New York City holds mayoral primaries today, using ranked-choice voting for the first time in the city’s history. The Democratic and Republican winners will face off in November.
For the People Act Heads for Republican Senate Filibuster – The Senate is scheduled to take up the For the People Act today, a sweeping federal voter reform bill that would require a minimum of 15 days early voting. It is headed for certain doom in a test vote this afternoon as even beyond the filibuster, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema of Arizona are almost certain “no” votes. A Manchin compromise bill has a better chance, but only if he and Sinema agree to vote on abolishing the legislative filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and his caucus are pulling the “states’ rights ” card with their opposition.
Note: If Manchin is serious about passage of his compromise bill on election reform, other Democratic senators and President Biden could use McConnell’s absolute opposition to get Manchin on board with abolishing the legislative filibuster, which then gives Biden more compromise power on infrastructure. The White House’s leading prospect for infrastructure passage is a proposal for about $1 trillion, but with $580 billion of that new spending, offered by 20 Republican and Democratic senators. While the bipartisan bill should provide enough Republican senators to avoid a filibuster, acceptance by all 50 Democratic senators, especially the more progressive members, is less likely.
The White House’s best path forward seems to be a very public Republican rejection of federal voting rights, followed by a compromise infrastructure package as the only major Biden victory through the end of the year.
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SuperPAC Commits $20 Million-Plus to Push Voter Bill – Priorities USA, one of the largest liberal SuperPACs, has committed more than $20 million into the voting rights effort, The New York Times reports. Whatever happens to the For the People Act, or Manchin’s compromise, we’ll be hearing more about the issue for much of the rest of the year, likely on MSNBC and CNN, if not on Fox News.
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Report says New York is Investigating Trump’s Former Bodyguard – New York prosecutors are investigating whether Donald Trump’s former bodyguard, Matthew Calamari, received tax-free fringe benefits from the Trump Organization to avoid taxes, sources have told The Wall Street Journal. Calamari is now the chief operating officer of the former president’s business organization. Receiving such benefits as free rent on apartments or leased cars without paying taxes, can be a crime, although it is rarely prosecuted alone, the Journal says.
Prosecutors have advised Calamari and his son to hire their own lawyers, the newspaper says. An investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, is said to be in its final stages, with charges to come soon.
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Toomey Holds Up Surface Transportation Reauthorization – As an indication that the Biden administration budget faces its own potholes – beyond the infrastructure road – moderate Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, as ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, is holding up a reauthorization bill over federal money for public transit, Roll Call reports. Toomey, who will not run for re-election next year, is taking a traditional GOP stance on the reauthorization bill. He objects to $70 billion in transit spending from COVID-19 relief bills on top of the $12 billion Congress typically spends on it every year.
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SCOTUS Says NCAA Schools Can Pay Athletes – The National Collegiate Athletic Association cannot prohibit its member schools from providing its athletes with education-related benefits, such as paid post-graduation internships, graduate school scholarships, laptops, or musical instruments, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday. Although the ruling does not give NCAA colleges the right to pay its athletes directly, the ruling “may pave the way” for a future court ruling on whether athletes may earn money for playing sports, SCOTUSblog says. The case before the court was NCAA v. Alton.
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ACA Acceptance Not Robust — Although the Affordable Care Act (aka, “Obamacare”) has managed to withstand challenges that went to the Supreme Court three times, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll, support of the ACA isn’t as robust as one might imagine: 54% approve of it while 37% disapprove (9% don’t know). The disparity between Democrats and Republicans on the issue is stark, with 85% of Democrats approving and 74% of Republicans disapproving. As for Independents, 50% approve and 38% disapprove, which nearly mirrors the overall results. When asked what should happen to the ACA going forward, 32% of all voters said it should be expanded while 23% want it repealed.
Note: NPR pointed out in 2019 that Trump had tweeted in 2017: "ObamaCare is a broken mess. Piece by piece, we will now begin the process of giving America the great HealthCare it deserves!" He didn’t. Nor have the Republicans come up with a plan to replace the ACA despite the fact that it was signed into law in 2010 and they have been promising to both before and after that occurred.
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EU Launches Google Probe – The European Union has begun a formal anti-trust investigation of Alphabet Inc., over its search engine Google’s brokering of online advertising, and sharing its data with advertisers and websites and mobile apps, The Wall Street Journal reports. The investigation mirrors a similar case filed in 2020 by a group of states led by Texas.
Note: From the perspective of this upstart political news and commentary website, it’s hard to be objective. We can say without fear of contradiction that Google thoroughly dominates most aspects of the Internet. – Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods