On Monday, Joe Biden uncorked the largest lie of a 50-year political career overstuffed with them.
“My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars,” he tweeted. “Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes, and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America. And it adds zero dollars to the national debt.”
Read the full story
The Senate has approved an amendment to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that will ban the use of federal funds from being used to teach Critical Race Theory in schools.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the “Stop CRT Act” in an effort to prevent tax dollars from being used to teach the controversial set of ideas in public school classrooms.
Read the full story
Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to clarify the definition of infrastructure and the systemic crushing of the middle class.
Read the full story
Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has upset the plans of his party leaders to jam though hyper-partisan legislation and tip the electoral balance in favor of Democrats for all future elections. Manchin, a secretary of state before he was elected governor, is refusing to end the filibuster, or to vote for H.R. 1, the cynically named “For the People Act.” Writing in the Charleston Gazette Mail, Manchin contends:
The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics. Least of all, protecting this right, which is a value I share, should never be done in a partisan manner. . . . I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy . . .
H.R. 1, which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to bring to the floor for a vote this week, proposes a near-complete takeover of elections by Congress; it would replace most state election laws, substituting new laws that in some instances are even worse than the “progressive” approach take in states like Minnesota and California. The proposed law also taps the people’s tax revenue for political campaigns and hijacks state rules on redistricting.
Read the full story
Georgia Democratic rockstars Stacey Abrams and Sen. Raphael Warnock have both made major reversals on their feelings about voter identification, flips that could signal shifting Democratic priorities about voter ID as the Senate considers a sweeping voting bill that could include identification measures.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin this week proposed several additions to the controversial For the People Act, a bill that, if passed, would allow Congress to exert significant control over most U.S. elections.
Among the measures Manchin has suggested are voter ID rules, which would require identification at the polls but would allow voters to use a variety of documents to prove their identity.
Read the full story
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has joined the progressive chorus in calling for the head of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who stated his opposition to H.R. 1 in an opinion piece over the weekend.
“The reason this bill has no Republican support is because it gets in the way of Republican plans to undermine elections. This bill protects our democracy from Republican attempts to dismantle it,” Omar said on Twitter, likening the Democrat to a member of the opposite party.
Read the full story
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., declared Sunday he will oppose his party’s legislation to federalize how elections are conducted, dealing a severe blow to Democratic passage in the evenly divided Senate.
The For The People Act would among other things ban voter ID requirements, mandate mail-in voting options and begin registering voters at age 16. It has faced uniform Republican opposition.
In an op-ed published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Manchin declared the bill as too partisan and divisive.
Read the full story
On April 7, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) penned an oped for the Washington Post entitled, “I will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” appearing to foreclose any possibility of President Joe Biden ramming through major changes to law on a slim partisan basis expanding the Supreme Court, nationalizing election law, expanding statehood to D.C. or Puerto Rico, and so forth.
“The filibuster is a critical tool to protecting that input and our democratic form of government. That is why I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” Manchin wrote, appearing to salvage the nation’s two-party system — for now.
But not so fast, say House Democrats, who last week unveiled a plan to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 justices, the Judiciary Act of 2021.
Read the full story
Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Congressman Mark Green to the newsmakers line to talk about his criticism by AOC, whether HR1 will pass in the Senate, and how Republicans can take back the House.
Read the full story
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn introduced legislation along with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin that would give student-veterans access to in-state tuition rates at public colleges regardless of if they are in-state residents who receive GI Bill payments. “We should give our veterans every opportunity to succeed after they have finished their service,” Blackburn said. “This legislation would eliminate existing obstacles that prevent our men and women in uniform from a smooth transition into civilian life. I am glad that Tennessee is currently one of the 27 states that currently waives the three-year cap. Let’s make it one of 50.” Right now, the GI Bill has a provision that requires veterans to be within three years of discharge from active duty to access in-state tuition rates. Manchin explained why this bill helps veteran students. “In the United States, Veteran students tend to outperform and out-earn their non-veteran counterparts. Veterans not only defend our freedoms and sacrifice for our country, they continuously work hard and search for opportunities to succeed here at home. Improving the Forever GI Bill will help Veteran students gain access to in-state tuition without having a ‘three-year rule’ that limits their opportunity to receive an education in…
Read the full story
by Salena Zito WEBSTER SPRINGS, W.Va.—No sitting president has ever visited here before. So it was a pretty big deal when 14 local high school students in a civics class had President Trump talking to them in their classroom Wednesday, all thanks to a Skype video call that Sen. Joe Manchin was having with them. Senior Brennan Williams, 18, is still grinning ear to ear a few days after the experience. “Well, I mean, I’ve never talked to somebody that important before, and it was just crazy,” he said of initially talking to Manchin. “Then, the president of the United States calls the senator and then decides he wants to talk to us, well, that was even crazier. I just couldn’t stop smiling; I still can’t.” His classmate Parker Stout, 18, says it was an honor he will never forget: “We prepared for our Skype call with Sen. Manchin by watching the State of the Union Address Tuesday night. What we never expected was that that would include talking to the president.” Manchin said the once-in-a-lifetime event was organized by Webster County High School Principal Stacey Cutlip and his office to discuss issues that came up during the State…
Read the full story
by Jason Hopkins West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is bucking the Democratic Party, announcing that he will vote for legislation funding a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “Today I will vote for both gov funding bills b/c I believe we must end this harmful shutdown immediately & it’s our first opportunity in the Senate to do so,” the Democrat tweeted Thursday. “Even though they will probably fail, these votes are a start to finding a way to reopen the gov & get WVians back to work.” Today I will vote for both gov funding bills b/c I believe we must end this harmful shutdown immediately & it’s our first opportunity in the Senate to do so. Even though they will probably fail, these votes are a start to finding a way to reopen the gov & get WVians back to work — Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) January 24, 2019 The Senate will vote on two sharply different funding bills Thursday. First, lawmakers will vote on a GOP-backed bill that includes $5.7 billion the president has requested to fund his border wall and protections for some migrants. Following that vote, lawmakers will then decide on a Democratic-led budget…
Read the full story
by Molly Prince Senators from both sides of the aisle urged constituents on Saturday to shop at small businesses in support of their local communities in what has become the annual shopping holiday known as Small Business Saturday. “Happy Small Business Saturday! Take some time today to shop small in your community,” tweeted Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. “Whether it be the mom and pop store in town or the local grocery store, we should support our small businesses that depend on us for their livelihood.” Republican Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and David Perdue of Georgia noted that small businesses are making communities stronger. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Kansas Republican Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts referred to small businesses as the “backbone” of their states’ economies, and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin called them the “heart of our economy.” Some Senators even provided fun facts to express the importance of buying local. Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Cory Booker of New Jersey noted that small businesses create two out of every three net new jobs, and Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota added that 10 percent of all U.S. businesses are owned by veterans. Republican Sen.…
Read the full story