Biden to Purchase Another 100 Million Vaccine Doses
President Biden will announce today that he has directed his administration to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, the New York Times reports.
Biden’s goal is to secure enough supply to vaccinate children and — if necessary — administer booster shots to increase protection against new variants of the virus.
Dick Morris Now Advising Trump
New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s maneuvering is born partly out of his anger toward Republican leaders who he feels were disloyal when they edged away from him after Jan. 6. The former president is also being encouraged by people like Dick Morris, the notorious political consultant known for flipping between the parties, who has been meeting with him in New York and encouraging him to take on the party he once led.”
Duckworth Will Run for Re-Election
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced she would run for reelection in 2022.
Latest Stimulus Package Could Jolt U.S. Growth
“The nearly $1.9 trillion relief package heading for House passage Wednesday is projected to help propel the U.S. economy to its fastest annual growth in nearly four decades, reduce poverty and revive inflation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The legislation—following trillions of dollars in federal aid last year and arriving amid rising Covid-19 vaccination rates—prompted economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal in recent days to boost their average forecast for 2021 economic growth to 5.95%, measured from the fourth quarter of last year to the same period this year. That was up from their 4.87% projection last month and would be the U.S. economy’s fastest since a 7.9% burst in 1983.”
Biden Got a Big Win, But at What Cost?
Charlie Cook argues that by using the Senate’s reconciliation procedure to pass his relief bill, Biden may have harmed his future legislative prospects.
“Biden may have, in the early moments of his term, crippled his ability to do grand bargains.”
“When the histories of the Biden presidency are written, there’s a fair chance that this will be looked upon as a serious error of judgement—one that may plague this administration for a good while.”
Biden’s Relief Bill Remains Very Popular
A new CNN poll finds poll 61% of America. support the $1.9 trillion economic relief bill proposed by President Joe Biden and expected to pass in the House Wednesday.
Biden’s overall approval rate in the poll is 51%.
Murkowski Has Edge In a Trump Grudge Match
Stuart Rothenberg: “Trump may well campaign against Murkowski — indeed, by threatening to do so publicly, he has virtually given himself no alternative. Backing away from his promise to campaign against the ‘very bad senator’ would make the former president look toothless and foolish.”
“But if Murkowski runs for another term, she will start out with a clear advantage, even with Trump campaigning against her.”
Katie Hill Lawsuit Tests Revenge Porn Law
“The publication of private, intimate pictures of former Rep. Katie Hill that drove her to resign from office will be contested in court this week in an argument that pits the 1st Amendment against California’s revenge-porn law,” Los Angeles Times reports.
“The onetime Democratic rising star who briefly represented northern Los Angeles County made worldwide news when she stepped down from Congress in late 2019 after salacious details and pictures about her personal life were published without her consent.”
Manhattan Prosecutors Advance Probe Into Trump
Wall Street Journal: “In recent weeks, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has issued new subpoenas and requested recordings of local government meetings related to the Trump Organization’s failed attempt to create a luxury subdivision at Seven Springs, a 213-acre property that the former president bought for $7.5 million in 1995.
“Mr. Trump has valued the property at up to $291 million in financial statements that the New York attorney general’s office, which is also investigating Seven Springs, said were given to financial institutions. Inflating assets to help secure loans or other financial benefits can be a state criminal offense.”
House Floor Fight Imperils Popular Bills
Politico: “A frustrated slice of the GOP conference is attempting to hamstring the House by refusing to allow quick passage of non-controversial bills — instead forcing every member to cast their vote on the floor and sometimes adding extra procedural votes.”
“In some ways, the GOP’s tactics are an escalation of how hard-line conservatives have exercised their power for years … But Democrats warn that this latest gambit from the right could erode one of the last vestiges of bipartisanship in the House … Democrats argue that attempting to force House votes late into the night for little purpose other than agitation could dramatically slow the chamber’s work for years to come.”
One Senator Who Really Doesn’t Like Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) boasts about his extensive relationships in a New York Times interview, but it appears there’s one senator who still really doesn’t like him: Susan Collins (R-ME).
“Mr. Schumer’s political action committee ran ads accusing Ms. Collins’s husband of enriching himself through the opioid crisis and charging that she had ‘pocketed’ money from drug companies.”
Said Collins: “His tactics were unworthy of a Senate race.”
Unwinding Trump’s Immigration Policies Proves Unwieldy
Politico: “He’s only been in office for six weeks. … But he’s also being hampered by conflicting policies, staffing vacancies at the top, and in some instances, inaction. Foreign students who have been admitted to U.S. colleges this fall are struggling to secure visas, threatening to deprive U.S. colleges of billions of dollars for the second year in a row.”
“Refugees who expected to be admitted to the country after Biden proposed increasing the admissions cap have been turned away after the administration failed to make it official. And Biden’s administration has not withdrawn from court cases former president Donald Trump was pursuing to keep immigrants out of the country.”
Senate Democrats Talk Filibuster Reform
CNN: “Discussions within the Senate Democratic Caucus are expected to pick up steam in the coming days to see if they can unify behind a single plan.”
However, Playbook tries to decode Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) statements on the filibuster over the weekend and it turns out he’s not as open to change as he seemed to indicate.
Approval of Massive Relief Plan Imminent
“Congress is set to give the final green light to a $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package Wednesday, setting in motion another gargantuan political lift: a Washington-wide effort to administer one of the largest economic relief packages in U.S. history,” the Washington Post reports.
“Over the coming weeks, the Biden administration must send another round of one-time checks to millions of families, rethink vast portions of the U.S. tax code and dole out much-needed sums to help cash-strapped Americans, seeking to swiftly blunt an economic crisis that has left millions without jobs and falling further behind financially.”
Senate Returns to Confirming Biden’s Cabinet Picks
“After slow early progress on approving President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees, the Senate is finally on track to catch up to its pace of confirmations at the beginning of the Trump and Obama administrations,” Politico reports.
“With Donald Trump’s impeachment trial over and Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed, the Senate is spending this week on a confirmation blitz. The chamber is set to approve Biden’s picks to lead the Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Trump Tries to Wrestle Away GOP Fundraising
New York Times: “The former president this week escalated a standoff over the Republican Party’s financial future, blasting party leaders and urging his backers to send donations to his new political action committee — not to the institutional groups that traditionally control the G.O.P.’s coffers.”
“The aggressive move against his own party is the latest sign that Mr. Trump is trying to wrest control of the low-dollar online fund-raising juggernaut he helped create, diverting it from Republican fund-raising groups toward his own committee, which has virtually no restrictions on how the money can be spent.”
Politico: Trump makes cash grab in bid to dominate GOP.
Rick Scott Warns ‘Day of Reckoning’ Coming on Debt
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said “he’s worried that interest rates and inflation will rise as a result of greater government borrowing once President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package becomes law,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Scott: “There is a day of reckoning here — you can’t just raise debt. They don’t want to talk about how they’re going to pay for it, and now they’re going to want to go do an infrastructure bill.”
