ethics and anti-corruption standards.
There is reason for progressives to hope. Recent reports suggest that Biden may be ready to move a dramatic covid rescue package. He’s also reiterated his pledge to seek legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 and made clear that he’ll try to move a major climate job agenda. He’s committed to a range of executive orders to reverse Trump’s actions — from rejoining the Paris climate accords to reinstalling Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
But, ideally, Biden will adopt more of Sanders, Jayapal and Warren’s agendas going forward. The point must be to show Americans that we’re at the beginning of a new era of progressive reform to address the crises that this country faces and to turn the page on the Trump years of division, debacle and distraction. A record number of Americans voted to give Biden a mandate. Georgia voters ensured that Democrats could control the Senate and act on that mandate. A governing majority can be consolidated, but only if there is dramatic progress that impacts voters in their daily lives. Let prosecutors deal with the crimes of the Trump years. Biden must focus on our future.
A single vaccination was not enough to protect her
Any Member who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives because of their selfish idiocy. I'm calling for every single Member who refuses to wear a mask in the Capitol to be fined and removed from the floor by the Sergeant at Arms.
I share the outrage and anger of those across America who have watched Trump fail to combat this raging pandemic and refuse to take care of Americans who are suffering, dying, and devastated.
I will not rest until I do everything in my power to remove this President from office.
I've never seen an epi curve like this. The B.1.1.7 variant is spreading like wildfire in the UK and Ireland. If it spreads here, it will make an already-bad situation even worse. pic.twitter.com/VZB5BPm5om
Sheldon G. Adelson, a cabdriver’s son who built the world’s largest empire of casinos and resort hotels in Las Vegas, Macau, Singapore and other gambling meccas and used his vast wealth to promote right-wing political agendas in America and Israel, died on Monday night. He was 87.
Me either, Theirs a long list of politicians that when the reaper comes for them they better bring sunscreen and i’ll be doing that dance, but me dancing is pretty ugly 🙂
i guess i don’t ever want to wish death on someone (that lightning strike might get me! lol), but i totally get the sentiment. someone else will take their place until we change what’s on the ground.
What a piece of total human excretement. 💩 Natural law catches up to these 💩s eventually. There are plenty of more garbage yahoos standing by to fill his/its shoes.💩💩
For more than three decades, the Adelsons’ political spending was almost limitless. The couple set a new record for donations from individuals in a single election cycle last year, giving Trump and other Republican groups a reported $172.7 million ahead of the presidential election. He used his estimated $35 billion fortune from the casino business to bankroll Republican candidates and causes at home and in Israel.
Adelson’s off-the-scale political spending led to what was dubbed the “Adelson primary” ahead of the 2016 election, in which Republican wannabe presidents flocked to Las Vegas to beg Adelson to back them. According to The Washington Post, at least 17 GOP hopefuls visited him before he ultimately decided to throw his weight behind Trump. Adelson threw a reported $25 million at Trump’s successful campaign.
As Adelson’s millions were pumped into his campaign, Trump gradually changed his position on Israel to match that of his financial backer, going on to abandon five decades of American foreign policy that called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.
Hawley is a conservative evangelical Christian who is ardently anti-abortion and known for railing against the “cosmopolitan elite”. Unusually for a Republican politician, however, he has also called to investigate and possibly break up major Silicon Valley tech companies and criticized corporations such as Walmart for underpaying their employees.
In December, he formed an unexpected alliance with congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the socialist senator Bernie Sanders in an unsuccessful attempt to secure higher Covid relief checks. Hawley called the $600 checks which Congress ultimately issued insulting to struggling people.
The senator’s favorite pet issue, however, is the evils of big tech. He has pushed for the government to investigate Facebook and Google for antitrust and consumer violations and has described social media as addictive and “a parasite” on society. In 2019, he introduced a bill in Congress that would automatically limit time on social media platforms to 30 minutes a day unless individual users opt out of the requirement. The unsuccessful bill also sought to ban functions such as “infinite scrolling” and autoplay.
The libertarian wing of the conservative movement is, unsurprisingly, leery about Hawley and his enthusiasm for using the levers of the state to enforce morality. The libertarian magazine Reason has called Hawley “a first-rate demagogue” and “the ultimate Karen”.
The extent to which Hawley is actually an economic populist, let alone economically leftwing, is questionable. He opposed raising the minimum wage in Missouri and has endorsed anti-union legislation. But he has a finger in the wind, and is keenly attuned to the fact that the Republican party, historically the party of the more educated and affluent, is increasingly becoming the party of the working class.
Hawley appears to be placing his bets on a political realignment, one in which Trump was the beginning, not the culmination, of a political phenomenon. The Missouri senator has worked overtime to position himself as a voice for socially conservative, working-class Americans.
The notion that Hawley – Ivy League-educated, the son of a banker – is a man of the people may be difficult to swallow. Then again, Trump, a billionaire, successfully ran for president by presenting himself as an outsider attacking an establishment elite.
The question now is whether Hawley’s eagerness to court diehard Trump voters has helped his 2024 ambitions, or hindered them. His actions may be popular with part of his Republican base in Missouri, a state which Trump won by a more than 15% margin.
It seems less likely, however, that the American public as a whole will be sympathetic. Hawley did “something that was really dumbass,” Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, complained on NPR. “This was a stunt. It was a terrible, terrible idea.”
Congress should use its constitutional power to prohibit instigators and perpetrators of last week’s violent siege of the Capitol, including President Trump, from holding public office ever again.
On Monday, House leaders introduced an article of impeachment against the president for “inciting violence against the government of the United States,” an obligatory action, given the gravity of the president’s transgression. But this is not the only route for ensuring accountability. The Constitution has another provision that is tailor-made for the unthinkable, traitorous events of Jan. 6 that goes beyond what impeachment can accomplish.
Emerging from the wreckage of the Civil War, Congress was deeply concerned that former leaders of the Confederacy would take over state and federal offices to once again subvert the constitutional order. To prevent that from happening, Congress passed the 14th Amendment, which in Section 3 bars public officials and certain others who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from serving in public office. Although little known today, Section 3 was used in the post-Civil War era to disqualify former rebels from taking office. And, in the wake of perhaps the boldest domestic attack on our nation’s democracy since the Civil War, Section 3 can once again serve as a critical tool to protect our constitutional order.
Congress can also decide how this legislation will be enforced by election officials and the courts, based on all the facts as they come out. The Constitution prohibits Congress from enacting so-called bills of attainder, which single out individuals for guilt. But, in addition to the legislation we suggest, Congress could also pass nonbinding sense-of-Congress resolutions that specify whom they intend to disqualify. This would provide a road map for election officials and judges, should any people named in those resolutions seek to run for or hold public office. And Congress can do this by a simple majority — far less of a hurdle than the two-thirds majority in the Senate that removing the president requires.
We believe legislators of conscience should brandish this option not as a substitute for impeachment but as a complement to it. Senators shouldn’t be allowed to escape or indefinitely delay a vote on Mr. Trump’s conduct simply by running out the clock on his term. (The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has suggested no trial will happen before the inauguration.) Republicans should be on notice that whether or not they face a vote on conviction and removal of Mr. Trump, they will at the very least be compelled to vote by a Democratic-controlled Congress on barring Mr. Trump from ever holding public office again.
This option also has power that the impeachment process lacks. As we learn more in the coming months about who is culpable for the siege, the ranks of those disqualified from office will likely swell. The legislation we envision would allow future courts and decision makers to apply the law after the investigations are complete. Eventually, we should have a 9/11 Commission-style report on what led to these events; the facts marshaled there can be deployed under the legislation we propose.
Continuing my 4+ year quest to get politicians to pay attention to gamers as a voting demographic
Video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture
It would be incorrect to say video games went mainstream in 2020. They’ve been mainstream for decades. But their place in pop culture feels far more central – to gamers and non-gamers alike – than ever before. In part, this is due to desperate marketers hunting for eyeballs in a Covid landscape of cancelled events. Coachella wasn’t happening, but Animal Crossing was open was for business. Politicians eager to “Rock the Vote” looked to video games to reach young voters. (See: Joe and Kamala’s virtual HQ and AOC streaming herself playing Among Us.) The time-honored tradition of older politicians trying to seem young and hip at a music venue has been replaced by older politicians trying to seem young and hip playing a video game. Yes, quarantine was part of this. But, like so many trends during the pandemic, Covid didn’t spark this particular trajectory so much as intensify it. Long before the lockdowns, video games had triumphed as the most popular form of entertainment among young people.
The writing was on the wall in November 2019. When Morning Consult, a consumer intelligence firm, reported that the controversial YouTube star PewDiePie had the same name recognition as – and higher favorability than – super-athlete LeBron James among Gen-Z American men it was headline news. Who’s PewDiePie?! confused millennials wondered. (He’s a Swedish YouTuber who reviews video games. Teens like to watch videos of him playing.) The shift was corroborated last spring, when Adweek reported that the gaming industry’s revenue (at $139bn a year) had outstripped the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL combined. By this December, lockdown life further fattened the industry. The global gaming industry is set to take in $180bn for 2020 – a 20% increase in revenue, and more than sports and movies worldwide.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” — Frederick Douglas, 1857 One of my favorite cartoons strips is Pearls Before Swine, created by Stephan Pastis. In a December drawing, his cantankerous character, Rat, is writing out his “Goals for the Next Year,” which he boils down to one demand: “Be better than the last @#$%&*@! year.
I’m with Rat. The pandemic made 2020 excruciating, but the long political year also whipsawed our emotions with rushes of highs and lows: Trump’s daily outrages; Bernie Sanders’ progressive surge; mass protests over police murders of Black people; the GOP’s flagrant rush to suppress people’s right to vote; an extraordinary burst of grassroots organizing, especially by young people of color and climate activists; Democratic Party power brokers’ orchestrated assault on progressive candidates, groups, and policies; Trump’s tumble into more and more naked megalomania; progressive groups that lifted the soporific Biden campaign to victory in key swing states, flipping even the GOP strongholds of Arizona and Georgia. Recently, with only a couple of exceptions, the president-elect has chosen corporate-approved Washington insiders as his top officials and advisors, signaling another Democratic agenda of minimalism and incrementalism that leaves the grassroots progressive movement on the outside looking in.
The year ended with neither a bang nor a whimper but a mass sigh of relief. At least, it’s over.
The conversation moves on to broader themes, such as the Qnon folks have played into the hands of the elite, in that they still believe they know better than working-class folks.
President Trump on Tuesday criticized efforts by House Democrats to move forward with impeaching him a second time, calling it “ridiculous” and the cause of “tremendous anger.”
The Democratic-controlled House is poised to vote Wednesday on impeaching Trump for inciting a violent mob of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol last week. The attack left five individuals dead and has prompted broad condemnation of Trump’s actions and rhetoric.
Trump, who spoke to reporters before leaving Washington for a trip to Texas on Tuesday to tour sections of the border wall, said that a second impeachment would be a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.” He also said that he wanted “no violence” following the assault in Washington, D.C., last week.
Trump for two months refused to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s win and repeatedly claimed that the election was stolen from him through widespread fraud, assertions that have been roundly disputed by election officials and others.
The attack at the Capitol last week took place after Trump urged a crowd of supporters on the Ellipse to head to the complex and fight the election results as Congress convened to certify the Electoral College votes.
This is especially brutal for Hawley, because Hallmark is headquartered in his home state. This was the cover of today's Kansas City Star. pic.twitter.com/8kGt2ZB6oX
It would be nice to think that progressives could persuade others that the less corporate donors, the more opportunities to think for themselves when important bills are being considered. Also less time dialing for dollars.
Mr. mags on phone with conservative friend this morning reminding him about Citizen’s United (and the damage it has caused and, to at least some extent, has led us to this moment in history).
This might be a good time for progressives to push harder on challenging that court ruling.
Most grocery stores, pharmacies, and certainly doctors' offices won't allow you entrance to their establishments without a mask. These members have decided the Capitol is an establishment that isn't worthy of such practices. Throw them out.
Interesting how angry the Right is about Twitter dropping Trump for attempting a coup and S&S dropping book contract with Josh Hawley for inciting sedition, but how pleased they were when the NFL dropped Colin Kaepernick for protesting police brutality and racial injustice.
Since leaving the Obama administration, Haines has been affiliated with Columbia University and the Brookings Institution, and has consulted for various companies, including the national security data contractor Palantir, according to a Brookings biography unearthed by the Intercept. A source familiar with her work for Palantir confirmed it to NBC News, saying she advised the firm on diversity and advancing roles for women in technology.
Biden transition team presses Senate to confirm national security nominees ahead of inauguration
The Biden transition team is pressing the Senate to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s national security nominees ahead of the inauguration next week, saying the country’s security is “at stake.”
With Democrats set to take the majority after victories in the Georgia Senate runoff elections earlier this month, the Biden team is making a heavy push for secretary of state nominee Anthony Blinken, homeland security secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas, director of national intelligence nominee Avril Haines and defense secretary nominee retired Gen. Lloyd Austin.
I don’t know much about the other two, but Blinken and Haines are no good.
Mr. Biden’s choice for secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, was paid nearly $1.2 million by a consulting firm he helped found, WestExec Advisors, where he advised a range of corporations including Facebook, Boeing, the private equity giant Blackstone and the asset management company Lazard.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/budget/533750-sanders-to-wield-gavel-as-gatekeeper-for-key-biden-proposals
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/11/denouncing-republican-evils-cant-do-much-biden-presidency-without-demanding
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/12/progressives-know-best-how-turn-page-trump-years-biden-should-listen/?utm_source=reddit.com
T and R, jcb!! ☮️😊👍
A single vaccination was not enough to protect her
Viruses mutate and form families. Part of their DNA, no snark. This aspect has been warned about for months so where’s the surprise?
Hope she is communicating with her sister-in-arms: Rashida Tlaib.
Ding Dong
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/business/sheldon-adelson-dead.html
You won’t see me shed a tear over he’s death. The one I’m waiting for is Dick “go fuck your self’ Cheny then I will do a happy dance!
👍
Me either, Theirs a long list of politicians that when the reaper comes for them they better bring sunscreen and i’ll be doing that dance, but me dancing is pretty ugly 🙂
i guess i don’t ever want to wish death on someone (that lightning strike might get me! lol), but i totally get the sentiment. someone else will take their place until we change what’s on the ground.
What a piece of total human excretement. 💩 Natural law catches up to these 💩s eventually. There are plenty of more garbage yahoos standing by to fill his/its shoes.💩💩
Republicans having a bad month.
I wonder if he was conscious long enough to learn how well-spent his money was on Trump?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/12/josh-hawley-fanned-flames-diehard-trump-voters
Seems like a good idea to me. And it needs only a simple majority.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/opinion/Trump-impeachment-disqualification.html
afaik, this is what Cori has been pushing us to call our critters about.
Continuing my 4+ year quest to get politicians to pay attention to gamers as a voting demographic
Video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture
I suggested to one of the groups to pass on to Nina’s team for Nina get on twitch, but be sure to have a game to play.
Some High schools have it a club, or a “letter” sport
https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/lets-push-for-a-political-deep-cleaning/
Yesterday was Hightower’s birthday, fyi.
The conversation moves on to broader themes, such as the Qnon folks have played into the hands of the elite, in that they still believe they know better than working-class folks.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533798-trump-says-impeachment-effort-causing-tremendous-anger
Trump is:
a ‘tremendous’ egomaniac
a ‘tremendous’ asshole
and
a ‘tremendous’ failure as a president
Add in a ‘ tremendous’ stupid yahoo!💩
Sorry the clip wasn’t longer. It was one of the better interviews O’Donnell had with Beto.
Thiers at least 147 congresscritters on the Trumptanic , just take away the life boats
It would be nice to think that progressives could persuade others that the less corporate donors, the more opportunities to think for themselves when important bills are being considered. Also less time dialing for dollars.
Mr. mags on phone with conservative friend this morning reminding him about Citizen’s United (and the damage it has caused and, to at least some extent, has led us to this moment in history).
This might be a good time for progressives to push harder on challenging that court ruling.
Yayy for women using technology to be evil too….
The following article was posted 48 minutes ago. Looks like Joe might be using the current crisis to try to rush through some nasty people.
Biden transition team presses Senate to confirm national security nominees ahead of inauguration
I don’t know much about the other two, but Blinken and Haines are no good.
the big changes are going to happen underneath.