Good (Thursday) morning from Timothy Noah! We still have no reconciliation bill, but President Joe Biden met this morning with the House Democratic Caucus, The New York Times reports, âto try to convince liberal members that a final deal was close enoughâ to permit the House to pass the Senate-approved $1 trillion infrastructure bill to which House progressives are holding the reconciliation bill hostage. The $1.85 trillion reconciliation âframeworkâ includes âfunding for expanded health coverage, housing, universal prekindergarten and child care, and climate programs,â The Wall Street Journal reports, plus a 5 percent surtax on incomes above $10 million, and âan even higher bracket is possible.â It looked pretty unlikely that House progressives, still smarting from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchinâs refusal to support paid family and medical leave or a tax on billionairesâ unrealized capital gains, would assent. According to one lawmaker unnamed by the Times, Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema havenât even committed to supporting the framework. Biden will report on how it all went at 11:30 this morning. Heâs trying to create forward movement because he leaves today for the Group of 20 meeting in Italy and the Glasgow climate summit in Scotland, where heâd like to demonstrate progress on climate change at home, the Journal reports. Biden would also like to pass the infrastructure bill before Tuesdayâs Virginia gubernatorial race, which remains a dead heat. Aides to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, whoâs trying to run a MAGA campaign while keeping former President Donald Trump himself out of the state, were quietly panicking yesterday at Trumpâs apparent threat to show up before Election Day, Politico reports. âA late appearance by Trump in Virginia,â write Meridith McGraw and Christopher Cadelago, âwould be a gift to McAuliffe, a disruption for Youngkin and a final test of how both campaigns have tried to navigate Trump and his polarizing powers.â Bring it on! In other news, economic growth slowed over the summer to an annualized 2 percent, The New York Times reports, down from 6.7 percent during the prior three months, according to a third-quarter gross domestic product estimate released this morning by the Commerce Department. Consumer spending grew an annualized 1.6 percent, compared to 12 percent in the second quarter. This is likely a temporary setback to recovery, The Wall Street Journal reported, attributable to the delta variant and the resultant infernal supply chain disruptions. Today at NewRepublic.com, Osita Nwavenu faults popularism, or the doctrine that politics should favor policies popular with voters, because ânumbers alone cannot tell us what risks are worth taking, what sacrifices are worth making, and what policies are substantively worthwhileâ; Merrill Goozner argues that energy policies boosting electrical vehicles must promote more aggressive recycling of ecologically damaging or scarce lithium-ion battery components; and Esther Wang reports on the New York City Police Departmentâs mishandling of rape investigations. |
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