Mediaboss Marketing

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Democrats are going toe-to-toe to try and get their policies inside President Joe Bidens final Build Back Better plan.

Some Democrats say they are growing worried important climate initiatives could be scrapped in an effort to appease moderate Democrats who have voiced concerns of their own.

Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., says Congress cannot wait to address climate change.

Were going to need more than pretty words, Casten said. If you look at the west on fire, if you look at the floods, if you look at the hurricanes and say, you know what we should do, kick the can down the road. Then you dont belong in this line of work.

Casten is fighting to make sure robust climate policies remain inside the presidents Build Back Better plan.

We need binding action, Casten said.

He says the planned policies will reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 by 45%.

Thats not enough but that would be the most transformative, most significant climate policy ever passed by the United States, he said.

On Tuesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed to keep climate policies at the forefront of the presidents plan, days after she met with Pope Francis and global leaders about the issue of climate change.

We have a moral responsibility, Pelosi said.

But Casten says he is deeply concerned moderates representing fossil fuel states, like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., could sour that commitment.

We do have provisions in this bill to help out those parts of the country, Casten said. Weve tried to be thoughtful about it.

The White House says negotiations are still underway.

Were working with Sen. Manchin, were working with a range of Democrats, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

But Republicans who oppose the package across the board say they hope moderates do not cave.

These bills are inaccurate, theyre wrong, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., said. Now we know that wont work, largely because of Senators Manchin and Sinema.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is in favor of potential tax incentives in the bill.

As the author of the expanded and improved 45Q carbon capture tax credit, of course Im in favor of encouraging carbon capture projects, and I have a bill with Senator Smith to make the tax credit more accessible. But it seems this potential 45Q increase comes only in exchange for more Democratic support of CEPPa program that would penalize energy producers much more than 45Q would reward them. Boosting the 45Q tax credit would not even come close to negating the devastating impact CEPP would have on coal and natural gas plants.

Democrats have until the end of the month to get moderates and progressives united behind one plan.

The White House announced Thursday that Biden will also be traveling to Europe at the end of the month to meet with the Pope and to attend the UN annual climate conference.

Here is the original post:
Progressives press for climate reforms to stay in spending package - KXAN.com

Progressive groups will rally Thursday on the Ellipse to press President Biden and Congress to keep paid family medical leave in the social spending package that ultimately gets a vote, Axios has learned.

The big picture: Look for these and other advocates to step up their public engagement to keep their cherished programs from being axed, as congressional negotiators trim the size of Democrats' budget reconciliation package to roughly $2 trillion, from a $3.5 trillion starting point.

Between the lines: Some of the biggest supporters of a paid leave proposal costing as much as $500 billion have been reading tea leaves since President Biden did not mention it in his Michigan speech last week.

Driving the news: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday appeared to be bracing her caucus for major proposals to be scrapped from the package when she told colleagues in a memo that Congress should do fewer things well.

Be smart: Through the Care Cant Wait Coalition, groups are seeking to remain united rather than turn against one another's programs to save their own.

Details: Democrats have three main caregiving proposals: paid family medical leave, a new program to help cover costs for caring for an older family member and subsidies for day care and universal preschool.

What we're watching: Paid leave advocates are making it clear that they supported the American Families Plan, which dedicated $225 billion for the program, much lower than the $500 billion in the House version. They're willing to trim the number of weeks from 12 to four that someone can take off to care for a family member.

The bottom line: At a certain point, the groups now presenting a unified front may be asked to endorse a final bill that doesnt include their specific program.

Read this article:
First look: Progressives plan rally to keep paid family leave in plan - Axios

Opinion: Infrastructure bills should provide a foundation for a fairer more equitable society, not hurl us against the rocks as conservatives would have you believe.

Alan Austin| opinion contributor

In his commentary on Sen.Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona Republic Editorial Page Editor Phil Boas soundsgenuinely confusedby what he terms her radicalism.

Her opposition to spending, however, does fit in with his own political philosophy and background with its echoes ofthe Calvinist heresy where the world is divided into the powers of good and evil who fight it out.

Boas writes that mans worst instincts are the result of animal impulses only to be redeemedpresumably by the sanity of the elect and righteous. According to Boas, Democrats, with their repeated condemnation of Sinemas actions, give forth apocalyptic rants and err on the side of profligacy, spendingour money wantonly on some chimericbrave new world.

Republicans are the calm conservatives, cautious preservers of the status quo. Democrats, on the other hand, are the devils of excess, a monolithic party of radicalsforcing infrastructure reforms down the throat of a weary populace.

Such fears of social and economic chaos from political division also haunted the Founding Fathers. They eyed the chaos of the French Revolutionwith fear though they espoused it values and were careful to put the Electoral College in place to prevent the mob from taking over.

Privilege and power were to rest in the steadyhands of the propertied and educated classes. There were to be no peasant revolts in America, no manning of the barricades, no Madam La Guillotine. Too much ill-informed democracy in the hands of the illiterate masses could, in their view, onlylead to moral and social chaos.

Though Boas doesnt say this in his piece, its implied.

In Arizona, if you actually count the votes, Republicans are the minority party but control the Legislature and have done for many years.

As in the rest of the country, it has used gerrymandering and voter suppression and the pressto restrict and discourage minorities and the poor and disadvantaged from voting. Postal voting, which they thought would increase the Republican vote, is now suddenly a threat because its convenient and popular and helped Biden win.

Looking for the other side of the story? Subscribe today for access to even more opinions.

The recent sham audit was Republicans pressing their panic button. Now conservative editorial writershave the challenge convincing voters that the out of control mob is going to take over and spend everyones money, convenientlyforgetting Trumps tax cut or the fact that the national debt rose by almost $7.8 trillion during his time in office.

The Radical Democrats are heading the ship toward the rocks or the iceberg or whichever metaphoryou prefer. Boas enjoins us to sit down and debate whether the reformswill make life better.Surely, he writes, we all need time to recover from Trump and the pandemic?

We sat down anddebatedall these issues prior to the 2020 elections and the country voted for Biden. Now, Republicans Plan B, with a little help from Democratic senators in partisan states, goes into motion and to their joy twowilling Democrats are doing the job for them.

The Senate, a democratically lopsided institution, where Democrats represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republicans, is split 50/50 so two senators can make themselves the focus and can control what happens.

Boas never suggests that we dont need the reforms proposed in the two bills in question. The bills have popular support across a widepoliticalspectrum. They will not bankrupt us but should provide a foundation for a fairer more equitable society where people matter as much as profits.

The young Miranda who utters the words Oh Brave NewWorld is commenting on her first sight of other human beings as they recover from a shipwreck, an appropriate parallel. Miranda represents youth, and hope against the political and natural forces ofdestruction and division.

We need her youth,joy and idealism as we pass the torch to a younger generation, in a world wrought by division, hostility and a deteriorating environment. A Brave New World is all we can hope for.

Alan Austin was a longtime English teacher in Arizona. He lives in Phoenix. Reach him ataustinas@cox.net.

Go here to read the rest:
Progressives see a 'brave new world.' Republicans see chaos and catastrophe - The Arizona Republic

How ironic that Bill Nemitz calls progressives the language police (Warning to those on Portlands payroll: Keep your criticisms to yourself, Oct. 8) when, in fact, progressives were responding to Robyn Baileys own policing of the language of others.

In her email to the City Council that was brought to the school boards attention, Bailey calls for two charter commission members to be held accountable for their social media posts (saying they would be done, gone, and trashed if they were not people of color). If that is not policing language, I dont know what is.

Nemitz also gets wrong why progressives object to Baileys letter. It is not that she had the gall to question the local progressive movement. Raising questions in good faith is welcome. The problem is that Bailey, a school administrator, minimized the problem of racial bias in Portland and attacked two women of color, claiming they were given a pass because of their race. One had referred to a city official as a white supremacist. Frankly, combating white supremacy is vastly more important than criticizing someone for using the term. The other woman had tweeted lightheartedly a couple of times about bodies and sex. So what.

Finally, it seems relevant that Bailey wrote this letter after her husband lost the election to the charter commission, and these two women had won. Nemitz might have delved into her motives for looking through their past social media posts.

Abigail FullerPortland

Invalid username/password.

Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

Original post:
Letter to the Editor: Progressives were not the 'language police' - Press Herald

I have a confession to make. Im hopelessly behind the curve. Excuse my language, but Im old-fashioned. Im one of those Neanderthals who is so unwoke that I actually believe forgive me again, please that only women can get pregnant and have babies.

But at least Im open to new ideas and trust me, there is no shortage of new ideas about whos capable of childbirth.

Lets start with the progressives in lefty-land at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader GinsburgRuth Bader GinsburgThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Altria - Jan. 6 panel flexes its muscle Why do progressives want to cancel women? Couric says she edited Ginsburg interview to 'protect' justice from criticism MORE on abortion, but instead of quoting her accurately, this is what came out of the ACLUs woke sensibilities:

The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [persons] life, to [their] well-being and dignity.

Justice Ginsburg wrote about women, not persons. So the ACLU apologized for tampering with her actual words. But the folks over there apparently know something about who can and who cant bear a child that I dont know. Theres a line in a great old love song about how The fundamental things apply, as time goes by. Dont bet on it.

And the ACLU is hardly alone in noticing that people not just women should have the right to an abortion.

In September, House Democrats introduced a bill that states its purpose is To protect a persons ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care providers ability to provide abortion services.

Note the word persons, instead of womans. Then, a little further down into the bill, the Dems explain their reasoning: This Act is intended to protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy cisgender women, transgender men, nonbinary individuals, those who identify with a different gender, and others.

Im not saying I disagree with any of that. But I am saying that, after reading those words, I have a headache.

Then theres the Department of Justice (DOJ), which put out a brief against the Texas abortion law a brief that refers to any individuals who become pregnant. Im not cool enough to understand why the DOJ didnt simply say any woman who becomes pregnant.

And the folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) want everyone to know that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for pregnant people.

The White Houses 2022 fiscal year budget replaced the word mothers with birthing people in a section about public health funding. This prompted Jessica Anderson, of the conservative Heritage Action, to tweet, Why does [President] Biden want to cancel mothers?

Theres even a Birthing Peoples Bill of Rights. No fooling. I found it on the web.

And on a website called Parents, I read an essay by someone named Amber Leventry who wrote that, Transgender men (men who were assigned female at birth based on their biological sex) and nonbinary folks like me (those who don't identify as either male or female) can and do get pregnant.

Nicole Ault, who writes for the Wall Street Journals editorial page, says that, Language and the law are inseparable. If we erase sex-specific words from our language, we erase, too, what it means to be a man or a woman. Where does it stop? There are people you can look it up who identify as not human. Is person an insensitive term?

I did look it up and heres what I found on the University of Cambridges website: As social beings, a sense of identity plays an important role in our relations and in our own happiness. But identity doesnt have to be narrowly human.

In the article was a picture of a young woman who obviously doesnt identify as a human, with this caption: When people ask me How does it feel to be a cat? Im like, How does it feel to be a human?

Im so confused! I used to believe all the birds and bees stuff. But then, Im a pathetic cisgender man, so what do I know? Actually thats a rhetorical question because I do know this much: The fundamental things no longer apply as time goes by.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He was a correspondent with HBOs Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel for 22 years and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News and as an analyst for Fox News. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Patreon page. Follow him on Twitter @BernardGoldberg.

The rest is here:
Why do progressives want to cancel women? | TheHill - The Hill