U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

Cancelling student debt is popular with American voters. Polling shows that 60% of voters support cancelling student debt, including 76% of voters under 45.

[Rick Plant]

Peltola gains in Alaska’s updated special U.S. House election results



Democrat Mary Peltola has slightly increased her lead in the special U.S. House race.

The Division of Election released an update Tuesday in the three-way contest to see who will serve the remainder of the late Congressman Don Young’s term. With an additional 22,000 votes counted, Peltola gained over Republican rivals Sarah Palin and Nick Begich.

Peltola is now 7.5 percentage points ahead of Palin. She was 6 points ahead last week.

Peltola has 38.9% of the vote, Palin has 31.4% and Begich has 28.2%.

The ballots included in Tuesday’s update are early, absentee and questioned ballots from districts all over the state.

Thousands of ballots remain uncounted. The Division of Elections expects to provide new updates on Friday but the winner won’t be determined until the end of the month. Ballots postmarked on Election Day have until Aug. 31 to arrive. After the deadline is met, the Division of Elections will determine who finished last. That candidate will be eliminated and his or her ballots will be redistributed according to the voter’s second choice, if there is one.

If the current order holds, Palin could win the seat if enough of Begich’s voters chose her as their second.

This is the first election in Alaska to be decided by ranked choice voting. The winner of the special election will take office in September. The term expires in January.

https://alaskapublic.org/2022/08/23/peltola-gains-in-alaskas-updated-special-us-house-election-results/

[Rick Plant]

Congressman-Elect Pat Ryan: SCOTUS Abortion Decision 'Shifted' NY-19 Campaign Ground

Rep.-elect Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss his bellwether special election. Ryan says he felt the ground “shifting” after the Supreme Court’s abortion decision.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Gretchen Whitmer @gretchenwhitmer

✅ Secured $400 refund checks for every Michigan driver
✅ Free or low-cost child care for 150,000 Michigan kids

I will keep working to put money back in Michiganders’ pockets.



https://twitter.com/gretchenwhitmer/status/1561834534957637639

[Rick Plant]

Marco Rubio announces he opposes abortion for rape and incest

On Thursday, in a clip released from an upcoming interview CBS4 News Miami's Jim DeFede had with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the senator tipped his hand on abortion policy, revealing that he personally opposes abortion in all cases — including rape and incest.

"I do not believe that the dignity and the worth of human life is tied to the circumstances of conception," said Rubio. "But I recognize that that's not a majority position."

He also broadly defended the Supreme Court's decision overruling the Roe v. Wade precedent guaranteeing the right to an abortion in the United States, claiming that the decision simply takes the debate out of "Washington" to back into states — even though numerous states are heavily gerrymandered and their legislatures barely accountable to voter preference on policy.

A number of states, including Texas, have "trigger laws" on the books that eliminate abortion rights in virtually all cases, which have now taken effect after the Supreme Court's decision.

While most states have some form of protection for life of the mother, those protections can be ambiguous to the point doctors don't know if an emergency procedure is allowed. Many of these laws don't provide relief for rape and incest at all, which in the state of Alabama specifically, means rapists could gain custody from the women they impregnated.

Many Republicans have long defended forcing rape survivors to carry pregnancies, one of the most famous being 2012 Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, who suggested women's bodies can simply block themselves from being pregnant if it's a "legitimate rape." In this year's midterms, some Republicans agree, with Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon even saying rape survivors could find "healing" through being forced to raise a baby.

Watch below:

"I do not believe that the dignity and the worth of human life is tied to the circumstances of their conception. But I recognize that that's not a majority position." - @marcorubio on why he personally opposes abortion in all cases including rape and incest.@CBSMiami

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1562955681778790401

[Rick Plant]

Biden fires up Democratic faithful at midterms rally with Maryland party leaders



Fresh from a series of policy wins, President Joe Biden kicked off the general election campaign season Thursday night with a well-attended rally at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville.

Roused by an exuberant crowd in deeply Democratic Montgomery County, leading national and state party leaders expressed growing hope for Democrats nationally in the November mid-term elections.

“Let me state the obvious, there’s a lot at stake in this election,” Biden told the crowd of more than 2,400 in the school gymnasium.

The event was studded with Maryland’s own Democratic powerhouses, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Sen. Ben Cardin and the Democratic nominees for governor and lieutenant governor, Wes Moore and Aruna Miller.

After being introduced by Moore, Biden opened his 29-minute speech with generous remarks about several Maryland Democrats who had spoken before him, sprinkled with some good-natured ribbing.

“Wes is the real deal. Folks, he is a combat veteran. The only drawback is, he’s a Rhodes Scholar.”

Speaking of Maryland’s U.S. senators, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Biden told the crowd, “You have literally two of the best senators in the United States.”

“They’re strong and principled and effective,” he said. “Keep them. You need them. No, I need them.”

Biden turned next to the two members of the House of Representatives who spoke, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Jamie Raskin.

“Steny Hoyer, he’s been my friend for a long time. And how about that Jamie Raskin? He’s done an incredible job coming out of tragic circumstances for his family.”

A long list of party celebrities and statewide candidates served as warm-up acts to Biden, offering many of the same talking points about Democratic accomplishments of the past 18 months — the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, bipartisan infrastructure act, gun reform laws — and drew contrasts with the Republican party under the influence of former President Donald Trump.

Some of the loudest bouts of applause throughout the night were for Biden’s student debt relief plan announced earlier in the week.

Vows to restore and protect reproductive rights also received especially loud cheers.

Biden promised the crowd that if Democrats win a majority in Congress, he would codify the rights once guaranteed by Roe v. Wade and said “I’m going to ban assault weapons in this country.”

“Were going to do it for your kids. Who are going to learn how to read and write in school, instead of duck and cover,” Biden said.

But the Democratic luminaries also stressed that they would not take anything for granted in the upcoming general election.

“People have said to me since our primary win: ‘Isn’t it great that you have to go up against Dan Cox?’” Moore told the crowd. “My answer is clear and consistent: Do not underestimate what we’re up against.”

Moore continued: “It is not ‘great’ that in November we are facing an election denier. An insurrectionist who called for Mike Pence to be hung for certifying a free and fair election,” Moore said. “For me, patriotism meant leaving my family and wearing my country’s uniform and leading soldiers with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. For Dan Cox, patriotism meant organizing buses to join him at the capitol on January 6th.”

The emotional crest of the 2 1/2 long program was delivered by Raskin, long a folk hero in his Montgomery County-based district but rapidly becoming a national progressive icon due to his regular prosecution of the legal and political cases against Trump and his defense of U.S. democracy.

To wild cheers and applause, Raskin sought to delineate the differences between Democrats and Republicans, name-checking Thomas Jefferson, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, John Lewis, “the great Elijah Cummings,” and “the last great Republican president, Abraham Lincoln” along the way.

He ended his speech by quoting Frederick Douglass and Thomas Paine.

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” Raskin said. “…The more difficult the struggle, the more glorious the end.”

Hoyer, known over his 55 years in Maryland politics for his long and passionate speeches, lamented having to follow Raskin on the program.

“These are the times that try Steny Hoyer’s soul, going after Jamie Raskin,” he quipped.

Attracting crowds

For hours before the rally, traffic snarled in downtown Rockville, with a massive line of wannabe attendees circling the high school property.

More than 2,400 people crammed into the school’s gymnasium, with nearly 1,300 others in overflow spaces in the school’s cafeteria and auditorium.

Before heading to the main event, Biden briefly appeared in both overflow rooms to greet supporters.

When Biden walked onto the stage in the school’s auditorium, the surprised crowd of several hundred stood up and cheered, according to a pool report.

“The good news of being in an overflow room is you can leave when I start to speak,” Biden told the crowd, which he addressed for about four minutes.

In the cafeteria, Biden posed for a group photo with the crowd, bending down so everybody could fit in the frame. He took three photos with different parts of the crowd behind him.

On the way to the rally, Biden stopped at a fundraiser at a private home in Bethesda. About 100 people were on hand and the event was expected to raise $1 million for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund.

He told the crowd gathered that he “underestimated how much damage the previous four years had done in terms of America’s reputation in the world” and that the party has “got to win” in November.

WATCH: President Joe Biden joins Wes Moore for DNC rally Thursday at local school

[Rick Plant]

Joe Biden @JoeBiden

We had to take on the big drug companies to pass the Inflation Reduction Act.

For decades, Big Pharma fought to block giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower prices.

And, for decades, Big Pharma won.

Not this year. The American people won. And big pharma lost.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1562951850357583872


Sen. Wyden says Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for prescription drugs and cut the federal deficit

It's an especially sweet victory for Oregon's senior Senator, who is widely seen as the architect of the measure that will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon's senior Senator Ron Wyden was at a pharmacy on West Main Street in Medford when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law this week.

It was an especially sweet victory for Wyden, who has fought drug companies for decades in an effort to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. He's widely seen as the architect of the measure in the package that will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

"I was telling the seniors (at the Medford pharmacy) that there was a dose of good news," he said. "A big dose of good news for thousands of senior citizens in Oregon and hundreds of thousands across the state, because they were going to get a fair shake, finally, for their medicine."

Wyden was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss how the Inflation Reduction Act will bring down costs for Oregonians, among other topics.

Oregon's other Senator, Jeff Merkley, also discussed the new law when he appeared as a guest on Straight Talk last week.

Beating Big Pharma

Wyden and other Democrats have been pushing to give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices for decades, ever since President Bill Clinton proposed his health care overhaul in 1993.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare will initially be able to negotiate prices for ten drugs. The first round will start with the most expensive like cancer and arthritis drugs, Wyden said, with more added to the list later.

Wyden called the new approach a seismic shift in the relationship between Oregon seniors and Big Pharma, and a long-overdue change to the restriction that prevented Medicare from negotiating.

"Big Pharma guarded that restriction like it was the Holy Grail," he said. "I called the restriction a curse. Now, it has been lifted. The gospel in Washington, DC is 'Big Pharma doesn't lose.' This time, Oregon seniors and folks across the country beat Big Pharma."

The legislation also includes a provision, written by Wyden, that mandates a financial penalty for drug companies if they raise their prices faster than the rate of inflation.

"So, this would mean for the first time since Medicare began in 1965, there would actually be consequences for Big Pharma price gouging," he said. "That sends a pretty powerful message".

Watch: