We are not obliged to accept GOP venality, bad faith and contempt for democracy as a normal feature of our politics. Jim Banks, one of Kevin McCarthy's picks for the 1/6 panel, is already openly sabotaging it. We must say No. It's unacceptable. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Appointing people like Jim Banks and Jim Jordan to the 1/6 committee is akin to “appointing Strom Thurmond to the Kerner Commission.”
I spoke to historian @KevinMKruse for this piece. He was unsparing:
Right-wing radicalization is the primary threat to democratic stability in this country, and Republicans have actively fed and exploited that radicalization, heavily implicating them in what happened.
A big, big boost to Biden's $4 trillion plan: New report from economist Mark Zandi finds passing the *whole thing* is essential to securing the recovery, and says GOP inflation fears are overblown.
Important: Economist Mark Zandi's new report also badly undermines GOP warnings about inflation.
“The economy still has considerable slack,” he concludes, arguing that the Biden plans are “only sufficient to push the economy back to full employment.”
“This is a perfect confluence of need, of political tailwinds, and the right economic backdrop. I don’t know if it’s going to be around for very long. Hopefully we take advantage of it.”
Few Dem strategists understand House races as well as Dan Sena, who oversaw them in 2018.
We had an interesting chat about this GOP strategy: The base requires Rs to continue lionizing Trump, but this will be badly out of sync with the 2022 environment:
The reconciliation package's scale and details are shockingly audacious. If Dems can pull this off, they'll be uniting their factions and addressing multiple epic challenges as a true governing majority.
@paulwaldman1 Among its key provisions, per sources:
* 80% renewable + 50% carbon by 2030
* Clean Electricity Standard
* Tax credits for renewables
* More ACA subsidies
* Medicaid $ to folks in no-expansion GOP states
* Family/medical leave
* Global Minimum Tax
@paulwaldman1 Some strategic insight: Dem aide tells us @SenSchumer envisions satisfying every Dem on Budget Comittee as hitting all parts of Dem coalition in miniature.
Now comes the hard part: Committees writing legislation within toplines and winning whole caucus:
GOP Senators are once again pretending to be outraged that Dems have linked the bipartisan bill to the reconciliation one. But no one should pretend to believe them. They *already pulled* this stunt. Dems cannot let Rs bait them into infighting. New piece: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
When news leaked that moderates want to limit reconciliation bill to $3.5 trillion, some called it a loss for the left.
But a source tells me this is on top of the $579 billion in bipartisan bill, totaling more than $4 trillion, Biden's original plan:
Time for Dems to go on offense in the culture wars. Ask why Republicans think our cadets are snowflakes who must be shielded from hard historical truths and why they won't endure a tiny vaccine pinprick to protect friends' and neighbors' lives. New piece: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The old right-wing culture war: God, guns, and gays.
The new right-wing culture war: Vaccine derangement, validation of white racial innocence, and valorization of insurrectionists.
Good news: Dems are quietly working to get the Global Minimum Tax provisions into the reconciliation bill, I'm told. This would be a huge deal: A blow to international tax avoidance and a powerful rebuttal to Trumpian populist nationalism. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Trumpian nationalists say multilateralism threatens national sovereignty. JD Vance says globalist elites have "plundered" the USA.
But the Global Minimum Tax *expands* the scope of democratic action, to solve problems that nationalists have no answer to: