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New York AG able to oversee Cuomo sexual harassment probe

New York AG ready to oversee Cuomo sexual harassment probe

New York Attorney General Letitia James

Lucas Jackson | Reuters

New York attorney general Letitia James said Sunday she was ready to oversee an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, but needed an official referral from the governor’s office, which includes a subpoena.

“I am ready to oversee this investigation and make any necessary appointments,” James said in a statement. “Given state law, this can only be achieved through an official referral from the governor’s office based on state law (§ 63-8) and must include subpoena authority. I request the governor to make this referral immediately.”

Cuomo’s office on Sunday withdrew a plan to appoint a former federal judge who is in close contact with one of the governor’s top advisors to oversee an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him.

The Cuomo administration said it would ask James and Janet DiFiore, the chief justice of the state’s highest court, to decide who will oversee an independent investigation. The decision would help “avoid even perceiving a lack of independence or inferring politics,” Cuomo’s special adviser Beth Garvey said in a statement.

“We will leave all decisions regarding the investigation at the discretion of the independent attorney chosen by the Attorney General and the Chief Justice,” Garvey said.

The governor’s reversal came after a number of Democrats criticized the governor’s initial decision to conduct a review and called for an independent investigation into the allegations after a second aide came forward to allege sexual harassment against Cuomo. Some Democratic lawmakers also joined some Republicans in urging Cuomo to resign immediately.

Cuomo’s office initially said it would select former federal judge Barbara Jones to lead the review. Jones had worked with Cuomo’s top advisor, Steven Cohen.

The calls for an independent investigation follow a New York Times report released Saturday night describing the allegations made by Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former aide to the governor, who said Cuomo asked her about her sex life and whether she did it was monogamous in relationships and had ever “been with an older man”.

It was the second allegation against the governor in a week. Former adjutant Lindsey Boylan, a former state economic development officer, released detailed information about sexual harassment against Cuomo last week, including a kiss without her consent in his Manhattan office. Cuomo has denied Boylan’s allegations.

Cuomo responded to Bennett’s allegations in a statement on Saturday, saying he intended to act as a mentor and “never make any progress on Ms. Bennett, nor did I ever intend to act in an inappropriate manner”.

Pressure from democrats

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Cuomo should undergo an independent review of both allegations in an interview on CNN on Sunday. President Joe Biden supports this and “we believe we should move forward as soon as possible”.

A spokesman for Senator Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said the Senator believes the allegations “should be investigated thoroughly and independently.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, DN.Y., also called for an “independent, transparent and prompt investigation into these grave and deeply worrying allegations.”

MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., along with other Democrats, called for an independent investigation into the governor, led not by someone chosen by Cuomo, but by the Attorney General.

“Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett’s detailed reports of sexual harassment by Governor Cuomo are extremely serious and painful to read,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet on Sunday morning. “There needs to be an independent investigation – not one led by someone chosen by the governor, but by the attorney general.”

The new allegations also come after a January report that the Cuomo government failed to report thousands of Covid-19 deaths in state nursing homes.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, a Democrat, said Sunday that Cuomos state lawmakers must immediately revoke emergency powers overriding local scrutiny and called for two separate independent investigations into the sexual misconduct allegations and the undercounting Deaths in nursing homes.

“New Yorkers have seen detailed, documented reports of sexual harassment, multiple cases of intimidation and admitted withholding of information about the deaths of over 15,000 people,” De Blasio said in a statement. “Questions of this magnitude cannot hang over their heads as New Yorkers fight a pandemic and economic crisis.”

New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi praised the two women for their allegations and called on the governor to step down in a statement posted on Twitter Saturday night.

“The harassment of these former employees is part of a clear pattern of abuse and manipulation by the governor, and that pattern makes him unworthy of the highest office in New York,” wrote Biaggi.

Republicans again urged Cuomo to resign after the second allegation, including MP Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who described the governor as a “criminal sexual predator” in a statement on Saturday and said he should resign immediately.

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At CPAC, a Reverence for Trump

At CPAC, a Reverence for Trump

“We’re so disgusted with Republicans that we honestly don’t care who wins if Trump doesn’t run,” said Sany Dash as she worked on her Trump merchandise stand.

Ms. Dash’s store, Bye Bye Democrats, was busy on Saturday as CPAC attendees rummaged through jeweled MAGA clutches, plush elephants, and a tapestry with a picture of Mr. Trump drinking coffee and reading, “The best part of waking up is Donald Trump is President. “(” We probably sold 1,400 Nancy Pelosi toilet paper rolls here, “she said.” Our toilet paper is always a hit. “)

But Ms. Dash, an Indian from New York who described herself as a Trump supporter of “Day 1”, was currently more angry with the Republicans and especially with the representative Liz Cheney from Wyoming, who has urged her party to join the the former breaking president. Ms. Dash said she is preparing to open a store in Wyoming in the next two months and call it Bye Bye Liz.

“Liz Cheney is a descendant of a warmonger,” she said. “Sorry, we went to war with Iraq and so many people have died – millions of lives have changed.”

She continued, “I don’t care what she has to say now. It’s like the Bush girls in Austin. I don’t care how you woke up in Austin just because you can get along with Michelle Obama, but your dad killed a lot of people. Excuse me, I don’t want to have anything to do with you. “

Like all dozen of CPAC attendees surveyed, Ms. Dash hoped that Mr. Trump would run for president in 2024. There are several other Republicans she likes, including South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem – “I like Kristi Noem because she is fighting,” she said, calling her a “female trump card” – but she said she would only then the GOP remain if Mr. Trump or someone who promises to lead like him is the candidate.

“I mean, I’ve heard the rest of them – if they actually get through, that’s wonderful,” she said. “If they don’t, I’ll get out of this party like everyone else. As simple as that. “

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Democrats vow to penalize massive companies that do not pay $15 minimal wage

Democrats vow to penalize big corporations that don't pay $15 minimum wage

Senator Bernie Sanders (IV.T.), Chairman of the Budgets Committee, speaks during a U.S. Senate Budgets Committee hearing on large corporation wages on Capitol Hill in Washington February 25, 2021.

Stefani Reynolds | Reuters

Top Democrats are drafting new plans penalizing large corporations who pay their employees less than $ 15 an hour after a Senate official ruled Thursday that the party would not include a wage increase in its $ 1.9 trillion economic bills could.

Democrats, led by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Vowed to make changes to the existing aid package that would penalize companies that pay workers below a certain hourly rate.

Sanders swiftly rejected the decision of Senate MP Elizabeth McDonough, who found Thursday night that a proposed $ 15 minimum wage scheme did not meet the stringent budgetary standards imposed as part of the budget reconciliation.

“I do not agree with today’s decision of the Senate MP,” said Sanders in a press release on Thursday. “In the days ahead, I’ll be working with my Senate colleagues to drive a change that will help big, profitable companies that don’t pay workers at least $ 15 an hour have tax deductions and small businesses receive.” Incentives they need to raise wages. “

“This change must be included in this draft reconciliation,” he added.

On Friday morning, Wyden, who is working closely with Sanders on the change, announced more details on “Plan B”.

He said his change, if adopted, would impose a 5% penalty on a large company’s total wage bill for workers earning less than a certain amount. Wyden added that the penalty would increase over time and include safeguards to prevent companies from attempting to outsource workers to avoid paying living wages.

“We couldn’t get in the front door or the back door, so we’ll try to go through the window,” said Wyden of the new plan. “As the talks continue, I believe that this ‘Plan B’ offers us a way to move forward and to achieve this through the reconciliation process.”

The US last raised the minimum wage in 2009 to USD 7.25 per hour.

Wyden, who also chairs the Senate Finance Committee, added that his amendment would give small businesses that pay higher wages to their workers a tax credit of 25% of wages up to $ 10,000 per year per employer.

A senior Democratic adviser confirmed Friday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., is considering adding a provision to the bill in line with Sanders and Wyden’s proposals.

Though the Democrats made the MP’s decision clearer, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri is working to pass a new law aimed at raising the minimum wage for workers.

Hawley, who has faced heavy bipartisan criticism for voting to overthrow President Joe Biden’s election, announced on Wednesday a bill that would give low-wage workers a “bonus” through an automatic tax credit tax credit.

Hawley’s office touted the plan as better than a minimum wage hike because it “doesn’t pose a huge new burden on small businesses, many of which are still recovering from damaging closures.”

Senators will have the option to introduce changes to Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan after the House passes the legislation in a vote expected later on Friday in the lower chamber. Democrats hold a slim 50:50 majority in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris having the casting vote.

Still, the Senate bill debate is expected to be full of pitfalls, as a single democratic vote against the plan would stall it.

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Covid Stimulus Invoice Heads to the Senate

Covid Stimulus Bill Heads to the Senate

WASHINGTON – President Biden’s agenda faces its greatest test as Democrats prepare to maneuver his $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package through the equally-divided Senate. This could strain the fragile alliance between progressives and centrists and the limits of its power in Congress.

An early morning vote to pass the comprehensive pandemic relief measure only underscored the depth of partisan divide over the proposal, which was rejected by every Republican. However, the path in the Senate is far more bumpy. A thicket of arcane rules and one-vote control threatens to jeopardize vital aspects of the plan as the Democrats rush to deliver it to Mr Biden’s desk within two weeks.

Mr Biden’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage under the plan to $ 15 an hour by 2025 is already due to budgetary rules for the measure, which the Democrats are pushing forward in a complex process that allows them to be voted by a simple majority to adopt, run aground vote bypassing the Republican opposition.

In the coming week, they will also face challenges in navigating other aspects of the bill through procedural obstacles and political pitfalls, including debates about how much to spend on closing state and local budget deficits and how to expand tax benefits should be distributed to help impoverished families.

The challenge for Mr Biden will be to hold both sides together in the face of the unitary Republican opposition to obtain a bill that White House officials believe will cushion vulnerable Americans until the pandemic ends and keep the economy pumping as it reopens will bring.

“We have no time to waste,” said Mr Biden at the White House on Saturday. “If we act decisively, quickly and courageously now, we can finally be one step ahead of this virus.”

The progressives are pushing for party leaders to change Senate rules to keep the wage increase in the bill, arguing that the Democrats must not scale back their ambitions for Mr Biden’s first major legislative package.

The debate over the minimum wage, New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, “sets the stage for how effective we will be for the remainder of the term in office.”

Moderates, including Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, want to keep the Senate rules – which effectively require 60 votes to drive most major laws – intact and oppose such a large increase in the minimum wage in the Package off.

Party leaders and White House officials remain confident that Mr Biden will have the vote regardless of the fate of the wage increase. All but two House Democrats voted for the legislation, the American rescue plan, which is supported by non-partisan voters. But Congressional Republicans came to an agreement against it after being effectively frozen in the process of drafting the bill.

“The House partisan vote reflects a deliberately partisan process and a missed opportunity to meet the needs of Americans,” Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, said in a statement.

The measure now goes to the Senate, which is split 50 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris controlling the decisive vote. Mr. Biden’s early attempts to find common ground with moderate Republican senators on the package resulted in only general expressions of bipartisan aspirations. Republicans proposed a plan that is less than a third of what the president is asking to tackle the toll of a crisis that has left 10 million Americans unemployed.

With unemployment benefits for workers laid off longest in the crisis to expire on March 14, Democrats only have two weeks to finalize the package in the Senate and resend it to Mr Biden’s house and desk . As party leaders have chosen to use a swift budget process known as reconciliation to move swiftly through legislation and bypass the Republican opposition in the Senate, the bill must adhere to a number of tough budget rules along the way.

While the House added the federal minimum wage hike to the version passed on Saturday, a key Senate official warned that it violates the reconciliation rules so Republicans can appeal and remove it from the package. It is likely that further changes to the bill will be needed to ensure that it complies with Senate rules and can enlist the support of any Democrat.

Senate Democrats are now spending the weekend figuring out possible ways to save the minimum wage regime, which would gradually raise the minimum wage to $ 15 by 2025.

House progressives warned Friday that they could withhold their votes for the stimulus package if the wage increase were canceled. The debate has fueled an already simmering argument over whether Democrats should seek to overturn Senate rules, especially those governing filibusters, which mandate a 60-vote threshold to move forward and which the minority party has long used to Block important legislative initiatives.

“This is not about whether you have the votes – it is about whether you will do what you said,” said Rev. William J. Barber II, co-chair of Campaign of the Poor, a grassroots organization who plans to continue lobbying for Ms Harris to force a vote on the merits of Parliament’s judgment and for Mr Manchin, Ms Sinema and other lawmakers to support the procedural steps required to make the minimum wage law law. “Don’t hide behind a rule. Don’t hide behind a backdoor meeting. “

Mr Biden has publicly acknowledged that the wage increase could fall off the bill and stated that he would sign the package regardless. His chief of staff Ron Klain ruled out the possibility that Mrs. Harris would override the leadership of Senate MP Elizabeth MacDonough, who said the proposal was out of order under the reconciliation. Top Democrats have signaled they have no plans to oust Ms. MacDonough, who became the first woman to hold the post in 2012 despite liberal demands.

However, White House business officials argue that even increasing wages to $ 9.50 this year, as called for in the bill, would boost the incomes and spending of the worst-paid workers in the economy and fuel economic growth.

Democrats have begun devising alternative plans – including tax penalties for large companies that pay low hourly wages – that could qualify under Senate rules and achieve similar goals. Top Democrats, including New York City Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, are considering adding an amendment to penalize companies paying less than $ 15 an hour, potentially creating an escalating tax on wages and salaries Pay slips from large companies are collected.

Party leaders say they will find a middle ground that will allow the stimulus package to move forward.

“We agree that we are here to do the work for the American people,” Californian spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said at a press conference on Friday. When asked if Democrats would ultimately be able to pass the legislation without incorporating the minimum wage rule, she said, “Absolutely.”

Democrats are preparing for additional legislative revisions resulting from Ms. MacDonough’s guidance, including changing how quickly people can take advantage of an extended tax credit designed to help low-income families with children. Also, with some moderate Democrats in favor of elements of the relief plan, they may be forced to reduce or otherwise change the distribution of the $ 350 billion allocated to state, local, and tribal governments.

Republicans face their own dangers in opposing the measure en masse. The bill has strong and bipartisan support from national polls, with seven in ten Americans voting in favor. Most of the polls show that Republican voters have been hugely supportive of the effort. Some show mostly Republican support.

Critical provisions of the bill that Republican lawmakers ridiculed as wasteful – including direct payments of $ 1,400 per adult per child to individuals earning up to $ 75,000 per year and couples earning up to $ 150,000 per year – are reduced by up to four supported by five Americans.

Corporate groups and budget hawks have struck a middle ground and urged the Democrats to push back or change the package in the Senate. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called for a bipartisan compromise to raise wages to less than $ 15 an hour. The US Travel Association on Saturday called on lawmakers to take additional steps in the bill to support an industry that “lost half a trillion dollars and millions of jobs over the past year” – with no immediate recovery in sight .

The Federal Responsible Budget Committee, which has raised concerns about the size of the package and the direction of its spending, has urged lawmakers to cut the $ 350 billion given to state and local governments and reduce the number of Americans who do so do receive direct payments to avoid sending money to people who haven’t lost hours or income during the crisis.

But without the majority stake required to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate, some Democrats see negotiations with Republicans as the only way to get a minimum wage increase into law.

“Not the answer we were hoping for, but as a lawyer I expected the answer,” Rhode Island Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote on Twitter of the MP’s rejection of the minimum wage, which he called “within limits.” .

“Now we have to do it the hard, old-fashioned way,” he added.

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Home to cross $1.9 trillion Biden reduction invoice

House to pass $1.9 trillion Biden relief bill

The House is expected to pass a $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus package on Friday and send President Joe Biden’s relief plan to the Senate.

Both chambers want to approve the bill and send it to Biden’s desk before March 14th, when key programs supporting millions of unemployed Americans expire. Pitfalls await him in the Senate where a single Democratic vote against the plan would stall him and a decision banning lawmakers from including a $ 15 an hour minimum wage threw a wrench into the process.

Democrats, who wielded tight control over Congress, chose to pass the legislation by budget vote. The process allows them to pass the bill without a Republican vote in the Senate, but it also limits what lawmakers can include in it.

The plan includes:

  • A weekly unemployment insurance supplement of $ 400 and an expansion of programs that extend unemployment benefits to an additional million Americans by August 29th
  • $ 1,400 direct payments to most Americans and the same amount to dependents
  • $ 20 billion for a national Covid-19 vaccination program and $ 50 billion for testing
  • $ 350 billion for state, local, and tribal government
  • Payments to families of up to $ 3,600 per child over one year
  • $ 170 billion to K-12 schools and higher education institutions to cover reopening costs and student aid
  • An increase in the federal minimum wage to $ 15 per hour by 2025

While economists are more likely to believe that additional incentives would provide workers with a robust safety net when the economy recovers – not to mention accelerating GDP growth – they disagree on the need for a 1.9 bill Trillion dollars.

The case of growing up

Proponents of the spending argue that the U.S. economy is still in a precarious position and millions of Americans are still unemployed due to layoffs in the pandemic and forced government closures.

While the Department of Labor’s most recent report on unemployment claims showed a decline in first-time applicants for unemployment benefits, it also found that as of February 6, more than 19 million Americans were still enrolled in some form.

Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC that Biden’s plan could bring the economy back to full employment before the end of 2021.

She highlighted the number of people the virus has challenged over the past year for households that are still struggling to buy groceries and stay one step ahead of rent payments.

“We think it’s very important to have a big package [that] addresses the pain this caused – 15 million Americans are behind on their rent, 24 million adults and 12 million children who don’t have enough to eat, small businesses fail, “Yellen said on Feb. 18.

The possible risks

Economists criticizing the plan tend to focus on the scope of the legislation and the potential benefits of a bill that is better tailored to the needs of businesses and workers in industries that continue to suffer most from Covid-19, such as airlines and food service and hospitality.

The most startling criticism came from Biden’s fellow Democrat and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who warned in a February 4 comment that the bill could spark a rebound in inflation after a decade of largely flat prices.

“Given the commitments made by the Fed, government officials’ rejection of even the possibility of inflation, and the difficulty in mobilizing Congressional support for tax hikes or spending cuts, there is a risk that inflation expectations will rise sharply,” he wrote in The Washington Post .

Although macroeconomic inflation has missed the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for the vast majority of the past decade, investors are becoming increasingly concerned about the potential for price hikes.

Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income, said that while he appreciated these concerns, he was not too concerned.

“While I see real risk of inflation rising and falling in the summer as rising demand outpaces supply rebound, I would expect that spike to be temporary,” he wrote in an email on Wednesday.

Sheets, who also served as undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs under former President Barack Obama, added that the potential economic benefits of more incentives appear to outweigh the potential risks.

“The job market is stuck in a deep hole,” he wrote. “Getting those 10 million jobs back will require sustained economic growth, especially given that around half of job losses are people who have left the workforce.”

Many Republicans have questioned the need to send more aid than is needed to accelerate the Covid-19 vaccination effort and strengthen the health system.

On Wednesday, House Minority Chairman Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Described much of the spending as “a waste or wish list of progressives.”

A group of the Senate’s most centrist Republicans previously offered Biden a $ 600 billion plan that included vaccine distribution funds, lower direct payments to fewer people than Democrats requested, and an unemployment bonus that expired sooner than their peers wanted. The president said he would rather pass the sweeping package with only democratic votes than spend weeks negotiating a smaller bill with the GOP.

Advantages cliff and minimum wage

Democrats were keeping an eye on exceeding the March 14 deadline, when approximately 19 million Americans on unemployment benefits would lose a $ 300 weekly payment. Many unemployed people would lose their insurance if two eligibility and benefit weeks programs expired in the next month.

Congress let similar provisions expire last summer and did not renew them until December. This contributed to millions of people falling into poverty and seeking food aid.

The urge to pass the laws got into trouble Thursday night. Senate MP Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that lawmakers could not include a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour in the budget vote proposal.

The Democrats included a provision in their bill that would gradually raise the federal wage floor to $ 15 by 2025. Parliament did not remove them from legislation following the MP’s decision, House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said House Democrats “believe the minimum wage increase is necessary.”

The US last raised the minimum wage in 2009 to USD 7.25 per hour.

If the raise stays in the bill, the Senate will likely pass different laws than the House. The representatives would then have to meet to approve a bill a second time, probably in March.

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Unity Proves Elusive in Democrats’ Battle for $15

Unity Proves Elusive in Democrats’ Fight for $15

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If the Democrats have a problem, it is with the working class. Their support from non-graduate voters (especially, but not exclusively, white voters) has declined in recent years.

The Republican Party, meanwhile, is finding its own grassroots leaning more than ever towards the white working class. Those voters remain loyal to former President Donald Trump but don’t have much nostalgia for the pro-corporate version of the GOP that existed before him and which many Republican leaders now wish they could return to.

Many Democrats are now anxious to take the opportunity to demonstrate to voters that they have not just become the party of the elites and city dwellers.

When lawmakers on the party’s left pushed for a $ 15 minimum wage to be a top priority this year, Democratic leaders stepped in thinking this might signal the party’s commitment to the working people. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, gave him his firm support, and President Biden included the proposal in his $ 1.9 trillion aid proposal for Covid-19 – along with today’s economic tests and the prolongation of unemployment .

“There should be a national minimum wage of $ 15 an hour,” Biden said last month as he prepared to enter the Oval Office. “Nobody who works 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line.”

Polls show that increasing it to $ 15 an hour is popular: 61 percent of Americans said they support it in a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month, including 63 percent of independents and the majority of voters in all major income groups.

But the Democratic Party is still not fully united – and in an evenly divided Senate, Democrats need complete unity. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has indicated that he is unwilling to support a hike to $ 15 an hour, which is considered too steep. And Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema said she was against raising the minimum wage through budget reconciliation, which means Democrats would need Republican support if they didn’t get rid of the filibuster (which Sinema also opposes).

“Ultimately, we are still struggling with our 50th vote representing a state that beat Trump by about 40 points,” said Sean McElwee, founder of Data for Progress, a strategy firm that advises top Democrats in Congress from Manchin.

When the Senate MP decided yesterday that a $ 15 increase was not part of a bill passed as part of budget reconciliation – a decision that means it would take at least 60 votes to pass, and therefore by would be dead upon arrival in the Senate – the White House should breathe a sigh of relief. The Covid-19 Aid Act should now move forward without a flat-rate increase in the minimum wage. (Democrats are exploring other partial solutions, including tax incentives for businesses, to get them to raise their own wage floors to $ 15.)

But without a blanket wage increase, say observers in and around the Democratic Party, this problem is unlikely to go away. It remains a top priority for both progressives and democratic leaders like Schumer and Biden, who both objected – at least publicly – to the MP’s announcement.

“The minimum wage is very popular,” said McElwee. “I think if I were Joe Biden I would love to run for re-election because the average worker makes a lot more from being president than before.”

McElwee pointed out that referendums on minimum wages are generally popular in various swing states – far more so than Democratic candidates in the same ballot. In Sinema’s home state of Arizona, voters in 2016 increased the state minimum wage by a majority of 58 percent to $ 12 an hour, despite the state’s support for Trump over Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Florida voted even more firmly to raise its state minimum wage to $ 15, with 61 percent backing it.

“What we saw in Florida is that a minimum wage of $ 15 is over 10 points more popular than democratic elected officials,” McElwee said. “It’s an open and closed case.”

Strategist Simon Rosenberg, whose moderate New Democrat Network often contradicts Data for Progress’ vision for the Democratic Party, said he saw increasing the minimum wage as a profitable problem with voters, including those towards the center. Rosenberg described the apparently unanimous opposition of the Republican legislators as a political “mistake”. But he also noted that Republican-led messaging campaigns have resisted the idea of ​​raising the minimum wage for decades.

“Investing right-wing business interests in demonizing the minimum wage has been one of the most consistent right-wing projects in the last generation,” said Rosenberg, referring to large donors such as Charles Koch. “It’s a touchstone problem.”

This month’s Quinnipiac poll found that a minimum wage of $ 15 remained deeply unpopular, despite its huge popularity with Republicans who opposed it with a 2-to-1 ratio. White people without a college degree, Trump’s base, were more evenly divided: 47 percent for, 51 percent against.

Politically, Manchin’s state is leaning away from him; It had never elected a Republican president as far ahead as it did in 2016 and 2020, so he cannot afford to ignore the impact of the anti-wage messaging campaign on core Republican voters.

Rosenberg said if Democrats were able to polish their brand by passing other key laws for workers and families, it could bode well for a minimum wage increase – even in West Virginia. “I think Joe Manchin wants to be with the Democrats as much as possible and in order to do that he has to go against them on certain things,” he said. “If in six months the Covid package is popular and the economy returns, Manchin will have a lot more leeway.”

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Saudi fund susceptible after MBS actions in Khashoggi killing, ex-Obama official says

Saudi fund vulnerable after MBS actions in Khashoggi killing, ex-Obama official says

According to a former senior diplomat in the Obama administration, the actions of the Saudi crown prince in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have exposed the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund to repercussions.

The government of Biden released a previously classified intelligence report on Friday in which Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the plan to assassinate Khashoggi in 2018.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, is managed by MBS. It appears to have played a role in the purchase of the plane that took Khashoggi’s murderer to Turkey, where the murder took place.

“If so, it could become a target for US human rights sanctions,” said Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state. That, in turn, could “cause an economic earthquake,” he said.

“If the United States determines that Khashoggi’s murder was a targeted human rights violation, the perpetrators and supporters of that murder could be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act,” said Rubin.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act gives the President the power to impose economic sanctions, freeze U.S. assets, and refuse entry to the U.S. for foreigners who have committed human rights abuses or corruption, while Americans are prohibited from doing business with him or her . Magnitsky Law was used against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cronies. Putin called it “a purely political, unfriendly act.”

Shortly after the secret service report was published on Friday, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken announced that the US had banned 76 people from Saudi Arabia. He called it the “Khashoggi Ban”. Blinken added that the US will not tolerate anyone who threatens or assaults activists, dissidents and journalists on behalf of foreign governments. However, no direct action has been taken against MBS.

The Saudi government rejected the results of the US report.

SWFs are widespread in oil-rich countries. They provide a haven where countries can store considerable wealth and keep that money in a self-controlled suitcase.

Funds such as the MBS-led Public Investment Fund help protect countries from oil price shocks that affect their annual budgetary positions while also making the country resilient to external financial pressures. The Public Investment Fund has assets of more than $ 360 billion and is the eighth largest sovereign wealth fund in the world by total assets.

“The Saudi fund, almost five decades old, is massive and guarantees the kingdom long-term financial stability,” said Rubin. “But it can also be a target for abuse, mismanagement and corruption.”

In 2018, NBC News learned that the CIA concluded that MBS was commanding the hit squad who lured Khashoggi to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, killed him and cut his body into pieces.

MBS is the heir to the Saudi crown. Rubin told CNBC that his domestic critics will see the public investment fund’s exposure to potential sanctions as another sign of his ruthlessness and willingness to both risk Saudi assets and put the country in international crosshairs for his personal agenda.

“The international private sector, which initially avoided Saudi Arabia after the assassination of Khashoggi, will see this as another setback for public relations work in engagements with Saudi Arabia,” said Rubin. “It could also open the fund to increased controls, lawsuits and legislative action against the fund’s activities from both overseas and Saudi Arabia.”

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that President Joe Biden would not make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” as it would mean US economic and military ties to interrupt the Saudis.

Even so, Biden said in 2019, “We wanted to actually get them to pay the price and actually make them the pariah for who they are.”

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Assessing Claims within the Coronavirus Stimulus Debate

Assessing Claims in the Coronavirus Stimulus Debate

Prior to the vote on President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package, lawmakers made a number of misleading claims to advance their position on the bill. Here is a fact-checking of some common discussion points.

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“This is supposed to be a Covid bill. Only 9 percent of this goes to Covid. – Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and minority leader of the House, in an interview this week on Fox News.

It is misleading. A spokeswoman for Mr McCarthy said the 9 percent related to the $ 160 billion for a national vaccination program, advanced testing and public health employment program as outlined by the Biden administration. In other words, 8.4 percent or $ 160 billion of the $ 1.9 trillion package will be dedicated specifically to fighting the coronavirus.

However, this is a fairly narrow interpretation of pandemic-related funding. The bill also includes other health expenditures such as subsidizing insurance coverage for laid-off workers, extending paid sick leave, and funding veterans’ care.

And like the first two relief bills signed by President Donald J. Trump and an alternative measure proposed by ten Republican lawmakers this year, much of the Biden Plan is devoted to providing financial aid to families and businesses made by the economic repercussions of the Pandemic. The $ 1,400 stimulus reviews and the unemployment benefit expansion are the two largest single expenditures, according to a breakdown by the Committee on Responsible Federal Budget.

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“We put the numbers in and here’s your receipt, @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer” – Senator Marsha Blackburn on Twitter this week, breaking the bill into categories like art, museums and library services; Pelosis subway; Services including planned parenting; and “climate justice”.

It is misleading. Ms. Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, accused the Democratic leadership of drafting a $ 1.9 trillion bill that amounted to a liberal “wish list”. However, the four specific funding areas she highlighted add up to $ 547 million, or about 0.03 percent of the total $ 1.9 trillion.

“Pelosis Subway” refers to a project to expand the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to downtown San Jose, an hour south of San Francisco and represented by District Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi. The project is actually in the district of another Democrat, Representative Zoe Lofgren.

A spokeswoman for the House Transportation Committee said the BART expansion did not receive any special funding, but “will simply be funded in proportion to other similar projects across the country.”

In total, the bill includes $ 30 billion for public transportation, the majority of which will cover the cost of running transportation systems across the country. Roughly $ 1 billion of this will go to a transportation funding program to ensure that approved transit projects – such as the BART expansion and rail improvements in Republican-run states like Indiana and Arizona – remain solvent.

“Art, Museums, and Library Services” refers to the $ 135 million earmarked for the National Endowment for the Arts and $ 200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The bill also provides $ 50 million for family planning projects, which Ms. Blackburn described as “services including planned parenting.” The group is not specifically mentioned in the bill, but has previously received family planning grants. Other fellows include state and local health agencies (including the Tennessee Department of Health’s family planning program) and other nonprofit organizations.

Another US $ 50 million is earmarked for “environmental justice purposes,” the bill says, to address health inequalities caused by pollution and pandemics.

Updated

Apr. 26, 2021, 11:02 p.m. ET

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“There are planned parenting bailouts and grants for illegal immigrant families.” – Indiana Republican representative Jim Banks in an interview this week on Fox News.

It is misleading. Mr Banks’ claim that “illegal immigrant families” receive incentive grants applies to families with mixed immigration status, not families in which all members are undocumented. Under the bill, couples filing their taxes together only need to have a valid social security number to receive a stimulus check. But the amount would be $ 1,400 for one person, not $ 2,800 for a couple.

In other words, American citizens or legal residents married to undocumented immigrants would receive the $ 1,400 but their spouses would not.

The first two rounds of stimulus testing had the same conditions with practically identical language.

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“There is over a trillion dollars of money that was not spent on previous bipartisan auxiliary bills. The money is still in a bank account. – Rep. Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, in an interview this week on ABC.

“If you think about what’s already happened, there were $ 4 trillion in incentives. There’s still a trillion dollar worth, or nearly a trillion dollars, that hasn’t even been spent. – Senator Bill Hagerty, Republican of Tennessee, in an interview this week on Fox Business.

It is misleading. In a comment published this month by the Washington Post, Scalise linked up with the Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget’s coronavirus spending tracker as the source for that claim. About $ 3 trillion has already been spent, according to the tracker. However, that does not necessarily mean that $ 1 trillion is wasted.

The think tank stated in a blog post in January that “much of it is already allocated or earmarked for spending, and a small amount is never going to be spent”. According to the blog post, around $ 775 billion of the “unspent” funds came from the $ 900 billion stimulus package that came into effect at the end of December. Funding that is expected to be distributed over time (loans and Medicaid spending), as well as data delays, also explain some of the differences.

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“In fact, 95 percent of that money won’t be able to be spent until 2022. Do you really want to wait until your child goes back to school until 2022? This bill will actually delay the reopening of the school. This is insane. “- Mr. Scalise in an interview this week on Fox News.

“We have to learn and follow science and get the kids back to school. This calculation doesn’t do that. “- Mr. McCarthy, in an interview this week on Fox News.

It is misleading. The bill provides $ 128.5 billion to fund K-12 schools through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Fund. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that $ 6.4 billion of this would be spent in fiscal 2021, which ends in September.

However, the Budget Office also said that the expenditure ratio it estimated was “subject to considerable uncertainty”.

In a letter to congressional leaders, the education groups wrote that the notion that schools would not need additional funding due to the size of their spending this year was “imprecise”.

“In conversations with our respective memberships, they report that the ‘spending ratio’ seems quite low for those unfamiliar with the financial procedures and requirements of state and regional schools, but they have budgeted every dollar they get from the Covid -Auxiliary bills are to be received and are still reckoning with greater costs that they cannot cover without additional federal funding, ”the groups wrote.

A spokeswoman for Mr McCarthy also noted that the bill “gives no assurance to families that schools will reopen” and that funding was not tied to school reopening.

Nothing in the bill specifically delays the reopening of the school, nor does it require funding for the reopening. However, a spokesman for the House Education and Labor Committee noted that this was never intended.

“Our position has always been that these decisions should be made by local school districts in consultation with public health officials,” said Joshua Weisz, the committee’s communications director. “Congress shouldn’t force schools to reopen.”

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“If we don’t get the American bailout plan through, 40 million Americans will lose their food aid through a program we call SNAP, the old grocery stamp program. Aren’t we investing $ 3 million – $ 3 billion to save families from starvation? “- Mr. Biden on a remark last week at a Pfizer plant.

That is an exaggeration. FactCheck.org noted that the transcript of Mr Biden’s remarks to the White House added “some” in brackets before the words “nutritional aid”. That’s because breaking the bill wouldn’t cause Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to lose all of their benefits. Rather, the stimulus package signed in December temporarily increased the benefits of grocery stamps by 15 percent from January to June. Mr Biden’s current bill and plan would extend that increase through September.

WHAT WOULD BE SAID

“For example, if it – if we gradually increased it – if we indexed it at $ 7.20, if we indexed it through inflation – people would be making $ 20 an hour now.” – Mr Biden at a CNN City Hall event last week.

Not correct. The federal minimum wage was last raised to $ 7.25 in July 2009, which if indexed for consumer inflation would be around $ 8.81 today. Mr Biden most likely wanted to say “labor productivity” instead of inflation. Dean Baker, an economist at the Left Center for Economic and Policy Research, has estimated that if the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity it would be around $ 24.

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Democrats criticize Biden launching airstrikes in Syria with out asking Congress

Democrats criticize Biden launching airstrikes in Syria without asking Congress

The U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jets fly in formation during a military aircraft flyover along the Hudson River and New York Harbor, past York City and New Jersey, the United States, on July 4, 2020.

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Some Senate Democrats on Friday criticized President Joe Biden’s decision to launch an air strike in Syria on Thursday evening without speaking to Congress as a whole.

According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the Pentagon informed the congressional leadership before the action. House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi was notified prior to the strike, according to a Democratic adviser.

Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., On Friday requested the Biden government for a briefing on the decision-making behind the airstrikes.

“The American people deserve to hear the government’s reasons for these strikes and their legal justification for acting without coming to Congress. Offensive military action without the approval of Congress is unconstitutional without exceptional circumstances,” a statement said from Caine’s office. Kaine is a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

There will be a fully classified briefing early next week, the NSC spokesman said.

Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Chair of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee, also called for transparency.

“Congress should keep this government on par with previous administrations and require clear legal justifications for military action, especially in theaters like Syria where Congress has not specifically approved American military action,” Murphy said in a statement Friday.

A representative from New York City Senator Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden on Thursday directed US military air strikes in eastern Syria against facilities that the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militias in response to recent missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.

In a February 15 attack, missiles struck the US military base in Irbil in the Kurdish-led region, killing a non-US contractor and injuring a number of US contractors and a US service member. Another volley days later hit a base where US forces were stationed north of Baghdad, injuring at least one contractor. On Monday, missiles hit the Baghdad Green Zone, where the US embassy and other diplomatic missions are located.

“It’s hard to say for sure if there is some strategic computation driving this … recent surge in attacks, or if this is just a continuation of the kind of attacks we have seen in the past,” said John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary gave a briefing Monday.

“We will hold Iran responsible for the attacks and the provocations of its deputies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price said in a separate briefing on Monday. The missile attack in Irbil “continues to be actively investigated,” he said.

Thursday’s US air strikes earned Biden rare praise from across the aisle. Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., thanked Biden for moving.

In 2018, then President Donald Trump ordered military strikes in Syria. The move also sparked criticism from Democrats.

“The president needs to come to Congress and secure authorization to use military force by proposing a comprehensive strategy with clear objectives that will protect our military,” Pelosi tweeted at the time.

– Reuters contributed to this report.

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Crushing Dissent: The Saudi Kill Workforce Behind Khashoggi’s Dying

Crushing Dissent: The Saudi Kill Team Behind Khashoggi’s Death

WASHINGTON – Seven Saudis who were involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi were part of an elite unit tasked with protecting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This emerges from a released report on the attack published on Friday. The New York Times has linked the group with a brutal campaign to suppress disagreements at home and abroad, citing interviews with American officials who read intelligence reports on the campaign.

The role of activists from the so-called Rapid Intervention Force (RIF) in the assassination of Khashoggi helped bolster the case by American intelligence that Prince Mohammed approved the operation. “Members of the RIF would not have participated in the murder without the consent of the Crown Prince,” the report said.

The group “exists to defend the Crown Prince” and “only responds to him,” the report said, and on Friday the Treasury Department appointed the Rapid Intervention Force for economic sanctions for its role in the Khashoggi assassination.

Here’s something about what is known about the device:

The assassination of Mr Khashoggi was just one particularly monstrous operation that included members of the group. The Rapid Intervention Force appears to have begun its violent campaign in 2017, the year Prince Mohammed pushed his elder rival aside to become heir to the Saudi throne.

According to American officials, the group has carried out dozens of operations both inside and outside the kingdom – including the forcible repatriation of Saudis from other Arab countries. The group also appears to have been involved in the detention and abuse of prominent women rights activists who campaigned for the kingdom’s driving ban on women to be lifted. One of them, Loujain al-Hathloul, was arrested in 2018 and only released this month.

Another of the women arrested by the group, a university professor, attempted suicide after being subjected to American torture in 2018 after being subjected to psychological torture. Some of the inmates were temporarily held in an opulent palace owned by Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman.

The group was so busy that in June 2018 their field commander asked an advisor to Prince Mohammed whether the Rapid Intervention Force could receive rewards for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, according to American officials Read the intelligence report mentioning the request.

The group was overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, one of the Crown Prince’s best aides, who served as media tsar for the royal court. One of Mr. al-Qahtani’s jobs was to manage the kingdom’s “troll farms” – organizations that used legions of online bots and avatars to stifle the voices of prominent critics like Mr. Khashoggi. The intelligence report released on Friday referred to a quote from Mr. al-Qahtani in 2018 that he “did not make any decisions without the consent of the Crown Prince”.

American officials said the Rapid Intervention Force field commander was Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, an intelligence officer who often traveled overseas with Prince Mohammed. Another member of the team, Thaar Ghaleb al-Harbi, was a member of the Saudi Royal Guard, who was promoted for valor in an attack on one of Prince Mohammed’s palaces in 2017.

In the released report on Friday, all three men were named as part of a group of 21 people who “participated in, ordered, or otherwise complicit in, or were responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi on behalf of the Crown Prince.”

The Saudi government has long denied that Prince Mohammed played a role in the assassination of Mr Khashoggi and has brought eight men to justice. The government never published the names of the defendants.

In September, a Saudi court announced that five of the men had been sentenced to 20 years in prison and three others had fewer sentences. Some of the accused had originally received death sentences, but those were overturned after one of Mr Khashoggi’s sons said publicly that he and his siblings pardoned the men who killed their father.

It was unclear whether members of the Rapid Intervention Force were tried or convicted, but Mr al-Qahtani was publicly exonerated by the Saudi government because prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to back him up in the murder of Mr Khashoggi Court.