What Biden means by bipartisanship
In the days after the 2012 election, things were looking good for Democrats. They had gained seats in the House and the Senate, and continued to control the upper chamber; Obama had been re-elected by a significant majority; and the Bush tax cuts were set to expire at midnight on December 31st, giving Democrats a huge advantage in negotiations.
In desperation, Mitch McConnell reached out directly to Joe Biden to bail him out. The two, over the phone, quickly cut a deal, with Biden giving McConnell effectively everything he wanted, in exchange for an end to the stalemate. The deal needlessly left the sequester and debt ceiling in place, hiked the payroll tax on working people, and touched off a series of failed negotiations in 2013 and 2014 — years marked by the forced austerity of the that sequester.
With the economy sagging, Democrats lost the Senate in 2014. When Antonin Scalia died in 2016, Republicans used control of the Senate to block Obama from replacing him. It was perhaps the most pivotal negotiation of the entire Obama era, and Biden played a critical role. For my book, I went back and took a closer look at it, and it only gets uglier up close. With some new reporting, it’s excerpted here at The Intercept.
Tomorrow is the primary for Queens district attorney. A real-estate CEO is warning that if progressive insurgent Tiffany Cabán is elected, their business will suffer.
This story of ours on a journalist getting searched by CBP at the border went viral over the weekend. If you read it, you’ll quickly realize why.
And here’s your regular reminder to get the book if you haven’t yet.