Trump attacks Mitch McConnell after Senate passes landmark climate and healthcare package: ‘Played like a fiddle.’
sbaker@businessinsider.com
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Capitol on August 3, 2022. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Senate Democrats passed the party’s big climate, tax and healthcare package on Sunday.
Donald Trump attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell afterwards.
He said McConnell “got played like a fiddle with the vote today by the Senate Democrats.”
Former President Donald Trump attacked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the Senate on Sunday passed Democrats’ multi-billion climate, tax, and healthcare package.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Mitch McConnell got played like a fiddle with the vote today by the Senate Democrats.”
“First he gave them the fake Infrastructure Bill, then Guns, never used the Debt Ceiling for negotiating purposes (gave it away for NOTHING!), and now this. Mitch doesn’t have a clue — he is sooo bad for the Republican Party!”
Trump has repeatedly attacked McConnell for times he allowed Democrats to pass bills, including in situations like Sunday’s where Republicans had too few votes to stop it passing.
His reference to the debt ceiling was to events in late 2021 where McConnell reached with Democrats to avoid an unprecedented debt default by the federal government. Trump has repeatedly termed that call a strategic error, saying that McConnell should have exacted concessions from Democrats before agreeing.
Biden is teasing a coming decision on student-loan forgiveness. Here’s everything we know about how it could look.
Biden is teasing a coming decision on student-loan forgiveness. Here’s everything we know about how it could look.
Pressure has been mounting for Biden to cancel student debt, as he pledged during his campaign.
Last month, he said his decision on relief would come in a matter of weeks.
While Republican opposition mounts, a few developments hint at the kind of relief borrowers might see.
Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to cancel $10,000 in debt per borrower, he’s been largely silent on the issue through his presidency.
But there may be a light at the end of tunnel for more than 40 million Americans with federal student loans.
In late April, Biden said he’d “have an answer” on relief in the coming weeks. That was a year after Biden asked the Department of Education to prepare a memo outlining his legal power to cancel student debt. Insider found that the Education Department created and circulated the memo, but Biden has not revealed its contents.
Instead of relief for all borrowers, so far, Biden has focused on targeted groups like borrowers with disabilities and those defrauded by for-profit schools, who have seen more than $9 billion in collective debt relief. He also extended the pandemic pause on student loan payments four times since taking office, following two from former President Donald Trump.
Democrats are pressuring him to relieve borrowers in fear of low midterm turnout, with some progressives urging him to cancel at least $50,000 for those in debt. Meanwhile, Republicans senators have introduced bills intended to prohibit cancellation.
Biden’s approval rating among the young people who helped get him elected is tanking. With the payment pause set to expire after August 31, Americans are on pins and needles to find out what Biden will do.
Here’s everything we know so far.
Read the original article on Business Insider
On Sunday, every Senate Republican voted against the package, which Democrats said would combat the climate emergency and address the cost of prescription drugs.
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The measure represents a breakthrough success for the party and for President Joe Biden, after a painful process of negotiation to bring reluctant senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on board.
The vote was split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote breaking the tie.
Democrats were able to avoid the usual 60-vote threshold for passing legislation by running it through a process known as budget reconciliation, which allows financial measures to pass with only 50 votes.
McConnell said in a statement that the package included “giant job-killing tax hikes” that it was “a war on American fossil fuel,” CNN reported.
He said Democrats “do not care about middle-class families’ priorities.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
