The Beltway & Beyond

Ahead of the holidays, President Biden has some good news to be thankful for: the House finally passed the cornerstone plan of his agenda, the social spending and climate bill. On the other side of the Thanksgiving table, another huge challenge lies ahead for Democrats: convincing moderate Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ) to sign onto the legislation.

As Democrats fight over the scope of their policies and Republicans grapple with the influence of the former President, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Patrick Martin, Towner French, Kaitlyn Martin, and Tristan Breaux break it all down, while guest-host Jim Davis provides a view on the growing divisions in Washington from Pennsylvania.

President Biden will celebrate a victory tomorrow, signing the bipartisan infrastructure bill into law. But as the President heralds his accomplishments, he has also been running into a new economic reality, as inflation has surged 6.2%, the largest increase in 31 years. Not only the inflation fight could make it harder for Democrats to pass their social spending bill, but it also calls into question whether the Biden administration has a handle on this problem. The President acknowledged for the first time this week that inflation is “worrisome” – a response, perhaps, to the political reality, as new polls show Biden’s approval rating has ticked to a new low, largely due to a negative shift among Democrats and independents.

As the holidays approach and Americans are seeing higher prices on everything from gas to groceries, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss President Biden’s performance and the state of the economy, which together send a stark warning to Democrats about their prospects in the 2022 midterm contests.

The results in Tuesday’s elections all but confirmed the Democrats’ tenuous control of government and promoted further soul searching among Democrats about whether they misread the public’s desire for sweeping change. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are feeling bullish about their chances next year with the House and Senate both up for grabs. Is the pendulum swinging back towards the GOP? What do the results say about former President Trump’s influence on the electorate?

As Democrats point fingers about their election losses, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Towner French, Jerry Kilgore, Julia Hammond, and Tristan Breaux discuss what lessons both parties should take from the results.

As President Biden gathers with G20 leaders in Europe to tackle Covid-19 vaccines, supply chain woes, corporate tax issues, and the climate crisis, his domestic agenda continues to be in flux and candidates make their final pitch in Virginia’s race for governor.

Public Strategies’ regular hosts Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, and Kaitlyn Martin are joined by Jerry Kilgore, a former Virginia State Attorney General and Julia Hammond, former legislative director for Virginia Governor McDonnell, to discuss the state of Virginia race, a potential preview of next year’s crucial midterm elections.

Racing to negotiate, Democrats scale back their plans to upgrade the nation’s social safety net and combat climate change. Ending the month of October without anything close to a deal would land another blow on a president already suffering from falling approval ratings that have not been helped by the Democratic infighting over his agenda.

As Americans’ worry about the supply-chain back up ahead of holidays, pain at the pump, and rising inflation, Public Strategies’ Mark Alderman, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss the high stakes for congressional Democrats and the White House to reach a deal in the week ahead.

Legislative standoffs are nothing new at the Capitol, but the scope and scale of the current stalemate is as dramatic as it is head-scratching: the drama over raising the country’s debt ceiling is over for now only, as the government faces another potential shutdown in December; House Democrats are holding up President Biden’s infrastructure legislation; and the Democratic Party is still at loggerheads over how to structure its domestic policy bills.

Meanwhile, with less than a month until Election Day, the Governors’ races are getting tighter in New Jersey and especially Virginia, where public opinion about Democrats is weighing on candidate McAuliffe’s standing in the polls.

As Democrats in Washington struggle to get anything done, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, and Towner French discuss what all the major players do and don’t want out of the domestic spending bills and opine on the two gubernatorial races.

After a week of frenzy and public infighting - with Progressives holding firm and refusing to support the infrastructure bill and moderates pushing back on the price tag of the reconciliation package, House Democrats again delayed their vote on the Senate’s infrastructure bill as they failed to agree on the separate $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

Desperate to find a compromise that can win favor in a narrowly divided Congress, White House officials have begun contemplating trade-offs that could result in reshaping or jettisoning key policies of President Biden’s agenda.

As deadlocked Democrats go back to the negotiating table, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss whether there is enough trust left for Biden to make significant cuts to his cornerstone legislation to win support from moderate holdouts without losing votes from the powerful progressive block.

With progressive Democrats holding firm on domestic spending bills, moderates trying to trim the cost, and Republicans largely out of the action, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hurtling toward a political showdown over President Biden’s vast and ambitious economic agenda. Adding to the challenge, they have only a few days left to adopt a measure to fund the government, preventing a shutdown in the middle of a pandemic.

Ahead of one of the most important legislative weeks of Biden’s presidency, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, and Towner French discuss the fraught political landscape Congressional leaders are trying to navigate in the midst of a fast-ticking clock, where any misstep could have dire consequences for the national economy.

Congress is headed for a high-stakes showdown over the debt ceiling. The federal government could run out of funding authority next month if the two sides can’t crack a deal. Will the federal government enter yet another shutdown and create a debt crisis that would rattle global financial markets?

Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss the political football around the debt limit and the status of president Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan, and ponder the road forward for the GOP following Thursday’s announcement from Rep. Gonzalez (R-OH), one of only 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment earlier this year, that he will not seek reelection.

A solemn nation on Saturday marked two decades since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a milestone that came less than a month after President Biden formally ended the war in Afghanistan launched in response to the attacks.

Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin talk about their memories of that calamitous day in American history and how the country has changed in the 20 years since, and discuss how August turned into a month of crises for Biden’s presidency – with the Taliban toppling Kabul and the Afghan government, the killing of 13 U.S. service members in Afghanistan, rising Covid-19 cases and deaths, persistent inflation concerns, declining poll numbers, and an uncertain path forward for his sweeping infrastructure agenda.