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As a moderate Democrat for more than five decades, I have seen politicians in both parties act remarkably blind and deaf to the true causes of their defeats when they really dont want to hear the truth.

Most recently, the Democrats had a major defeat at the polls, and they have tried to blame it on their failure to pass infrastructure legislation prior to the election. Although this was possibly a small factor, the major unspoken reason was their imposition of excessive closures and mandates related to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a retired physician, and yes, COVID-19 is a true pandemic that has killed 750,000 Americans in the last two years. However, for healthy younger people, a COVID-19 infection presents minimal health risks.

To better put the deaths in perspective, 200,000 of them occurred in people aged 85 and older. Another 195,000 deaths occurred in people aged 75 and older. Taken together, more than 50% of all COVID-19 deaths occurred in elderly people at high risk for death due to other causes. Only 18,000 deaths have occurred among the 150 million people in the United States aged 40 or younger. The death rate in this age group is about 1 in 10,000.

Among school-age children, there have been fewer than 600 total deaths among the 80 million children younger than 18 years old, for a death rate of less than 1 out of every 100,000 children. Of the deaths in people who were younger than 40 years old, the vast majority of them occurred in people with impaired immune systems due to chronic disease, cancer, severe obesity, or other high-risk conditions.

Fortunately, vaccination usually reduces the severity of the disease and the risk of death. The elderly and those with risk factors for severe COVID-19 infection should choose to be vaccinated, but no one should be forced to be vaccinated. Even after vaccination, some people with weakened immune systems, either from advanced age or other risk factors, will continue to die from COVID-19. No amount of immunization or miracle drugs can prevent this from happening.

Most importantly, if you follow the science, the numbers above cannot possibly justify the imposition of vaccine mandates in schools or in most businesses. People do not want their healthcare decisions to be made for them by the government.

This has been clearly shown with regard to the issue of cigarette smoking. Everyone knows that smoking is harmful and that long-term smoking significantly reduces life expectancy, yet large numbers of people continue to smoke. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. Although I would never advocate it, we would save far more lives by making smoking illegal than will ever be saved with vaccine mandates.

Democratic officials have alienated large numbers of moderate Democratic voters, and especially independent voters, by imposing excessive closures, mask requirements, and vaccine mandates. Next November, this will become obvious. By then, both infrastructure bills will have passed, and the Democrats will suffer very large losses at the polls because of their continued overreactions to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mark Donnell is a retired medical doctor in New Mexico.

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Democrats' overreaction to the pandemic is alienating voters - Washington Examiner

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, October 7, 2021.

Joshua Roberts | Reuters

House Democrats will head into next year's midterm elections trying to hold on to their majority in the chamber as several longtime members say they plan to step down.

On Monday, veteran Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and David Price, D-N.C., announced they would not run for another term in Congress. Their departures mean at least seven House Democrats will not seek reelection in 2022, compared with at least three Republicans, according to an NBC News tally.

The retirements come as Democrats face the prospect of losing House control in the midterms. They currently hold a slim 220-212 majority in the chamber. As the party of President Joe Biden, Democrats will have to overcome historical trends to keep their majority: The White House incumbent's party usually loses seats in Congress during midterms.

Democrats will try to extend their unified but narrow control of the White House, Senate and House for another two years. Republicans aim to leverage history, new congressional district maps and Biden's lackluster approval rating to win back control of Congress.

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Retirements can not only signal pessimism about a party's ability to keep its majority but also can make districts without incumbents harder to retain.

Many of the Democrats who will not seek reelection represent areas where Republicans could have a tough time winning in 2022. Doyle represents Pennsylvania's 18th District, a Pittsburgh-based seat that Biden won by about 30 percentage points last year, according to Daily Kos data.

The president also carried Price's Durham, N.C.-area 4th District by more than 30 percentage points in 2020. House Budget Committee Chair John Yarmuth a longtime Kentucky Democrat who announced his retirement last week will leave behind the Louisville-based 3rd District, which Biden won by about 22 percentage points last year.

Other seats left open by Democrats appear to be better pickup opportunities for the GOP. Former President Donald Trump won outgoing Democratic Rep. Ron Kind's 3rd District in Wisconsin by about 5 percentage points last year.

Trump also carried Illinois' 17th District, now held by departing Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos.

Doyle has been in Congress since 1995. In announcing his retirement Monday, the 68-year-old said "the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation." Doyle said he wanted to spend more time with his family and noted that redistricting played into his decision.

States are drawing new congressional district maps after completion of the 2020 Census. While changes to Doyle's seat may not make it harder for Democrats to win, changes to other districts will force some lawmakers to run in environments less friendly to their party.

Price, 81, first spent 1987 to 1995 in the House. After losing a reelection bid in 1994, he won the 4th District back two years later and has represented it in Congress since 1997.

Price said that during the rest of his term he would "continue fighting for the just and inclusive country we believe in."

The midterms will be the first nationwide congressional elections since a mob of Trump supporters overran the Capitol while lawmakers counted Biden's election victory on Jan. 6. After insurrectionists spurred by Trump's false claims that he was cheated out of a second term were expelled from the building, 139 House Republicans and eight GOP senators voted to object to tallying at least one state's certified presidential results.

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Retirements mount as House Democrats try to defend their majority in the 2022 midterms - CNBC

Of all the workers I got to know from the plant, Wally was the most optimistic. He believed in the American dream, or at least in his own ability to achieve it. Unlike many of the white men who broke down in tears at the thought of the plant closing and their machines being taken to Mexico, Wally focused on his goal of opening a barbecue business. Owning your own business meant you could never be laid off or offshored and you never had to rely on a person who might be racist to earn your daily bread. Best of all, you could employ others bestowing on them the gift of a decent job.

Im either going to make it or I wont, he told a friend during his first attempt at selling barbecue to the public. And guess what? I come from a long line of makers.

I followed Wally for about a year, until he died. He had chest pains but refused to go to the hospital because hed lost his health insurance. That heartbreaking experience taught me how deadly the loss of work can be in a country where health care is tied to employment. Men with high seniority who get laid off experience mortality rates that are 50 to 100 percent higher than their co-workers. Of roughly 300 workers who got laid off from the Rexnord plant, I counted three who died within a year of stress-related or alcohol-related illnesses.

This too, was a lesson underscored by the pandemic. In addition to those who passed away from Covid, some 90,000 people in America perished of opioid overdoses in 2020, a 30 percent increase from the previous year. Its not clear if thats because treatment got shut off, or because people suddenly had nothing to do all day long. But we do know that, even before Covid, studies showed an unmistakable link between unemployment shocks and opioid deaths and hospitalizations.

The unemployment rate is measuring more than just jobs, Alex Hollingsworth, associate professor at the ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, told me. It measures the health of the community.

Too often those who claim to champion the working class are culturally, geographically and economically disconnected from their everyday realities. Nothing makes this more clear than political language grounded in social safety nets and entitlements, instead of jobs.

After the Rexnord plant closed, John had to appear regularly at an unemployment office to jump through hoops to collect a check that came to a grand total of $335 a week.

Once, he was asked if hed been willing to take a survival job just to put food on the table. That question annoyed him.

Of course Id take a survival job, John said. What other choice do I have? Go on welfare? He bristled at the thought. Unemployment was one thing. Hed paid into that system all this life. Welfare was a different story. No matter how far he fell, going on welfare was a line he had vowed never to cross. Many of the steelworkers I followed felt the same way. They all knew people who gamed the system. They took pride in earning a paycheck, something that distinguished them from a lazy relative or a drug-addicted acquaintance who didnt work.

Even proposals like free college, which Democrats crafted to help families like his, rubbed John the wrong way.

There is no such thing as free, in Johns book.

Free this, free that, John complained one day down at his union hall. Whos going to pay for that? he asked, rhetorically. The workingman, thats who.

John was helping his daughter pay for room and board at a state school, and he worried that it made no sense to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans just to live and eat, when she could do so far more cheaply at home. He believed in higher education, within reason and to a point. He had gotten his associate degree in piping design at community college, while living at home with his parents. But he had to leave class an hour early every day to get to a job, laying tarmac at an airport. After all that, he was able to get a job that paid about $30,000. Then his uncle drew the lucky straw at a factory that made diesel engines, winning a job application that he passed along to John. Suddenly, John was making $70,000 a year at a job that required no degree at all. To many workers like John, free college is not the brass ring that they are looking for. The ever-increasing number of jobs requiring college degrees feels like a way to shake more money out of working-class people so that professors and colleges can stay in business.

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Build Back Better Is a Jobs Program. Why Wont Democrats Call It That? - POLITICO

Democrat Terry McAuliffe might have slipped up in his second and final debate with Glenn Youngkin, but the Republican has made his own mistakes in his campaign for governor of Virginia. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The only political media narrative more durable than Democrats in disarray, it seems, is Democrats in full panic. And as President Joe Bidens job-approval rating lingers underwater and the struggle to enact his agenda in Congress drags on, theres a lot of justified pessimism about his partys ability to hang on to a governing trifecta in the 2022 midterms.

But what may turn fear and worry into panic is a defeat in the November 2 Virginia gubernatorial contest. So the big question is: Could that happen, and if so, what does it mean for the future? Here are some (mostly reassuring) points for Democrats to consider.

The case for Terry McAuliffes likely victory is simple: Democrats havent lost a statewide race in Virginia since 2009. In the last gubernatorial contest, in 2017, Democrat Ralph Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie by a margin of 8.9 percent. Biden defeated Donald Trump in the commonwealth by 10.1 percent. Virginia is blue and getting bluer, it seems.

But then there is Virginias famous reluctance to elect governors from the party that controls the White House. It didnt happen for an amazing 40 years from 1973 until 2013. Yes, McAuliffe was the one who broke the streakbut he won by a spare 2.6 percent against a flawed and underfunded conservative ideologue, Ken Cuccinelli. In the previous governors race, in 2009, Republican Bob McDonnell trounced Democrat Creigh Deeds by 17 percentage points even though Barack Obama had ended the GOPs long presidential winning streak in Virginia the year before. So its true that Old Dominions blue hue can be overstated, particularly when Democrats control the White House; the states proximity to Washington and its powerful media outlets clearly contributes to a regular nationalization of elections there.

Another reason Democrats fear a Virginia defeat this year is Republicans appear to have an enthusiasm advantage in the state, just as they do in much of the country. But McAuliffe has regularly (if narrowly) led Republican Glenn Youngkin in polls that deploy likely-voter screens.

As for the campaign itself, both candidates appear to have made a significant unforced error. In the second and final candidate debate on September 28, McAuliffe defended a bill he vetoed as governor that would have let kids opt out of reading assignments that included sexually explicit materials parents found offensive. Taken out of context, his remark Yeah, I stopped the bill that I dont think parents should be telling schools what they should teach has been rich fodder for Youngkins claim that McAuliffe is loyal to Education Department bureaucrats and teachers unions rather than parents.

More recently, Youngkin was caught flat-footed by a Take Back Virginia rally headlined by Steve Bannon that included not only testaments on behalf of Youngkin (including one by phone from Trump) but a Pledge of Allegiance to a flag that had been brandished at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. This incident reinforced McAuliffes effort to tie his opponent to Trump and Republican extremism.

The race could go either way, but McAuliffe remains the favorite, albeit not with any great confidence.

Virginias history of punishing the party of the president in gubernatorial contests hasnt really made the state a bellwether for subsequent midterm elections, which usually cut against the party in the White House there and everywhere else. On the rare occasions when the presidents party did make midterm gains, Virginia wasnt prophetic at all. In 1997, Republican Jim Gilmore won the governorship over Don Beyer by a landslide the year before Democrats made gains in the House. And in 2001, Democrat Mark Warner solidly defeated Republican Mark Earley just before Republicans made House and Senate gains in the 2002 midterms.

The most recent prophetic Virginia result was probably the McDonnell landslide in 2009, which occurred a year before the national Republican landslide that flipped control of the House (and netted the GOP three seats in Virginia). But even if Youngkin wins, he isnt going to win by the 59-41 margin by which McDonnell won, so it wouldnt represent grounds for Democratic panic.

Those pointing to a 2022 fiasco for Democrats often compare the upcoming election to the 2010 disaster that occurred during Obamas first term. While the odds are good Democrats will lose control of the House in 2022 (unless Bidens job-approval rating turns around and begins to resemble the 60-plus percent numbers enjoyed by Bill Clinton in 1998 and George W. Bush in 2002), Democrats just dont have the kind of exposure they suffered from in 2010 and other midterms with catastrophic results, as Ronald Brownstein points out:

The biggest midterm losses have typically come after elections (like those in 1912, 1964, and 2008) in which the majority party secured significant gains forcing it to defend seats deep in the other partys territory. House Democrats already surrendered in 2020 many of the most Republican-leaning seats they had captured two years before.

Thanks ironically to their underwhelming performance in 2020 House elections, Democrats dont control enough marginal turf to generate anything like 2010s 63-seat loss. Only seven Democrats hold House seats in districts carried by Trump in 2020; going into 2010, 49 House Democrats were in districts won by John McCain despite Obamas big national win. You can certainly make a good argument that partisan polarization has reduced the likelihood of big swings in virtually all national elections. After 2010, it took Democrats four election cycles to regain control of the House. If they lose the House in 2022, the road back could be shorter.

Some of the Democrats in full panic syndrome probably stems from certain partisan characteristics: All else being equal, Democrats tend to see glasses as half full while Republicans perpetually spin future elections as already won (and in the era of Big Liar Trump, past losses as won too). But history and current trends suggest that while some painful House losses are likely in store for the Donkey Party next year, it could well hang on to the Senate and win some key gubernatorial races as well. And theres really no reason at all to assume Biden cant be reelected in 2024 if he chooses to run for a second term.

For now, Democrats should fret less about Virginia and focus more on securing accomplishments in Congress that will serve as a legacy no matter what happens in 2022.

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Excerpt from:
Is It Time for Democrats to Panic About Virginia and the Midterms? - New York Magazine

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125 Democrats urge Pelosi, Schumer to protect housing funds Congressional Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on House and Senate leaders to preserve hundreds of billions of dollars in housing funds at risk of elimination from their sweeping social spending package as the leaders seek to pare down the massive bill. New York Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres led 125 lawmakers in sending a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday urging them to keep $90 billion for rental assistance, $80 billion for public housing repairs and $37 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund in the final version of the bill.

Democrats across the ideological spectrum of the caucus from the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to members of the moderate New Democrat Coalition signed on to the letter, indicating broad support across the party for keeping the majority of the more than $300 billion in housing funds approved by the House Financial Services Committee last month. Committee Chair Maxine Waters has vowed to fight to protect housing aid in the bill and last week said she received assurances from President Joe Biden that the White House also wants to preserve it.

But industry lobbyists and housing advocates worry that their programs could be in trouble, as White House and congressional negotiators try to cut the $3.5 trillion package nearly in half. Advocates are warning that doing so would amount to nixing racial equity from the bill. While congressional leaders continue to negotiate the size and scope of the economic recovery package, it is critical that any cuts made to the overall package do not come at the expense of affordable, accessible homes for Americas lowest-income and most marginalized people, the lawmakers wrote in the letter, a copy of which was shared with POLITICO. Read more from Megan Cassella here.

ITS TUESDAY Send any tips to me at [emailprotected] or @KatyODonnell_ and to Aubree Eliza Weaver at [emailprotected] or @AubreeEWeaver.

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Americas banks firmly believe that everyone should pay their taxes, but a proposal in Congress would force banks to provide details to the IRS on whats going in and out of almost every bank account in the country. This dragnet of data collection raises serious questions about Americans right to privacy. Learn more about the issue and take action here.

The Census Bureau releases the monthly new residential construction report for September at 8:30 a.m. Senate Banking holds a hearing on sanctions policy with Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo at 10 a.m.

SEC GAMESTOP REPORT SIGNALS ROBINHOOD WILL FACE MORE HEAT Our Kellie Mejdrich: Securities and Exchange Commission staff said Monday in a long-awaited report on the GameStop stock trading tumult that game-like features used by Robinhood and other online brokerages warranted further scrutiny by regulators. Agency officials said in the report which dissected January's flood of trading in so-called meme stocks and the impacts of the volatility that the agency should consider whether things like celebratory animations used to create positive feedback lead investors to trade more than they would otherwise. They said that incentives triggered by payment for order flow the practice in which wholesale trading firms pay brokerages to execute their customers' orders may cause broker-dealers to find novel ways to increase customer trading, including through digital engagement techniques.

The SEC also praised the equity market structure and absolved short sellers Reuters Katanga Johnson and Chris Prentice: The U.S. markets functioned well during January's GameStop volatility, while short selling was not the main cause of the unprecedented rise in the 'meme stock,' according to a long-awaited Securities and Exchange Commission report. The report published on Monday provides a post-mortem into how amateur traders using commission-free retail brokerages drove shares in GameStop and other popular meme stocks to extreme highs, squeezing hedge funds that had bet against them.

SURVEY: SUPPLY-CHAIN BOTTLENECKS, ELEVATED INFLATION TO LAST WELL INTO NEXT YEAR WSJs Gwynn Guilford and Anthony DeBarros: Uncomfortably high inflation will grip the U.S. economy well into 2022, as constrained supply chains keep upward pressure on prices and, increasingly, curb output, according to economists surveyed this month by The Wall Street Journal. The economists inflation projections are up dramatically from July, while short-term growth outlooks are lower.

REGIONAL FED ANALYSIS SUGGESTS BIDENS STIMULUS IS TEMPORARILY STOKING INFLATION NYTs Jeanna Smialek: Inflation is likely getting a temporary boost from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that the Biden administration ushered in early this year, new Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco research released on Monday suggested.

The analysis may add fuel to a hot debate in Washington over whether the administrations policies are contributing to a spike in prices. Critics of the government spending package that was signed into law in March, including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, have said it was poorly targeted and risked overheating the economy. Supporters of the relief program have said it provided critical aid to workers and businesses still struggling through the pandemic.

U.S. REVIEWS SANCTIONS POLICY, WARNS OF THREAT FROM CRYPTO Reuters Daphne Psaledakis and Matt Spetalnick: President Joe Biden's administration on Monday announced a set of recommendations to revamp its use of economic sanctions to make them a more effective tool of U.S. foreign policy but warned that more had to be done to protect against the threat posed by the rise of cryptocurrencies. Following a broad review launched shortly after Biden took office in January, the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a revised framework intended to take a more surgical approach to sanctions instead of the blunt-force method favored by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

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BITCOIN FUNDS REACH THE MASSES; EXPERTS SAY ITS DANGEROUS From our Kellie Mejdrich: The Securities and Exchange Commission is beginning to bless the first widely available investment funds that track Bitcoin, opening a rift with watchdog groups who argue increased exposure to the volatile market puts consumers at risk. The SEC has signaled that it won't block industry proposals to launch exchange-traded funds based on Bitcoin futures contracts as regulatory deadlines come to pass this month. When the first fund begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange early this week, it will be a landmark moment for the booming cryptocurrency market. The emerging controversy around the SEC's approval of the funds underscores the broader political tensions that regulators are facing as they grapple with how to impose safeguards on the red-hot market. The funds would address growing demand from investors who want exposure to the rising value of Bitcoin.

DOLLAR FIRMS AS INFLATION, RATE HIKE EXPECTATIONS PUSH UP BOND YIELDS Reuters Karen Brettell: The dollar gained slightly on the day on Monday as Treasury yields rose on expectations the Federal Reserve will need to hike interest rates sooner than previously expected to quell rising price pressures. Market participants expect the U.S. central bank will need to act as inflation looks to be stubbornly persistent and unlikely to fade anytime soon.

Global increases in inflation are also increasing expectations that rate hikes will need to be global, as New Zealand faced its highest price pressures in a decade and after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey sent a fresh signal that the central bank was gearing up to raise interest rates as inflation risks mount.

WARREN DOESNT GET FED TRADING BAN PROPOSAL BY DEADLINE REQUESTED WSJs Michael S. Derby: Regional Federal Reserve Banks havent presented Sen. Elizabeth Warren with a plan to ban stock trading by senior central bankers as the Democrat from Massachusetts requested last month. Ms. Warren had written to the 12 bank presidents on Sept. 16 asking for the ban, following disclosures that the leaders of the Dallas and Boston Fed banks had been trading stocks and other investments even as they helped set the nations monetary policy. Both officials later resigned. The senator had asked for a response by Oct. 15 on plans for a trading ban, followed by its implementation within 60 days of her letters.

INTERNAL TRIBUNE FINDS WORLD BANK MISHANDLED SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS WSJs Santiago Perez: The World Bank failed to protect two young employees who filed sexual-harassment allegations against a veteran, high-ranking official who is now a presidential candidate in Costa Rica, according to findings released by the banks internal labor tribunal. The World Bank Administrative Tribunal found that senior management under bank President David Malpass and his two predecessors didnt adequately sanction Rodrigo Chaves. He was demoted but not fired despite a documented pattern of harassment that lasted at least four years and involved six women, according to case-related documents that were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

STOCKS WOBBLE APs Damian J. Troise: Stocks wobbled to a mixed finish on Wall Street Monday as the markets momentum slowed down following its best week since July. The muted trading comes ahead of a busy week of corporate earnings that could help investors find a smoother path ahead for stocks after weeks of choppiness. Investors are also trying to figure out how the broader economy will continue its recovery with COVID-19 lingering as a threat, while businesses and consumers face rising inflation. The S&P 500 rose 15.09 points, or 0.3%, to 4,486.46, with stocks roughly split between gainers and losers. The benchmark index has been choppy for weeks. It rose 1.8% last week for its best week since July, though it shed 2.2% just two weeks prior. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.15 points, or 0.1%, to 35,258.61. The Nasdaq rose 124.47, or 0.8%, to 15,021.81.

WALL STREET TREASURY BULLS BACK DOWN Bloombergs Hema Parmar: Wall Street strategists who thought the coast was clear for bets on lower Treasury yields are abandoning ship after the market moved against them in a global bond selloff. Those at Toronto-Dominion Bank and Barclays Plc reversed course on recommendations to buy five- and three-year notes, respectively, as Treasury yields extended their recent climb. Yields on the securities rose nearly seven basis points Monday to the highest levels since at least March 2020.

A message from the American Bankers Association:

A proposal in Congress would force financial institutions to provide details to the IRS on the inflows and outflows of any bank account worth $600 or more. While supporters say the proposal is aimed at reducing the tax gap by targeting wealthy tax cheats, this data dragnet would actually capture information from almost everyone with a bank account, not just those suspected of tax avoidance.

Everyone should pay their fair share of taxes, but this proposal goes too far and raises serious questions about Americans right to privacywhile damaging the hard-earned trust between banks and their customers. Tell Congress to oppose this misguided proposal and demand that the IRS focus on tax cheats, not all taxpayers.

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Democrats amp up pressure on Pelosi, Schumer to save housing aid - Politico