White House Proposes $6 Trillion Budget
“The White House is set to propose on Friday a $6 trillion budget plan as President Biden seeks major changes to the U.S. economy and welfare system,” the Washington Post reports.
“The budget contains no new major policies from the White House and instead reflects the plans it has already introduced, including a $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, $1.8 trillion education and families plan, and $1.5 trillion in proposed discretionary spending.”
“It projects budget deficits above $1 trillion for the rest of the decade, as Washington’s spending imbalance remains at elevated levels. Even without new additional spending proposals, the annual federal budget is projected to include $5.8 trillion in spending in fiscal year 2021.”
Trump Executive Tied to Another Scandal
Mother Jones finds more trouble for Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg as he’s being pressured to turn on the Trump family by New York prosecutors.
“Previously unreported emails attached to a little-noticed court document filed earlier this month show that Weisselberg is tied to another Trump financial scandal: the Trump inauguration case, which is currently being investigated by the attorney general of Washington, DC.”
Quote of the Day
“There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for. McConnell has made this his political position, thinking it will help his 2022 elections. They do not believe the truth will set you free, so they continue to live in fear.”
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), quoted by CNN.
There’s No Common Ground on Infrastructure
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Missouri’s GOP Senate Primary Gets Crowded
Missouri Independent: “According to several sources familiar with her plans, U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville will announce her bid sometime in early June and go to Lincoln Days in full campaign mode.”
“So far, the field includes a disgraced former governor, the current attorney general and a man who blasted to internet fame by confronting protesters with a firearm in the race for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat.”
What Shook Liz Cheney the Most About January 6
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) explained to the Casper Star Tribune her personal experience during the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Said Cheney: “It made me very angry, the idea that this could have happened and that there were people who were trying to use violence to stop us from counting electoral votes.”
But there was one moment that struck her more than most: “One of the most troubling moments of that period of the day was when one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle was sitting across from me and he looked at his phone and he said, ‘Liz, there’s a Confederate flag flying in the rotunda.’ And that moment was really — you realize that never happened during the Civil War.”
Judge Says Trump’s Big Lie Could Inspire Violence
CNN: “The judge’s blunt assessment of the current, charged political climate came in a legal decision about a defendant who was drawn to Washington, DC, in January. And it adds to a growing chorus of warnings from the officials most closely weighing the aftermath of the Capitol riot about what the threat level still might be.”
New Jobless Claims Keep Falling
“Worker filings for jobless benefits fell again to a fresh pandemic low, extending a steady downward trend and adding to signs of a healing labor market as the economy opens more fully,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Senate Republicans Unveil $928 Billion Infrastructure Offer
“Senate Republicans presented a $928 billion infrastructure plan to the White House, closing the gap with the White House’s latest $1.7 trillion offer as the two sides attempt to break an impasse over the scope of an infrastructure package and how to pay for it,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The GOP negotiators have said they would seek to pay for the offer by redirecting federal Covid-19 aid, an idea that Democrats on Capitol Hill are set to oppose.”
Conspiracy Theories Take Hold In the United States
A new PRRI-IFYC study finds that 15% of Americans agree with the QAnon statement that the U.S. government, media and financial worlds “are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.”
And 20% agree with this statement: “There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.”
First Read: “It’s hard to call something fringe when approximately one-in-five Americans believe these statements, especially one that true patriots ‘may have to resort to violence’ to save the country.”
Does Jeff Bezos Now Control ‘The Apprentice’ Outtakes?
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Senate Control Could Hinge on Sununu’s Decision
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Gov. Chris Sununu’s (R) decision as to whether he will challenge Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) could be the most important candidate choice of the 2022 cycle.”
“While Republicans will target vulnerable Democrats in states that are more competitive at the presidential level than New Hampshire, they very well may struggle to produce a candidate in those states as proven as Sununu.”
CNN: The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2022.
How Red or Blue Is Your State?
FiveThirtyEight introduced its partisan lean metric — a way of measuring the partisanship of a state or district.
“For example, if a state has a FiveThirtyEight partisan lean of R+5, that means it is 5 percentage points more Republican-leaning than the nation as a whole. Put another way, in an election that’s exactly tied nationally, we would expect Republicans to win that state by 5 points.”
Republicans Say Indictment Won’t Weaken Trump
“Senate Republicans see a special grand jury investigation into President Trump’s business practices by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. as more evidence that Democrats want to keep Trump in the spotlight to drag them down in the midterm election,” The Hill reports.
“Republicans think the investigation will only further deepen partisan divisions over the former president and believe that even if he’s indicted, it won’t diminish him as a political force in 2022 and beyond.”
Paul Ryan Will Hit Trump In Reagan Library Speech
Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is expected to knock former President Trump in a speech tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library by urging members of his party to avoid rallying behind “one personality” or “second-rate imitations,” Punchbowl News reports.
Ryan will say: “Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads. And here’s one reality we have to face. If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere.”
Trump Tells Aides He’ll Run Again In 2024
Politico: “Trump is confiding in allies that he intends to run again in 2024 with one contingency: that he still has a good bill of health… That means Trump is going to hang over the Republican Party despite its attempts to rebrand during his exile and its blockade of a Trump-centric investigation into January’s insurrection.”
First Woman Confirmed as Army Secretary, Only Briefly
“Christine Wormuth nearly became the first woman in U.S. history to ascend to the Army’s top civilian post when the Senate confirmed her Wednesday evening — until the body reversed her confirmation just hours later in an unusual development,” the Army Times reports.
“CSPAN footage of the proceedings shows Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announcing the reversal. Schumer’s staff did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from Army Times, and the senator deleted a previous tweet hailing Wormuth’s confirmation.”
Roll Call: “Unclear why the Senate would do this, but it appears there wasn’t quite unanimous consent to confirm Wormuth as we reported earlier. This looks more like a procedural hiccup than a threat to her historic confirmation, but we’ll learn more soon.”