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Mr. Sanders took aim at the recent news that a moderate think tank, Third Way, was working on a project seeking to push Democrats toward the center for the midterm elections. He said that issues like canceling student debt, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and combating climate change were political winners.

The American working class today white, Black, Latino they are hurting. They want us to respond vigorously, he said. If we do so, I think that they will reward us in 2022. If we fail them, and the Republicans can go around and say, Hey, you gave these people the House, the Senate and the White House and they did nothing for you, we will not do well in 2022.

Still, the entrenchment by moderate senators and the presidents current deference to it presents a challenge for activists hoping to influence the administration. And while progressive elected officials are confident that Mr. Biden will side with them in the end, a growing chorus of activists is looking to him for more immediate action.

K Trainor, a student activist who has worked with progressive groups to turn out college students for Democrats, said Mr. Bidens answer at the town hall was deeply disappointing. She said that if the administration didnt deliver for young voters, it would make it harder to persuade them to turn out in future elections.

I think a lot of people in my generation are asking, Where is the courage? Ms. Trainor said. It feels like theyre backtracking and were not even 100 days in.

The Rev. William J. Barber II, a co-chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign who organized the West Virginia workers meeting with Mr. Manchin, said the debate reflected an ugly underbelly of Democratic politics. While poor and low-income workers, particularly those who are racial minorities or young people, make up the core of the Democratic base, he said, the policies that they care about most have often been sacrificed because of political calculations.

They are the human cost of the big tent, he said.

Democrats ran on this, they put it in their platform and they said this is what needs to happen, Dr. Barber said. It would be the ultimate abandonment and betrayal to then get here and have the power to do it, and then retreat.

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Democrats Big Tent Helped Them Win. Now It Threatens Bidens Agenda. - The New York Times

Democrats won the majority, and they should act like it. They promised Americans bold relief, and they shouldnt let Republicans use procedural hurdles like the filibuster to block their agenda. The best chance of keeping Republicans from permanently controlling the levers of power is by passing big, bold democracy reforms and the only way we do that is by eliminating the filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is too eager to use it.

In his first few months as Senate minority leader, McConnell has given us a preview of how Republicans will behave for the next four years. They will use every tool at their disposal, like the filibuster, to cling to power and stop progress.

They used it to block civil rights legislation in the 1960s. They used it to block background checks for gun sales in 2013. And theyll use it to block everything Democrats want to do in 2021. I am asking that California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla support ending the filibuster.

Lori Saltveit, Corte Madera

Wonderful love poems

Regarding Kirsten Menger-Andersons Valentines Day lament in My search for love poems turns up bias (Insight, Feb. 14): It is true that men have written the bulk of famous love poems. But definitely not all. Menger-Anderson should check out two of the most beautiful love poems ever written: one by Anne Bradstreet (To My Dear and Loving Husband) and one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (How Do I Love Thee? Sonnet 43).

Blair Hoffman, Moraga

Fix the supply chain

Regarding Auto industry bets future on batteries (Business, Feb. 17): Behind the coronavirus pandemic, there is another crisis lurking around. It is now frequently ravaging through the country, inflicting extreme weather, causing wildfires and snowstorms, destroying homes, and taking lives. There is no time to waste in tackling the imminent threat of climate change.

Although electrification of vehicles and transportation fleets is a step in the right direction, without a sustainable manufacturing supply chain, it will fall short of its promises to mitigate the climate crisis.

Manufacturing batteries from scarce minerals displaces the carbon footprint from consumers to the supply chain, depletes natural resources and is not sustainable for production at scale. Research in the battery industry is rapidly growing; however, government-funded research must focus on solutions that are transferable to commercial products and can be used for manufacturing at scale. Otherwise, funds and time are wasted as the link between research and mass production is broken.

Elham Sakhaee, Union City

Dont deny opportunity

Bureaucrats are not known for wisdom, as the San Francisco School Board has recently affirmed by its recent school renaming mania and especially the changes regarding enrollment at Lowell High School. If there is some racial or ethnic unbalance of opportunity, then find the reason for that and do something about it (such as improve education in the lower grades). It makes no sense to remedy the unbalance by denying opportunity for all.

Howard Kraus, El Cerrito

Restaurants rights

Regarding Restaurants may pay high price for ignoring employees values (Front Page, Feb. 15): The coverage of the Girl & the Fig controversy mostly misses the point. At issue is whether a business has a right to keep its facilities apolitical. Or, alternatively, does a butcher shop have to let the counter help wear T-shirts saying Meat Kills? Does a property management firm have to let the receptionist sport a button that says Rent is Theft?

When a restaurateur invests maybe a million dollars to start a restaurant, can the front-of-the-house employees, by right, set a political agenda so as to offend and likely lose half the potential clientele? Righteousness of his cause notwithstanding, did Colin Kaepernick have the right to usurp the NFL stage for his own political purposes? The suggestion proffered by some Millennials that demands political transparency as a prerequisite for patronage would split the country already divided politically into one divided economically. We shop at our stores; they shop at theirs. Give me a break.

Albert Sukoff, Berkeley

Curb PG&Es power

Regarding Judge says PG&E was reckless before fire (Business, Feb. 4): Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has a well-earned reputation for repeatedly failing to protect our public health and safety. PG&Es legacy of death, destruction and irresponsibility continues to catch up with it in court. Most recently, U.S. District Judge William Alsup stated that PG&E has been a terror t-e-r-r-o-r to the people of the state of California. Judge Alsup appears to be one of the few public officials willing to stand against PG&Es vast political and financial power.

We need more public officials and courts to step up and rein in PG&Es reign of terror. We need much more effective oversight of its reckless behavior.

That means not only its exploding gas pipelines and wildfire-causing electric power lines, poles and transformers but also PG&Es numerous dams in the Sierra Nevada and its dangerous and salmon-destroying century-old dams on the Eel River in Californias northern coastal range.

David Keller, Petaluma

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Letters to the Editor: Democrats need to support ending the filibuster - San Francisco Chronicle

Democrats on Thursday unveiled Biden-backed legislation to overhaul the immigration system, which includes setting up a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for UndocuBlack Net hide caption

Democrats on Thursday unveiled Biden-backed legislation to overhaul the immigration system, which includes setting up a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Updated 4:25p.m. ET

Congressional Democrats unveiled a sweeping the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, an immigration bill that includes setting up a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

The measure is backed by President Biden and closely aligns with the plan he proposed on his first day in office. His administration and congressional Democrats are under pressure from immigration advocates to act quickly to move the bill, but it's unclear how quickly they will pursue passage.

"I look forward to working with leaders in the House and Senate to address the wrongdoings of the past administration and restore justice, humanity, and order to our immigration system," Biden said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "This is an important first step in pursuing immigration policies that unite families, grow and enhance our economy, and safeguard our security."

The Democratic bill includes a fast-track process for immigrants who were brought to the country by their parents at a young age (otherwise known as "DREAMers"), along with certain farmworkers and past recipients of temporary protected status, such as people who fled wars.

"We have 11 million undocumented people living, working and raising families in our communities without legal status," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said during a news conference Thursday morning. "These are good and decent people who believe in the promise of America down to their bones."

Menendez was joined by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., who shared her family's story of immigrating to the U.S.

"I am the daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico. They came to this country and they work hard and they sacrificed every day to provide for me and my brothers and sisters," she said. "Their story is like the story of so many others."

The plan seeks to boost the diversity visa program, a sharp departure from the Trump administration's goal to eliminate the program. The bill also replaces the term "alien" in U.S. immigration laws with "noncitizen."

It's anticipated that Republicans will oppose many provisions in the legislation, which could signal that Democrats will need to employ alternative measures to push it through the Senate where, under current rules, it needs 60 votes to proceed.

"The reason we have not gotten immigration reform over the finish line is not because of a lack of will," Menendez said. "It is because time and time again, we have compromised too much and capitulated too quickly to fringe voices who have refused to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country and dismiss everything, no matter how significant it is in terms of the national security, as amnesty."

During a CNN town hall on Tuesday, Biden indicated that though he considers a pathway to citizenship essential, he may be open to a piecemeal approach to immigration.

"There's things that I would deal by itself, but not at the expense of saying, 'I'm never going to do the other,' he said. "There is a reasonable path to citizenship."

Both former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush had attempted to put their stamp on immigration by unveiling proposals that included pathways to citizenship, but both plans were rejected by Congress.

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Democrats Unveil Sweeping Immigration Bill - NPR

AUSTIN Even as Texas Democrats on Friday blamed state Republicans for hardships faced by millions of state residents, they appeared to be road testing a message for voters next year: Government doesnt have to be this inept.

This weeks upending of electricity and drinking water supplies by arctic temperatures was predictable and preventable, top state Democrats said in a Zoom call with journalists.

While demanding probes of what happened and offering policy proposals for realigning the states power grid and safeguarding other crucial infrastructure, the Democrats signaled they will spend many months reminding state voters of one thing:

Austin is run by Republicans who arent inclined to govern vigorously and are in thrall to corporations and rich campaign contributors.

You wouldnt run a company with people that dont believe in business, said former presidential candidate and federal housing secretary Julin Castro.

You cant run a government effectively with people who dont believe in government, but thats what we have in Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick and the rest of them. That needs to change, Castro said. After what happened these past few days, a lot more Texans see that very clearly as well.

Spokesmen for Abbott, the Republican governor, and Patrick, the GOP lieutenant governor, did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.

Castro, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate against Abbott next year, may have offered the strongest criticism of the two-term governor of the five politicians who joined the call, which was arranged by the Texas Democratic Party.

Earlier this week, Castro noted, Abbott issued successive announcements that hes declaring as emergency items for the Legislature an overhaul of the transmission grids manager, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, and requirements that generating plants be winterized.

Dont be fooled and think its decisive action because its merely political theater, said Castro, a former San Antonio mayor.

Gov. Abbott follows the same playbook, whether were talking about his failures with Hurricane Harvey, the coronavirus pandemic or the events of the last few days, he said.

When citizens feel the pain of his incompetence and inaction, he suddenly declares that theres an emergency that needs to be placed on the agenda of the Legislature as though these problems didnt exist before, as though he and Republicans havent been in charge of the state for the last two decades and didnt have any opportunity to do anything about it.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, called this weeks loss of power, heat and water for millions of Texans a preventable crisis.

He urged state leaders to investigate, require winterization of power plants and tap rainy-day dollars to pay for them not consumers wallets.

Houston Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said its time for all of Texas to be connected with national grids and for its electricity industry to be federally regulated.

It happened because we had a failed governmental system that did not turn ERCOT upside down and change its structure so that we had weatherization and hardening of our assets, she said.

Castros brother, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, said that he and nine Democratic House colleagues from Texas this week wrote to the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT asking if they had a plan for distributing equitable rolling outages and why grid managers waited until Sunday to announce outages and other measures to stabilize the power grid.

We received essentially non-responses, Castro said. If you look at the response from the Public Utility Commission in particular, which oversees ERCOT and the commissioners of the Public Utility Commission, who are appointed by Greg Abbott, their response is one of the most arrogant responses Ive ever seen from a government agency.

While ERCOT replied to the Democrats query in a three-page letter, Commission Chairwoman DeAnn T. Walker gave them just five sentences. Abbott has made ERCOT reform an emergency item this legislative session, she wrote.

Commission spokesman Andrew Barlow, asked about Castros criticism, said the regulatory agency is wholeheartedly committed to the process of discovery and discussion that is now underway with the grid restoration to normal operating conditions.

On the Democrats call, Michael and Anna Mendez of Austin recounted how they and their 10-year-old son lost power for 62 hours and were forced to forage for firewood and sleep beside and cook using their apartments fireplace. At night, they took turns getting up every two hours to replenish the fire, Michael Mendez said.

It was rough, he said. We just ultimately felt abandoned, and we feel like our city leaders and our state leaders just literally left us out in the cold.

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Democrats look ahead to 2022 campaign with plans to hammer Texas GOP as inept in running government - The Dallas Morning News

A few weeks ago, it looked like Andrew Cuomo was on track to break a New York curse and make it past a third term in office. But now, roiled in a Covid scandal, his political future is looking less certain.

And getting aid money out quickly is crucial to keeping the economy afloat after the hit it took from the coronavirus, economists warn, given that any lapses in assistance will lead to a drop in consumer spending. Spending among low- and middle-income Americans who are receiving stimulus checks and unemployment benefits is slightly higher than it was before the pandemic, heavily bolstering the economy even though 10 million people remain unemployed.

When people talk about how startlingly strong the rebound was out of the depths of the initial part of the crisis, that was predicated on unprecedented support from the federal government, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton.

The start-and-stop nature of unemployment aid and other benefits is already weighing on consumer behavior, dampening the effects on the broader economy, Swonk and other economists warn. If people are unable to count on regular unemployment checks or anticipate a change in the amount of benefits they are getting, they will spend less.

"It creates uncertainty, and uncertainty is a tax on the economy, Swonk said.

Among the stimulus policies that would most significantly increase cash to Americans, the package would boost the child tax credit and allow families to receive that money on a monthly basis, providing up to $300 a month per kid. But the IRS would not have to start offering those monthly payments until July 1.

The case for expanding the child tax credit as an immediate stimulus is weaker given the timing challenge, said Garrett Watson of the Tax Foundation, noting that there is also an argument for expanding the credit to reduce child poverty over the long term.

The IRS would also be charged with sending out new stimulus checks of up to $1,400 while at the same time facing the tidal wave of tax filing season. Leaders in the tax industry have already called on lawmakers to ensure the overburdened agency is not ordered to swiftly distribute all stimulus checks to the detriment of its core mission of collecting taxes.

John Koskinen, who served as IRS commissioner from 2013 through 2017, said the agency did amazingly well distributing stimulus checks last year despite being underfunded and short thousands of employees since a decade ago.

But there's a limit to what new things you can ask them to do without threatening the entire system, Koskinen warned.

In another tall order, the stimulus would require the Small Business Administration to launch a $25 billion restaurant grant program that the industry has been fighting for since the early months of the pandemic. Since then, about 17 percent of restaurants have closed, according to the National Restaurant Association.

The SBA, which has faced unprecedented demands from Congress during the economic and health crisis, has not fully implemented relief efforts from Decembers economic aid package. The most glaring example is a $15 billion grant program for shuttered live venues that has not yet launched and has no official start date.

Under the stimulus, the Federal Communications Commission also would receive $7.6 billion to subsidize Wi-Fi hot spots and other devices to help students connect to virtual classes. But the agency would get two months to set up rules for doing so, likely releasing that assistance with just a few weeks left in the school year.

At the state level, officials are already running out of cash from the previous stimulus.

Weve already had cities, counties, municipalities cutting staff to pay for Covid expenses, Kansas State Treasurer Lynn Rogers said Thursday during a call hosted by the advocacy group Invest in America Action.

Several states have yet to even begin distributing some of the unemployment assistance granted under the pandemic aid package that became law in late December.

Some centrist lawmakers in both parties warned congressional leaders early in the process that enacting a massive aid package would result in painful delays. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said Congress should peel off funding for vaccines, as well as an extension of unemployment benefits, and pass those portions as soon as possible.

There is now a cliff hanging over Congress and the presidents desire to act, Reed said. There should be no reason to have that unofficial deadline of unemployment holding up what could otherwise be good policy.

Rebecca Rainey, Zachary Warmbrodt, David Lim, John Hendel and Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.

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Democrats shift Congress into top speed on Covid aid, but it may still be too slow for many - POLITICO