Tag: Democrats

For Democrats, infrastructure equals fighting climate change, creating jobs

Joe Biden is putting an infrastructure proposal that calls significant green investments front-and-center in his campaign

In Democratic politics, infrastructure and fighting climate change have become increasingly synonymous: You can’t have one without the other.

Take the $494 billion surface transportation bill that House Democrats passed July 1. Republicans criticized it as an outgrowth of the Green New Deal. Democrats embraced it for the same reason, with House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., insisting that climate change “is absolutely key for my side of the aisle.”

The Democrats’ 2020 standard-bearer, Vice President Joe Biden, is putting front-and-center in his campaign his “Build Back Better” infrastructure proposal that calls not only for building roads and bridges but also for investments in electric vehicle charging stations, zero-emission buses, transit and zero-carbon electricity generation by 2035. Continue reading.

The Voting Will End Nov. 3. The Legal Battle Probably Won’t.

New York Times logoAs the two parties clash over how to conduct an election in a pandemic, President Trump’s litigiousness and unfounded claims of fraud have increased the likelihood of epic postelection court fights.

The stormy once-in-a-lifetime Florida recount battle that polarized the nation in 2000 and left the Supreme Court to decide the presidency may soon look like a high school student council election compared with what could be coming after this November’s election.

Imagine not just another Florida, but a dozen Floridas. Not just one set of lawsuits but a vast array of them. And instead of two restrained candidates staying out of sight and leaving the fight to surrogates, a sitting president of the United States unleashing ALL CAPS Twitter blasts from the Oval Office while seeking ways to use the power of his office to intervene.

The possibility of an ugly November — and perhaps even December and January — has emerged more starkly in recent days as President Trump complains that the election will be rigged and Democrats accuse him of trying to make that a self-fulfilling prophesy. Continue reading.

Stimulus checks debate now focuses on size, eligibility

The Hill logoRepublicans and Democrats negotiating the next coronavirus relief package are voicing support for including another round of stimulus checks, but their competing proposals for direct payments have some differences that need to be hammered out.

The two key issues that need resolving: payment amounts for dependents and eligibility requirements.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have put forth direct payment proposals largely similar to the stimulus checks included in the CARES Act from late March that provided checks for most Americans — up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child under 17. Continue reading.

Democrats keep having to clean up Republican messes. When is our turn to advance America?

A President Biden would face extraordinary damage and repair jobs at home and abroad. Democrats must hammer this home to voters and stop the cycle.

Should former Vice President Joe Biden defeat President Donald Trump in the November election, his victory will cement a pattern that influential Democratic messengers would be wise to exploit savagely in order to change.

Many Americans have not yet grasped that every time they have given Republicans the keys to the White House over the past half-century, they turn to Democrats to extinguish the fire. This arrangement hampers party priorities each time Democrats come to power because their first orders of business are to clean up the ashes. Once the country is sturdy enough, the electorate returns to Republicans to get a little extra walking around cash in the form of marginal tax cuts, and Democratic policy goes back underground.

This pattern began when Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford, presided over a three-year recession that darkened the outlook for Ford before the 1976 campaign launched in earnest. Democrat Jimmy Carter glided into office on a message of reform, after the country felt betrayed by Watergate and Nixon’s corrupt inner circle, and of recovery from poor GOP stewardship of the economy. Continue reading.

Democrats vow complacency won’t be issue as Biden builds lead

The Hill logoDemocrats are warning their party can’t afford to be complacent as polls show presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden surging ahead of President Trump in the polls. 

While Biden now enjoys a larger lead than the one held by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at this point of the 2016 race, the nightmares of Trump’s comeback in that cycle haunt Democratic donors. 

Some say the disappointment of that loss will keep the party on guard in 2020. Continue reading.

Democrats stiff-arm GOP’s ‘cosmetic’ police reforms

Senate Democrats may be able to secure more ambitious changes if they wait until after the elections.

Senate Democrats are voicing deep skepticism toward the GOP’s newfound embrace of police reform. And they may soon have to decide whether they’ll accept incremental measures or nothing at all.

Though careful not to pre-emptively dismiss South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s work designing a police reform package, Democrats said in interviews Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unlikely to endorse the type of far-reaching legislation needed to respond to police killings of black people and nationwide unrest.

“I don’t think they’re going to propose anything that comes anywhere near enough to what we need to do. We need systemic change,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). “If they propose systemic change then I’m fully supportive of it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more cosmetic.” Continue reading.

Democrats to delay convention until August

The Hill logoThe Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee will be delayed for a month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the host committee announced on Thursday.

The Democratic nominating convention will now take place over four days beginning on Aug. 17 after originally being scheduled to take place July 13-16. The Hill was first to report on the change.

A source close to Joe Biden’s campaign told The Hill that the former vice president pushed to have the convention moved, while keeping the same format. Continue reading.

GOP conspiracy buff Devin Nunes claims with no evidence that Democrats are conspiring with Mueller to create an anti-Trump ‘narrative’

AlterNet logoRep. Devin Nunes of California has never been shy about promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, and the Republican congressman has come up with one involving House Democrats and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller: that the two are joining forces to create a “narrative” about President Donald Trump and the Russia investigation.

Mueller is scheduled to appear before two Democrat-led committees next week on Wednesday, July 24. Previously, Mueller’s testimony was scheduled for July 17, but it was postponed a week in order to give House members more time to ask him questions. And Nunes, during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News on Monday night, insisted that Mueller and Democrats are conspiring against the president.

“There’s got to be a reason for it,” the congressman told Hannity.

View the complete July 16 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet logo here.