“Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) sent out a tweet Tuesday touting some funds that community health centers in his district will be receiving ― even though he voted against the legislation that made the money possible,” the HuffPost reports.
Biden’s Dog Again Involved In Biting Incident
“The Bidens’ dog Major has been involved in another biting incident that required medical attention,” CNN reports.
“The incident, which involved a National Park Service employee, took place on the White House South Lawn on Monday afternoon. The employee was working at the time and needed to stop in order to receive treatment from the White House medical unit.”
U.S. Struggling to Engage with Iran On Nuclear Deal
“The Biden administration’s efforts to re-engage with Iran over its nuclear program are coming up against three major obstacles: a lack of direct channels of communication, divisions within the leadership in Tehran, and looming Iranian presidential elections,” Axios reports.
Over 4,000 Migrants Crowded Into Texas Facility
“The Biden administration for the first time Tuesday allowed journalists inside its main border detention facility for migrant children, revealing a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 migrants, including children and families, were crammed into pods and the youngest kept in a large play pen with mats on the floor for sleeping,” the AP reports.
Where All The Voting Restrictions Are Leading
Jamelle Bouie: “Where does this all lead? Perhaps it just ends with a few new restrictions and new limits, enough, in conjunction with redistricting, to tilt the field in favor of the Republican Party in the next election cycle but not enough to substantially undermine American democracy. Looking at the 2020 election, however — and in particular at the 147 congressional Republicans who voted not to certify the Electoral College vote — it’s not hard to imagine how this escalates, especially if Trump and his allies are still in control of the party.”
“If Republicans are building the infrastructure to subvert an election — to make it possible to overturn results or keep Democrats from claiming electoral votes — then we have to expect that given a chance, they’ll use it.”
Quote of the Day
“A lot of the mistrust in our country right now is the result of policy failure. And that policy failure is largely about a generation of intentional disinvestment in the things that we share and need together.”
— Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in an interview with the Washington Post.
Mitch McConnell’s Tough Sell
David Catanese: “Mitch McConnell can see the future — and knows it’s likely to place Republicans in a pickle.”
“He sees a rapidly recovering economy, an increasingly vaccinated population and general optimism budding across the country like bluegrass at the start of springtime. And he’s realized the GOP needs an explanation for the shower of good news coming in the opening months of a new Democratic administration.”
The Swamp Is in the State Capitals
Catherine Rampell: “The swamp that desperately needs draining isn’t in Washington, D.C. It’s in state capitals around the country, where undemocratic, anti-majoritarian officials are seizing rights from voters and flagrantly thwarting the will of the people.”
“The traditional sources of accountability that nudged or forced elected officials to be responsive to their constituents have weakened. The result is greater job security for state officials practicing minority rule — and worse outcomes for voters.”
Democrats Look at Lowering Medicare Eligibility Age
Wall Street Journal: “Democrats are still negotiating over which healthcare policy elements could be in the second of two spending programs the administration plans to unveil soon.”
“The package is likely to contain measures to reduce drug prices and expand health coverage, lawmakers said. Proposals to expand Medicare eligibility from age 65 to 60 and to enable the federal government to negotiate drug prices in the health program for seniors—both of which President Biden supported on the campaign trail—are also likely to be included.”
Millions Will Miss Out On Coming Economic Boom
Washington Post: “Despite the headline numbers, the economy is still in bad shape for millions of Americans. And for many workers … jobs may not come back even if the economy booms again… The bleak picture shows the darker side of the Fed’s plan to keep interest rates near zero for quite awhile.”
“Historically, the Fed raised rates and slowed the economy to keep inflation from creeping too high, even at the cost of higher unemployment. Now the Fed goes by a new playbook, one that tolerates higher inflation if that means more people can get a job. But if all of that growth leaves behind people … the Fed’s path to getting as many people back to work as possible will be even harder to forge.”
Kentucky Moves to Expand Early Voting
“The Kentucky General Assembly passed significant legislation Monday night that will make three days of widespread early voting a regular part of the state’s future elections and expand people’s access to the ballot in other ways while also instituting new security measures,” the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
States That Make It Harder to Vote Had Lower Turnout
“As Republicans make a sweeping voter suppression push nationwide, they insist it won’t have any real impact on voters’ ability to cast their ballots. But a look at how voter turnout shifted in 2020 shows a strong link between states making it easier to vote and voters actually turning out,” Vice News reports.
“In 2020, the states that showed the biggest jumps in voter turnout were almost uniformly states that also made it dramatically easier to vote, often by allowing everyone to vote by mail. And the states that saw the lowest turnout increases were all ones where it’s hard to vote—and where lawmakers kept onerous rules in place—like bans on mail voting—in spite of the pandemic.”
Democrats On Friendly Turf in 2022 Governors Races
Geoffrey Skelley: “Ultimately, though, the upshot of having so many incumbents running is that it could reduce the chances of seats changing party hands. And this may be especially true in 2022 because neither side has a lot of overly friendly turf to win back. Only seven seats are in states where the governing party lost the state in the 2020 presidential election. In fact, this is one area on the 2022 map where Democrats have an advantage, as they have only one seat to defend in a state that Biden lost in 2020: Kansas.”
“Beyond Kansas, though, the map gets easier for Democrats.”
WHO Chief Wants More Investigation of Lab Leak Theory
Bloomberg: “The World Health Organization’s chief said a mission to study the origins of the coronavirus in China didn’t adequately analyze the possibility of a lab leak before it concluded that the pathogen probably spread from bats to humans via another animal.”
“Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said even though the international team of scientists determined that a leak is the least likely hypothesis for the origin of the pandemic, it requires further investigation. He said he’s ready to deploy additional missions involving specialist experts as he doesn’t believe the assessment was extensive enough.”
Working Together on Infrastructure
Bloomberg: “Labor unions and environmental groups are joining forces to lobby the White House and Democratic congressional leaders to back $4 trillion worth of spending in the coming long-term economic plan — in a sign that sometimes testy relations between the two constituencies are thawing.”
Gaetz Considers Leaving Congress for Newsmax
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has privately told confidants he’s seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax, Axios reports.
Dominion Expands Legal Team To Go After Trumpworld
“With billions of dollars in lawsuits now in the balance, Dominion Voting Systems has quietly expanded its legal armada in recent days, as the election technology company goes after Trumpworld and conservative media giants,” the Daily Beast reports.
“People familiar with the matter say that the company’s legal team still hadn’t ruled out going after ex-President Trump specifically, but that no final decision had been made yet on if they wanted to open up that can of worms on the former leader of the free world.”
A Third of Adults Are Online All the Time
A new Pew Research poll finds 31% of U.S. adults now report that they go online “almost constantly.”
