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► How about that John Hickenlooper? The freshman Senator from Denver may have saved major legislation dealing with Climate Change and the economy with his persistence.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday reached a deal with Democratic leaders on a spending package that aims to lower health-care costs, combat climate change and reduce the federal deficit, marking a massive potential breakthrough for President Biden’s long-stalled economic agenda.
The new agreement, brokered between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), opens the door for party lawmakers to try to advance the measure next week. It caps off months of fierce debate, delay and acrimony, a level of infighting that some Democrats saw as detrimental to their political fate ahead of this fall’s critical elections.
Under the deal, Schumer secured Manchin’s support for roughly $433 billion in new spending, most of which is focused on climate change and clean energy production. It is the largest such investment in U.S. history, and a marked departure from Manchin’s position only days earlier. The Democrats coupled the spending with provisions that aim to lower health-care costs for Americans, chiefly by allowing Medicare to begin negotiating the price of select prescription drugs on behalf of seniors.
Several Democrats and climate activists credited Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado with keeping the lines of communication to Mr. Manchin open.
“When a lot of people said ‘That’s the end’ and everyone’s writing it off, I went to everybody I knew and said, ‘Wait a minute, we can’t quit,” said Mr. Hickenlooper, a onetime geologist for an oil and gas company. “We don’t have a satisfactory alternative.”
Many were wary about continuing negotiations because “they didn’t want to have their heart broken again,” Mr. Hickenlooper said. But, he said, Mr. Manchin insisted that he was still open to a deal.
For more perspective on how Hickenlooper kept this deal afloat, check out this story from POLITICO last week:
It’s a pretty perennial problem. A group of lawmakers — sometimes leadership, sometimes rank-and-file — demand the cancellation of some or all of the Senate’s month-long August recess. This time, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) floated the possibility to potentially still work out a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on climate change and energy provisions.
We’re going to keep an eye on the Hickenlooper-Manchin dynamic. Both are former Democratic governors in big energy-producing states.
In keeping this discussion alive, Hickenlooper may have also given a big boost to fellow Sen. Michael Bennet; the deal with Manchin severely undercuts a message that Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea had been pushing hard for the last few weeks.
► Colorado Congresspeople Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert and Ken Buck were two of just 20 Republicans to vote NO on legislation called the “Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act.” The bill is a reauthorization of funding for programs that include shelters, mental health care, education and job training for victims of human trafficking.
The U.S. economy shrank from April through June for a second straight quarter, contracting at a 0.9% annual pace and raising fears that the nation may be approaching a recession.
► Don’t miss this week’s episode of The Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring a great interview with State Treasurer Dave Young that includes a discussion about all the weird things found inside the unclaimed property vault:
►As CNN reports, the majority of Americans believe that former President Trump is responsible for the violence that occurred during the Jan. 6 insurrection:
Almost half the country thinks Trump acted illegally! Roughly 1 in 4 think he did everything he could to stop the riot once it started! About 6 in 10 think he encouraged the violence that day!
These are terrible numbers. Like, really bad.
It appears that the American public, broadly speaking, has made up its mind about Trump and January 6. They believe he instigated it, made it worse and may have even broke the law. [Pols emphasis]
This is also bad news for Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, who is definitely on the wrong side of public opinion. O’Dea has stated publicly that he does not hold Trump responsible AT ALL for the Jan. 6 insurrection.
► Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Petersclaims that she has raised enough money to pay for a recount of her blowout loss in last month’s Republican Primary for Colorado Secretary of State candidate. Peters wants a hand recount, however, which is not something that the SOS even offers as an option. Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has more on Peters’s non-starter of a request.
As a reminder, here are the final results from the June 28th Primary Election. There is zero chance that a recount of any kind could move enough votes to alter this outcome:
► Governor Jared Polis is now Chair of the Western Governor’s Association, and he wants to use that post to promote geothermal energy production.
► As POLITICO reports, Republican efforts to push the phrase “groomer” on a Michigan Democrat backfired spectacularly:
The numbers are in and it’s official: The attack on Democratic Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow backfired.
The Michigan Republican state senator who falsely described McMorrow as a “groomer” in an April fundraising email raised less than $300 in the days following the solicitation, according to campaign finance filings. McMorrow, on the other hand, raised more than $1 million.
In the fundraising email, Michigan State Sen. Lana Theis of Brighton said colleagues like McMorrow were “outraged” that they couldn’t “groom and sexualize kindergartners.” The charge prompted McMorrow to make a spirited speech in the Senate in her own defense — a speech that went viral and made her a political celebrity on the left.
Theis didn’t see an influx of small-dollar donations from the solicitation — her take from individual donors was just $235. But McMorrow used the response to her speech to build a data base of 11,000 donors from all 50 states, according to her husband and treasurer Ray Wert.
Whoops!
►The Denver Posthas more on the story of Mike Willis, the head of the Office of Emergency Management whose workplace behavior is being heavily scrutinized:
Colorado plans to hire an outside firm to analyze the workplace culture inside the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a move that comes on the heels of a Denver Post investigation into years-long aggressive and unprofessional behavior by the Office of Emergency Management’s leader.
On Monday, the same day The Post published its investigation into emergency management director Mike Willis, state officials posted a solicitation seeking vendors to conduct a “workplace assessment” of the division that includes what the state called an “environmental scan” of “overall employee satisfaction.”
The Post’s investigation, which relied on interviews with 23 current and former state officials and a review of internal state investigations, outlined Willis’ history of intimidating female employees, throwing objects in rage and cursing out individuals who worked under him.
►Colorado Newsline looks at where candidates for major offices in Colorado fall on the issue of Climate Change. The biggest denier of all may be CO-08 Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer:
A longtime fixture in northern Colorado politics, Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer has taken what is among the most extreme stances on climate of any 2022 candidate, flatly rejecting the science of human-caused global warming.
►The Denver Post examines why COVID-related hospitalizations in Colorado aren’t decreasing. Experts aren’t sure about the answer.
Say What, Now?
COVID-19 infections are on the rise thanks to an aggressive new variant. Naturally, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) is working hard on trying to reduce vaccinations among military members:
4 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Thursday (July 28)”
I think you may have been asleep at your keyboard … your paragraph on " The Denver Posthas more on the story of Tim Miller, the head of the Office of Emergency Management" seems to direct to a story about "emergency management director Mike Willis, "
Did any reporter have the temerity to ask Collins what protecting gay marriage has to do with taxing and spending? That answer would’ve been entertaining.
Of course , the real answer is spiteful, petty , revenge maneuvers.
July 28, 2022 10:25 AM UTC
4 Comments
Enjoy the rain and the lower temperatures today. Let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (
I think you may have been asleep at your keyboard … your paragraph on " The Denver Post has more on the story of Tim Miller, the head of the Office of Emergency Management" seems to direct to a story about "emergency management director Mike Willis, "
D'oh! Thanks – fixed.
The Vacuous Ditz threatens to strike again ….
Susan Collins Signals Manchin-Schumer Deal Could Thwart Gay Marriage Bill (msn.com)
Did any reporter have the temerity to ask Collins what protecting gay marriage has to do with taxing and spending? That answer would’ve been entertaining.
Of course , the real answer is spiteful, petty , revenge maneuvers.