Daily Archives: October 21, 2021

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, October 7, 2021.

Joshua Roberts | Reuters

House Democrats will head into next year's midterm elections trying to hold on to their majority in the chamber as several longtime members say they plan to step down.

On Monday, veteran Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and David Price, D-N.C., announced they would not run for another term in Congress. Their departures mean at least seven House Democrats will not seek reelection in 2022, compared with at least three Republicans, according to an NBC News tally.

The retirements come as Democrats face the prospect of losing House control in the midterms. They currently hold a slim 220-212 majority in the chamber. As the party of President Joe Biden, Democrats will have to overcome historical trends to keep their majority: The White House incumbent's party usually loses seats in Congress during midterms.

Democrats will try to extend their unified but narrow control of the White House, Senate and House for another two years. Republicans aim to leverage history, new congressional district maps and Biden's lackluster approval rating to win back control of Congress.

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Retirements can not only signal pessimism about a party's ability to keep its majority but also can make districts without incumbents harder to retain.

Many of the Democrats who will not seek reelection represent areas where Republicans could have a tough time winning in 2022. Doyle represents Pennsylvania's 18th District, a Pittsburgh-based seat that Biden won by about 30 percentage points last year, according to Daily Kos data.

The president also carried Price's Durham, N.C.-area 4th District by more than 30 percentage points in 2020. House Budget Committee Chair John Yarmuth a longtime Kentucky Democrat who announced his retirement last week will leave behind the Louisville-based 3rd District, which Biden won by about 22 percentage points last year.

Other seats left open by Democrats appear to be better pickup opportunities for the GOP. Former President Donald Trump won outgoing Democratic Rep. Ron Kind's 3rd District in Wisconsin by about 5 percentage points last year.

Trump also carried Illinois' 17th District, now held by departing Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos.

Doyle has been in Congress since 1995. In announcing his retirement Monday, the 68-year-old said "the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation." Doyle said he wanted to spend more time with his family and noted that redistricting played into his decision.

States are drawing new congressional district maps after completion of the 2020 Census. While changes to Doyle's seat may not make it harder for Democrats to win, changes to other districts will force some lawmakers to run in environments less friendly to their party.

Price, 81, first spent 1987 to 1995 in the House. After losing a reelection bid in 1994, he won the 4th District back two years later and has represented it in Congress since 1997.

Price said that during the rest of his term he would "continue fighting for the just and inclusive country we believe in."

The midterms will be the first nationwide congressional elections since a mob of Trump supporters overran the Capitol while lawmakers counted Biden's election victory on Jan. 6. After insurrectionists spurred by Trump's false claims that he was cheated out of a second term were expelled from the building, 139 House Republicans and eight GOP senators voted to object to tallying at least one state's certified presidential results.

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Retirements mount as House Democrats try to defend their majority in the 2022 midterms - CNBC

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-The Moon) made the Democratic position clear Thursday: If youre not with us, youre terrorists.

During his opening statement for the Attorney General Merrick Garland hearing, Nadler said there was no difference between the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and parents who are angry about what is being taught in schools.

This growth in extremist ideology is echoed in an epidemic of violence and intimidation directed at our health care professionals, teachers, essential workers, school board members and election workers, Nadler said.

Nadler, a partisan loon who spent the past four years stirring up every conspiracy theory against President Trump, claimed there was a broader pattern here, including the growing threats of violence against public servants.

Yes, it is terrible when a sitting senator is harassed and followed into a bathroom . . . Oh he wasnt talking about Krysten Sinema? The incident President Biden said was just part of the process? Huh.

Were sure he was inspired by the climate change activists who stormed the Department of the Interior last Thursday, breaking down the front door and attempting to occupy the building. He was calling on AOC and others to denounce them. No?

How about the fact that the letter the National School Boards Association sent to Garland asking for the FBI for help, as reported by columnist Christopher Rufo, cites only a single example of actual violence against a school official. That the letter is in fact hyperventilating bunk, describing shouting as violence and people who disagree with school boards as domestic terrorists.

Turns out the White House knew about the letter before it was made public. Did the president order Garland to get the FBI involved?

It seems like the Biden administration is guilty of what they always accuse Republicans of: Politicizing the Department of Justice, and stifling free speech through intimidation.

Actually, we are sure Nadler is aware of all this. But hes a dishonest, devious oaf who leverages lies into political gain. Its the Democratic Party platform now. They see an opportunity to harness the outrage over January 6 as a brush to suppress all their opponents.

Disturbingly, the Dems and their social media cronies repeatedly and casually abuse their power to enforce their ideology, rather than realize that perhaps the upswell of parental anger at teaching in schools is not the result of QAnon conspiracists but in fact is born of genuine concern and a sense of disempowerment over the future of their most precious charges.

Dont like teachers telling all white kids that they are oppressors just because of the color of their skin? Youre an insurrectionist. Think maybe we need to start lifting COVID restrictions because youre vaccinated? Youre a white supremacist. Oppose Build Back Better? Youre an obstructionist, a fascist.

Dont vote for Democrats? Youre an enemy of the state.

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Democrats aim to make anyone who disagrees with them an enemy of the state - New York Post

The report, which garnered so much attention that Bruenig published another post Thursday responding to the criticism, even won an unlikely ally: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

"There is a strong likelihood that we are going to see a change in the cost of care, which is already expensive, for parents who are not included," Caitlin Codella Low, vice president of policy and programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Center for Education and Workforce, said in an interview.

Democrats and advocates scrambled to discredit the report after its release and reassure voters that the plan would, in fact, bring parents' expenses down.

The Build Back Better child care and universal pre-K proposal will dramatically lower child care costs for the vast majority of working families, make child care more available to every single family and also ensure that child care workers are paid a livable wage," Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. "This proposal will mark a foundational shift in how our country supports working parents and Im fighting hard to get it across the finish line.

Supporters of the child care plan fear the report, which they say was based on a misunderstanding of the bill text, will confuse the public as the White House and congressional leaders struggle to reach final agreement on what policies will be included in Democrats spending package, a Democratic aide said.

People are nervous because everyones on tenterhooks as this package shrinks and people are negotiating whats in and whats out, said Melissa Boteach, vice president of income security, child care and early learning at the National Womens Law Center.

The dispute centers on how the child care benefits would be rolled out over a number of years.

The bill approved by the House Education and Labor Committee in September would create a multibillion-dollar program to funnel money to child care providers and, separately, to parents of young children.

During the first three years, families' eligibility for the cash would ramp up: Families making 100 percent of their states median income would be eligible upon enactment of the program; those making 115 percent would be eligible the second year; and those making 130 percent would be eligible the third year.

The money that would go straight to the child care industry would also flow over the same three years, Democratic aides said, in order to gradually build supply. In the fourth year, an entitlement program with wage and other requirements based on data collected over the last three years would take effect.

"This program provides subsidies and grants directly to providers to cover the costs of low- and middle-income families, and those subsidies and grants will offset the cost of livable wages for workers," a Democratic aide said.

The People's Policy Project report makes the case that if the wage and other requirements went into effect the first year, instead of the fourth, it could increase child care costs for any family making more than 100 percent of their states median income, who would not yet be eligible for the subsidies.

The bill says that states have an option to implement the wage increases within three years, Bruenig said in an interview. It doesnt say it will happen after, in the fourth year. It could happen before then.

Im just looking for a number that could be justified based on how the bill is written, he added. It could be $10,000, but its not going to be zero. Its going to be a pretty big hike.

Advocates and Democratic aides say Bruenig's argument is illogical because the cash to providers would cover the higher wages and on top of that, the pay and other requirements would not formally kick in until the fourth year. In fact, they say, the child care sector is not robust enough right now to even support salaries like those Bruenig laid out.

Fundamentally, this analysis takes what we would hope as an optimal end point, and pushes it into the first year, said Rasheed Malik, associate director of research for early childhood policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. It takes an extreme set of numbers to come to a totally unrealistic conclusion, and in the process ignores all of the details that are in there.

Its not based on a close reading of the bill, or even a close reading of expert summaries of the bill, he added. We dont even have enough child care right now; we actually have to build our way up to a fully functioning system.

In fact, the wage requirements wont even be able to be calculated until the fourth year: They cant have wage requirements without the cost estimation model, which they have the first couple of years to develop, Boteach said. This idea that theres going to be a $13,000 increase for families is based on language that doesnt exist in the world.

Increased costs for parents could be avoided by making all families eligible for subsidies upon enactment, Bruenig said. Democrats' decision to phase in eligibility was just to bring down the score.

Advocates counter that doing so would not only be more expensive, it could hurt families by locking out lower-income parents due to the low supply of child care.

As much as I would love to roll out a universal system right away, that would actually have terribly negative unintended consequences for the most vulnerable, Malik said.

Boteach said Bruenig is comparing President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan "to an idealized policy with unlimited funds."

Thats not the right comparison: The right comparison is Build Back Better with doing nothing. And doing nothing means more women get pushed out of the labor force, more providers leave the sector, and we have a collapsing care infrastructure.

Democratic aides say its important to counter Bruenig's argument so that the public is not confused about what they are proposing, particularly as progressive lawmakers make the case that their party should be spending as much as possible on child care, paid leave and other family-centric policies.

People are working around the clock to make sure that the design is right, the investment level is right, Malik said. If this were to become a viral set of misinformation, that would be extremely unfortunate.

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Democrats defend their child care plan against unexpected attack - POLITICO

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This article is adapted from Joe Concha's video commentary.

The voices of reason in the Democratic Party are Bill Maher and Jon Stewart?

The loudest voices on the Blue side of the aisle are folks like Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, N.Y., Ilhan Omar, Minn., Adam Schiff, Calif., and of course, the principled conservatives of The Lincoln Project.

And what's coming out of these folks puts the far into far left.

Defund the police! Free college! Cancel George Washington!And Thomas Jefferson too!

JOE CONCHA: PETE BUTTIGIEG IS IN OVER HIS HEAD ON THE SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS: HERE'S WHY

Radicals have taken over the party and control the president. Why else would a "moderate" like President Joe Biden support trillions in new spending, A) without a way to pay for it in any meaningful way, or B) while core inflation is already at a 30-year high and climbing.

Are there any common-sense Democratic supporters left?

Well, there are, but theyre not on Capitol Hill or in the White House Theyre on HBO and Apple TV!

Here's Maher on cancel culture. And it's genius.

"China sees a problem and they fix it. They build a dam. We debate what to rename it. Thats why their airports look like this. And ours look like this," Maher said in March, showing a futuristic-looking Chinese concourse followed by a decrepit LaGuardia Airport sign. "China once put up a 57-story skyscraper in 19 days. They demolished and rebuilt the Sanyuan Bridge in Beijing in 43 hours. We binge watch. They binge build."

BILL MAHER ON CROWD'S HUNGER FOR MOCKING WOKENESS: FOR THE FIRST TIME I AM PLAYING TO A MIXED AUDIENCE

And then there's Stewart on the COVID lab leak theory. You know, the theory that was deemed racist by the New York Times lead coronavirus reporter and originally dismissed by almost every news outlet because Trump and Tom Cotton dared to speak of it.

'Oh, my God, theres a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China. What do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab," he told a visibly uncomfortable Stephen Colbert in June.

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Stewart also warned the media to stop obsessing over Donald Trump during a recent interview on Trump-obsessedCNN. In a related story, Trump has been out of office for checks notes 275 days!

But to the left, saying, "Hey, maybe focus on those in power instead," is a bridge too far.

Bill Maher. Jon Stewart. Once darlings of the left. Now darlings of those with that fleeting gift called common sense.

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It's a shame that those with the loudest voices in Congress, and in the White House, and in teachers unions aren't listening.

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Joe Concha: As radicals seize Democratic Party, these liberals may be the only voice of reason left - Fox News

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks outside of the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 20, 2021.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

As Democrats wrestle over their spending package, key lawmakers are still fighting to change the $10,000 cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes.

The measure, known as SALT, is a priority among lawmakers in high-tax states, such as New York, New Jersey and California, jeopardizing the Democrats' multitrillion-dollar plan.

The budget can pass without Republican support. However, Democrats need votes from nearly every member of the House and all Democratic senators.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who met with President Joe Biden and other party centrists on Tuesday, said he emphasized the importance of restoring the write-off, among other priorities, for families in his district.

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"I'm working around-the-clock with my colleagues in the House and Senate to reinstate SALT," he said. "I'm also continuing to have conversations with the White House and leadership to ensure SALT is included in the final package."

Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., a long-time proponent of the SALT cap repeal, also re-affirmed his commitment to the issue.

"I have spoken to Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Neal and am confident SALT will be included in the final package," said Suozzi. "Restoration of the SALT deduction is essential for the economic health of New York and its middle-class families."

"No SALT, no deal," he added.

I have spoken to Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Neal and am confident SALT will be included in the final package.

Rep. Tom Suozzi

Democratic congressman from New York

The measure has also been a priority for other key lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

While Pelosi and Schumer aim for agreements on budget provisions by the end of the week, changes to the SALT cap are still pending.

The SALT limit has been controversial since former President Donald Trump added the cap during his signature 2017 tax overhaul.

Now, Americans who itemize deductions can't write off more than $10,000 for property and state income taxes on their federal return.

But ditching the measure may be expensive. The SALT limit deduction brought in $77.4 billion during its first year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, and a full repeal for 2021 may cost up to $88.7 billion, and more going forward. Plus, Republicans have mostly supported the cap.

While the so-called SALT Caucus, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pushing for repeal, say the limit hurts middle-class families, opponents say a change may primarily help the wealthy.

More than 96% of the benefit may flow to the top 20% of earners, according to the Tax Policy Center, affecting only 9% of American households.

In the meantime, several high-tax states now offer SALT cap workarounds for pass-through business owners, allowing some companies to skip the deduction limit by using a state levy to cover some of the owner's state income taxes.

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Bigger state and local tax deductions still possible as Democrats grapple over spending plan - CNBC

Authorities are investigating a lynching threat received by Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn after he wrote an op-ed criticising former President Donald Trump.

Mr Wilburn, the state partys first Black chairman, accused Iowa Republicans of putting their loyalty to Mr Trump ahead of Iowans needs in an opinion piece published in the Des Moines Register.

The entire Republican Party of Iowa is welcoming Trump with open arms proving once again that they have completely surrendered themselves to a man who not only openly attacked the foundations of our democracy, but also has shown disdain for our Constitution, and failed to help the American people when we needed it most, Mr Wilburn wrote.

After the guest column was published on 8 October, Mr Wilburn received three threatening messages, one of which was a voice mail threatening to lynch him, and all using explicit and offensive language, he told reporters, according toThe Washington Post.

The n-word was used multiple times, Mr Wilburn said. The voice mails and the email made reference to my writing about former president Trump and made specific references to my comments regarding Trumps actions on 6 January. This led me to believe that they had read my op-ed.

Local authorities are investigating the abusive messages and Mr Wilburn said he will press charges if those behind them are identified.

I know it can be challenging, difficult to sometimes find folks that are sending things either directly or through restricted accounts or anonymously, he said. But thats what I intend to do.

Iowa Republican Senators Charles E. Grassley and Joni Ernst condemned the threats on Twitter. Ms Ernst said that the perpetrators should be held accountable, while Mr Grassley posted: Racism & threats of violence are never acceptable. the threat against Iowa Dem party chair Wilburn is being investigated & those responsible should b held accountable We ought to b able to hv civil/respectful political discussions in this country w our neighbors.

Mr Wilburn responded to Mr Grassleys comments, saying: If Senator Grassley is going to be more consistent with that in the future, then I think that would be important for him to do as a leader in his party.

He added that he appreciated the messages of support he received, but that it should not be the norm for officials to receive hateful messages.

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Ross Wilburn: Democrat threatened with lynching after criticising Trump - The Independent

To win over their most centrist members, the Democrats will need to fit all their wishes into the smaller box.

Family proposals ~$1.9 trillion

Climate proposals ~$0.6 trillion

Child care and

universal preschool

Renewable energy tax credits

Clean

electricity

program

Clean air, water and

energy efficiency

Child and dependent

care tax credit;

caregiver expenses

New federal Medicaid program

Expanded

premium

tax credits

Medicaid

funding

for home

health

care

Medicare vision, hearing

and dental benefits

Health proposals ~$1.0 trillion

Other proposals ~$1.1 trillion

in spending increases

and tax cuts over 10 years

Family proposals ~$1.9 trillion

Climate proposals ~$0.6 trillion

Child care and

universal preschool

Renewable energy

tax credits

Clean

electricity

program

Clean air, water and

energy efficiency

Child and dependent

care tax credit;

caregiver expenses

New federal Medicaid program

Expanded

premium

tax credits

Medicaid

funding

for home

health

care

Medicare vision, hearing

and dental benefits

Health proposals ~$1.0 trillion

Other proposals ~$1.1 trillion

in spending increases

and tax cuts over 10 years

Family proposals

~$1.9 trillion

Climate proposals

~$0.6 trillion

Child care and

universal

preschool

Renewable

energy

tax credits

Clean electricity program

Clean air,

water and

energy

efficiency

Earned-

income

tax credit

Child care

tax credit;

caregivers

New federal

Medicaid program

Medicare vision,

hearing and dental

benefits

Health proposals

~$1.0 trillion

Other proposals

~$1.1 trillion

in spending increases

and tax cuts over 10 years

Source: Cost estimates compiled by Don Schneider, Cornerstone Macro

As Democrats in Congress debate how to pare back their big social spending bill to a total budget increase of less than $2 trillion over a decade they have even further to go than it may appear.

The Congressional Budget Office has said it is unclear when it will provide official estimates for the entire proposal written by the House last month. So weve turned to what several budget experts say are the best available estimates of the cost of everything in the bill, compiled by Don Schneider, an economist at Cornerstone Macro. The figures, detailed in the tables below, show that lawmakers starting point is far higher than the $3.5 trillion number they had used to describe the package initially.

All the new spending and new tax cuts and credits in the bill add up to closer to $4.7 trillion over a decade, the result of an ambitious agenda and some optimistic thinking about the price tag. The target number President Biden discussed with lawmakers this week would be less than half as much, an effort to win the votes of reluctant centrist Democrats. Lawmakers have also proposed a series of tax increases and spending cuts to substantially offset those costs.

Wherever possible, Mr. Schneider used numbers from the official scorekeepers the C.B.O. or the Joint Committee on Taxation. Some of the other figures were provided by House committee fact sheets or were estimated based on official scores of similar legislation.

Mr. Schneider was a Republican congressional staffer before taking his current job, and he personally has concerns about the budgetary effects of the legislation. But he said his estimates were not intended to exaggerate the costs of the bill, but to help investors understand the possible effects of the legislation.

Im serving market participants, he said. This is my best guess of what it is.

Democratic leaders have signaled that programs to help children and families will be a major focus of the legislation, and the House bill includes a number of such policies. The child tax credit was written as a near-universal policy of monthly payments to parents with children for four additional years. A program would subsidize child care for families that use it. Another would help states establish pre-kindergarten classes in public schools. The legislation would expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to provide paid leave to workers when they need to miss work because of childbirth or family illness.

OFFICIAL ESTIMATES IN GREEN

Provision

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The Democrats Have a Lot of Cutting to Do - The New York Times