•Pfizer says its experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 treatment has cut hospitalization and death rates in trials of high-risk adults by nearly 90%.
•The trial in the death of Ahmaud Arbery begins today in a Georgia court.
•Funeral for former Secretary of State Colin Powell is held today at Washington National Cathedral.
•Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams discuss the message to the GOP behind Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election. Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read our debate.
Good October Jobs Numbers – Nonfarm payroll in the U.S. increased by 531,000 jobs in October, a return to an employment boom from about 1 million per month in June and July, before stumbling in August and September. The unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 points to 4.6%, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Leisure and hospitality employment continues its recovery, and the BLS also cites gains in professional and business services, manufacturing and transportation and warehousing, while public education lost jobs.
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Is Today Really the Day? – Democrats in the House of Representatives are planning to vote today on the $1.75-trillion budget reconciliation bill and, oh yeah, pass the $1.2-trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill ($550 billion in new spending) the latter of which would head straight for President Biden’s desk.
Questions remained Thursday over process and policy, including how the social spending bill would provide relief to undocumented immigrants, and how to raise the cap on state and local tax deductions without additional benefit to the wealthiest homeowners, Roll Call says. Prescription drug price provisions were also being negotiated so that bill matches an agreement that House and Senate Democrats reached earlier this week.
New Jersey Democrats also negotiated a deal late Thursday to raise the limit on state and local tax deductions (SALT) to $80,000, according to Roll Call. It was lowered to $10,000 in 2017.
Note: Would this have saved Terry McAuliffe’s failed Virginia gubernatorial candidacy if it happened last week? Probably not. The bipartisan infrastructure bill should give Democrats some hope for their prospects in Senate and House races in next year’s midterm elections, though.
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Meanwhile, the Republican Message – Progressive Democrats are hopeful that Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, will come through and support the $1.75-trillion social infrastructure budget reconciliation bill after the House (probably) passes it today along party lines. Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, the other swing-voter, appears MIA on the issue the last couple of days.
But Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-SC, put out this warning on Fox News Thursday: “Any Democrat who claims to be a moderate if you vote for the socialist spending package, you will get your ass beat and you deserve it.”
Note: Graham’s warning isn’t for Manchin nor Sinema, both of whom are not up for re-election to the Senate until 2024, but to moderate House Democrats who must support the social infrastructure bill for it to pass today.
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From the Newspaper that Gave Us ‘Headless Body in Topless Bar’ – The New York Post reports climate change activists “Swarm Joe Manchin’s Maserati as he Tries to Leave Parking Garage.”
“A gaggle of far-left environmentalists” chased Manchin from his Washington houseboat on the Potomac as he tried to leave a parking garage Thursday.
Note: The Murdoch-owned New York tabloid says both Manchin and Sinema have been the target of radical environmentalists angry about their balking at the budget reconciliation bill, which contains $550 billion worth of climate change mitigation policy.
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U.S. Justice Dept. Files Suit Against Texas S1 — The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against both the State of Texas and the Texas Secretary of State (John B. Scott) “over certain restrictive voting procedures” in Texas Senate Bill 1, claiming that they violate part of Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act [i.e., restricting assistance to voters in the polling booth who are disabled or illiterate] and Section 101 of the Civil Right Act of 1964 [i.e., rejecting mail-in ballots and request forms because of form-filling errors or omissions “that are not material to establishing a voter’s eligibility to cast a ballot].” This essentially means, in the words of Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Division: “Laws that impair eligible citizens’ access to the ballot box have no place in our democracy. Texas Senate Bill 1’s restrictions on voter assistance at the polls and on which absentee ballots cast by eligible voters can be accepted by election officials are unlawful and indefensible.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted, in part, “It’s a great and much-needed bill. Ensuring Texas has safe, secure, and transparent elections is a top priority of mine. I will see you in court, Biden!”, according to Politico.
Note: Arguably, there are “safe, secure, and transparent elections” in Texas. As KVUE (Austin, Texas ABC affiliate) reports, “According to records from the Texas Attorney General's Office, there were a total of 534 offenses charged to 154 people (some had multiple offenses) for either mail ballot fraud, assistance fraud or illegal voting since 2004. Among those 534 offenses, 310 were for mail-in ballot fraud, 159 were for assistance fraud and 189 were for illegal voting. A total of 272 charges of the 534 offenses resolved were from 2015 to March 2021. There are also 510 total counts pending prosecution, according to the report.”
According to the most recent figure from the Texas Secretary of State, there are 16,676,353, registered voters, which puts those numbers into context.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash