The Senate parliamentarian has ruled many of the Banking Committee’s reconciliation provisions violate the Byrd Rule, according to an announcement from Senate Budget Committee Democrats, Punchbowl News reports.
This deals a big blow to the panel’s reconciliation agenda.
“Russia is on the verge of a recession, its economy minister said on Thursday, the first public admission that the country’s war economy is starting to cool three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the Financial Times reports.
“Eight in 10 Americans want legally required and publicly released cognitive tests and disease screenings for U.S. presidents — and age limits on the presidency,” according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index.
“About 3 in 4 say politicians aren’t honest about their health, and that presidents should be legally required to share their medical records with the public.”
President Donald Trump criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after the central bank kept rates steady for a fourth time, CNBC reports.
Trump said “Too Late” Powell is costing the United States “hundreds of billions of dollars” by not cutting rates, leveling a familiar criticism against the Fed chair who has repeatedly ignored Trump’s pressure campaign to cut rates.
Trump called Powell a “real dummy.”
“World leaders accelerated diplomatic efforts on Friday to end the Israel-Iran war, as Iran’s top diplomat prepared to meet in Switzerland with senior European counterparts, and President Trump raised hopes of a truce,” the New York Times reports.
“The renewed diplomatic push came as the sides continued to trade fire. Israel announced overnight strikes on missile factories and a research center linked to Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran fired a ballistic missile early on Friday that damaged a residential street in southern Israel.”
David Graham: “The president appointed an intelligence chief who resents the intelligence community as much as he does. But reality is setting in.”
Helen Lewis: “To a degree that seems bizarre to me as an outsider, the American party system, particularly on the Democratic side, defers to incumbents. (Since the 2022 midterm election, eight members of Congress have died in office. All of them were Democrats.) But in Holmes Norton’s case, something unusual has occurred: People close to her have continued to express concern about her ability to serve, and, even more unusually, have done so under their own names.”
“They jumped into politics in President Donald Trump’s first term. They ascended to Congress with similar résumés. They text all the time in a group chat,” the Washington Post reports.
“Now Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill and Elissa Slotkin are all playing leading roles for the Democratic Party — a trio of centrist women with national security backgrounds who helped retake the House in 2018 and this year hope to steer their beleaguered party back toward winning.”
Punchbowl News: “The Senate Finance Committee is beginning its ‘Byrd Bath’ process to litigate tax and health provisions with the Senate parliamentarian. This is to ensure compliance with the Byrd Rule, which governs the reconciliation process.”
“Democratic staffers are meeting with the parliamentarian’s office today. GOP aides will also have their own meetings. After that, full Byrd Bath arguments with GOP and Democratic staffers will start Sunday, according to sources briefed on the plans.”
“Democrats intend to challenge about 60 provisions in the Finance Committee text. That includes targeting Republicans’ plan to use the current policy baseline, which Democrats have panned as a gimmick designed to mask the true cost of the GOP package.”
Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) claimed that he was “run off the road” by an aggressor with a Palestinian flag in his home state of Ohio, drawing condemnations from across the aisle, Politico reports.
Miller, who is Jewish and is a self-described “staunch defender of Israel,” decried the incident as an act of antisemitism.
“Israel’s conflict with Iran is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars a day, according to early estimates, a price tag that could constrain Israel’s ability to conduct a lengthy war,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The biggest single cost are the interceptors needed to blow up incoming Iranian missiles, which alone can amount to between tens of millions to $200 million a day, experts say. Ammunition and aircraft also add to the price tag of the war, as does the unprecedented damage to buildings. Some estimates so far say that rebuilding or repairing damage could cost Israel at least $400 million.”
“Israeli strikes have taken direct aim at the backbone of its enemy’s military power: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But the attacks are also increasing the chance of a change in leadership that would concentrate power in the hands of the elite military force, potentially resulting in a more hawkish and anti-Israeli Iran.”
David Litt: “For most of my adult life, I worked in and around Democratic politics, and my hobby was work. Then, in 2022, I started taking surf lessons and got hooked. In April of 2023, and again last December, I took a trip to an outdoor wave pool in Waco, Texas.”
“If you want to meet the voters who swung toward Donald Trump and put him back in the White House, you could do worse than the hot tub at Waco Surf. I went there with my pickup-truck-driving, Joe Rogan–superfan brother-in-law, and from the moment we arrived, he couldn’t have felt more at home, and I couldn’t have felt more out of place.”
“At first I couldn’t put my finger on what, exactly, made me feel like the odd man out. But I soon developed a theory: The great divide between us is that I constantly think about politics and they do not.”
“Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated at the White House each June 19 since it was enshrined into law four years ago. But on Thursday, it went unmarked by the president — except for a post on social media in which he said he would get rid of some ‘non-working holidays,’” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
NPR: Trump is silent about Juneteenth on a day he previously honored as president.
Steve Bannon was spotted entering the White House, the New York Daily News reports.
Mark Cuban told The Bulwark that Vice President Kamala Harris’s team had asked him to submit vetting materials to be considered for vice president during the 2024 campaign, but he turned her down.
Said Cuban: “I’m not very good as the number two person. And so if the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, you know, the president that, no, that’s a dumb idea. Right. And I’m not real good at the shaking hands and kissing babies.”
He added: “She would have fired me within six days.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.