Pelosi says Biden's infrastructure bill can't wait for social safety net bill

Source: NBC News

The speaker told Democrats that the House will vote Thursday on the infrastructure bill. Progressive lawmakers have threatened to vote it down.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats on Monday that passage of the $550 billion infrastructure bill must not wait for President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar safety net bill, saying the larger package is not yet ready for a vote.

In a private caucus meeting, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the party must "make difficult choices," because the dynamics have changed and Democrats have not yet agreed to a spending level, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

"I told all of you that we wouldn't go on to the [infrastructure bill until] we had the reconciliation bill passed by the Senate. We were right on schedule to do all of that, until 10 days ago, a week ago, when I heard the news that this number had to come down," Pelosi said, according to the source. "It all changed, so our approach had to change.

"We had to accommodate the changes that were being necessitated. And we cannot be ready to say until the Senate passed the bill we can't do BIF," she said, using a shorthand for Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, the source said.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pelosi-says-biden-s-infrastructure-bill-cannot-wait-social-safety-n1280215

Haunted house actor accidentally stabs 11-year-old with real knife in Ohio

Supreme Court meets to discuss adding new cases to blockbuster term

Source: CNN

(CNN)Supreme Court justices, on the verge of a new term, will meet behind closed doors on Monday to discuss petitions that have accumulated over the summer and decide which cases should be added to the court's docket.

The private conference comes a week before the new term is set to begin when the justices will take the bench in person for the first time to hear arguments in over a year. The nine justices find themselves under the political spotlight after they allowed on a 5-4 vote a controversial Texas abortion law to go into effect.

Since that decision, several justices have given public remarks attempting to bolster the court's institutional legitimacy and arguing that they view cases according to their judicial philosophy and not from any political affiliation. But recent polls show the public -- particularly Democrats -- are souring on the court.

Already, the term -- set to start October 4 -- will be a blockbuster one as the justices will hear a significant Second Amendment case concerning a New York conceal carry law in November, followed by a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade in December.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/27/politics/scotus-new-cases-blockbuster-term/index.html

Troy Davis was executed by by lethal injection 10 years ago

Well, 10 years ago yesterday actually. What were your thoughts on this case? I remember protesting in the months leading to his death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Davis

Sinema tells White House she's opposed to current prescription drug plan

Source: Politico

The White House has a new headache as it struggles to get its multitrillion-dollar party-line spending bill passed: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's objections to drug pricing reforms that are already struggling to make it through the House.

The Arizona Democrat is opposed to the current prescription drug pricing proposals in both the House and Senate bills, two sources familiar with her thinking said. They added that, at this point, she also doesn’t support a pared-back alternative being pitched by House Democratic centrists that would limit the drugs subject to Medicare negotiation.

Sinema met with President Joe Biden on Sept. 15 to discuss the social spending package, in which party leaders hope to include the Medicare prescription drug pricing proposal. Sinema has made her resistance to the current House prescription drug negotiation proposal clear to the White House, according to one of the sources, but it’s unclear if she’s completely immovable.

Both she and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who met with the president the same day, delivered what one source described as a sobering message for the White House about the fate of the reconciliation bill and its $3.5 trillion price tag, which they both say is too high. The social spending plan is designed to pass without GOP votes through budget reconciliation, meaning that Biden will need to win all 50 Senate Democratic votes to secure its passage.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/19/kyrsten-sinema-biden-drug-pricing-prescription-plan-512907

Carmine's hostess attacked after asking diners for proof of vaccination

Source: NBC News

Three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess on Thursday after she asked a group of diners visiting from Texas to show proof they had been vaccinated before seating them.

Cellphone footage obtained by NBC New York shows a brawl involving several people outside Carmine's Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side. Staff and bystanders intervened to break up the melee after it broke out around 5 p.m. ET, the station added.

The hostess, who has not been identified, was repeatedly punched and her necklace broken, police said.

One unspecified patient was taken to the Mount Sinai Hospital, the New York City Fire Department said, without stating their condition.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/carmine-s-hostess-attacked-after-asking-diners-proof-vaccine-n1279410?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Pelosi rejects Manchin's call for a 'pause,' shows little willingness to pare back $3.5 trillion bil

Source: CNN

(CNN)House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday rebuffed a demand from Sen. Joe Manchin to take a "strategic pause" on a $3.5 trillion economic package, making clear that she was moving on an aggressive timeline to push the measure through this month and setting up a clash with moderate Democrats eager to pare back the price tag.

"Obviously, I don't agree," Pelosi told CNN when asked about Manchin's highly publicized demand for Congress to hit the brakes on fulfilling a bulk of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda this month.

In another sign of a looming clash, Pelosi showed little desire to pare back the massive $3.5 trillion price tag, a top-level spending amount that Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have both indicated they do not support.

"The number is the number, $3.5 (trillion), we can't go above that," Pelosi said. Asked about the likelihood she will have to go below that level, Pelosi responded, "Why?"

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/07/politics/pelosi-manchin-reconciliation-bill/index.html

Joe Manchin says he will oppose a $3.5 trillion budget bill

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin came out against a $3.5 trillion budget bill on Thursday, throwing cold water on one of President Joe Biden's top legislative ambitions.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal opinion section, the West Virginia Democrat called on his party to hit "a strategic pause" on the legislation, rejecting the idea of "artificial political deadlines" to advance it.

"I, for one, won’t support a $3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending, without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and debt have on existing government programs," Manchin wrote.

Manchin's piece is a warning to Democrats, who have no path to passing a multitrillion-dollar budget bill without his vote in a Senate that is split 50-50. While the centrist Democrat didn't rule out voting for a bill, his opposition to the $3.5 trillion price tag may force Biden and the party to scale back its ambitions to ink the largest expansion of the U.S. safety net in generations.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/joe-manchin-says-he-will-oppose-3-5-trillion-budget-n1278407

Too late to post in LBN (22 hours old), so I posted it here.

Supreme Court allows Texas' 6-week abortion ban to take effect

Source: Politico

The Supreme Court early Wednesday let a Texas state law take effect that allows private citizens to sue to uphold a ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.

The court’s decision to not act on an emergency petition from Texas abortion clinics comes as the justices prepare to more broadly reconsider the right to an abortion it established almost 50 years ago. In May, justices agreed to review Mississippi’s ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy — a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Those arguments are expected later this year, with a ruling in 2022.

Beyond outlawing abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the Texas law, signed in May, would deputize citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure after six weeks, such as a person who drives a pregnant person to the clinic. Individuals found to have violated the law would have to pay $10,000 to the person who successfully brings such a suit — a bounty abortion rights advocates warn will encourage harassment, intimidation and vigilantism.

The citizen enforcement scheme also made the law more difficult to challenge in court, and the Supreme Court's decision to side, for now, against the clinics is likely to encourage copycat bills in other states.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/01/supreme-court-texas-abortion-ban-508275