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What’s In Biden’s ‘Families Plan’

April 26, 2021 at 9:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Washington Post looks at what’s in the new $1.8 trillion spending bill that President Biden will introduce on Wednesday night in his address to Congress:

“The key components of the plan consist of roughly $300 billion in education funding, the biggest pot of which includes funding to make two-year community colleges tuition-free; $225 billion in child-care funding; $225 billion for paid family and medical leave; $200 billion for prekindergarten instruction; and $200 billion to extend more enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, according to three people briefed on the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The plan would also extend a more robust child tax credit until 2025, the people said, a measure that could cost as much as $400 billion, as well as extend a more robust tax credit for workers.”

However, there a caveat: “Aides repeatedly stressed that the details of the plan were subject to change and that final decisions had not yet been made.”

Anti-Trump Group to Grade GOP Lawmakers

April 26, 2021 at 8:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An anti-Trump conservative group is launching an effort to track and evaluate whether Republicans in Congress, in the group’s view, have acted to either undermine or uphold democracy and democratic values and what role, if any, they played in attempts to overturn the 2020 election,” CNN reports.

“The Republican Accountability Project has created what it’s calling a GOP Democracy Report Card, which assigns grades to Republican members of Congress ranging from an ‘A,’ which the group describes as excellent, to an ‘F,’ which it describes as very poor.”

Tim Ryan Kicks Off Senate Bid In Ohio

April 26, 2021 at 7:56 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) formally launched a campaign for Senate on Monday, giving Democrats their first candidate in the race to succeed Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who is not running for re-election, NBC News reports.

Ryan could have a relatively clear path to the Democratic nomination which will be a big help in a state that’s trended to Republicans.

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No Reckoning on Racism for GOP Leaders

April 26, 2021 at 7:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“If the nation is in the midst of a historic reckoning on racism, most leaders of the Republican Party are not participating,” the AP reports.

“The moves reflect a stark political reality: As America grows more diverse, the Republican Party continues to be led almost entirely by white people, particularly men, who cater to an overwhelmingly white base. And despite fierce criticism from civil rights leaders and growing concern from business leaders who are traditional allies, many Republicans see no problem.”

Biden’s Next 100 Days

April 26, 2021 at 7:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Biden spent his first 100 days trying to engineer the end of the coronavirus and start of a job boom. The next 100 are more audacious and risky: Try to re-engineer the very fundamentals of America — inequality, voting rights and government’s role in directing economic growth,” Axios reports.

“Biden advisers feel they have a huge opening to raise taxes and pick winners in the energy markets, in part because Republicans and business no longer lock arms — and wallets — in opposition to the reordering of capitalism.”

Trump’s Vendetta Against Doug Ducey

April 26, 2021 at 6:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“It’s April 2021, and Donald Trump still can’t get past his grudge with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey for refusing to overturn the 2020 election results in his state,” the Daily Beast reports.

Trump “has gone so far as to tell some close associates that if Ducey decided to run for Senate and managed to lock up the Republican nomination in 2022, he would consider traveling to Arizona to campaign for Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.”

Trump might help Republicans snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2022.

Economic Confidence Positive for First Time in Pandemic

April 26, 2021 at 6:54 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index registered a score of +2 in April, the first time it has been net positive since early March 2020, just before then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency amid rising coronavirus infections.

Concerns Over J&J Vaccine Are Still Widespread

April 26, 2021 at 6:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new ABC News-Washington Post poll finds just 22% of Americans not yet immunized against the coronavirus say they would be willing to get the vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson.

Peter Thiel Bankrolls Associate for Arizona Senate Race

April 26, 2021 at 6:46 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Libertarian tech titan Peter Thiel is spending $10 million to boost one of his closest allies in next year’s Arizona Senate race, a contest crucial to the fight for the majority,” Politico reports.

“The billionaire is coming out in support of Blake Masters, the chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and the president of the Thiel Foundation, who is expected to soon enter the race.”

Joe Cunningham to Run for South Carolina Governor

April 26, 2021 at 6:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Rep. Joe Cunningham (D) confirmed to the Charleston Post and Courier that he will announce his 2022 campaign for governor of South Carolina on April 26.

“The move puts an end to months of speculation about whether the ambitious one-term congressman would enter the political arena again. Now, he’s challenging Republican Gov. Henry McMaster (R) in a bid to become the first Democrat in the South Carolina governor’s mansion since 1998.”

Kamala Harris Urges Preparation for Next Pandemic

April 26, 2021 at 6:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Vice President Kamala Harris will make the case before United Nations members on Monday that now is the time for global leaders to begin putting the serious work into how they will respond to the next global pandemic,” the AP reports

Behind Biden’s Pivot to Boring

April 26, 2021 at 6:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Chait: “Biden’s strategy of boringness is a fascinating counterpoint to a career spent trying desperately to be interesting. Biden used to overshare, with frequently disastrous results that led him to accurately self-diagnose as a ‘gaffe machine.’ Whether his advanced age has slowed him down or made him wiser, he has finally given up his attention-seeking impulse and embraced the opposite objective.”

“Biden’s success is a product of the crucial yet little-appreciated insight that substantive advances don’t require massive public fights. The drama of inspiration and conflict is not only unnecessary to promote change but even, in certain circumstances, outright counterproductive.”

Playbook: “The key insight here is that talking too much about his agenda, aside from its most blandly popular pillars — Covid and recession bad! Infrastructure and jobs good! — only serves to polarize debate around the issues and provoke a more ferocious backlash from the right. Better to say nothing and ram stuff through Congress in enormous bills than to speak every day making a detailed case for each agenda item.”

CNN: How Biden anchored his first 100 days on two simple principles.

State Lawmaker Banned from Alaska Airlines

April 25, 2021 at 10:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Alaska Airlines told the Anchorage Daily News that State Senator Lora Reinbold (R) has been banned from its flights for refusing to follow mask-wearing rules.

There’s no overland road access from Reinbold’s district to the state capital in Juneau and Alaska Air provides the only airline service. That means if Reinbold wants to travel to the capital, the trip will take roughly three days, including a part by boat.

A video shows Reinbold arguing with airport staff about wearing a mask.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Says He’s Overruled

April 25, 2021 at 10:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In a leaked audiotape that offers a glimpse into the behind-the scenes power struggles of Iranian leaders, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Revolutionary Guards Corps call the shots, overruling many government decisions and ignoring advice,” the New York Times reports.

“The audio was leaked at a critical moment for Iran, as the country is discussing the framework for a possible return to a nuclear deal with the United States and other Western powers. Talks through intermediaries have been taking place in Geneva.”

House GOP Must Navigate Treacherous Path to 2022

April 25, 2021 at 7:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Republicans are, to put it mildly, feeling good about their chances of retaking the chamber next year, following a better-than-expected showing in November’s House races that ushered in a freshman class led by GOP women and minorities. In 2022, the party only needs to flip a handful of seats, with both history and forthcoming redistricting on their side. And President Joe Biden has, through a series of ambitious early moves, helped his opponents coalesce around a midterm messaging strategy that hits Democrats on immigration, taxes and policing.”

“But Republicans also know the next 18 months are littered with political tripwires, from internal divisions over the former president trying to influence them from Mar-a-Lago to the fringe elements in their ranks that threaten to swamp their agenda.”

Europe Will Let Vaccinated U.S. Tourists Visit

April 25, 2021 at 5:56 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer, more than a year after shutting down nonessential travel from most countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus,” the New York Times reports.

“The fast pace of vaccination in the United States, and advanced talks between authorities there and the European Union over how to make vaccine certificates acceptable as proof of immunity for visitors, will enable the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, to recommend a switch in policy that could see trans-Atlantic leisure travel restored.”

Military In Afghanistan Begins Closing Down

April 25, 2021 at 5:09 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

America’s top general in Afghanistan said that the U.S. military has begun closing down operations in the country and that Afghanistan’s security forces “must be ready” to take over, the AP reports.

Bonus Quote of the Day

April 25, 2021 at 3:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think what I have seen so far is, it’s Biden’s way or the highway.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), on Fox News, discussing President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office.

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

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