Daily Political News From Around the World
Former President Donald Trump will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, next Sunday, according to a source familiar with the matter, while former Vice President Mike Pence declined an invitation to speak at the conference, two sources told CNN. One source …
With impeachment in the rearview mirror, congressional Democrats are directing their full attention toward President Joe Biden’s agenda as they return to Washington this week. House Democrats unveiled their full $1.9 trillion stimulus bill on Friday, which is expected to move through the House Budget …
This week, all eyes have been on Texas. An unprecedented winter storm left 4 million people without power across the state and put nearly half of all Texans under a boil-water advisory. Initial reports from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the …
Russia summoned the U.S. ambassador to Moscow and warned that it will respond. When President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos last month, Biden said Russian president Vladimir Putin would “pay a price” for involvement in the far-reaching SolarWinds cyber hack and …
The Department of Justice on Friday sued Roger Stone, the loyal former advisor to ex-President Donald Trump, alleging he and his wife owe nearly $2 million in unpaid federal taxes and other fees. The lawsuit accuses Stone and Nydia Stone of using an “alter ego” …
As Iran boosts uranium enrichment to 60%, a short jump to military-grade at 90%, world powers are trying to coax the Islamic Republic to take a pause. Meetings designed to return both Iran and the United States to a form of the nuclear deal signed …
The agreement was reached by U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua. The United States and China, the world’s two biggest carbon polluters, agreed to cooperate to curb climate change with urgency, just days before President Joe Biden hosts …
The question isn’t whether Nebraska Republican candidates must embrace Trump. It’s how tightly. Nebraska’s been lucky so far. It’s largely ducked the ugly intraparty feuding that’s consumed the GOP in Georgia, Arizona, and elsewhere in the post-Trump era. Donald Trump won big in Nebraska, one …
A new statement came just hours after the president issued a determination to keep the refugee resettlement limit at a historic low set by the Trump administration, sparking immediate pushback from allies. The White House said late Friday afternoon that President Joe Biden plans to …
Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth early Saturday, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan amid preparations in Florida for the launch of another station-bound crew Thursday aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. With Russian …
The former secretary of state defended the tasks as small. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan violated the federal government’s ethics rules by requesting staff carry out personal favors, according to the State Department inspector general’s office. The federal watchdog had …
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Happy Sunday. As President JOE BIDEN gets ready for two of the most important weeks of his presidency, the big political story is the cracks that are emerging in the Democratic coalition.
We’ll dig deep into the competing factions of the Democratic Party on Monday morning, but until then here are three must-reads on the subject:
ERIC WOLFF and REBECCA RAINEY document what will be a familiar storyline going forward: the divisions between environmentalists and labor. The green movement wants to solve the climate crisis. Labor unions want worker protections and beefed-up industrial policy.
Often the two goals collide.
One big example Biden’s economic team is working through: Does the U.S. pursue an America-first policy when it comes to renewables, even if it makes reaching aggressive carbon goals more difficult? Or is it better to buy the cheap and readily available wind turbines, batteries, and solar panels from countries like China right now?
Eric and Rebecca look at another collision:
“President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda is in danger of being engulfed in a fight between organized labor and industry over unionization, wages, and other workplace issues.
“As the renewable energy industry expands, unions and their allies in Congress are determined to unionize more of the jobs or, at the very least, require the payment of union-equivalent wages. But the industry says such moves would cripple some of their operations.
“While both sides are eager to push clean energy projects forward and make them a bigger part of the nation’s electrical grid, their disagreements will test Biden’s vow to be both the greenest and the most pro-union president in history.
“The clash is playing out in Congress, where Democrats are cranking out bills filled with carrots for developers of zero-emission infrastructure, but with pro-labor strings attached, including wage requirements, job certification, and Buy American provisions. Labor groups skeptical of whether green jobs can adequately replace high-paying union jobs in the fossil industry see these provisions as the bare minimum, while solar and wind producers want to see those labor demands dialed down.”
In the NYT, ASTEAD HERNDON reports on the growing impatience of many progressives and has a nice overview of how Biden is suddenly grappling with friendly fire on the minimum wage, student loan policy, immigration, and his OMB director.
There are cameos by BERNIE SANDERS (Obama-era “Democrats had the power and they did not exercise that power for working families”), ELIZABETH WARREN (“can’t give Mitch McConnell a veto”), and numerous progressive activists arguing for results over unity. JOE MANCHIN is cast as a sort of villain and someone who has “at times stood in the way of progressive change.”
Biden is seen as risking his bold agenda because of his “deference” to “the entrenchment by moderate senators,” though none of the progressives quoted offer a plan to get 50 votes for the Biden agenda absent some deference to Manchin.
Finally, if you want to read some history on this dynamic, check out JONATHAN COHN’S interview with BARACK OBAMA out this morning in HuffPost. The piece is adapted from Cohn’s forthcoming book, “The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage” ($29.99), which will be released Tuesday.
One big takeaway from Obama, who sat down with Cohn for over an hour last year: There’s nothing new about moderate Democratic senators from conservative states frustrating Democratic presidents. And even without the filibuster, there’s no magic solution that allows progressives to enact ambitious legislation without winning the support of the Manchins of the world.
source: https://www.politico.com