Ruthless Republicans Sell Out Children's Safety

San Francisco CA

Description

Grave Consequences for Republican Monkeywrenching A couple of stories in the Washington Post highlight the differences in how Democrats and Republicans approach power. With Democrats busily losing negotiations with themselves, the Republican minority is setting national policy in dramatic and far-reaching ways simply by holding up President Joe Biden's nominees for various government jobs. As the Post reports, only four of Biden's picks for overseas ambassadors have been confirmed by the Senate; at this point in his presidency, Donald Trump had 22 ambassadors confirmed. The lead monkey-wrencher in this case seems to be Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. In exchange for his cooperation on Biden's diplomatic appointments, Cruz wants sanctions placed on a Russian company building a gas pipeline to Germany. One wonders who's been lobbying Cruz on this particular issue but, regardless of his motivations, he's gone all-in. "This risks being hyperbolic, but it’s like negotiating with a terrorist," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said of Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with past and potentially future presidential ambitions. "He is not the secretary of state. The people of this country did not elect him or his party to represent us abroad. And what he's asking for is to control American foreign policy." Why stop there? The Post also reports that Senate Republican stonewalling in confirming Democratic nominees has prevented life-saving work at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The confirmation delays led Republicans to hold a 2-to-1 voting advantage on the CPSC board for a brief period in September. Republican board members used that window to ram through amendments to the CPSC's operating plan that were favorable to their corporate donors. The changes mean the Consumer Product Safety Commission no longer plans in the coming year to draw up new mandatory rules for preventing suffocation in infant nursing pillows or carbon monoxide poisoning from gas appliances. The amended plan also canceled a pilot project looking at the growing concern over the safety of products found online, rather than in brick-and-mortar stores. Got that? Republicans used their limited influence to ensure corporate impunity in a way that could cause babies to die. It's exemplary of a ruthless strategy honed over decades: Republicans always use what power they have in whatever roles they currently hold not only to advance ideological goals and the interests of their donors, but crucially to prevent Democrats from achieving anything. Now you might say Democratic voters expect more from the people they elect than a focus on pure partisan warfare -- but I reckon people would be satisfied if party leaders showed they wouldn't let corporate mercenaries loot and pillage the country on their watch. MORE STORIES TO WATCH Deal Watch: Senate Scraps Paid Leave Plans Well, that was fast. On the day that was supposed to highlight his plan to rescue the Democrats' big spending package, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's proposed "billionaire tax" got nixed. Conservative Democratic obstructionist Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia hated it. But Manchin wasn't alone. A number of House Democrats along with Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia also expressed reservations with Wyden's plan. Without offering details, Manchin counter-proposed a 15 percent "patriotic tax," which pretty much proves he's making this up as he goes. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont lamented that "every sensible revenue option seems to be destroyed," and progressive plans "sabotaged." According to the Washington Post, "some lawmakers" expect Democrats to settle for a $1.75 trillion spending plan -- very near to what Manchin wants. Senators have reportedly already abandoned paid family and medical leave proposals; as HuffPost noted, paid leave was "supposed to be among Democrats' crowning achievements." The Progressive Caucus is holding firm on its threat to block the bipartisan infrastructure bill without the full legislative text of the reconciliation bill, and a vote on both bills at the same time. But Pelosi has refused to commit to this course and has scheduled a hearing today that's "meant to show progress," with the hope of getting progressives to budge. Khanna Drags Oil Execs Before Congress The heads of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell will appear before a House committee today to answer for what the New York Times calls "a decades-long disinformation campaign to cast doubt on the science of climate change and to derail action to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels." California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna led the charge to bring the oil executives before Congress. With Republicans running interference, the oil executives are expected to trumpet their pursuit of "reliable energy" even as continued use of their products ensures climate catastrophe. Fortunately, the hearing is not supposed to be a one-off event but the start of a broader inquiry. Pharma Finally Moving on Africa's Pandemic Efforts With fewer than 6 percent of Africans fully vaccinated against COVID-19, some progress is being made on health equity. Moderna this week announced a deal to sell up to 110 million shots to African Union members at a reported $7 per shot -- a little less than half what the company charged the U.S. government. Pfizer's German partner on its coronavirus vaccine, BioNTech, also announced this week that it would build a factory in Africa to manufacture vaccines there. And per the New York Times, Merck has granted a royalty-free license for its antiviral pill, Molnupiravir, to a United Nations "patent pool" organization that will allow companies in poorer countries, mainly in Africa and Asia, to make and sell the drug cheaply. Merck claims the pill halves the rate of COVID hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients. Pfizer is developing a similar pill and is also in talks with the patent pool. But some say none of this goes far enough. Biden Condemns Myanmar Junta Amid Show Trial Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected leader of Myanmar deposed in a coup earlier this year, has reportedly testified in her own defense and denied a charge of incitement in a tightly controlled show trial being staged by the military junta. The charges against her include owning walkie-talkies and taking bribes. Her testimony was not released and her lawyers have been forbidden from speaking to the press. The fix is in, as one analyst told the New York Times: "They are going to find her guilty on a number of fronts, send her to house arrest and then just hope that she’ll die in isolation." Myanmar's ruling generals were excluded from a summit this week held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; President Biden, attending remotely, denounced the coup and violence in Myanmar.