America Politically Spitted Interactive Series- 2024 TL and Beyond

[WV222]

January 20th, 2021

President Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. The United States deeply divided between red and blue. The President beat former President Donald Trump by 7 million votes, but percentage-wise it was 51.3%-46.9%. President Biden knew that even in blowout electoral wins like 2008 when he was President Obama's running mate when they even won then ruby-red Indiana, that opposition can quickly formalize and strike back as the Republicans did with its Tea Party in the 2010 midterms, which ended President Obama's political leverage for the rest of his presidency. All of this also without the fact that the former President, who he beat, continues to believe he won in a landslide, emboldening his supporters to lead an insurrection on the Capitol on January 6th, would a tough challenge to win over to gain any broad, bipartisan legislation in order to unify the country and heal the soul of America. He would have to get to work quickly on the American Rescue Plan in order to save jobs still hanging by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

January 20th- President Biden signs executive orders halting funding for the border wall, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, ending the Muslim travel ban, and extend student loan payment suspension through September 30th. Georgia Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and California Senator Alex Padilla are sworn in, making a 50-50 Senate with Vice President Harris' vote giving Democrats the majority. Avril Haines is confirmed as Director of National Intelligence 84-10.

January 21st- President Biden invokes the Defense Production Act to speed up vaccine production. The House of Representatives votes 326-78, and the Senate votes 69-27 to grant a waiver for Defense nominee Ret Gen. Lloyd Austin. President Biden also suspends new gas and oil permits on federal land for 60 days.

January 22nd- Ret Gen. Lloyd Austin is confirmed 93-2 to be Defense Secretary. President Biden signs an executive order giving collective bargaining to federal employees and raises federal employees to the $15/hr minimum wage.

January 25th- President Biden extends travel restrictions to the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil over COVID-19 variants. Janet Yellen gets confirmed as Treasury Secretary 84-15. President Biden repealed President Trump's order banning transgender people from serving in the military.

January 26th- Antony Blinken gets confirmed as Secretary of State 78-22. President Biden signs executive orders ending Justice Department contracts for private prisons. Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson rescinds the Trump Administration's zero-tolerance policy which led to family separation on the southern border.

January 28th- President Biden signs an executive order expanding the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid,  and revoked the Mexico City Policy brought back into law by President Trump.

February 2nd- Pete Buttigieg gets confirmed as Transportation Secretary 86-13. Alejandro Mayorkas gets confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary 56-43. President Biden creates a taskforce to reunite children and families separated by President Trump's family separation policy.

February 5th- The Senate passes the budget resolution to set up the reconciliation process, 51-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting her first two tiebreaking votes.

February 8th- Denis McDonough gets confirmed as Veterans Affairs Secretary 87-7.

February 12th- President Biden announces a review to close Guantanamo Bay by the end of his term.

February 13th- Former President Trump is acquitted 57-43 on the sole incitement of insurrection charge, falling 10 votes short of conviction. 7 Republicans vote with all 50 Democrats on conviction.

February 16th- President Biden extends the foreclosure ban and mortgage forbearance through the end of June due to COVID-19.

February 22nd- President Biden holds a moment of silence in the White House and orders all American flags to fly at half-staff for 5 days to honor the 500,000 dead Americans from COVID-19.

February 23rd- Linda Thomas-Greenfield gets confirmed as UN Ambassador 78-20. Tom Vilsack gets confirmed as Agriculture Secretary 92-7.

February 25th- Jennifer Granholm gets confirmed as Energy Secretary 64-35.

February 27th- A early morning 219-212 vote in the House of Representatives, they send the American Rescue Plan to the Senate where one vote change between can adopt amendments, or reject the bill. Two Democrats voted with all Republicans to reject the bill.

February 28th- Former President Trump makes his first public appearance out of office at CPAC 2021 in Orlando, Florida.  Trump continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, saying he might need to beat the Democrats "a third time". President Trump wins the CPAC straw poll with 55%, to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 21%. Ron DeSantis laps the field if Trump does not run.

Stay tuned for future posts of the timeline


 

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

February 28th- Former President Trump makes his first public appearance out of office at CPAC 2021 in Orlando, Florida.  Trump continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, saying he might need to beat the Democrats "a third time". President Trump wins the CPAC straw poll with 55%, to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 21%. Ron DeSantis laps the field if Trump does not run. 

I know everything up to this point happened IRL, but if Trump won four months ago, doesn't that make him term-limited?

[WV222]

March 1st, 2021



McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy was the one Republican leader who did not lose in 2020, at least somewhat. President Trump lost the election to now-President Biden, now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lost after losing the two Georgia Senate seats in January, widely blamed to a disastrous move to go against President Trump's proposed $2,000 stimulus checks. Now, even though McCarthy was still Minority Leader in the House, he defied the odds, leading the GOP to 14 pickups, cutting the Democrats down to an 11-seat majority. His caucus also outperformed the President nationwide and gained three percentage points from the 2018 wave that sent the GOP down below 200 seats. Kevin McCarthy, although with the House GOP outperforming Trump, still knew that keeping the former President supporting him was vital to any attempt to retake the House in 2022. That is why he was the first Republican leader to go to Mar-a-Lago to see the former President even he left office. McCarthy also wanted to show that he wanted to reach to Never-Trump Republicans who voted for President Biden, who either still voted down-ballot for the GOP in 2020, or would be willing to now with Trump out of the picture in 2022. This is why he defended Congresswoman and Republican Caucus Chair Liz Cheney to keep her in leadership after her vote to impeach former President Trump after the former President's biggest supporters like Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Andy Biggs, and Rep. Matt Gaetz wanted to push her out. McCarthy already knowing that the former President would be mad that McCarthy did not get her out, had to make mea culpa again before his CPAC speech in order to make sure he wouldn't be attacked in it, and he succeeded. McCarthy seemed to avoid the worst-case scenario. However, former President Trump forced his hand to make major opposition to H.R. 1, the For the People Act that House Democrats were planning to move in the next week. The Former President came out with the most hardline elections policies for the Republican Party for a long time. No early voting, universal voter ID, almost completely eliminating mail-in voting, in contrast to the Democrats automatic voter registration, expansion of mail-in voting, and national restoration of felons' voting rights once they leave prison. McCarthy knew that this hard-line would not be able to reach out but since election integrity was still dominating the Republican Party post-2020, McCarthy was again stuck.

March 4th- The House passes H.R. 1 221-211 on a purely party-line vote. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy gives a fiery speech leading the charge against H.R. 1, mostly using similar rhetoric and policy points former President Trump proposed at CPAC. Progressive Democrats use the bill's passage to continue to increase the pressure on Sens. Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema to eliminate the filibuster knowing that H.R. 1 will die without its elimination.

March 5th- The House passes 240-192 to pass the H.R. 1280, George Floyd Justice in Policing Act 2021. 19 Republicans move over to vote with the Democrats after an amendment to change the language of the bill to the JUSTICE Act proposed by Republican Sen. Tim Scott last Congress failed on a vote party-line 221-211 vote. Progressives continue to increase pressure on Manchin and Sinema to eliminate the filibuster as this will be another bill that will die via the filibuster.

March 9th- The Senate faces another Vote-A-Rama to change the bill. Senate Majority Leader already pushed Sens. Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema by lowering some of the money being sent to states and localities. However, Senate Republicans gain further wins in the amendment process that they won in the first vote-a-rama. Wanting to restart the Keystone XL pipeline, banning illegal immigrants from receiving stimulus checks, and, expanding health savings accounts. Other amendments just to dunk on progressives pass like keeping the embassy in Jerusalem and funding the police pass almost or totally unanimously respectively. Sens. Joe Manchin and Susan Collins also win the fight to lower the amount to get stimulus checks to $50,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples to start phasing out and $75,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples for a complete phase-out.  Sen. Schumer tries to pass an amendment to remove the Republicans' amendments like in the first vote-a-rama, however, he loses 51-49 after Manchin votes to keep the amendments. The bill passes 51-50 even after all the amendment wins the Republicans got.

March 10th- Progressives Democrats in the House start to think about potentially voting no and sinking the American Recuse Plan after the changes the Senate made. The most egregious changes for them were the Keystone XL pipeline coming back. and the lower phase-out of stimulus checks. President Biden starts working the phones to at least force the bill to a conference committee if needed to salvage the stimulus and stop a potentially very embarrassing for his administration's first 100 days.

I have decided to make the series interactive- so your guys first question in the poll above: Even with all of the changes the Senate made, do Progressive Democrats vote for the American Recuse Plan, vote no, and kill it at least its current form, or send it to conference committee? Vote now!!!

[WV222]

March 12th, 2021



Ocasio-Cortez

After the Senate reduced the income that can receive stimulus payments, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was already not happy with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. He kept seeming to give up every time to the centrists in the party, and would not force them to positions the base had. The long-standing rivalry with Sen. Joe Manchin continued to escalate as Manchin proclaimed the new stimulus bill as "the first act of compromise needed to bring America together", even as no Republicans voted for the heavily amended bill. This led to a public spat over who is a "true Democrat" with their positions. However, she and the rest of the Progressive Democrats realized that they needed to make a decision now. Vote yes on the bill and accept the major concessions being forced on them, vote no and imperil both any political capital President Biden has but show that they were not willing to fight Republicans or send it to a conference committee to try to hash out the differences between the two chambers. In an emergency meeting of the House Progressive Caucus this Friday morning, the fight was being had.  All members of the Squad plus Reps. Ro Khanna, Marie Newman, and Karen Bass were leading advocates toward voting against. This set up a division within the Progressive Caucus as Reps. Jamie Raskin, Jerrold Nadler, and Jim McGovern, the lead impeachment manager, the Judiciary Committee chairman, and the Rules Committee chairman all lined up to vote in favor of the bill. A vote was taken and the Progressive Caucus voted 62-38 to endorse the bill. At this point, almost all who wanted to vote against voted in favor in order to preserve unemployment and other benefits that were on the brink of expiring. However, the Squad would have a press conference later on saying that bill needed to pass, but left people out due to two "very conservative Democrats" who wanted to compromise with "ruthless Republicans".

March 13th- In a rare Saturday session, the House votes 217-214 to pass the American Rescue Plan as amended. Reps. Ro Khanna, Karen Bass, Ruben Gallego, and Jared Golden vote against the bill. Golden however still voted no over the amount of spending in the bill. President Biden holds a late evening signing ceremony in the Oval Office with Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, knowing that without her support the bill would have died.

March 18th- The Republican civil war seems to have been fully stopped as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell heads to Mar-a-Lago to try to patch things up with former President Trump who has been calling him out in recent weeks. Many Trump loyalists in the media like Greg Kelly at NewsMax and Tucker Carlson at Fox News denounce the meeting as the former President kowtowing to the Republican establishment. Most Republicans in Washington welcome the meeting though, hoping it will stop the former President from putting them in tough spots.

March 21st- Former Georgia Congressman Doug Collins takes the plunge and announces a primary challenge to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, citing his "lack of fighting for election integrity", and a lack of "conservative bonafide". Within hours, former President Trump announces his endorsement for Collins, clearing the field of any challengers and putting Kemp in great peril.

March 25th- The filibuster wars behind the scenes in Washington break out into the open as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal hold a Progressive Caucus press conference demanding to know why Sens. Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are "holding back progress for the American people". They demand that Majority Leader Schumer immediately bring a vote to end the filibuster to the Senate floor to force Manchin and Sinema to either "stand for the people or stand for the corporations". Manchin and Sinema hold their own press conference hours later saying that the rhetoric from the left is one of the reasons why "America is so divided right now."

March 27th-Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez in an interview on CNN announces that she is actively considering a primary challenge to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2022. This is the first-time Ocasio-Cortez has come out saying anything publicly, as all other news reports have come out through behind-the-scenes sources or others in the circle of Ocasio-Cortez. Some political pundits are wondering if this is just a play to force a filibuster vote on the Senate floor.

March 28th- Following Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's announcement last night, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calls his own press conference saying he respects whatever decision Ocasio-Cortez makes in regards to the Senate race. He announces he won't put the filibuster up for a vote saying he "just does not have them (the votes to eliminate) at this time." This further inflames the left, as they claim he is "being held hostage" by two centrist Democrats.

April 2nd- President Joe Biden is forced to jump into the fray the save the party from becoming endlessly divided on the filibuster. The President holds a virtual all-Democratic member of Congress meeting, condemning the progressives for forcing the issue, and the moderates for escalating the split. The President announces he will let Leader Schumer make the decision on the filibuster vote. Schumer becomes worried about his position and calls a vote on the filibuster for April 12th, the first day the Senate is back from the Easter recess.

Ok, guys new poll- On the filibuster vote, does Manchin and Sinema vote yes and kill the filibuster, does only Manchin or Sinema vote to end the filibuster and it survives or do they both vote no on ending it? Vote above now!!!

[WV222]

While the vote is happening, let me give you some other updates

Miguel Cardona is confirmed as Education Secretary 64-33
Gov. Gina Raimondo is confirmed as Commerce Secretary 85-15
Cecilia Rouse is confirmed as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers 91-9
Rep. Deb Haaland is confirmed as Interior Secretary 56-44
Merrick Garland is confirmed as Attorney General 63-37
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is confirmed as Labor Secretary 78-22
Rep. Marsha Fudge is confirmed as Housing and Urban Development Secretary 81-19