BBB infra reconciliation

921 disaggr see infra

see 2 face corps

all hail comrade pramilla 11/19/21

===

an 7 22

Texas Congresswoman is the latest Republican to brag about infrastructure improvements she voted against

United States Representative Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) speaking at the 2021 Young Women's Leadership Summit, hosted by Turning Point USA at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas (Gage Skidmore).

Alex Henderson

July 07, 2022

When President Joe Biden signed a$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law in November 2021, the members of Congress who took a victory lap included centrist Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — both of whom played a key role in the negotiations. But many GOP members of Congress, anxious to show how MAGA they were, opposed the bill andattacked it as “socialism.”

One of the bill’s critics was Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas. Van Duyne voted against it, but on July 7, she bragged about new funding for the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport — funding coming from the infrastructure bill she opposed in 2021:

Journalist Jamie Dupree called out Van Duyne’s hypocrisy, tweeting:

READ MORE: Marsha Blackburn slammed for confusing the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence

But Van Duyne is hardly the only Republican who railed against the infrastructure package only to turn around and take advantage of it.

In Tennessee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn attacked the bill as a “gateway to socialism,” and Tennessee Republicans serving in the U.S. House of Representatives joined her in attacking it. But Tennessee hasn’t cut itself off from federal funding.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been angrily railing against the Biden Administration’s economic policies — only to brag about the millions of dollars in federal stimulus money being used in his state. On May 17, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel’s Jeffrey Schweers reported, “Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on a spending spree for months, taking credit for millions of dollars in federal stimulus money he’s handing out to mostly rural Republican counties while at the same time, bashing President Biden’s big government spending. Federal bucks have bolstered the state budget for two years in a row, shoring up the state’s reserves, and funding such things as the governor’s job growth program, climate ‘resiliency’ against rising waters, road projects, broadband expansion, college training programs and tax cuts.”

In a January 25 op-ed for MSNBC’s MaddowBlog, journalist Steve Benen called out some of the Republicans who opposed the infrastructure bill only to brag when they used funding from it — a list that includes Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia, Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama, Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa and Rep. Kay Granger of Texas.

READ MORE: ‘The epitome of hypocrisy’: Ron DeSantis 'bashes' POTUS' tax policies while reaping the benefits

ref negin BBB

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/climate-koch-brothers-lobbying-biden-build-back-better-1234815/

no lnx many

The Koch Empire Goes All Out to Sink Joe Biden’s Agenda — and His Presidency, Too

The dark-money network is spending tens of millions to undermine Democrats’ effort to protect the climate and shore up the social safety net

By ANDY KROLL & GEOFF DEMBICKI

The Koch Empire Goes All-Out to Sink Joe Biden's Agenda — and His Presidency, TooThe Koch Empire Goes All-Out to Sink Joe Biden's Agenda — and His Presidency, Too

Charles Koch, chief executive officer of Koch Industries, at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, 2019. (AP Photo]

With the fate of President Biden’s domestic agenda in the balance, an armada of right-wing dark-money groups aligned with the Koch political network is mobilizing to sink Biden’s $3.5-trillion Build Back Better plan and deal a devastating blow to his presidency.

The Koch network is one of the most extensive and well-funded political and policy operations in the country, having pledged to spend more than a billion dollars in the past four election cycles. The web of nonprofit groups funded by or affiliated with the Koch network — dubbed the “Kochtopus” by critics — broadly promotes an anti-government, libertarian-style vision for American life. In most cases, the donors who bankroll the network’s groups remain anonymous, playing a central role in the spike in dark-money spending in American politics.

Fox has grossly misrepresented the Civilian Climate Corps -- “climate cops” is not a thing KOCH FORK 4]

The reconciliation bill includes $8 billion earmarked for the Civilian Climate Corps -- modeled after the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps -- which would establish a government jobs program that would put Americans to “work conserving our public lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, and advancing environmental justice.” The current funding for this program represents .4% of the $3.5 trillion spending in the bill.

On October 12, the Republican Study Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) released a memo on policies contained in the reconciliation package, claiming that while the bill is polling favorably, support would tank if the American people understood what was in it. It lists among the “policies to wreck America” the Climate Civilian Corps, which the memo characterizes as “a cabal of federally funded climate police … who will conduct progressive activism on taxpayers’ dime.”

There isn’t even a grain of truth in how the committee characterized the program: “Climate police” is to the reconciliation bill what “cow farts” was to the Green New Deal. But that won’t stop conservative media from running with it.

The Republican Study Committee wasn’t the first to characterize the program this way -- during the early stages of drafting the bill, climate denier Marc Morano suggested on Fox & Friends Firstthat participants could resemble “climate cops” -- but the memo certainly reinvigorated the idea on Fox.

On the October 12 edition of *The Ingraham Angle*, Banks said the bill would “create a climate police department. This was a wacky idea that AOC came out with a couple of years ago. We all laughed at it because we thought it would never happen and now it’s on the brink of happening.” The following day, at least four programs described the program this way. On October 14, Banks appeared on both *Kudlow* on the Fox Business Network and Fox News' Faulkner Focus, claiming that the bill contains billions to create a “climate police department or a militia to go out and enforce Green New Deal policies."

[vid

October 14, 2021, episode of Fox News' Faulkner Focus]

Fox mocked and belittled provisions to address environmental injustices

Notably, during the Faulkner Focus segment Banks also referred to a program to fix “racist roads.” In fact, what he’s referring to is a $4 billion fund intended to address historic inequities and environmental injustices associated with zoning decisions and highway placement, which in some cases have divided once-thriving communities of color. The fund represents about .1% of the spending in the reconciliation bill.

Biden’s original infrastructure plan called for a $20 billion fund to “reconnect” neighborhoods cut off by old transportation projects. This would benefit communities like one in New Orleans whose residents have lived under the Claiborne Expressway for decades and remember how vibrant their community was before “The Monster” was built. After construction began on the highway in the 1960s, the once-thriving Tremé community, a center of Black cultural and commercial life, was divided and diminished. When the program was first introduced as part of the infrastructure plan, Fox’s Tucker Carlson suggested, in a blatantly racist rant, that the program was a form of reparations. This plan was cut in the bipartisan infrastructure bill negotiations, and a drastically reduced version is funded by the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Also among the litany of “controversial” items in the bill, often cited by Fox News hosts and anchors, is an initiative to plant trees, particularly in urban areas with less canopy cover to reduce the effects of extreme heat.

For example, during the October 13 edition of *The Ingraham Angle*, host Laura Ingraham fearmongered that the bill will “bankrupt the next generation, steal the next generation” before listing the “priorities” embedded in the legislation:

Eight billion bucks for a Civilian Climate Corps. It’s going to act basically as ataxpayer-funded leftist police force.$4 billion for equity — I love that word — in electric vehicle charging and tree planting.$643 million would go toward procuring culturally appropriate foods — I kid you not — for school lunches. Forget chicken tenders and Friday pizza, I guess.Free community college for illegals, of course. They’ll be eligible for child tax credits as well.My personal favorite, though — this is a drop in the bucket for the federal government. $15 million for national resource centers focused on providing services for older individuals who are underserved due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The tree equity initiative Ingraham refers to is a commonsense solution to addressing the heat island effect, which disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities across the US. Communities without sufficient canopy cover can reach temperatures up to 10 degrees higher than those that do, and one proven solution is to plant more trees in those neighborhoods.

On September 27, the day the reconciliation package was revealed, America’s Newsroomincluded the tree equity plan as one of the “doozies” that was buried in the bill while the Faulkner Focus also referred to it as one of the bill’s “hidden goodies” and mocked that there was “$3 billion for tree planting and so-called tree equity. Important that the trees feel equal to one another.”

In fact, there has been no shortage of “equity” jokes -- Greg Gutfeld on the September 29 edition of his late-night show Gutfeld! suggested that the program was meant to address “foilage privilege” (he meant “foliage”). And on the October 2 edition of *Fox & Friends Saturday*, in response to the program, Pete Hegseth quipped, “The oak trees feel like they have been too dominant for too long.” But for all the punchlines, there has been little attempt to understand what the program is or explain the issue it is proven to address.

Predictably, Fox has not scratched the surface of what the reconciliation bill means for climate mitigation

While the climate and environmental justice provisions that Fox has featured in its reconciliation bill coverage represent just a fraction of its spending, they are not an insignificant part of the Biden administration’s larger climate agenda, of which addressing environmental injustices and creating green union jobs are core pillars. They should be reported on. But Fox has framed the reconciliation bill as a radical-socialist wish list of trivial programs -- in fact, it represents, from a climate perspective, possibly the last chance to enact meaningful U.S. policies for the foreseeable future, which could make or break the global response to the climate crisis. But as long as Fox keeps its viewers revved up over “cow farts” and “climate cops” its base will never see the burning forest for the equitable trees.

ref

jim banks pow

mma 10 21

STEPHEN MILLER (GUEST): It's basically the Green New Deal, combined with critical race theory, combined with massive amnesty and open borders, combined with the complete destruction of the American economy.

Fox has grossly misrepresented the Civilian Climate Corps -- “climate cops” is not a thing KOCH FORK 4]

On October 12, theRepublican Study Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) released a memo on policies contained in the reconciliation package, claiming that while the bill is polling favorably, support would tank if the American people understood what was in it. It lists among the “policies to wreck America” the Climate Civilian Corps, which the memo characterizes as “a cabal of federally funded climate police … who will conduct progressive activism on taxpayers’ dime.”

[vid

October 14, 2021, episode of Fox News' Faulkner Focus]

Fox mocked and belittled provisions to address environmental injustices

Eight billion bucks for a Civilian Climate Corps. It’s going to act basically as ataxpayer-funded leftist police force.$4 billion for equity — I love that word — in electric vehicle charging and tree planting.$643 million would go toward procuring culturally appropriate foods — I kid you not — for school lunches. Forget chicken tenders and Friday pizza, I guess.Free community college for illegals, of course. They’ll be eligible for child tax credits as well.My personal favorite, though — this is a drop in the bucket for the federal government. $15 million for national resource centers focused on providing services for older individuals who are underserved due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Predictably, Fox has not scratched the surface of what the reconciliation bill means for climate mitigation

ref banks rsc doc:

https://banks.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_reconciliation_.pdf

no lnx

TO: Republican Study Committee members

FROM: Chairman Jim Banks

DATE: October 12, 2021

RE: Reconciliation Roundup

RECONCILIATION ROUNDUP: Policies to Wreck America

TOPLINE: We as congressional Republicans have an urgent duty to tell the truth about what’s REALLY in

the Democrats’ $3.5Tbig government socialist takeover and warn the American people what’s coming.

This bill is a disaster and should be polling at 20%. We all know it.

So, how can we explain the 52-55% approval its garnered in the polls? The chief reason that it keeps

polling favorably is because we haven’t done a good enough job letting the American people know what’s

in it.

Here’s what happens to public opinion when the public learns what’s in theseDemocrat bills. In March,

before Democrats’ $1.9 trillion package passed, 70% of Americans said they favored it. Polled again in

August—five months after the bill was enacted, only 35% of Americans said the bill was helping improve

the economy or will do so in the future.

To be fair, this is the Democrats’ strategy. They’ve played ‘hide the ball’ with the bill text so as not to tip

off the public as to what they’re putting in their bills. Then, they bring it to the floor and tout some poll

numbers and scare their members into voting for it.

Luckily, due to Democrats’ stalled legislative agenda, we have bill text and a window into their plan. If we

effectively communicate about this bill, we’ll see those poll numbers drop.

I’ve directed staff at the Republican Study Committee to pore over the bill’s pages and produce for you a

summary of the worst parts of the bill. Please read and share these points on social media, newsletters,

opinion-editorials, and whatever other format you use to get your message out.

1. Perpetuates labor shortage:Continues welfare benefits without work requirements for able-bodied

adults without dependents at a time where there are 10.1 million job openings—more openings than

there are people looking for work.

2. Commissions a climate police: Democrats stuffed $8 billion into the bill to commission a cabal of

federally funded climate police called the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) who will conduct progressive

activism on taxpayers’ dime (pages 8, 21, and 926).

3.Pushes Green New Deal in our public schools: Requires funding for school construction be used

largely on enrollment diversity and Green New Deal agenda items (page 55).

4. Pushes Green New Deal in our universities:Democrats include a $10 billion “environmental

justice” higher education slush fund to indoctrinate college students and advance Green New Deal

policies (page 1,935).

5. Forces faith-based child care providers out: The bill blocks the ability of many faith-based

providers from participating in the childcare system and will lead to many of their closures (page

280).

Hurts small and in-home daycares: Requires pre-K staff to have a college degree. (page 303)

Includes new incentives for illegal immigration: Illegal immigrants will be eligible to take

advantage of Democrats’ new ‘free’ college entitlement (page 92) as well be eligible for additional

student aid (page 147) and the enhanced child tax credit (page 1,946).

8. Includes legislative hull for Biden’s vaccine mandate: Increases OSHA penalties on businesses

that fail to implement the mandate up to $700,000 per violation and includes $2.6 billion in funding

for the Department of Labor to increase enforcement of these penalties (page 168).

9. Gives unions near-total control: The bill includes insane prohibitions that would bind employers’

hands in union disputes and dangerously tilt the balance of power, subjecting employers to penalties

that exempt union bosses and officials… among other things this bill would prevent employers from

permanently replacing striking workers (page 175). It coerces businesses to meet union boss

demands by increasing Fair Labor Standards Act penalties by an astronomical 900% (page 168).

10.Makes unions bigger and more powerful: The bill would subsidize union dues that would only

serve to strengthen the influence of union bosses and not American workers (page 2323).

11.Pushes Democrats’ wasteful and confusing school lunch agenda:$643 million for, among other

things, “procuring…culturally appropriate foods” (page 333).

12.Furthersradical abortion agenda:Does not include the Hyde amendment and would mandate

taxpayers pay for abortions (page 198) & (page 336).

13.Drives up costs on Americans’ utility bills: Issues a punitive methane tax (page 367) and includes a

tax on natural gas up to $1,500 per ton that could cost the American economy up to $9.1 billion and

cost 90,000 Americans their jobs (page 368).

14.Includes dangerous & deadly green energy mandate: Effectively forces Americans to get 40% of

their energy from wind, solar and other unreliable forms of energy within 8 years (page 392).

Reliance on these energy sources has proven deadly.

15.Includes kickbacks for the Left’s green energy special interest network:$5 billion for

“environmental and climate justice block grants” (page 377) and another $100 billion in green energy

special interest subsidies, loans and other carve outs.

16.Gives wealthy Americans tax credits: $222 billion in “green energy” tax credits will be given to

those who can afford expensive electric vehicles and other “green” innovative products (page 1832).

17.Furthers Democrats’ social justice agenda: Includes “equity” initiatives throughout the bill and, in

one instance,Democrats inserted “equity” language into a title which should have been focusing on

the maintenance of the United States’ cyber security efforts (page 897).

18.Grants amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants: House Democrats have included in their

reconciliation bill a plan to grant amnesty to around 8 million illegal immigrants at a cost of around

$100 billion over ten years that would largely be spent on welfare and other entitlements (page 901).

Trillions more would be spent long term on their Social Security and Medicare.

19.Opens border even wider: The bill would waive many grounds for immigration inadmissibility,

including infection or lack of vaccination status during a Pandemic, failure to attend removal

proceedings in previous immigration cases, and the previous renouncement of American citizenship.

DHS may also waive previous convictions for human trafficking, narcotics violations, and illegal

voting (page 903).

20.Increases visa limit: At least 226,000 family-preference visaswould be administered each year

(page 905).

21.Grants fast-tracked green cards for those seeking middle-class careers in America: Language

included in the bill exempts certain aliens from the annual green card statutory limits and has been

described as a “hidden pipeline for U.S. employers to flood more cheap foreign graduates into

millions of middle-class careers needed by American graduates”(page 910).

22.Includes pork for Nancy Pelosi: $200 million is earmarked for the Presidio Trust in Speaker Pelosi’s

congressional district (page 933).

23.Increases energy dependence on OPEC, Russia and China:The bill prohibits several mineral and

energy withdrawals (page 979). It overturns provisions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that

authorized energy production in the Arctic that will result in 130,000 Americans losing their jobs and

$440 billion in lost federal revenue (page 983) and the mineral withdrawals it prohibits would,

ironically, include minerals necessary for renewable energy sources (pages 934, 940, 943).

24.Exacerbates the chip shortage: The bill would mandate the conversion of the entire federal vehicle

fleet from internal combustion engines to electric engines at a time when there is a global microchip

shortage and crippled supply chains (page 1,043).

25.Democrats’ feckless China bill is included: Concepts from the insanely weak Endless Frontier Act

included, including $11 billion in research funding that will likely result in American intellectual

property going to China (page 1079 - 1081).

26.Chases green energy pipe dreams: $264 million to the EPA to conduct research with left-wing

environmental justice groups on how to transition away from fossil fuels (page 1063).

27.Fixes “racist” roads and bridges: Adds a nearly $4 billion slush fund that would help left-wing

grassroots organizations that, among other things, want to tear down and rebuild or otherwise alter

infrastructure deemed “racist” (page 1183).

28.Punishes red states for failing to adopt Green New Deal provisions: Mandates “consequences” for

conservative states that don’t meet the radical Left’s “green” climate standardswhile at the same time

adding nearly $4 billion for “Community Climate Incentive Grants” for cooperating states (page 1179).

29.Includes new massive, bankrupting entitlement: The new paid leave entitlement would mandate

workers get 12 weeks of paid leave and would cost $500 billion over ten years according to the CBO

(page 1245). It would apply to those making up to half a million dollars a year (page 1254).

30.Advances a totalitarian and paternalistic view of the federal government: Includes grants for

organizations to treat individuals suffering from “loneliness” and “social isolation.”

31.Further detaches individuals from employment and more reliant on government handouts:

The bill spends $835 billion on welfare through manipulating the tax code [not including the

expansions of Obamacare subsidies] (page 1943).

32.Tax benefits for the top 1%: The bill will possibly lift the SALT deduction cap meaning many of the

top 1% wealthiest Americans would pay less in taxes.

33.Tax credit for wealthy donors who give to woke universities: The bill creates a new tax credit

program that gives tax credits worth 40% of cash contribution that are made to university research

programs (page 2094).

34.Expands worst parts of Obamacare: Obamacare’s job-killing employer mandate will become more

severe by adjusting the definition of “affordable coverage” to mean coverage that costs no more than

8.5 percent of income rather than current law’s 9.5 percent of income (page 2041).

35.Increases taxes on Americans at every income level: $2 trillion in tax hikes will fall on those

making under $400,000 per year, contrary to what the White House says. Individuals at all income

levels will be affected (Ways and Means GOP).

36.Lowers wages for working families: The corporate tax rate will increase by 5.5%, meaning

American companies will face one of the highest tax burdens in the world. According to analysis,

two-thirds of this tax hike will fall on lower- and middle-income taxpayers (page 2110).

37.Penalizes marriage: The bill would permanently double the EITC’s marriage penalty on childless

worker benefits (page 2036).

38.Imposes crushing taxes on small business: Guts the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act small business

deductions that reduced pass-through entity taxes to keep them comparable to taxes imposed on

corporations (page 2235) as well as hammer small businesses that file as individual tax earners with

the 39.6% rate (page 2221) and Obamacare’s 3.8% tax on net investment income.

39.Crushes family businesses and farms: The bill would impose a 25% capital gains rate (page 2226)

and makes alterations to the Death Tax including cutting the Death Tax exemption in half (page

2240).

40.Violates Americans’ financial privacy: $80 billion slush fund to hire an 87,000-IRS-agent army to

carry out the Biden administration’s plan to review every account above a $600 balance or with more

than $600 of transactions in a year. (page 2283).

41.Increases out of pocket costs for those who rely on prescription drugs: The bill repeals the

Trump-era Rebate Rule which passes through rebates directly to consumers at the point of sale (page

2465).

42.Imports policies from countries withsocialized medicine: The bill includes healthcare policies

imported from systems in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom—all

countries that have government-run healthcare systems (page 2349).

Conclusion:Each of these 42 bullets is enough to vote against the bill. Taken together—it’s mindblowingly corrupt. We need to loudly oppose it.

Democrats are scattered. The Biden agenda is in question. It’s the perfect opportunity to build public

sentiment against this bill. The American people need us to be the vanguard against the Left’s radical

plans.

It’s not an understatement to say this bill, if passed, will fundamentally change our country forever—

Americans will wake up in a few years and wonder what happened to their freedom. We can’t let that

happen.

10 21

freight ship anchor storm CA --> spill

katie porter hearings? boosts BBB?

biden wants offshore wind?

mma 1021

no lnx vid

Cable news is not covering the fossil fuel industry's efforts to weaken the infrastructure and reconciliation bills

Sen. Joe Manchin's stake in the fossil fuel industry is forcing Democrats to water down climate provisions in the reconciliation bill. You wouldn't know that from watching cable news.

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY EVLONDO COOPER

PUBLISHED 10/15/21

Cable news coverage of the recent congressional negotiations over the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill and reconciliation package has missed an important focus. Instead of covering it as a climate story -- as some networks briefly did in the wake of Hurricane Ida -- cable news shows have focused on the internecine fighting among the ostensibly different ideological wings of the Democratic Party.

Specifically, networks have spotlighted the power of two Democrats in the negotiation process: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). While cable news shows have focused on the key role played by these senators — who hold tremendous sway over not just whether the bills will pass, but also what the final climate and energy provisions of the plan will entail — they have largely ignored Manchin’s deep ties to the fossil fuel industry, despite numerous print and online stories on the topic. In fact, for three weeks this fall, only five cable news segments on the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation process included substantive discussion of Manchin’s fossil fuel connections.

Cable news barely noticed a New York Times story about the deep fossil fuel ties of the budget bill’s key climate architect and holdout

According to the New York Times story about Manchin’s fossil fuel ties published on September 19:

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Mr. Manchin holds the pen and the gavel of the congressional panel, with the authority to shape Mr. Biden’s ambitions.

But Mr. Manchin is also closely associated with the fossil fuel industry. His beloved West Virginia is second in coal and seventh in natural gas production among the 50 states. In the current election cycle, Mr. Manchin has received more campaign donations from the oil, coal and gas industries than any other senator, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a research organization that tracks political spending.

He profits personally from polluting industries: He owns stock valued at between $1 million and $5 million in Enersystems Inc., a coal brokerage firm which he founded in 1988. He gave control of the firm to his son, Joseph, after he was elected West Virginia secretary of state in 2000. Last year, Mr. Manchin made $491,949 in dividends from his Enersystems stock, according to his Senate financial disclosure report.

Much of The New York Times story consisted of amalgamated information about Manchin that was already public. A September 3 article published by The Intercept goes into great detail about how Manchin has profited from a “network of coal companies with grim records of pollution, safety violations, and death.” In June and July, news outlets including NPR, HuffPost, and the U.K.’s Channel 4 reported on an investigation conducted by Greenpeace that captured an ExxonMobil lobbyist admitting the industry was working weekly with Manchin to stall or thwart policies that would harm the oil company’s bottom line. Notably, ExxonMobil has also funded a social media campaign to lobby against certain provisions of the bill, with Facebook ads characterizing it as an effort to raise taxes.

Regarding the international stakes of Manchin’s foot-dragging and intransigence, Mark Hertsgaard wrote in The Guardian

The White House is not selling it this way, but the huge budget bill now under feverish negotiations on Capitol Hill is as much as anything a climate bill. The clean electricity performance program and other measures in this budget reconciliation bill are the core of Biden’s plan to slash US climate pollution in half by 2030, a reduction science says is necessary to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C and avoid cataclysmic climate change.

Apparently keen to delay a vote on the bill – but not on the bipartisan infrastructure bill containing billions in subsidies for climate harming programs like making hydrogen from methane – Manchin asked on CNN, “What is the urgency?” of passing the larger bill. Like ExxonMobil, the senator appears to have jettisoned outright climate denial in favor of its more presentable, but no less lethal, cousin: climate delay.

Soon Biden will join other world leaders at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, described as a “now or never” moment for efforts to preserve a livable planet. Biden and his international climate envoy, John Kerry, have been leaning on other nations, especially China, to step up their commitments. But Biden can only press that case successfully in Glasgow if Congress passes the budget bill, and with its climate provisions intact.

Hertsgaard went on to echo calls from climate activists that Manchin should step aside from negotiating the climate portions of the budget bill in light of his multiple conflicts of interests. As if to underscore the high stakes of having Manchin shape the climate provisions in the package, Politico reported this week that Manchin’s demands to include gas and coal in the clean electricity performance program are being considered by those eager to move the budget bill forward. Including them would further erode an already moderate bill and make it much harder to achieve the urgent action needed to stave off the worst climate consequences.

Little of this information regarding Manchin’s conflict of interests made it into cable news coverage of the spending bill negotiations.

From September 19 to October 10, out of the hundreds of segments that Media Matters looked at about the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation process, only five included substantive discussion of how Manchin’s fossil fuel connections could be influencing his negotiating position. MSNBC led with four segments, followed by CNN with one.

The most notable segment aired during the October 9 episode of MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin Reports. The host detailed the climate benefits of the budget bill, Manchin’s long history of opposition to climate legislation, the amount of campaign money he has received from the fossil fuel industry, and the money he makes from the coal company he founded.

Video file

CitationFrom the October 9, 2021, episode of MSNBC's Ayman

Aside from Mohyeldin’s thorough dissection and a few other scattered mentions, accountability journalism about Manchin’s numerous conflicts of interest has not been incorporated into cable news coverage of the budget bill negotiations.

Cable news missed another key opportunity to connect climate inaction to fossil fuel-backed politicians

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has waged a billion-dollar campaign to erode the public consensus on climate change, fool the public about the industry’s commitment to addressing the climate crisis, and thwart any climate action that could impact its bottom line by aggressively lobbying and filling the coffers of key decision-makers. We are now enduring the material ramifications of this effort. In 2021 alone, we have witnessed blistering heat waves that killed nearly 800 people in the U.S. and Canada, destructive wildfires, droughts that triggered the first ever water shortage in the country’s largest reservoir, and Hurricane Ida, which pummeled the South and unleashed “catastrophic” rains across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region.

Poll after poll finds that the majority of Americans want the government to take climate action, but Americans rarely have the opportunity to learn about the fossil fuel industry’s role in stopping or weakening urgently needed climate policies from TV news.

Cable news coverage of the spending negotiations is indicative of this unfortunate trend. Not only does cable news’ focus on political infighting do a disservice to the millions of people who have been, and will continue to be, harmed by extreme climate events; it also gives a pass to the Republican Party, which is nearly unified in its opposition to climate action and received about 80% of fossil fuel industry funding in nearly every election over the past 20 years.

Although the already pared down reconciliation bill might be the last chance at passing meaningful climate policy at the federal level -- especially as the window for climate action is rapidly closing -- cable news rarely applied this framing during the study period. In fact, cable news shows tend to silo climate change away from political action, with the implication that climate policies only matter relative to the fortunes of one political party or the other.

Looking at 2021’s multiple record-breaking heat waves, the seemingly never-ending wildfire season, and the recent devastating hurricane season, the stakes are too high for cable news to keep missing these opportunities. Instead of airing hours of horse race coverage, cable news shows should try connecting political action and inaction to its material impacts on the American people. As the negotiations on the spending bills continue, this would necessarily mean reporting that the politicians who are standing in the way of climate action are doing so on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. The public deserves to know who is standing in the way of the climate action they want, and why.

Methodology....

1021 kos an

blades

Sen. Joe Manchin has made clear that there is no way will he cast his crucial votefor the Democrats' reconciliation bill if it includes the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), the most powerful part of President Joe Biden's climate agenda. Thus does the senior senator from West Virginia display his true colors to anyone who was still confused about them.

CEPP would provide $150 billion to reward utilities that accelerate the replacement of the nation's coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar, and nuclear energy in order to reach the goal of zero carbon emissions in the power sector by 2035. Without Manchin on board, White House staff and senior Democrats seem to have surrendered in the matter and are searching for ways to put together other programs to cut emissions. Without passage of a bill containing aggressive programs, Biden's team is going to have a devil of a time in Glasgow at the climate summit persuading China, India, and Brazil that he can even deliver the U.S. pledges on emissions cuts, much less that their nations should do better than they are.

Here's Coral Davenport at The New York Times:

A spokeswoman for Mr. Manchin, Sam Runyon, wrote in an email, "Senator Manchin has clearly expressed his concerns about using taxpayer dollars to pay private companies to do things they're already doing. He continues to support efforts to combat climate change while protecting American energy independence and ensuring our energy reliability."

I can't read minds, so I won't claim to know what is truly in Manchin's heart in this matter. What I do know is that anyone who truly accepts what scientists are saying about the climate crisis—anyone who actually backs "efforts to combat climate change"—would not use the political clout of his high office to cripple policies to prevent, mitigate, and adapt to the dire impacts of changes being projected for our future.

It's actually easier to respect a numbskull like Sen. James "Snowball" Inhofe, who wrote an entire book calling climate change a hoax and seems to truly believe it, than Manchin, who pretends he's down with the science even as his bank account gets ever fatter feeding off the teat of the fossil fuel industry. An industry that, in case anyone has forgotten, spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting climate denial disinformation. Manchin and his family have thrived thanks to profiteers who created climate change doubt by gaslighting the populace, smearing scientists, attacking activists, and, of course, pouring gobs of campaign money into the pockets of compliant politicians in both parties.

There's a chance we'll still see passage of a reconciliation bill with a few crumbs on climate. But quite possibly not. As Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota told The Times, "We must have strong climate action in the Build Back Better budget. I'm open to all approaches, but as I've said, I will not support a budget deal that does not get us where we need to go on climate action. There are 50 Democratic senators and it's going to take every one of our votes to get this budget passed."

Even if a bill with some climate elements in it does pass, without the CEPP, that cut will have far-reaching consequences beyond the power sector. While it contributes 25% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the transportation sector contributes 29%. Cutting that to zero requires a switchover from internal combustion vehicles to green-sourced electric power. Otherwise, much of the reduced carbon pollution from the operation of EVs will be undermined by the continuing operation of power plants burning fossil fuels to charge up those vehicles.

Then there's the humiliation of showing up in Glasgow with a lot more words than actions. Not the strongest negotiating posture.

If Joe Manchin really were serious about combatting the climate crisis, he would say okay to the CEPP, but only on the condition that the reconciliation bill's already hefty investment in coal communities be doubled. But no.

This week more than650 protesters,many of them Indigenous, were arrested in Washington for civil disobedience in protest of foot-dragging in Congress on climate change. In the words of a 90-year-old song written by Florence Reece in support of coal strikers in Harlan County, Kentucky, the protesters asked a question for those within earshot: "Which side are you on?"

Joe Manchin has shown us which side he is on. And that puts us, and generations to come, in peril.

1021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/kyrsten-sinema-2655312237/

no lnx

Head of Koch-tied group urges Sinema to 'stay strong' as she opposes tax hikes on rich

Jake Johnson and Common Dreams October 17, 2021

The head of a right-wing organization with ties to the Koch network offered words of encouragement to Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Thursday amid reports that she's holding up her party's budget reconciliation package over its proposed tax hikes on the rich and big businesses.

Citing two unnamed Senate Democratic aides, Insider reported Thursday that "a major holdup" on ongoing talks over Democrats' Build Back Better Act "is Sinema's opposition to any tax increases for individuals and large corporations."

"Her position threatens to deprive the package of over $700 billion in revenue to finance the bulk of President Joe Biden's agenda," Insider noted. "Biden has repeatedly promised his plan will be paid for and won't add to the federal deficit."

In response to Insider's story, which confirms earlier reporting from the New York Times, American Commitment president Phil Kerpen urged Sinema to "stay strong," a sentiment that several Senate Republicans have echoed in recent days.

Kerpen "has been affiliated with a number of organizations founded by or with close links to the Kochs, including Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, and the Club for Growth," according to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy.

"Between 2011 and 2012, American Commitment received grants totaling $11.3 million from three organizations with close ties to the Koch brothers: Freedom Partners, the Center to Protect Patient Rights, and Americans for Responsible Leadership, SourceWatch notes.

The Koch network is part of the massive lobbying blitz that corporate America has launched in an effort to tank the reconciliation package.

As Rolling Stone reported last month, "Koch-aligned groups are together spending millions of dollars on advertising, targeting moderate Democratic lawmakers, and pushing their influence in the halls of Congress to whittle down or outright kill the sweeping policy package, which would represent the largest expansion of the social safety net in the past 50 years and the biggest step toward addressing climate change in U.S. history."

Sinema's opposition to the popular reconciliation bill—a centerpiece of Biden's domestic policy agenda—is imperiling its chances of passing the narrowly divided Congress, prompting growing concerns that Democrats are on the verge of missing an opportunity to make historic investments in green energy, child care, Medicare expansion, and other priorities.

"It's wrong that she is helping profitable big corporations avoid taxes," the Green New Deal Network, an environmental coalition, said of Sinema. "There's no policy argument for it and no political justification."

A recent survey conducted by the progressive polling firm Data for Progress found that two-thirds of Arizona voters support raising the corporate tax rate as a way to fund the reconciliation package. An even larger majority—75%—supports higher taxes on wealthy individuals.

Under House Democrats' reconciliation plan, the corporate tax rate would rise to 26.5%—a partial reversal of the GOP's 2017 tax law—while the top marginal rate for individuals would rise to 39.6%, the level that prevailed before former President Donald Trump took office.

Given the enormous stakes of the reconciliation fight, congressional Democrats are reportedly "getting impatient with President Biden's kid-glove approach to negotiating" with Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), another major obstacle to the passage of the Build Back Better Act.

Steve Jarding, a Democratic strategist and former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aide, told The Hill that he believes the inability to get Sinema, Manchin, and other right-wing Democratic holdouts on board is "a failure on the part of the Biden administration."

"You're the president of the United States, you've got all the leverage in the world," said Jarding. "We need this stuff. America needs it and [Manchin and Sinema] are playing politics with it."

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/gop-mitch-mcconnell/

corp tax hike?!

salon

After being closely aligned for decades, it appears that Republicans and top business lobbying groups are having a very public falling-out over conservative lawmakers' lack of support for a bipartisan infrastructure deal currently languishing in Congress.

According to digital politics site The Hill, every major business group in Washington, D.C. — including Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, among others — has expressed some measure of support for the bill, which was crafted by a group of lawmakers in both parties alongside the White House.

Business groups have long been a key constituency for Republicans, who worked closely with K Street lobbyists to craft a 2017 tax cut that offered hefty benefits to both corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Yet no more than a small handful of Republican members of Congress have agreed to vote for the legislation favored by these groups this time around.

In a conference call with reporters last month Michael Johnson, CEO of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, a longtime conservative-leaning lobby that stands to gain heavily if the bill passes, seemed flabbergasted by Republicans' refusal to vote for such a popular piece of popular piece of legislation, which polls well across most demographics, including conservatives.

"That's why it boggles the mind that the progressives in the House have decided to take a very popular hostage and Republican leadership has decided to not rescue that very popular hostage when they easily could," Johnson said.

So what's behind this right-wing change-of-heart?

Neil Bradley, the executive VP and chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, blamed "misinformation" surrounding the bill during an interview with CQ Roll Call last month — adding that some House GOP members have privately told him that they'd like to vote for the infrastructure deal but feared angering Trump and the new constellation of ultra-conservative groups that were empowered during his tenure.

"I think there are some unfortunate things going on, and I'm being generous with the term unfortunate," Bradley said.

"If this vote today was occurring on the merits of the bill, the outcome wouldn't be in doubt and we'd have a supermajority," he added. "It's not the substance that people are disagreeing with here."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in particular has become a flashpoint of conservative ire after endorsing a small number of Democratic candidates in Congressional races last year. The group, along with a number of other influential pro-business organizations, also stopped PAC donations to hundreds of Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 election results on the evening of Jan. 6.

Following that news, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has taken to saying the U.S. Chamber "sold out" and that he no longer considers it an ally.

"I didn't even know the Chamber was around anymore," McCarthy told the political newsletter Punchbowl News.

The feud reached a head this week when Republican leaders kicked representatives for the U.S. Chamber off its conference calls.

Brett Horton, the chief of staff for House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., didn't hold back when asked about Republicans shunning the pro-business group.

"People care what their local Chambers of Commerce and business owners have to say, not the U.S. Chamber," Horton told The Hill. "If the U.S. Chamber sent me a meeting request right now, I wouldn't even staff that meeting out to an intern, and I don't see that changing."

In response to being iced out of the Republican inner circle, Axios reported this week, the group abruptly reversed its support for the bill. The Chamber disputed the report by arguing that it still supports the bill "as a stand-alone bill unlinked to the proposed tax and spend reconciliation bill" that it has been linked to from its inception — which makes its support for the infrastructure package merely theoretical.

In addition to the Republicans' beef with business groups over the pending infrastructure legislation, the two sides also clashed over their differing opinions on raising the U.S. debt ceiling this past week. Business groups saw the writing on the wall if Congress decided to default on the country's sizeable debts, and feared catastrophic consequences if the limit was not raised.

But most Republican lawmakers, especially Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, instead concluded that their responsibilities to their constitutents lay in obstructing the Democratic agenda — no matter what.

"Democrats have the full ability to raise the debt ceiling as a part of reconciliation," Cruz told POLITICO on Thursday. "They want political cover."

After a last-minute deal brokered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the debt ceiling was ultimately raised Thursday night — though only for a few months. McConnell said Saturday that he does not intend to make another deal come December, when the deal will likely expire — regardless of what business groups say.

McConnell's justification for the obstruction appeared to be rooted in a statement Sen. Chuck Schumer made after the Thursday vote, blasting Republican efforts to stymie any change to the debt ceiling.

"I am writing to make it clear that in light of Senator Schumer's hysterics and my grave concerns about the ways that another vast, reckless, partisan spending bill would hurt Americans and help China, I will not be a party to any future effort to mitigate the consequences of Democratic mismanagement," McConnell said in a statement.

an 1021

new analysis out Friday makes clear the wide gap between corporations' stated commitments to fighting the climate crisis and the lengths they are currently going to in order to stop the passage of the biggest climate action spending package in U.S. history.

The research by the progressive advocacy group Accountable.US examined statements and pledges made in recent years by companies including American Airlines, Amazon, Apple, and Google regarding the corporations' plans to end carbon emissions, shift to fleets of electric vehicles, and take other steps to help combat the climate emergency.

Those stated commitments mean little, Accountable.US said, considering the companies' close ties with lobbying firms that are actively working to kill the Build Back Better Act, the spending package which would invest $3.5 trillion over 10 years to transition towards renewable energy and bolster the wellbeing of working Americans.

"Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future, but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever," Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, told The Guardian.

Microsoft,for example, said last year it would be carbon negative by 2030, emphasizing that "the scientific consensus is clear" about the human-caused climate emergency and the danger planet-heating carbon emissions pose to humanity.

The company also unveiled a plan to establish a $1 billion climate innovation fund "to accelerate the global development of carbon reduction, capture, and removal technologies."

The analysis by Accountable.US showed that despiteMicrosoft's claimed commitment to climate action, some of the company's executives are among the board members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the largest lobbying group in the United States—which has made no secret of its goal of tanking the Build Back Better plan, which progressives hope to pass through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.

The Chamber said in August that it was prepared to "do everything we can to prevent this tax raising, job-killing reconciliation bill from becoming law."

On social media, Accountable.US pointed to other examples of large corporations whose stated concerns over the climate emergency are inconsistent with their involvement with powerful lobbying groups.

The group responded to a tweet fromAmerican Airlineson helping to "accelerate the technologies needed to reach net zero emissions" by pointing out that the aviation company is opposed to the reconciliation bill, which would invest in electric vehicle infrastructure, create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs, and reduce emissions from transportation, among other measures[twt]

executives at retail giant Walmartare among the board members of the Business Roundtable, which is also fighting the passage of the spending bill, saying it is "deeply concerned" about the tax increases progressives have called for to fund anti-poverty measures as well as climate action.

On Twitter, Accountable.US scoffed at a recent call for "strong climate policy" by the company's chief sustainability officer.

"Let's be clear: Walmart, one of the biggest companies in America, says they support the climate initiatives in the Build Back Better Plan," said the watchdog. "But the company is actively fighting its passage."

The Business Roundtable's members also include executives at Alphabet—Google's parent company—and Amazon. The latter company has pledged to cut its own emissions to net zero by 2040 while Google was lauded last year for announcing what The Verge called "one of Big Tech's most ambitious environmental commitments... to run its operations purely on carbon-free energy by 2030."

Some of the lobbying firms fighting against the spending plan are bombarding the airwaves with ad campaigns attacking the legislation, claiming its provisions will hurt working families.

In a memo published Thursday, Accountable.US noted that right-wing corporate Democrats including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) "banked over $150,000 in campaign donations from corporate interests—including those that are helping lead business groups opposing the bill."

"Corporate interests will say or do anything to preserve the broken status quo, including lie to families that overdue investments in child care, education, and climate change are somehow not in their interest," wrote Herrig in the memo. "Democrats in Congress are the last people who should be saying and doing it for them."

chris hayes says talk about # price is meaningless //?

...The third problem with the press coverageis that the economic impact of the bill is badly misrepresented. Although headlines focus on the package's $3.5 trillion cost, few reports note that this cost would be spread over a decade. And even fewer mention the bill's possible long-term economic benefits. Consider how its provisions would actually save Americans money and generate revenue.

Climate Change. The economic toll of climate change far exceeds $3.5 trillion. It's only going to get worse: The cost of 2021's Hurricane Ida was $95 billion. 2017's Hurricane Harvey cost was $125 billion. In 2020, the cost of drought in just the southwest was estimated to be between $515 million and $1.3 billion, not counting forest fires. In 2018 alone, California wildfires cost the US more than $148.5 billion.
Education.High-quality early education for disadvantaged children can return four to nine dollars on every one dollar spent. Children who go to preschool are more likely to graduate from high school and ultimately go to college. Those who graduate from high school will earn more money and, therefore, participate more in the market economy, as well as pay more taxes. Furthermore, investments in K-12 education are estimated to increase GDP by between $32-$76 trillion over the next few decades. Community college, included in the bills, has been correlated with higher earnings and reduced need for social services, saving the economy $46.4 billion a year.
Childcare.Childcare subsidies boost labor force participation, especially among low-income mothers. Childcare helps businesses. Lost earnings, revenue and productivity due to lack of childcare are estimated to total $57 billion dollars every year.
Housing. Investments in affordable housing benefit virtually everyone. According to a 2015 National Low Income Housing Coalition report, over half a million jobs were either created or sustained through housing investments. The creation of just 100 affordable rental homes would generate almost $12 million in local income and $2 million in taxes.....

https://peoplesaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Behind-the-Curtain-final.pdf

ppl's action doc

...According to the Washington Post, they put together

a coalition to coordinate the fight against the bill's

provisions, including the National Association of

Manufacturers, whose board members include

executives from Dow Inc., Exxon, Caterpillar, and

Johnson & Johnson.

The Business Roundtable, a lobbying group whose

members include the CEOs of Amazon, Home

Depot, Apple, Citigroup, and Comcast, launched an

advertising campaign in April of this year opposing

any tax hikes.27 Earlier this year, they came out

against the Biden administration’s proposal to

raise corporate taxes to help pay for infrastructure

investments.28

30 Eight companies have explicitly

lobbied against the proposed corporate tax

provisions, including Walmart, Oracle, BristolMeyers Squibb, Accenture, Baxter Healthcare,

Shell Oil, Walgreens, and Smith & Nephew.

Altogether, these companies have spent nearly $40

million on lobbying efforts in 2020 and $20 million

in 2021 so far.31 The executive directors of many of

the corporations now protesting the Biden plan,

including Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase,

DuPont de Nemours, and FedEx, have all spoken

out against the proposed tax increases.32....

Background Trump’s tax cuts have supercharged the racial wealth divide. One study found that after the TCJA’s passage, 82 ultrarich families were able to avoid paying over $1 billion in taxes, and the Tax Policy Center estimated that the top 0.1 percent of households got nearly 57 percent of the benefit of low tax rates on investment income in 2018.33 The cost of tax avoidance is enormous. U.S. corporations hold over $2 trillion in profits offshore and dodge $90 billion a year in income taxes by shifting profits to tax havens. A study from the Institute on Taxation and Economy Policy released earlier this year found that at least 55 of the largest corporations in the U.S. paid zero federal income taxes in 2020.34

...

...a 2021 working paper, CBO analysts used a

simulation model of price negotiations, determining

that prices would fall between 57 and 75 percent,

relative to current prices, if Congress were to enact

this provision.43

Corporate Pushback

Large pharmaceutical companies are already

attempting to eliminate drug pricing provisions in

the budget plan.44 Pharmaceutical Research &

Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)—the thirdlargest lobbying group in the country—began to

run ads in July 2021 which misleadingly suggest

that the type of legislation in the budget resolution

is designed to make it harder for Medicare patients

to get drugs—despite evidence that the opposite

is true.45

According to Politico, PhRMA and its allies have

already spent more than $18 million on ads

opposing the Medicare negotiation proposal since

July of 2021.46 As of August, there are at least eight

Big Pharma-backed campaigns on the airways.47

For years, PhRMA and its members—which include

pharmaceutical giants like Gilead, Johnson &

Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck & Co—have lobbied

extensively against allowing Medicare to negotiate

drug prices and have sued to block the policy

proposals to import lower-priced prescription

drugs.48

Pharmaceutical product manufacturers spend

more money on lobbying than any other industry,

spending a record $306 million in 2020. Pfizer

Inc. alone has spent $6,670,000 and comes in

at number 15.49 Conservative advocacy group

the American Action Network is running a $5

million ad campaign attacking the recent budget

resolution as a plan that would “limit patients’

access to lifesaving medications.”50 The group

received nearly $15 million from PhRMA between

2016-2019.51

All the while, pharmaceutical giants rake in

astronomical profits without limits on what they can

charge consumers, then reward their leadership ...

...housing, with money going to rental assistance and

homeownership programs like the National Housing

Trust Fund, which provides states with grants to

construct and preserve homes affordable to people

with the lowest incomes.102 The bill also makes major

investments in our public housing stock, HOME, the

Capital Magnet Fund, and rural housing. Specifically,

the bill would use tax credits and government

financing to bolster affordable and resilient housing,

stating that it will support the construction or

rehabilitation of more than two million homes.103

By providing down payment assistance, rental

assistance, and other homeownership initiatives, the

bill would make housing more affordable and put a

substantial dent in our housing deficit.104

The plan also includes new project-based vouchers

to provide long-term affordability and ensure that

very low-income households are able to access new

affordable homes.105 However, providing vouchers

when there isn't enough housing stock, especially

since some landlords refuse them, doesn't solve

the problem. We must urge policymakers to actually

build and invest enough in new public housing

stock, not rely on band-aid fixes.

While recent steps taken by the Biden administration

to expand the supply of affordable housing units,

with an emphasis on lower- and middle-income

families, are promising, much more remains to be

done.106

Corporate Pushback

So far this year, real estate groups have spent

$41,772,440 on lobbying.107 The National

Association of Realtors (NAR)—the nation’s

second-largest real estate lobbying group,

fiercely opposes eviction moratoriums—and spent

$84,113,368 on lobbying efforts in 2020.108 Large

corporations, through the NAR and other real

estate industry groups, have spent millions to halt

the national eviction moratorium.109 The Mortgage

Banking Association, which has also been

pushing for the Biden administration to end the

moratorium, spent $2,458,313 in 2020.110 On July

27 the National Apartment Association (NAA)—

whose top tier partners include Home Depot,

AT&T, and Sherwin Williams—filed a lawsuit to

recover damages on behalf of rental housing

providers that have suffered severe economic

...

losses under the "overreaching” federal eviction

moratorium.111 The National Association of Realtors

filed a similar lawsuit.112 An investigative study from

Popular Information found that despite receiving

millions in forgivable loans from the Paycheck

Protection Program, 62 corporate landlords

were filing evictions during the moratorium—

putting thousands on the streets in the midst of a

pandemic.113

The NAR publicly boasts of its commitment to

protecting property interests. While most real

estate industry lobbying over the past year has

been spent pushing back against the eviction

moratorium, this is consistent with their long

history of promoting the interests of private

landlords and developers over those of tenants.

Background

The historical legacy of large corporations like

Coldwell Banker and Wells Fargo in perpetuating

housing segregation dates to nearly a century ago,

but the effects of these decisions are still prevalent

today.114 Residential segregation has inhibited home

value appreciation for Black people, helping to

fuel the Black-white wealth gap.115 It’s also meant

that Black households are more likely to live in

concentrated poverty.116 A study from 2020 found

that formerly redlined neighborhoods are more

susceptible to COVID-19 complications, bringing to

light just one example of the connection between

housing discrimination and health.117

Still today, exclusionary zoning is ubiquitous in cities

across the country and has been found to exacerbate both economic and racial segregation.118 The

home ownership rate for Black families is 45 percent, compared to 74 percent for white families.119

Research shows that owner-occupied homes in

Black neighborhoods are undervalued by an average of $48,000 per home.120

The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated housing

insecurity across the country. This has been

especially the case for low-income renters and

renters of color.121 The federal eviction moratorium

passed through the CARES act in March of 2020

helped save lives and was estimated to have

prevented 1.55 million evictions.12...

GREEN]

...eighty percent of U.S. adults worry about the

pollution of drinking water and of rivers, lakes, and

reservoirs.134 Polling from February shows that a

majority of voters support the government moving

the country to a 100 percent clean energy electricity grid by 2035 to help address climate change

and reduce pollution.135

What's in the Budget Plan:

Addressing Climate Change

The package will enact a Clean Electricity Payment

Program that would move our utilities energy

production away from fossil fuels and toward

sustainable energy.136 The bill also includes trillions

of dollars in measures to help decarbonize and

keep the country within the targets, confirmed

again recently by the International Energy Agency,

of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030

to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate

degradation.137

Another major climate measure being considered

is a carbon-based border adjustment tax, a

proposed tariff on imports like iron, steel, and

aluminum from China and other countries with

more lax regulations on emissions.138 Also

encouraging are the bill’s billion-dollar investments

to help address per- and polyfluoroalkyl

substances, or, contamination in drinking water

and wastewater discharges, to reclaim mine lands,

and to increase climate resilience by electrifying

public transit and school buses, and providing

tax incentives for union-built electric vehicles

and electric vehicle charging stations.139

The plan

also includes$30 billion in funding for a Civilian

Climate Corps, an amount that reflects the size

and scale we need to respond to the climate crisis

and that ensures that this program is equitable

and accessible to all.140 The plan also reinstates

Superfund excise taxes that were repealed in

1995, making chemical companies and federal

entities pay for past pollution.141 It also includes

historic investments in housing, including billions

toward funding improved energy and water

efficiency standards and removing health hazards

that disproportionately impact people of color,

among other green housing provisions.142

However, elements of the package would actively

do harm to our communities, including the bill’s

funding for fossil fuel school buses, financing

for construction of a gas pipeline in Alaska, and

weakening of the National Environmental Policy

Act.143 Even though the Senate voted to repeal

fossil fuel subsidies, the House proposes to

maintain billions of dollars of handouts to fossil fuel

companies.144 Congress should work to remove

these harmful provisions and go bigger and bolder

on the provisions that move us towards a 100

percent clean-energy future.

Corporate Pushback

Fossil fuel companies, which bear responsibility

for the carbon dioxide and methane emissions

that are driving climate change, are pushing back

against climate action. Soon after Biden released

his $2 trillion climate plan, collective ad spending

by these companies and their lobbying groups

rose more than 1,000 percent.145

The American

Gas Association and the Interstate Natural Gas

Association of America, whose members include

for-profit local utility companies like Duke Energy and

We Energies, recently signed a letter to

congressional leaders with concerns about the

proposed methane emissions tax in Biden’s plan.146

A recent report found that six congresspeople

accepted over $300,000 from Exxon Mobil in its

latest attempt to fight against the infrastructure

package. The oil and gas industry ranks fourth

in total lobbying expenses in the country, with

$55,616,000 in spending so far in 2021.147

The Edison Electric Institute, a for-profit utility

lobbying association that represents investor-owned

electric utilities which serve almost three-quarters of the nation’s electricity customers, has

been advocating to include a natural gas carveout

as part of the budget reconciliation package.148

The Consumer Energy Alliance, a group that

bills itself as “voice of the energy consumer” and

whose members include UPS, FedEx, Alliant

Energy, Atmos Energy, Caterpillar, CenterPoint

Energy/Vectren, Delta Airlines, United Airlines,

JetBlue, and American Airlines, is run by the

Republican-linked consultancy HBW Resources

and was party to a lawsuit seeking to overturn

Oregon’s clean fuel program, which aims to

significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions

from transport fuels.149 The Consumer Energy

Alliance spent $100,000 on lobbying efforts in

2020.150

The American Petroleum Institute, which

represents oil companies including Shell,

ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron, has pledged to

resist the Biden administration’s environmental

proposals.151 According to a report from Influence

Map, in 2019 BP spent $53 million on climate

lobbying, leading the nation in the most money

going toward pushing back on climate action.152 In

the same year BP pushed out another $13 million in

donations to a campaign that successfully stopped

a carbon tax in Washington state.153

Shell and BP support groups such as the

Alliance of Western Energy Consumers, which

fought against Oregon’s efforts to put a price

on carbon emissions, as well as the Texas Oil

& Gas Association, a Texas-based trade group

pushing back against rules to restrict output of

methane, a gas that’s at least 80 times as effective

at trapping heat as carbon in a 20-year period.154

The second highest spender in the oil and gas

industry in 2019 was Shell, spending $49 million

on climate lobbying and $55 million on climate

branding.155 Altogether, the report found that since

the Paris agreement, 5 major oil companies have

been spending $200 million annually on activities

to influence climate policy, whether directly or

through trade associations, and over $1 billion on

misleading climate related branding or advertising

campaigns and lobbying.156

Big Oil is not the only corporate entity to blame

for resistance against climate action. Three out of

every 4 board members at 7 major U.S. banks have

current or past ties to 'climate-conflicted' companies or organizations.157

Many of these same banks,

including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan

Chase, and Wells Fargo, have also helped finance

Line 3.158 A report from the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club found that the world’s

60 largest banks poured a total of $3.8 trillion into

fossil fuels from 2016–2020.159...

Background

The public health implications of climate change

are well-documented. Climate change contributes

to increased respiratory and cardiovascular

disease, premature deaths related to extreme

weather events, and changes in the prevalence and

geographical distribution of food and water-borne

illnesses, among many others.160 However, not

everyone is impacted equally.161 A recent

report from the Environmental Protection Agency

finds that Black individuals are 40 percent more

likely than non-Black individuals to live in areas

with the highest projected increases in mortality

rates due to climate-driven changes in extreme

temperatures.162 In addition, people of color are

more likely to live near toxic facilities.163 Heat

waves—which kill hundreds, if not thousands

of people a year—are becoming more frequent

and more severe due to the climate crisis.164

Formerly-redlined neighborhoods, which remain

disproportionately Black, tend to be hotter than

whiter and wealthier neighborhoods, putting these

communities more at risk.165 People of color tend to

live in areas with more pollution from every type

of source; from industry to agriculture, vehicles,

and emissions from restaurants.166 And while air

pollution is disproportionately caused by white

people’s consumption of goods and services, its

health impacts disproportionately affect Black and

Latinx communities.167 Research shows that Black

individuals are 34 percent more likely than white

individuals to live in areas with the highest projected

increases in childhood asthma diagnoses due to

climate-driven changes in particulate air pollution.168

Only a small handful of companies are responsible

for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions that

cause global warming.169 In fact, 90 fossil fuel

companies have accounted for nearly two-thirds of

carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the

Industrial Revolution.170 While our most vulnerable

communities suffer, these companies—including

Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and BP—have been reaping

rewards while evading responsibility for their

actions....

DACA

According to a recent study, providing a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, TPS-eligible individuals,

and undocumented essential workers could boost U.S. gross domestic product by a cumulative $1.5 trillion

over 10 years and create over 400,000 new jobs.177 The study finds that this would increase wages for all

workers, not just the wages of undocumented workers, by an average of $600 a year.

Corporate Pushback

Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention system is overwhelmingly outsourced to

for-profit prison companies.178 The two largest private prison companies (CoreCivic and GEO Group) made

a combined $1.3 billion in 2019.179 GEO Group, in particular, has been a multimillion-dollar beneficiary of

harsh anti-immigration policies for years. They have aggressively lobbied to secure contracts and influence

the nation's immigration policy.180 GEO Group spent $1,390,000 on lobbying in 2020.181 CoreCivic spent

$1,750,000.182 CoreCivic received $225 million in funding from ICE to manage immigrant detention facilities

in 2018.183

But it’s not just private prisons lobbying against

immigration reform. Many of the largest corporations in the U.S. play a role as well. Altria Group/

Philip Morris, Koch Industries/Flint Hills, State

Farm and UPS—just to name a few—all sit on

the American Legislative Exchange Council’s

private enterprise board, which has a history of

supporting anti-immigrant legislation.184...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/corporate-scheme-biden-agenda/

common dr

Corporations threatened by the prospect of paying a slightly higher tax rate and exercising a little less power over working people are spending millions to sabotage a far-reaching Democratic reconciliation bill that would expand the social safety net and bolster climate action.

That's according to Behind the Curtain: The Corporate Plot to Upend Democracy, a new report released Wednesday by People's Action, a nationwide network of groups organizing for social justice, and Dēmos, a progressive think tank.

"While everyday people are calling on Congress to put people first and safeguard their basic rights to housing, healthcare, and a clean environment, corporations are prioritizing profits and working hard to preserve an inequitable status quo," Dēmos senior policy analyst Daniella Zessoules said in a statement. "As we've witnessed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, this greed hits Black, brown, and low-income people hardest."

The report exposes how corporations are trying to ensure that the United States' wealthiest and most powerful entities "can reap obscene profits year after year at our expense" and "keep our elected officials from taking action to restore communities."

Just 20 corporations or industry groups—keen to preserve nearly $2.3 trillion in tax cuts the GOP passed in 2017and to make permanent billionaires' $1.8 trillion pandemic windfall—have spent more than $201 million in lobbying so far this year, the report finds. Much of that corporate cash has been aimed at derailing progressive provisions in the popular and potentially historic tax reform and spending package that would invest up to $3.5 trillion over a decade to strengthen the welfare state and decarbonize the economy.

Although the reconciliation bill encapsulates the agenda demanded by tens of millions of voters who elected President Joe Biden and put Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, an ongoing "power grab"—led by several corporations and trade associations that represent them, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Realtors Asscoaition, and supported by aligned right-wing lawmakers—has put its passage in jeopardy, the report notes.

"We pulled the curtain back on corporate America to find they were trying to put Congress in a headlock," People's Action campaign director Sondra Youdelman said in a statement. "Now, Congress needs to do its job, fight these bullies, and pass a budget package for the people."

While "corporate influence to stop progressive change is nothing new," the report states, "the concentration of wealth and monopoly powers in recent years has added fuel to the flame."

"Corporate America wants to keep profits high and taxes low forever," adds the report. "They simply don't want to pay their fair share. That's why they're throwing millions of dollars into lobbying, campaigns, and political advertising to divide us and get legislators to back their agenda of permanent inequality."

The report highlights anti-democratic corporate spending and opposition to the Build Back Better Act's proposed reforms in the following six key issue areas, all of which are backed by a majority in the U.S.: increasing taxes on corporations and the ultra-rich, lowering drug prices, providing affordable healthcare, investing in public and affordable housing, tackling climate change, and providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people.

For each issue area, the report explains measures included in the reconciliation package, shows polling results indicating popular support for the proposed investments and policies, and details what corporations are doing to obstruct the bill's passage.

According to the report:

Over two-thirds of voters support raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations;
Nearly 90% of adults want the government to negotiate lower drug prices;
A majority of voters want the federal government to reduce healthcare costs and expand coverage;
A majority of voters want the federal government to increase the supply of nonprofit and publicly owned homes;
Two-thirds of adults think the federal government is not doing enough to mitigate the climate crisis; and
Almost 70% of voters support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

And yet—even though the Build Back Better Act would take steps toward meeting the needs of millions of Americans who are facing rampant tax injustices, the world's highest prescription drug prices, skyrocketing healthcare costs and lack of insurance, evictions and foreclosures, extreme weather disasters, or the threat of deportation—corporations have vehemently fought against the reconciliation bill.

Leading offenders include Anthem, JPMorgan Chase, FedEx, Walmart, Exxon, Amazon, Pfizer, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, the report finds. Big Pharma and private health insurance companies have spent $171 million so far in 2021 on lobbying, the most of any industry.

As the report notes:

Rich corporations are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the American people from getting what they want: a government that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few. Their massive use of corporate power to frustrate the will of the people on an issue-by-issue basis is part of a larger anti-democracy effort backed by corporate America.

As corporations seek to undermine the Biden plan's much-needed tax provisions, historic investments in drug pricing reform, healthcare, housing, climate, and immigration reform, they are also attacking our freedom to vote. Many of the same companies combating elements of the Build Back Better proposal are also bankrolling voter suppression legislation.

"Now we know who the real villains are behind the curtain, who want to keep our communities from getting what we need and deserve," the report concludes. "Corporations and the wealthy few are undermining our democracy. They are lobbying hard to preserve an unequal status quo, using money to steer government rather than allow a real democracy to bring about what the people overwhelmingly want—a country that works for all of us."

The report's publication coincides with a National Day of Actionduring which People's Action members plan to hold rallies denouncing opponents of the Build Back Better Act for undermining the well-being of the nation's economy and democracy.

Following Tuesday's action against JPMorgan in New York, demonstrations against these organizations are planned for Wednesday:

Greater Des Moines Partnership in Iowa;
FedEx in West Virginia;
Anthem in Indiana;
Blue Cross Blue Shield Anthem in New Hampshire;
Blue Cross Blue Shield in Illinois;
Ajax Pavement Industries: Flint Asphalt Plant in Michigan;
Amazon in Colorado;
National Realtors Association in Delaware and New York; and
PhRMA in Idaho. [vaxxers unite!]

"We can't call the U.S. the greatest democracy in the world if our legislators allow a handful of corporations to derail the critical and wildly popular provisions in the Build Back Better package," Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, said in a statement (pdf).

"These companies are lining politicians' pockets in hopes of securing a future of extreme inequality and climate catastrophe," Tyson added. "It's time for lawmakers to grow spines and show us who they work for: the people, not massive corporations."

an 1021

During the 2020 Democratic primary, Sen. Elizabeth Warren made fighting corruption her number one priority. It may not have seemed that way in the press, which tended to characterize the senior senator from Massachusetts as a female Sen. Bernie Sanders. Most coverage focused heavily on her bold economic ideas, such as a wealth tax. But when she was actually asked what her major focus in politics was, Warren never hesitated to say that fighting corruption should come first — because of her commitment to passing progressive economic policies.

"The rich and the powerful have been calling the shots in Washington forever and ever," Warren told Vox's Ezra Klein in 2019, explaining why she was intent on passing a massive anti-corruption bill meant to curtail the influence of lobbyists and influence of moneyed interests on Capitol Hill.

"Look closely, and you'll see — on issue after issue, widely popular policies are stymied because giant corporations and billionaireswho don't want to pay taxes or follow any rules use their money and influence to stand in the way of big, structural change," she wrote in her plan announcement.

Warren's view is, sadly and perhaps surprisingly, not popular. Republicans clearly don't view corruption as a bad thing these days — that's one more reason why they love Donald Trump. But even on the left, where everyone says they're against corruption and voters in particular always sign off on the idea that ending corruption is a good idea, there's a gulf between saying you're against it and actually working to eradicate it. If more agreed with Warren to make corruption a priority target, we might not be watching President Joe Biden's bold agenda slowly fall apart now.

When it comes to brass tacks, not enough people are willing to put in the effort required to make fighting corruption a real agenda item. Activists are more likely to put their time into causes like health care and climate change. Democratic politicians, when they get power, are also attracted to policy fights that offer tangible rewards, such as increased social spending, rather than the more abstract and far-flung discourse about lobbyists and corruption. And voters definitely reward politicians for these priorities, which is one reason why Warren lost handily in the primary to Sanders and Biden.

But as the current debacle playing out on Capitol Hill demonstrates, Warren was right all along. Democrats and their voters may want to pass progressive legislation that addresses wealth inequality, climate change and lack of health care. But corrupt business interests keep stopping them. It's like trying to make a dress when someone keeps stealing your sewing machine. You can have the pattern and the fabric and the vision, but if you don't have the means to put it all together, you will never get that dress made.

Biden and Sanders are learning this the hard way as their dual vision for the Build Back Better plan — an expansive set of bills meant to address climate change, reduce poverty, ensure child care, expand health care, and build up American infrastructure, among other things — teeters on the edge of collapse. After spending months carefully constructing a two-track plan where moderate Democrats would support the progressive agenda, in exchange for progressives supporting the moderate agenda, a handful of centrist Democrats in the House and Senate are about to blow the whole thing up by reneging on their end of the bargain. And while there are multiple reasons for this backstabbing behavior, it's hard not to notice that the undue influence of lobbyists.

The two biggest names in the Senate Betrayal Caucus are, of course, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Both are throwing their weight around, clearly trying to derail Biden's agenda while claiming to have no such intention. Instead, they come with an endless array of incoherent, even nonsensical, explanations as to why they can't just suck it up and vote for the two-bill track the Democratic caucus agreed to vote on. There's now an entire cottage industry built around psychoanalyzing these two: What do they want? What will get them to "yes"? Why won't they just tell us what they want, so we can give it to them? Why are they making so little sense?

Everyone has a favorite reason, but the likeliest is the boring one: They're being dodgy because they don't want to be honest about their real motives. Looking at their track records, it's hard not to notice that both deeply enjoy being wined and dined by some of the sleaziest lobbyists and fundraisers on Capitol Hill. Manchin, for instance, blew off fellow Democrats begging him to support voting rights in favor of going to a fundraiser held by oil and gas executives who have a financial interest in keeping working people from voting. Sinema is deep in cahoots with industry lobbyists who want to tank Biden's agenda, holding fundraisers with anti-Biden groups and taking money from the pharmacy industry, right before doing an about-face to block fair pricing drug policies she previously claimed to support.

It's not just those two. The price control policy for pharmaceuticals is one of the most wildly popular items in the Biden agenda — at least with voters. But a small group of Democrats in the House pulled that item out of the bill, and they're barely trying to pretend it's for any reason other than to appease pharmaceutical lobbyists. They likely know that politicians and voters may say they oppose corruption, but that actually doing something to stop it never becomes a priority.

Lobbyists have Sinema's ear, but her own party and voters do not. The Democratic party in Arizona is threatening a vote of no confidence against her, and her response was somewhere between a shrug and throwing them the finger. Activists are crowdfunding for a primary challenger against her. It is possible she is such an egomaniac that she thinks she's going to have a great re-election after teeing off her own voters, of course.But it's also hard not to wonder if she isn't influenced by the knowledge that she's all but guaranteed a well-heeled job in lobbying if she loses re-election. Notably, a lifetime ban on politicians becoming lobbyists is part of Warren's anti-corruption bill. If it was law, then Sinema might be making more pro-voter choices, rather than treating her constituents as an annoying inconvenience.

Corruption isn't a sexy issue, but focusing attention on it can pay huge dividends when it comes to advancing progressive causes. Take gun control, for instance. Decades of rational argumentation and emotional appeals did little to move the needle, policy-wise. Even in the face of children being murdered in schools repeatedly, Republican politicians have successfully blocked all bills, and Democrats didn't even bother making it a priority when they got power.Eventually, however, gun control advocates started to look away from the ideological arguments and toward the influence of the gun industry, through its main lobbying arm, the NRA.

Once they did that, real progress started to happen. Investigations revealed that the NRA was a thoroughly corrupt organization and that its leadership was on the take. Then the lawsuits started to fly. Now the organization is in very real danger of collapse — not because of its views, but because of its corruption. It might be too late, and Republicans may be too dug in on their gun mania to ever start to moderate. But without the NRA in their ear all the time, there could be a real chance to persuade even just a few Republicans to support common sense reforms that are backed by the majority of Americans. But only if the NRA is gone — and coming at them from a corruption angle was the path to this possibility.

It's admittedly a tough sell, even to Democrats. Most Democrats have been happy to back bills that tackle the issue in similar ways to what Warren proposes, and many seem to understand that they would benefit from a more level playing field, where wealthy interests have less influence over policy and politics. Still, as with most legislation that Democrats want to pass, anti-corruption bills have been torn apart on the shores of the filibuster. And the two people who are doing the most to make sure the filibuster remains and anti-corruption bills have no chance of passing? You guessed it: Manchin and Sinema. Corruption on Capitol Hill is a grotesque a house of mirrors, and until that changes, real progress will be an impossibly tall hill to climb.

omg

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/clear-and-present-danger-majority-of-trump-voters-believe-its-time-to-split-the-country-in-two/

no lnx table

'Clear and present danger': Majority of Trump voters believe it’s 'time to split the country' in two

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement September 30, 2021

The highly-respected University of Virginia's nonpartisan Center for Politics has released a new study that finds a majority of Trump voters believe it's time to split the country into two, with "red states" and "blue states" seceding from the Union.

The organization, headed by Larry Sabato of "Sabato's Crystal Ball," reports that four in ten Biden voters agree.

"The divide between Trump and Biden voters is deep, wide, and dangerous. The scope is unprecedented, and it will not be easily fixed," said UVA Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato.

"In order to figure out ways to bridge these divides, we need to understand not just the divides themselves, but also understand the ways in which we can, together, move forward to reach common ground. This project helps us do both," said Larry Schack of Project Home Fire, a new initiative partnering with the UVA Center for Politics.

The report top-line revelations include: "Trump and Biden voters are at crisis stage"; there is tremendous "fear and distrust among Biden and Trump voters"; and "Many Trump and Biden voters believe the deck is stacked against them, and their commitment to democracy is wavering."

Crystal Ball's managing editor, Kyle Kondik, tweeted out some charts (below) from the project. Among the disturbing but unsurprising revelations:

Eight in 10 Biden and Trump voters say elected officials from the opposition party present a "clear and present danger" to democracy. Almost eight in 10 Biden and Trump voters say Americans who support the opposite party have also become a "clear and present danger" to the American way of life.

The report also finds strong areas of common ground, including on the need for improvements to the electric grid, water supply, roads, rail, and bridges, and raising taxes on the wealthy.

biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan is 'popular' is deep red West Virginia — even among Trump voters: report

Alex Henderson

West Virginia wasn't even remotely close in the 2020 presidential election; Donald Trump won the state by 38%. But that doesn't automatically mean that all parts of President Joe...

roofpac s-corp, grocer ...lobbyists

arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema is scheduled to hold a fundraiser today with five business lobbying groups that oppose a massive spending bill containing some of the Biden administration’s top legislative priorities. That’s according to The New York Times, which reports attendees are being asked to write checks for up to $5,800 to Senator Sinema’s campaign. Sinema says she opposes the spending bill’s price tag of $3.5 trillion over 10 years. The legislation would increase taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations in order to expand the social safety net, improve worker rights and combat the climate crisis. Sinema’s support is critical to Democrats’ plans to use a budget reconciliation bill to pass the legislation in the evenly divided Senate.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/dark-money/

The dark money group No Labels recently praised Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for her efforts to block President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill; a pushback that goes against what her own political party is fighting for.

According to The Intercept, a leaked email from Margaret White details the group's continued optimism regarding lawmakers' ability to separate the bipartisan infrastructure bill from the reconciliation package which includes a large portion of Biden's political agenda. In fact, they are even optimistic that the bill could still be killed in its entirety.

"It is now clear that the reconciliation package will be delinked in time from the infrastructure bill and will be less than $3.5 trillion (if it passes at all), in theory making support from House Republicans for the infrastructure bill more likely," the email reads.

White continued with praise of Sinema for her efforts to fight the passing of the bill on their behalf. However, she did note that her group had not accumulated enough votes to pass the piece of legislation on Monday. The delay is due to progressives who have made it clear that they will not support the effort until the reconciliation bill is in Biden's hands.

“The biggest warning sign is on the left, where the Progressive Caucus leadership continues to object to the delinkage and claims they have the votes to kill the infrastructure bill, leading them to suggest Speaker Pelosi should cancel the vote or risk embarrassment," White wrote. “In the post-Brexit, post-Trump, free-agent, populist era in which we live now, don't assume that Speaker Pelosi and President Biden can definitely deliver the votes on the left."

In the wake of their opposition to the bill, some Democratic lawmakers have pushed back against the dark money group. "This only reinforces that No Labels is not only No Values but now also No Clue," said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.).

Despite the ongoing bipartisan pushback, Biden and the majority of Democratic lawmakers agree the bill is a necessity. On Wednesday, September 22, multiple Democratic groups visited the White House to meet with the president. Pocan, who also attended the meetings, weighed in and urged Democrats to back the bill.

“The best way to help the American people is by passing the President's Build Back Better Agenda, which includes the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure agreement," said Pocan.

He added, “The President agreed and reiterated his position that we need to pass both to move America forward. The debates we're having are not about progressives versus moderates, but it's a fight between the special interests who don't want to pay their fair share and making sure we build back better for the American people."