Harris breaks 50-50 deadlock to advance landmark climate, tax, health bill

The Senate voted along party lines Saturday afternoon to advance a sweeping bill to reform the tax code, tackle climate change and lower the cost of prescription drugs, taking a big step closer to giving President Biden a major victory before the November midterm elections.  

The Senate voted 51 to 50 to proceed to the 755-page bill, after Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the Capitol to cast the tie-breaking vote. 

T...

Economists say reconciliation bill will lower prices for all Americans

A group of more than 120 economists is backing the climate, health care and tax package that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will bring to a vote this week.

The economists said in a letter addressed to Schumer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that the Inflation Reduction Act will reduce prices for American families while making “crucial" investments in energy and...

McConnell warns Democratic tax deal will ‘kill many thousands of American jobs’

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White House offers no reaction to Manchin blow

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Joe Biden’s ignorance of Southern history could screw up his presidency

Oh, bless your heart, Joe Biden.

Joe Biden invoked two segregationist senators, James Eastland and Herman Talmadge, as he fondly recalled the “civility” of the Senate in the '70s and '80s https://t.co/DGJyIle7dH

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) June 19, 2019

There’s something inherently destructive about a politics that preferences “civility” among powerful white senators over the humanity of African Americans, ...

As his state is ravaged by a drug epidemic, Mitch McConnell fundraises off ‘Cocaine Mitch’ T-shirts

Kentucky has been one of the states his hardest by drug addiction in recent years, with some of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths. Meanwhile, the state’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is selling T-shirts branding him “Cocaine Mitch” as a fundraiser for his 2020 re-election campaign.

The nickname stems from the 2018 West Virginia Republican Senate primary. In that race, coal baron Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy C...

What the Senate vote on the Green New Deal resolution actually means

Senate debate over the hotly contested Green New Deal resolution is expected to come to a head on Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tries to force a divide among Democrats by calling for a vote on the ambitious proposal, even though no legislation has been proposed.

Democrats, meanwhile, are working to gain the upper hand with a display of unity, despite their differing stances on what meaningful climate action should look like. The final vote will serve as an...

Democrats don’t need any more presidential candidates. They need senators.

At least on paper, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) looks like a powerful contender for the presidency. He has a quarter-century of experience in Congress. He brings a left populist appeal without the baggage of being a self-described “socialist.” And he’s a winner. Brown won reelection by nearly seven points last November, despite Ohio’s Trumpian tilt and despite the fact that Republicans swept the state’s other major statewide offices.

Nevertheless, Brown an...

It’s Day 27 of the shutdown, and McConnell is mounting a futile effort to codify Hyde

In the midst of the longest-ever government shutdown in U.S. history, Senate Republicans have instead decided to consider a bill on Thursday to codify existing restrictions that make it harder for low-income people to get abortions.

The bill codifies the Hyde Amendment — a provision that passes annually and prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from covering abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment — among other things. The bill is unlikely to get the ...