USA News and Discussions

[caltrek]

While I wish he were more progressive, and/or that there were more progressive Democrats in the senate, he does serve a purpose. Without folks in the middle, the two extremes will just become more extreme. At least a genuine guy in the middle can help to point out how really extreme the GOP is becoming. Somebody needs to be out there trying to earn the trust of those who are almost totally without trust, and show who is trying to be a centrist and who is trying to be an extremist.

[caltrek]

At any rate, here is Manchin's explanation:

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/o ... No5doM/url

[Yuli Ban]

US turning to aggressive ‘industrial policy’ to counter Beijing, experts say

US efforts to combat unfair trade practices with a new strike force and provide government support for American businesses highlight the Biden administration’s “more aggressive” stance towards China, as well as its willingness to implement “industrial policy” to maintain international dominance, analysts say.
The White House announced on Tuesday that the Biden administration will establish a trade strike force, led by the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, to halt the “hollowing out” of American industry and the erosion of critical supply chains for products such as semiconductors and medicines.
The measures were contained in a 255-page review released on the same day the Senate passed a sweeping US$250 billion bill to boost US competitiveness in the face of mounting geopolitical tension with China.

Seems 25 years too late.

[caltrek]

^^^Better late than never.

[Yuli Ban]

Senate passes sweeping $250 billion bipartisan tech, science and manufacturing bill aimed at countering China

• The Senate on Tuesday passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a $250 billion bill aimed at countering China’s technological ambitions.
• The scope of the bill, the final product of at least six Senate committees and almost all members of the chamber, could be one of the last major bipartisan bills of 2021.
• Among its many provisions, the bill provides $52 billion to fund the semiconductor research, design, and manufacturing initiatives.
• President Joe Biden applauded the bill’s passage: “As other countries continue to invest in their own research and development, we cannot risk falling behind.”

[Yuli Ban]

Here’s how much Americans in every wealth bracket would get, on average, from up to $50K of student debt forgiveness

During the 2020 presidential election, several candidates pledged their support for some form of student debt forgiveness — including President Joe Biden. Since his election, House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly urged Biden to “broadly” forgive up to $50,000 of federal debt through executive order, an approach that has become known as the “Warren-Schumer proposal.” Biden has repeatedly pushed back against this plan and leaders of his own party, stating that he will only support up to $10,000 of debt forgiveness and that he would prefer Congress craft the legislation. 
The back-and-forth is part of a broader debate about who would benefit the most from student debt forgiveness. Some have argued that because college graduates tend to earn more, partially or completely forgiving student debt would be “regressive.” 

But a recent brief by the Roosevelt Institute that analyzes how $50,000 of student debt forgiveness would impact household wealth, argues that the idea of student debt regressivity is a “myth,” and that the average person within the 20th to 40th percentile bracket for household assets would receive four times more than the average households in the top 10%.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Consumer prices surge 5% annually, most since August 2008
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/inf ... x-may-2021

By Jonathan Garber FOXBusiness

How to protect your portfolio against inflation

Orion Advisor Solutions chief invest strategist Rusty Vanneman shares his market predictions.

U.S. consumer prices increased in May at the fastest annual rate in nearly 13 years as the economic comeback from COVID-19 lockdowns continues to build momentum.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index in May rose 5% year over year, hotter than the 4.7% increase that was anticipated. The reading was above last month’s 4.2% print.

Prices jumped 0.6% month over month, quicker than the 0.4% increase that was expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

[wjfox]

Joe Manchin's "highly suspicious" reversal on voting bill follows donation from corporate lobby

June 10, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat famous for his vow to maintain the Senate filibuster and thereby scuttle much of President Biden's agenda, recently published an op-ed opposing the For the People Act, Democrats' whopping voting-rights bill. That article strongly echoed talking points from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — and appeared shortly after the influential pro-business lobby resumed donations to Manchin's campaign after nearly a decade.

Manchin, who co-sponsored the sweeping voting rights legislation in 2019 and has supported filibuster reform in the past, became the first Senate Democrat to oppose the bill this week while reiterating his opposition to changing the filibuster, a key roadblock to voting reform. Skeptical members of Manchin's party have questioned the reasons for his opposition, especially after after a recent poll found that a majority of West Virginia voters support changing the filibuster rules and that 79% of the state's voters — including a large majority of Republicans — support the For the People Act.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., suggested that Manchin's opposition to the proposal and filibuster reform may really be about measures in the bill aimed at cracking down on lobbyists and dark money.

"This is probably just as much a part of Joe Manchin's calculus than anything else," she told MSNBC on Tuesday. "You look at the Koch brothers and you look at organizations like the Heritage Foundation and conservative lobby groups that are doing a victory lap ... over the fact that Manchin refuses to change on the filibuster. And I think that these two things are very closely intertwined."

Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by billionaire Republican donor Charles Koch, has explicitly targeted Manchin in its pressure campaign to defeat the legislation even though their own data shows that provisions cracking down on dark money are highly popular, including among Republican voters. Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the Koch-backed Heritage Foundation, organized a rally earlier this year to pressure Manchin to oppose the bill. Heritage Action has also partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to craft model voting-restriction laws for Republican state legislators. A Heritage Action organizer boasted in a video obtained by Mother Jones that the group was behind key provisions of the controversial law recently passed in Georgia.

https://www.salon.com/2021/06/10/joe-ma ... ate-lobby/

[weatheriscool]

House committee passes $547 billion transportation bill with focus on environment after marathon mee
Source: Washington Post

meeting

After meeting throughout the night, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed a $547 billion package early Thursday aimed at fixing the nation’s roads and transit systems while putting a bigger focus on the environment.

The committee spent 19 hours in a meeting that began Wednesday morning and considered more than 200 amendments to the transportation package and separate legislation to fund wastewater facilities. Committee Chairman Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) said the bills would lay the foundations for President Biden’s proposed $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan.

“I commend my colleagues for their hard work helping craft these two bills to deliver what Americans expect and deserve: safe roads and bridges, reliable transit options and a robust passenger rail network, wastewater systems that aren’t on the brink of failure, and a commitment to address the existential threat of climate change,” DeFazio said in a statement.

The final vote was 38-26, with two Republicans joining Democrats to support the bill.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... li=BBnb7Kz