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In media news today, a former ESPN reporter tells Tucker Carlson about leaving her job over the company's vaccine mandate, a CNN reporter attempts to clean up Terry McAuliffe's education comments, and The Washington Post calls for answers on Wuhan lab research

Cenk Uygur, the founder of progressive media outlet The Young Turks, is urging progressive lawmakers to vote against the reconciliation bill being debated on Capitol Hill.

There has been a major divide among Democrats, who have been struggling to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as the multi-trillion-dollar social spending bill. It's been a political showdown between the progressive caucus in the House versus more moderate-leaning Democrats Joe Manchin, W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, Ariz., in the Senate.

AOC THREATENS NO VOTE ON INFRASTRUCTURE IF DEMOCRATS DON'T PROVIDE SOCIAL SPENDING BILL TEXT

"There is nothing left for progressives in the reconciliation bill," Uygur declared on Tuesday. "If progressives in Congress vote yes and then do bullsh-- cheerleading for the corporate Democratic Party that gutted it, they will be met with a wall of skepticism and disdain. This bill is now trash. VOTE NO."

Cenk Uygur said that any reporter who calls Pelosi a "master legislator" is "not really a reporter" because she failed to get what she initially wanted. (Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Uygur doubled down amid reports that paid family leave was being stripped from bill

"Democrats drop paid family leave! This bill now SUCKS. Democrats are total losers. #VoteNo," Uygur tweeted.

RECONCILIATION BILL: PELOSI SCHEDULES HEARING DESPITE LACK OF BILL TEXT, FRAMEWORK: LIVE UPDATES

"If they pass this reconciliation bill completely crafted by President Joe Manchin and Vice President Kyrsten Sinema, then @JoeBiden's legacy is going to be getting owned by Joe Manchin. This is what weakness looks like. #VoteNo," he later wrote.

He went on to call out progressive lawmakers like Reps. Pramila Jayapal, and Ro Khanna, who've been spearheading negotiations on behalf of their caucus, as well as "Squad" members like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Cori Bush amid his push to derail the reconciliation bill as it stands.

"No progressive in their right mind would vote for this gutted, abomination of a bill that doesn't even have paid family leave. We have gotten nearly nothing from this bill!" Uygur exclaimed. "It's important to know that we were in favor of this bill until it got eviscerated in the last couple of weeks. Then Pelosi tells everybody the other day to just cheerlead for it no matter what's in it. Unbearable."

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 15: (L-R) U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) listen during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump stepped up attacks on the four progressive Democratic congresswomen, saying that if they're not happy in the U.S., "they can leave." (Photo by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images) (Alex Wroblewski)

Uygur added, "If progressives give in after nearly all of their priorities are taken out, they'll have no credibility for the rest of the Biden administration or until they have a new leader. What was the point of standing strong all the way to now if you're going to just give in at the end?"

Uygur's message may have been received as Ocasio-Cortez threatened a "no" vote on the infrastructure bill pending on what's included in the social spending bill.

"I don't see how ethically I can vote to increase U.S. climate emissions," Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday, noting that a "framework" of President Biden's "Build Back Better" plan isn't enough detail to sway her vote on infrastructure. "We have had a framework for six months. We need text."

The Young Turks radio show host Cenk Uygur (C) leads a protest of government bailout money given to Goldman Sachs, with listeners gathered in front of the US Treasury building in Washington, June 9, 2010. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS CIVIL UNREST ENTERTAINMENT) (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed optimism that the party was closing in on a deal in a letter to Democrats.

"As we have insisted, we are close to agreement on the priorities and the topline of the legislation, which can and must pass the House and Senate," Pelosi said in the letter. "At the same time, we are facing a crucial deadline for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework to pass."

Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this report.

Read the original here:
The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur urges progressives to 'VOTE NO' on spending bill: 'We have gotten nearly nothing!' - Fox News

Progressives are drawing a red line in negotiations over President Biden's landmark $3.5 billion reconciliation bill, insisting that Medicare expansion must remain in the bill and even suggesting that the intra-partyDemocratic stalemate won't endif the provision is removed.

As it currently stands, the provision would expand Medicare to include coverage fordental care, hearingand vision and introducing added costs that "moderate" Democratslike Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have thus far vehemently opposed.

"My big concern right now is the 2026 deadline [for] Medicare insolvency and if no one's concerned about that, I've got people that's a lifeline," Manchin said on Monday. "You've got to stabilize that first before you look at basically expansion. So if we're not being fiscally responsible, that's a concern."

Manchin's apparent demand to kill Medicareexpansion is just his latest in a series of proposalsto water down oreliminate some of the most progressive provisions in the bill. Over the past several months, Manchin has called on Democratic colleagues to remove the bill's climate action policies, introduce means-testing for thechild tax creditand strip any abortion-related health care coverage fromMedicaid and Medicare.

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Although Manchin's stonewalling has proven successful so far, progressives in the House and Senate have signaled that any failure to expand Medicare willbe a deal-breaker.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a years-long proponent of Medicare for All, said on Saturday that the Medicare provision is "not coming out."

"The expansion of Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision is supported by 84% of the public and is one of the most important provisions in Build Back Better," he tweeted. "It's what the American people want and, after waiting over 50 years, what they are going to get."

RELATED: Bernie Sanders vows to stand firm on Medicare expansion: "It's not coming out!"

"Medicare treats your eyes, teeth, and ears like they're not part of your body," echoedRep. CoriBush, D-Mo. "It makes no sense. The Build Back Better Act currently expands Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing. We need to make sure that happens. And then we need Medicare for All."

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., added that progressive votes in the Democratic caucus needed to be "earned," not taken for granted.

"Progressives are fighting to tackle the climate crisis, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing, and guarantee family leave in America," Omar tweeted."These are the investments major countries make in their communities and we can too."

Earlier this month, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus,toldPoliticothat thecaucus has "no intention of backing down." Jayapal has argued that Medicare expansionwill yield political dividends for Democrats in next year'smidterms by providing near-term tangible benefitsto many seniors, especially those living on fixed incomes.

According toCNN,the unresolved conflict among Democrats could lead to a compromise under which Medicare is expanded to cover hearing and vision, but not dental care.According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly half of all Medicare beneficiaries, or about 24 million people, have nodental insurance.

According to Politico, the progressive-backed Medicare plan is estimated to cost $350 billion. To cover that cost, Democrats have proposed allowingMedicare to negotiate prescription drug prices individually with pharmaceutical companies. But that issue too is trapped in the Democrats' internal morass: Manchin has said he supports that proposal, but Sinema a major recipient of Big Pharma political donations apparently does not.

More on the Democratic battle over Build Back Better:

Originally posted here:
Progressives draw their line in the sand: Medicare expansion must remain in Biden bill - Salon

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal on Wednesday stressed a need for the "transformational investments in programs" that her party's Build Back Better package stands to make and said House progressives wouldn't "be fools" by agreeing to a vote on a pending bipartisan infrastructure bill until the legislative text for a larger social spending package was finalized.

"If we're 90% there on the legislative text, which is what I keep hearing from the Speaker and others, then let's finish.. and we can get both bills done," Jayapal (D-Wash.) told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson.

"The big problem right now," she said, "is we still don't have that full agreement."

Asked by Jackson how many members of the CPC would vote no or withhold their vote on the bipartisan bill without having secured the legislative text for the reconciliation bill, Jayapal said that "the Speaker never brings a bill to the floor that goings to fail."

"I think we're up to 40 that really believe we have to vote both of these bills through," she said. "We're just saying we need both bills to pass the House, and we need everybody to agree that this is the agreement," meaning that it wouldn't be changed once it goes through the Senate.

Jayapal's remarks came just after the CPC reaffirmed its insistence that House passage of the smaller bipartisan infrastructure bill must be accompanied by a vote on and the legislative textnot simply the frameworkfor the broader Build Back Better package.

"When we said these two bills go together, we meant it," the group tweeted.

"A mere framework is not enough."

Jayapal also delivered that message in a tweet shortly after.

"Moving the infrastructure bill forward without the popular Build Back Better Act risks leaving behind working people, families, and our communities," Jayapal wrote. "That's not a risk we can take. These two bills must move together at the same time."

Democrats, facing obstruction of the Build Back Better package by right-wing members of the party like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, are still working out the specific contents and exact price tag of the reconciliation package. Already slashed down to around $2 trillion over 10 years, the package could make significant investments in climate action and the care economy. The party needs the support of all its members for passage.

Jayapal's message Wednesday echoed the one she had a day earlier following a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

While Pelosi reportedly pushed for a framework on the broader package to suffice for progressives to vote on the bipartisan bill, Jayapal rejected the approach. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agreed, telling Bloomberg that "a mere framework is not enough."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), meanwhile, is doubling down on his demand that the reconciliation bill include Medicare expansion as well asreforms to lower prescription drug prices.

This article has been updated from an earlier version to include remarks Jayapal made in her MSNBC interview.

Read more:
House Progressives: 'When We Said These Two Bills Go Together, We Meant It' - Common Dreams

As President Joe Biden arrived on Capitol Hill to meet with Democratic leadership and caucus members on how to finalize agreement on a pair of bills designed to fix the nation's physical and care-giving infrastructure systems, progressive advocates mobilized Thursday to make sure lawmakers do not fully cave to the pressure of corporate lobbyists who have swarmed Congress over recent months to kill key aspects of the Build Back Better Act's social investment programs like Medicare expansion, paid family leave, bold climate action, elder care, and lower drug costs.

With the possibility for a vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIF) possible as early as later in the day, Indivisible issued a call to action via email Thursday morning and told its members: "If the Democrats let conservatives push through BIF without also passing the reconciliation package (that's the one that covers healthcare, climate, childcare, and more), we are going to squander our trifecta and accomplish nothing. We can't let Democrats cave. That's why it is urgent you call your representatives and tell them to vote no on the BIF until they've passed an inclusive recovery bill that works for everyone."

While Biden was expected to push a scaled-back $1.75 trillion deal during the meeting with congressional Democrats, Indivisible warned that if the BIF is passed without final and firm guarantees, Democrats "will lose the much-needed leverage we had to pass our full Build Back Better planand Americans cant afford to lose Build Back Better."

The bipartisan deal isn't necessarily bad, the group explained, "it's just too small to meet the moment, which is why it needs to be paired with the full Build Back Better reconciliation package. Passing all of Build Back Better would mean expanding access to affordable healthcare and child care, making investments in a strong climate strategy, creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants and migrants, investing in housing, especially affordable housing and housing for unhoused populations, ensuring paid family and medical leave for every worker nationwide, and so much more. In short, it would help everyone."

In a joint statement, dozens of national, state, and local organizationsincluding Indivisible, Our Revolution, People's Action, Greenpeace USA, and othersoffered a similar message Thursday morning.

"We are fully behind the Progressive Caucus as it holds the line for the biggest, boldest reconciliation package possible. Over the last year, progressives in Congress have played a crucial role keeping the Build Back Better Act on track, even in the face of a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by big business to kill it in its cradle," the groups said.

"Now we're in the home stretch," the statement continued. "By holding firm on keeping the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill firmly linked, progressives are giving their colleagues in the Senate the space and the leverage to negotiate the strongest package possible."

Just ahead of a full Democratic caucus meeting with Biden mid-morning, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, reiterated to reporters that there is no deal that she and her members have agreed to and that both bills must be finalized before one can possibly be reached.

Also ahead of the meeting, campaigners with the progressive group People's Watch and others said that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called on them to "hold the line" outside so that she and her progressive colleagues in the House could do the same from inside. "You holding the line out here helps us hold the line in there," Ocasio-Cortez said.

"With so much happening in Congress right now, it is crucial that we have all hands on deck," said Indivisible in its missive. "Congress must deliver on Biden's full recovery agenda. The recovery package is an essential, must-pass bill that will help pretty much everybody in the entire countrywe can't let conservatives tank it. We have to do everything we can to get it passed."

Continue reading here:
'Hold the Line': Progressives Push to Block Vote on Weaker Bill Without Final Text of Build Back Better - Common Dreams

For those still playing along at home, still chasing the details of this long and ugly slog toward passage of a standard infrastructure bill and a second bill called the Build Back Better Act, this latest update brings grim tidings.

Due almost entirely to their own self-interest and devoted service to those who fund their campaigns, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have managed to either kill or mortally wound multiple elements of the social infrastructure bill that would have dramatically improved the lives of millions. Many of those items had already been removed from the standard infrastructure bill, on the promise they would be included in the second bill. This was a lie.

Gone, or almost gone from the bill are vital new climate provisions that would force utilities to move to clean energy; a Medicare expansion that includes dental, vision and hearing coverage; prescription drug pricing reform that is vital to funding the bill itself; free community college; new taxes on the ultra-wealthy; and 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.

Manchin and Sinema did this, with some backstopping from a few House Democrats deep in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry. The Republicans barely had to get out of bed. Were still no on everything, theyve occasionally reminded us as they sit back and watch the shit show unfold.

After days of relative silence as these provisions were stripped from the bill, Bernie Sanders and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) by far and away the most constructive and fair-handed players in this process sounded a warning alarm: If the Medicare expansion and climate provisions are removed from the bill, despite numerous promises they would be included, there is no promise the 96-strong Caucus will vote to approve it.

Without their votes, the bill is almost certainly doomed in the House, as less than 10 Republican House members have indicated they will support it. The Congressional Progressive Caucus votes are the margin, and at present, that margin is in peril.

Bottom line is that any reconciliation bill must include serious negotiations on the part of Medicare with the pharmaceutical industry, lower the cost of prescription drugs. Thats what the American people want, Sanders said forcefully on Tuesday, adding that a serious reconciliation bill must include expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing aids and eyeglasses.

Progressives are fighting to tackle the climate crisis, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing, and guarantee family leave in America, tweeted progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar. These are the investments major countries make in their communities and we can too.

Medicare treats your eyes, teeth, and ears like theyre not part of your body, tweeted progressive Rep. Cori Bush. It makes no sense. The Build Back Better Act currently expands Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing. We need to make sure that happens.

The Democratic senator from West Virginia coal was unmoved.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday shut down one of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanderss biggest priorities, expanding Medicare, which Manchin warned would undermine the solvency of the broader program, reports The Hill. Sanders insisted in a tweet Saturday that his proposal to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision must be included in a budget reconciliation package that is likely to come in well below the $3.5 trillion price tag Democratic leaders initially envisioned. But Manchin on Monday threw cold water on Sanderss push to expand Medicare, warning the program faces insolvency in 2026.

Manchin is also insisting the price tag for the social infrastructure bill be no higher than $1.5 trillion, a full $2 trillion less than the amount Sanders and the Congressional Progressive Caucus settled on after much compromise.

Because these are Democrats we are talking about, we are now required to cross the ever-treacherous span between the nauseating and the utterly surreal. On the far side of that chasm stand House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who have spent this entire endeavor watching Pelosis precious moderate Democrats gnaw through these bills like beavers.

At a historic crossroads that is nothing less than a genuine existential crisis, the speaker and the majority leader have watched as life-and-death provisions of these bills are chopped away by fellow Democrats chasing dollar signs around the building. Their advice to every Democrat in the face of this? Dont worry, be happy!

If we dont act like we are winning, the American people wont believe it either, Hoyer reportedly told Democrats during a recent private meeting. Pelosi, for her part, has been telling her caucus that the contest is over, and the corporations have won again. Embrace this, she reportedly told the room during that same private meeting, and have a narrative of success.

Yes, of course, pretend to lead and have a narrative of success so people believe were winning. This is the politics of fiction, of cowardly lions with gavels and titles, all roar and no bite. That should have been the Democratic Party slogan since right about when Pelosi and Hoyer got involved in big-time politics. Democrats: Pretending to Lead Since 1981, Because Reagan Was Scary and Republicans Say Mean Things.

This is not entirely true, of course. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has from top to bottom fought the good fight since the beginning. If they could be criticized for anything, it is that they were credulous enough to believe the promise that those vital provisions stripped from the infrastructure bill would be revived in the Build Back Better Act.

Perhaps they should have chosen the infrastructure bill as their hill to die on, an immediate signal that compromising on such life-or-death provisions was unacceptable. Thats all hindsight, and besides, how much can the CPC do when the partys leadership folds like a hotel laundromat?

Another twinkle of a bright spot: Sen. Elizabeth Warrens wildly popular two cents campaign platform to tax the ultra-wealthy may become part of the Build Back Better Act, a replacement for the other taxation vehicles that were gutted from the bill. The idea being proposed is not exactly the same as hers, but it is a close cousin, and would do much to claw back some of the money Donald Trump gave away to his rich pals in December of 2017. Whether it survives the denuding process remains to be seen.

Soon, soon, Pelosi and company keep telling us. The bills will be ready for passage soon but the Congressional Progressive Caucus may have something to say about that before the deal goes down. Its a dirty business, and its not finished yet.

See the article here:
Social Infrastructure Bill Has Been Gutted. Progressives May Not Let It Pass. - Truthout