Tag: Democrats

Regaining momentum, Democratic leaders are pressing ahead on President Joe Biden’s big domestic policy bill, with the House expected to vote later this week and the Senate vowing to follow by Christmas in hopes of boosting the party’s standing and delivering on a main campaign promise.

Scaling down his “build back better” plans, President Joe Biden has described a more limited vision to Democratic lawmakers of a $2 trillion government-overhaul package with at least $500 billion to tackle climate change and money for middle-class priorities — child tax credits, paid family leave, health care and free pre-kindergarten.

Barring infirmity, Joe Biden is likely to serve out his four-year term. For political reasons, despite the manifest failure of his presidency and his party’s terror of what lies ahead, he has a winning hand.

The forever war between America’s pharmaceutical industry and America’s public interest is approaching a climactic moment. At stake is whether Big Pharma and its allies will keep drug prices zooming upward, or whether the federal government can slow that rise by negotiating prices for some expensive drugs taken by Medicare beneficiaries. The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote on legislation requiring such negotiations in the next few days as a crucial element of the $3.5 trillion budget plan, and the drug industry is in overdrive to make sure that doesn’t happen.

By pure chance, I listened to “Science Friday” on National Public Radio while on a Florida road trip last September 24. I heard host Ira Flatow interview New York Times climate reporter Coral Davenport. The transcript is posted online at Congress Is Considering Two Climate Change Bills. What’s In Them? (sciencefriday.com). The podcast is at September 24, 2021 - Science Friday