•Democrats on the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee completed mark-up Wednesday of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, which now proceeds to the full House and Senate (The Washington Post). President Biden met with Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, Wednesday to help work out a deal, but the two appear to remain resistant (The Hill). Their votes are needed for the bill to pass the Senate without Republican support.
•The FDA says data show that the coronavirus vaccines remain effective without the need for booster shots, and it’s not ready to recommend their use. WaPo says an FDA panel will vote Friday on whether to approve Pfizer’s booster shot. President Biden had planned to have booster shots available for most adults by next week.
•SpaceX successfully launched a rocket with a capsule carrying an all-civilian crew Wednesday that will circle the Earth every 90 minutes for three days before splashing down this weekend in the Gulf of Mexico (MSNBC).
Nuclear Subs to Australia – A new defense alliance among the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Australia will share nuclear-powered submarine technology, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The alliance will provide Australia with its first nuclear-powered subs, which can move faster, are much quieter, and can remain submerged for months. Just six countries have the technology, an analyst told the BBC.
The U.S.-U.K.-Australian nuclear-powered subs will not carry nuclear warheads, but they do pose a counterpoint to the People’s Republic of China’s recent aggression in the South China Sea.
Note: Negotiations between the U.S. and Australia go back 18 months, which means they began under the Trump administration. The deal thus represents another international affairs issue in which the Biden administration is hewing to the predecessor’s policy direction, in this case, playing up adversarial relations with China. Reuters reports that the Chinese embassy in Washington reacted by saying in a statement that the U.S. needs to “shake off the Cold War mentality.”
Fox News Fodder: “Aussies cringe,” reads the Politico headline, when Biden forgot the country’s prime minister, Scott Morrison’s name in the video teleconference announcing the nuclear submarine partnership. “And I want to thank that fellow from Down Under. Thank you very much, pal. Appreciate it, Mr. Prime Minister.”
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Biden Briefs Execs on Vaccines — President Biden met with top executives from Columbia Sportswear, Disney, Microsoft, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Kaiser Permanente, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Louisiana State University yesterday to detail the vaccine/testing mandates that his administration is putting in place after his address to the nation last week, The Washington Post reports. The newspaper quotes Tim Boyle, Columbia Sportwear chief executive, as saying; “Now with the federal government stepping in, that’s where we really felt comfortable and immediately put out a similar message to our employees.”
Note: Essentially the Biden administration is providing business with “cover” in terms of their being able to mandate their employees get the vaccinations or take the tests. What is notable about this meeting is that unlike the previous occupant of the White House, Biden didn’t make a big deal about meeting with these executives.
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Milley Isn’t Going Anywhere – Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, ranking Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has called for Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to resign after revelations he warned a Chinese counterpart of President Trump’s potential plans last year to launch a military attack on the country, to maintain control of the White House, and told chief military officers to consult with him before executing a potential command by Trump of a missile launch. But President Biden pushed back, saying he has “great confidence” in Milley, whose four-year term as Joint Chiefs’ chairman ends in October 2023.
“The president has complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism, and his fidelity to our Constitution,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at the daily briefing (per Roll Call).
Note: Milley took these precautions because Trump appeared to be particularly unhinged in the weeks surrounding his loss in last November’s election, according to excerpts of Peril, the book by The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa due for release next Tuesday. Milley’s defenders in the media say the final months of the Trump administration resembles that of Richard M. Nixon in 1974, when cabinet members feared what the president might do with his military powers as he was reportedly drinking heavily, talking to paintings in the White House, and demanding Secretary of State Henry Kissinger get down on his knees and pray with him.
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Yes, Virginia, There is a Republican Gubernatorial Candidate – Is he a Trumpist? Now that the California recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom has gone the way most every poll and analyst expected, sending Larry Elder back to his AM radio day job, the punditocracy is concentrating on an early election that should tell us much more than the Golden State did about the condition of Donald J. Trump’s hold on the GOP.
Purple Virginia’s gubernatorial election is November 2, with Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin and Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe seeking to replace term-limited Democrat Ralph Northam.
The odd-year election sets former Democratic National Committee chairman and Clinton confidant McAuliffe, who already has served one term as Virginia governor, against businessman Youngkin, a former CEO of the Carlyle Group, who has been distancing himself from Trump. An early Youngkin campaign commercial pictured supporters sitting in an audience, only one of whom was wearing a red hat – it was impossible to tell from the commercial whether the hat was embossed with “Make America Great Again”.
Note: Currently, the Republican campaign is running a commercial that pivots from Youngkin, saying in a voiceover; “It’s your right to make your own choice,” to “I hope you’ll join me in getting the vaccine.”
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Tucker Carlson on Time100 List -- Fox News personality Tucker Carlson is the only TV talker to make the Time100 List of most influential people, TVNewser reports. This means that Carlson joins other broadcasters, including Gayle King (2019), Sean Hannity, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb (2018), Gretchen Carlson (2017), Jorge Ramos (2015), Charlie Rose and Megyn Kelly (2014), Matt Lauer (2012), and Joe Scarborough and Ayman Mohyeldin (2011).
Note: Given what happened to some of the men in the list, it is a somewhat dubious honor. And one can only wonder what some of the other people on that list think about the latest addition.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods