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Dear readers, have we ever told you how wise and handsome we’ve always found Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to be? No? Well it’s totally true, and senator, if you’re reading this, you would look especially good allowing the passage of climate legislation that will prevent our country from simultaneously burning and drowning.
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In a surprise turn of events, Manchin and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced today that they struck a deal on a domestic-spending package that includes climate and energy programs and tax increases on the wealthy. This is a breakthrough after more than a year of negotiations that looked all but dead two weeks ago when Manchin abruptly announced he would not support any new climate spending, because he was just too concerned about inflation, you guys!!!
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Manchin has been a thorn in the side of his Democratic colleagues, the main holdout on most of the progressive social policies the Biden administration had hoped to enact. In his somewhat-opaque statement, Manchin signaled support for climate and energy programs, as well as “adopting a tax policy that protects small businesses and working-class Americans while ensuring that large corporations and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.” Is this the same Joe Manchin we have come to know and mostly-disdain? Could it be?
- Well yes, it still mostly is the same old Joe. The bill agreed upon was titled the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 [eyes roll out of my head] and Manchin in his statement made sure to include a jab at the much more comprehensive Build Back Better, which he can now brag to his pals across the aisle about helping to kill. His statement also focuses mostly on inflation, and not the climate emergency or the many ills that Build Back Better was trying to treat. But for once I will resist dragging Joe’s ass too hard, because this bill is much better than the extremely-narrow drug-pricing package Dems were prepared to accept when it looked like Manchin was ready to walk away entirely last month.
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And now that Fossil Fuel Joe is on board, the bill is much more likely to actually become law, and the bill is actually good.
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The climate provisions in the proposed bill are the largest fiscal piece of it, to the tune of $369 billion, which is good. All aspects of the bill—the reduction in energy and health care costs, and the deficit reduction—are anti-inflationary, which is also good. The bill allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices and lowers ACA premiums, and closes a whole host of tax loopholes with increased funding to the IRS, all without any regressive, shit-eating spending cuts you’d normally expect Congress to include in a big budget bill. We’re not sure where his change of heart came from (was he visited by three ghosts when he had covid this week?) but we’re not questioning it.
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Assuming Dems can pass the bill in the House and the Senate parliamentarian allows it to be approved with 51 votes (or 50 and a tie break from VP Harris) through the budget reconciliation process, this has a serious chance of becoming law as early as August. This would be a huge win for Democrats going into midterms, who will need every single win they can get. It will give them a concrete answer to voters rightly asking, “What have you done for me lately?”
The bill faces a number of hurdles before it can become law, but White House Joe has signed off on it in a statement, so we thank you, Senate Joe, for your begrudging cooperation at last. Kyrsten Sinema don’t even FUCKING think about it.
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The midterms are quickly approaching, and we now know just how high the stakes are. With only 100 days left until November 8th, we need to make sure our voices are heard and protected.
Head to votesaveamerica.com/midterms to join our Midterm Madness program and take our “Count Me In” pledge to volunteer the weekend of July 31 and get involved in the most important elections in 2022.
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A monumental Justice Department report released today is being called the second-largest redlining settlement in U.S. history. The report centers around Trident Mortgage Co., a Pennsylvania mortgage company and division of Berkshire Hathaway, the mega-corporation owned by much-lauded “good billionaire” Warren Buffet. According to DOJ findings, Trident deliberately avoided (refused) writing mortgages in majority-Black and Latino neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, PA, Camden, NJ, and Wilmington, DE. Assistant Attorney General of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement: “Trident’s unlawful redlining activity denied communities of color equal access to residential mortgages, stripped them of the opportunity to build wealth, and devalued properties in their neighborhoods.” And Trident’s blatantly discriminatory activity did not take place decades ago, it happened between 2015-2019. Along with not giving mortgages in minority neighborhoods, Trident employees also reportedly made racist comments about making loans to Black homebuyers. Trident will pay a $4 million fine, and be forced to set aside $20 million to make mortgage loans in underserved neighborhoods.
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The Fed announced another 0.75 percent interest-rate increase.
Mark Ponder, a Washington, DC, resident who attacked police officers with poles during the Capitol riot on January 6 has been sentence to over 5 years in prison, matching the longest sentence for an insurrectionist so far.
The Biden administration has offered to exchange a convicted Russian arms trafficker for the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and American teacher Paul Whelan (who was sentenced to 14 years at a hard labor camp), both on charges of cannabis possession.
President Biden tested negative for COVID-19 and is out of isolation. My apologies to Kamala stans everywhere.
The White House’s Middle East coordinator apparently believes a reinstatement of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal is “highly unlikely.”
Former White House strategist and disgraced former mayor of Margaritaville Steve Bannon was caught on audio tape bragging about spreading false information about material obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020.
Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry ended his bid for the U.S. Senate today, just two weeks out from the state primary and endorsed Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D-WI) in the race to unseat Sen. Ron Johson (R-WI).
New York GOP gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) was attacked at a campaign event, but the decision to release the attacker without bail increasingly looks like a scheme orchestrated by the prosecutor—a member of Zeldin’s campaign, who attended the event where the attack happened—to bolster Zeldin’s campaign and his opposition to New York bail laws.
Connecticut’s GOP Senate nominee Themis Klarides has come under fire from her own party for supporting things like abortion, gay marriage, and certain gun-control initiaves. On a related note, how do we clone her in a lab to replace every Republican legislator in America?
Social media giant Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) reported its first-ever quarter of revenue decline.
Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee and current/longtime resident of New Jersey Dr. Mehmet Oz failed to report ownership of a New Jersey apartment (this guy loves NJ!!) that houses his close associates who are linked to Turkish Nationalist groups who deny the Armenian genocide.
After House Dems successfully passed a bill federally protecting birth-control access last week, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) objected to passing it by unanimous consent. Ernst countered with her own bill as a “compromise” but Democratic senators quickly noted that her bill does not ensure access to birth control which is, you know, the point.
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As is the way of the past few weeks, there’s a flurry of new January 6-related news. Following yesterday’s announcement that the Justice Department has been investigating former president Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, we learned January 6 hearing star and top aide to Trump’s then-chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, is cooperating with the DOJ probe. The investigation reportedly now includes questions for witnesses about the communications of people close to Trump and his re-election campaign. Punctuating another scandal, Dem chairs of the House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees have demanded that DHS inspector general Joseph Cuffari recuse himself from the investigation into deleted Secret Service text messages from January 6, in light of the revelation that Cuffari delayed informing Congress about the missing messages for months. In another security-related development, the House Sergeant-At-Arms office will cover the cost of security at lawmakers’ homes beginning on August 15 in an effort to address dramatic increases in threats against members of Congress in the wake of January 6. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) have narrowly escaped the reach of the January 6 committee probe, but the evidence released about them during the hearings has forced them to answer for their roles in the insurrection. Furthermore, the January 6 committee is now in the odd position of possibly having to condemn the Democratic Party’s electoral arm for boosting Republican peddlers of the Big Lie in their primaries, who they think will be easier for Dems to beat come November. One Democrat on the committee told Axios, “The DCCC is playing with fire. It undercuts the great work of the Jan. 6 committee and makes us look like hypocrites.”
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