The Senate just passed the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill—one of the biggest emergency spending packages in history, targeted to the poor and the middle class. But despite full Democratic control of Congress and the White House, it came with significant omissions from the wish list of Democratic priorities: no […] Read more »
Volatility Is the New Normal
Many of us are wondering if this last year — one of the most tumultuous and consequential in American history — and the last four years of constant political turmoil were ‘outliers’ or if they represent the new normal. A challenge for those of us who have covered politics for […] Read more »
McLaughlin Poll Shows Democratic Party Neither Healing Nor Unifying Country
In our just completed national survey of 1,000 likely voters, the polarization of the American electorate has not ended with the elections of 2020. Instead, in spite of all the promises and rhetoric political division and disunity continues into 2021. Ironically, President Trump has left a recovering economy and historic […] Read more »
How the Senate decided impeachment
What can the impeachment vote tell us about the forces at work as our elected representatives grapple with key issues? … Republicans possessed of extensive Senate experience claimed a secret ballot would have produced just ten votes to acquit, suggesting at least 33 sacrificed their own judgment to something. Without […] Read more »
3 in 4 Say Congress Isn’t Doing Enough to Help People Who Lost Jobs or Income Due to the Pandemic
As Congress considers an additional $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, more than a third (37%) of Americans say that someone in their household has had trouble paying basic living expenses over the past three months, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. … The poll finds broad bipartisan agreement that […] Read more »
Democrats’ Only Chance to Stop the GOP Assault on Voting Rights
The most explosive battle in decades over access to the voting booth will reach a new crescendo this week, as Republican-controlled states advance an array of measures to restrict the ballot, and the U.S. House of Representatives votes on the federal legislation that represents Democrats’ best chance to stop them. […] Read more »