Displaying all articles tagged:
Budget Reconciliation
early and often
Apr. 1, 2024
Johnson Urges GOP to Save Craziness for After the Election MTG wants House Republicans to pursue their extremist goals now. The Speaker would rather hold off and maximize the chances of a MAGA trifecta.
Democrats, Joe Manchin Is Absolutely Not Going to Reform the Filibuster If a potential debt default followed by an economic collapse isn’t reason enough to limit the power of the filibuster, nothing else is either.
By Ed Kilgore
debt ceiling
Oct. 5, 2021
Democrats Must Raise the Debt Limit to a Quadrillion Dollars Instead of trying to win a staring contest with Mitch McConnell, Democrats should use reconciliation to (effectively) abolish the debt ceiling.
By Eric Levitz
moderate democrats
Sept. 22, 2021
$3.5 Trillion Is Not a Lot of Money Joe Biden’s spending bill isn’t extreme, no matter what moderate Democrats say.
By Eric Levitz
Why Congress Is Fighting Over the Debt Ceiling Yet Again A brief guide to the perennial issue. Why Democrats will probably have to include an increase in their budget bill — and what happens if they don’t.
By Ed Kilgore
the national interest
July 16, 2021
Biden’s FDR-size Bet The president is rallying Democrats behind a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget package. It could be the key to winning 2024.
By Jonathan Chait
infrastructure
June 28, 2021
McConnell Threatens to Kill Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal If Republicans abandon the deal, Democrats can just add it to their own budget reconciliation bill and leave the GOP out of it altogether.
By Ed Kilgore
infrastructure
June 24, 2021
‘We Have a Deal’: Biden Endorses Senators’ Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan The deal can only hang together if Democrats, including Joe Manchin, can unite around a reconciliation bill to enact the rest of Biden’s agenda.
By Ed Kilgore
Democrats Move Ahead With Plan to Pass Rest of Biden Agenda Whether or not an infrastructure deal is cut with Republicans.
By Ed Kilgore
senate parlianmentarian
June 2, 2021
Parliamentarian Erects New Obstacle to Biden’s Agenda Democrats might be incapable of passing a partisan infrastructure bill until October under newly clarified Senate rules.
By Eric Levitz
Democrats Are Shooting for the Moon in 2021, and That’s Okay The usual choice between getting things done and holding on to power is no choice at all for Democrats right now.
By Ed Kilgore
immigration
Apr. 21, 2021
Reconciliation May Not Solve Democrats’ Immigration Woes As with the $15 minimum wage, a path to citizenship could succumb to a Senate parliamentarian’s ruling. And then there’s Joe Manchin.
By Ed Kilgore
budget reconciliation
Apr. 5, 2021
Democrats Get One More Big Bill This Year That Cannot Be Filibustered The Senate Parliamentarian agrees with Schumer’s multiple-reconciliation-bill theory, which could make Republican obstruction irrelevant.
By Ed Kilgore
voting rights
Mar. 25, 2021
Manchin Values Bipartisanship Over Voting Rights The West Virginian doesn’t seem interested in voting rights if it means filibuster reform — unless he’s setting up a test Republicans will fail.
By Ed Kilgore
What Will Be in the Next Big Democratic Bill? Deciding what can and can’t go into the next budget reconciliation bill will be a real and consequential puzzle for Democrats.
By Ed Kilgore
stimulus checks
Mar. 16, 2021
Third Stimulus Checks: Everything You Need to Know President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package includes $1,400 stimulus checks. Here’s who’s eligible and when the payments should arrive.
By Ed Kilgore
The 3 Dumbest Arguments Against Biden’s Stimulus Bill The ideas that Democrats are “ramming” a “liberal wish list” that the country cannot afford don’t bear much scrutiny.
By Ed Kilgore
Today’s Gridlock Is Like a 19th-Century Nightmare We’re experiencing the instability and close partisan competition of the Gilded Age along with the big differences and fury of the 1850s.
By Ed Kilgore
covid-19 stimulus
Mar. 5, 2021
Senate Likely to Vote on COVID-19 Stimulus Package This Weekend Democrats are already accepting changes in the bill to preempt Republican amendments, and Sanders’s minimum wage bid has already been defeated.
By Ed Kilgore
Give Biden a Break The left and the media have lost perspective. He’s soon going to sign an enormous, progressive stimulus bill and get his Cabinet confirmed.
By Ed Kilgore
$15 minimum wage
Feb. 26, 2021
Democrats Can Still Get a $15 Minimum Wage Into the COVID-Relief Bill There are plenty of ways for Democrats to get a $15 minimum wage through the Senate. There just aren’t 50 Senate Democrats willing to do so.
By Eric Levitz
$15 Minimum Wage Is Dead for Now Thanks to One Unelected Official Biden must decide whether to change the rules or change the subject.
By Ed Kilgore
covid-19 stimulus
Feb. 22, 2021
House Prepares to Pass Biden’s COVID Relief Bill This Week The bill should easily clear this first hurdle, but there will probably be more drama in the Senate.
By Ed Kilgore
trump impeachment trial
Feb. 8, 2021
Why Both Parties Want a Speedy Trump Impeachment Trial Republicans are eager to get the trial over with, and Democrats tend to agree — though some want a fuller accounting of Trump’s misdeeds.
By Ed Kilgore
What the Filibuster Has Cost America The damage has been massive, and it’s past time for reform.
By Ed Kilgore
american rescue plan
Feb. 5, 2021
Democrats Get Down to Writing Biden’s Stimulus Bill Now comes the hard part: writing Biden’s plans into legislation, and getting a reconciliation bill through a narrowly divided Congress.
By Ed Kilgore
minimum wage increase
Feb. 5, 2021
There Was Some Late-Night Maneuvering on the Minimum Wage Joni Ernst tried to set up a trap for moderate Democrats during the vote-a-rama. But Bernie Sanders outfoxed her and avoided a recorded vote.
By Ed Kilgore
covid-19 stimulus
Feb. 4, 2021
‘Vote-a-Rama’ Is the Price Democrats Must Pay to Avoid the Filibuster Dozens of Republican amendments will get pro forma votes in a session that will stretch into the wee hours. It’s all mostly fake drama.
By Ed Kilgore
budget reconciliation
Feb. 2, 2021
What Is Budget Reconciliation and Why Does It Matter for Biden’s Agenda? For 40 years, reconciliation has provided a way to bypass the Senate filibuster. It may be crucial for passing Biden’s stimulus plan.
By Ed Kilgore
covid-19 stimulus
Feb. 1, 2021
Republicans Offer Another Very Skinny Stimulus Proposal Biden has agreed to talk to the Republican senators, but a deal is unlikely unless he maintains the freedom to quickly follow up with a partisan bill.
By Ed Kilgore
117th congress
Nov. 12, 2020
Who Will Hold Power in the Next Congress? Depending on what happens in Georgia’s Senate runoffs, Democrats will have either a narrow path for governing or a tough row to hoe.
By Ed Kilgore
coronavirus stimulus
Oct. 23, 2020
How a Second Stimulus Check Could Be Approved After the Election If Pelosi and Mnuchin can’t do a deal before Election Day, a lot of possibilities and perils will emerge — not all of them good.
By Ed Kilgore
vision 2020
Nov. 15, 2019
Warren Proposes Two-Step Plan to Implement Medicare for All Warren’s timetable will appeal to Democrats who welcome Warren’s first step and think the second, which would kill private insurance, won’t happen.
By Ed Kilgore
vision 2020
Sept. 13, 2019
Bernie’s Plan to Thwart the Filibuster Is Needlessly Complicated At the debate, Sanders described a dubious strategy for circumventing the filibuster, borrowed from Ted Cruz. Warren has a simpler idea: abolish it.
By Ed Kilgore
health care
Aug. 27, 2019
If Democrats Flip Senate, They Plan to Fix Obamacare, Not Pass Medicare for All If Democrats win the Senate and take on the filibuster, their health-care agenda will involve an Obamacare fix and some strengthening of Medicare.
By Ed Kilgore
2018 midterms
Dec. 2, 2018
Total GOP Control in Washington Is About to End. What Did They Get Out of It? For two years Republicans have theoretically had the power to remake the federal government. How did that work out for them? It was a mixed bag.
By Ed Kilgore
Conservatives Plan One More Obamacare Repeal Effort Before the Midterm Wave GOP congressional leaders have mostly packed it in for 2018. But conservatives, with White House support, may try one last time to repeal Obamacare.
By Ed Kilgore
Paul Ryan’s Long Fight to Destroy the Welfare State Ends in Defeat After failing to repeal Obamacare and “reform” Medicaid, Ryan looked forward to more years of futility and decided to pack it in.
By Ed Kilgore
The GOP Tax Plan Is Dead — Unless the Filibuster Dies First Republicans just proved they can’t write a tax “reform” bill that complies with Senate rules. The only question now is whether they’ll break them.
By Eric Levitz
Senate GOP Survives the First of Many Votes on the Road to Cutting Taxes The hazier they keep their budget and tax plans, the farther down the road Republicans can maintain unity. But “enquiring minds” want to know more.
By Ed Kilgore
Can the Senate Push Aside the Saturday Deadline for Graham-Cassidy? We’ve all assumed the GOP’s latest Obamacare repeal faces a hard deadline. Not so fast.
By Ed Kilgore
House Budget Proposes Cuts to Medicare, Taxes on the Rich The House GOP wants the president to break his promise not to cut Medicare, for the sake of funding regressive tax cuts.
By Eric Levitz
No, Filibusters Aren’t Keeping 50 Republican Senators From Reaching Agreement Sean Duffy (like Donald Trump) wants to blame the threat of filibusters for blocking GOP bills. But the big ones aren’t subject to filibusters.
By Ed Kilgore
GOP Senator Explains Party’s Disarray: Nobody Expected Trump to Win Pat Toomey spills a secret: Republicans didn’t have a policy plan because they didn’t think they’d have the power to enact it.
By Ed Kilgore
Republicans Are Hunkering Down for a Long Legislative Winter The party came into power promising a string of high-speed victories. Now, after a lot of screwups and delays, it’s mired down.
By Ed Kilgore
How Republicans Could Nuke the Rules to Pass Trumpcare This one weird trick involves an arcane interpretation of budget rules that would end the filibuster.
By Ed Kilgore
Will Republicans Try to Privatize Medicare in 2017? Doing it now, with so many other things on their plate, would be tricky business.
By Ed Kilgore
Under President Trump, Big Changes Are on the Way for America — and Soon With Republicans controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, a lot of reactionary legislation will probably be enacted very fast.
By Ed Kilgore