Tag Archive for: Susan Collins (R-ME)

Seven Primaries That Could Tear Democrats Apart In 2026

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With the 2026 midterms fast approaching, seven intense Democratic primary contests are taking shape across the country and highlighting divisions regarding the future of the party.

As Democrats look to reclaim control of Congress after Republican gains in 2024, several key battles could play a decisive role in determining the party’s chances at earning a majority in either chamber.

In California, the race to replace Governor Gavin Newsom is heating up, with a matchup between former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and current Rep. Eric Swalwell taking center stage.

Porter opted not to seek reelection to her House seat in 2024, instead running for Dianne Feinstein’s open U.S. Senate seat. She finished third behind Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican candidate and former professional baseball player Steve Garvey. She is now mounting a statewide comeback with a bid for governor.

A series of videos showed Porter lashing out at a reporter during an interview and berating a staff member, opening the door for another Democrat to enter the race. California Rep. Eric Swalwell stepped into the breach in November, positioning himself as the candidate that will be a “fighter and protector.”

The two, however, risk splitting the Democratic vote, as California uses a top-two open primary system. All candidates appear on the same ballot and the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. A recent poll showed how the intra-party fight between Porter and Swalwell is benefiting Republican candidates.

An Emerson College poll from December shows two Republican gubernatorial candidates, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, in a virtual three-way tie with Swalwell. It’s possible that if Democratic support doesn’t coalesce around either Porter or Swalwell, voters in the deep blue state could be choosing between two Republicans in the general.

Just north of Sacramento, another competitive race is emerging to fill Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, after she announced she will not seek reelection ahead of the 2026 midterms. Pelosi has represented the San Francisco area for 20 terms and has served twice as Speaker of the House.

Pelosi served as a key foil to the Democratic ‘Squad’ while serving as speaker, and her exit opens the door for the far left of the party to consolidate more power. Neither candidate vying to replace her carries the experience of a longtime political tactician like Pelosi, and both boast far more progressive policy platforms.

California State Senator Scott Wiener, who has represented much of San Francisco in the state Senate since 2016, has announced his candidacy for the 11th congressional district.

Wiener previously authored a 2019 bill aimed at reducing certain sex offender registry requirements in the state, calling the existing policy “blatant discrimination against LGBT young people regarding California’s sex offender registry.”

Wiener initially said he would not challenge the former speaker for her seat, yet he announced a campaign shortly before Pelosi revealed she would be retiring. He explained that the move was necessary after Saikat Chakrabarti — former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and co-founder of Justice Democrats — launched a self-funded bid for the seat, reshaping the primary dynamics, according to a CNN report.

Chakrabarti had announced his challenge to Pelosi earlier in 2025, campaigning on a progressive platform that includes Medicare-for-All, affordable housing, and higher taxes on billionaires.

The former chief of staff had previously helped orchestrate Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset victory, played a key role in drafting and promoting the Green New Deal, and worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign — experience he now highlights as central to his political credentials.

On the East Coast in Maine, a heated Democratic Senate primary is underway between establishment party candidate and current Maine governor Janet Mills, who has the backing of the Democratic political machine, and “working-class” candidate Graham Platner. Both are aiming to unseat current incumbent Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

Mills, if elected, would be one of the oldest freshman senators at 77 years old, and is currently under fire for supporting taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants and defying President Donald Trump’s executive order to prohibit men from competing in women’s sports.

Platner, a political first-timer who has become a progressive darling, is angling his campaign around Democratic populist policies like Medicare-for-All, labor protections, climate action, and anti-corruption reforms.

He’s been drawing large crowds, even as he faces controversies over past social media posts and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol which he had covered up.

In Maine, another significant race is unfolding in the state’s 2nd Congressional District following Rep. Jared Golden’s surprise announcement that he will not seek reelection.

Before Golden bowed out on Nov. 5, State Auditor and former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap had already launched a primary challenge on Oct. 6, criticizing Golden’s moderate record and his frequent alignment with Republicans. It marked the first primary challenge Golden had faced since 2018. 

Prior to ending his campaign, Golden released polling indicating that he had the best shot at holding the seat for Democrats — and his exit suggests Democrats will have to dump a lot more money into the race than anticipated.

In that poll, Dunlap was trailing former Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage by 10 points, according to a NOTUS report.

Dunlap is not the only Democrat trying to replace Golden. Jordan Wood, a former chief of staff to Katie Porter and vice president at End Citizens United, initially launched a campaign for Collins’s Senate seat, but shifted to the race for the 2nd Congressional District on Nov. 12 shortly after Golden announced he would not seek reelection.

He comes to the race with Washington experience and is significantly younger than the 61-year-old Dunlap.

The first-time candidate has centered his campaign on economic issues affecting working families and already has a $1 million war chest from his Senate campaign.

Down in the Longhorn state, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett announced her run for Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in the final hours of the filing period. Her entry into the Democratic primary roiled the party, with former Rep. Colin Allred suspending his campaign and opting to run for a North Texas congressional seat against an incumbent Democrat.

Crockett will go up against State Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian.

Talarico’s campaign platform is based on his fight as a state representative leading the “fight against the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians.” He says he is now running to fight against “corruption” in Washington and “win back power for working people,” according to his campaign website.

Crockett’s entry into the race threatens to take a potentially competitive state off the table for Democrats. She has expressed that she has no intention of trying to win over Trump supporters and is running on an unabashedly progressive platform, compared to Talarico’s left-populist agenda. Yet her loyal left-wing base makes her a strong contender to win the primary.

In fact, Crockett is seen as so toxic that Republicans reportedly goaded her to run so they could better protect the seat.

The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) began testing Crockett’s name in internal polling in July, as first reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The results showed her leading a hypothetical Democratic primary. In the months that followed, the NRSC quietly encouraged Crockett to enter the race, a push that ultimately led her to join the Senate Democratic primary at the last minute.

GOP insiders believe either the incumbent Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton would breeze to victory against Crockett, allowing them to save valuable resources for other races throughout the country.

In Massachusetts, Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, is making generational change the centerpiece of his campaign against incumbent Sen. Ed Markey. Moulton argues that Democrats need new leadership after the 79-year-old senator’s nearly half-century in Congress — Markey would be 86 at the end of another term if reelected.

Moulton, a 47-year-old former Marine, previously beat incumbent Rep. John Tierney in 2014 and voted to block Democrat California Rep. Nancy Pelosi from becoming speaker of the House in 2018, according to a Politico report.

Moulton has faced backlash in his overwhelmingly blue state for tacking to the center. He suggested that his party’s recent electoral setbacks were tied to its stance on allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports, according to a New York Times report.

His comments prompted his campaign manager to resign, drew a public rebuke from the state’s Democratic governor, and even led a Tufts University political science chair to threaten to stop sending students to intern in his office.

Markey — often viewed as more progressive than the moderate, reform-minded Moulton — has indirectly rejected claims he is too old to run for reelection, highlighting his alleged energy, fresh ideas, and commitment during crises like the government shutdown.

Following mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City, Democrats are now turning their attention to holding the governor’s office in the Empire State.

Incumbent Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who previously served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and assumed the governorship in August 2021 following his resignation, is running to maintain her residency in Albany.

She made a late appearance alongside Mamdani in his mayoral campaign, publicly throwing her support behind him and pointedly snubbing Cuomo, who had launched an independent bid after losing the primary to Mamdani.

Hochul is facing a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who launched his bid in an effort to unseat Hochul in June.

Delgado spent three years in the U.S. House before Hochul tapped him in 2022 to serve as lieutenant governor, making him the first Latino to hold statewide office in New York.

In a video previewing his announcement, he appears speaking to New Yorkers across the city while calling for “universal health care,” “universal pre-K,” and pledging to fight “the Trump administration’s attacks” on deep-blue New York.

Although Hochul and Delgado began their tenure on good terms and were elected to full terms together, their relationship has cooled as they diverged on key issues, even as the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has signaled its full support for Hochul heading into the 2026 primary.

Delgado’s public divergences with Hochul began to surface most clearly when he urged President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. After the election, he reinforced that message in a New York Times op-ed calling for the Democratic Party to change direction, concluding with the line: “A new path is both necessary and possible, but we will not chart it with the same politicians telling the same old stories. We are ready for the next generation.”

He later deepened the divide by calling for New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign, even as Hochul adopted a more measured approach. The split over Adams prompted spokesperson Avi Small Hogrebe to issue a statement underscoring that “Lieutenant Governor Delgado does not now and has not ever spoken on behalf of this administration.”

These tensions — driven by disagreements over party loyalty, political strategy, and generational change — ultimately led Hochul to remove most of Delgado’s staff and resources, underscoring the widening rift between them, according to a Politico report.

Over the past year, Delgado has gone from a somewhat reluctant lieutenant governor to a political outcast who is no longer on speaking terms with Hochul.

Polls show the Republican frontrunner, Rep. Elise Stefanik, performing slightly better against Delgado, though neither matchup appears to be particularly competitive.

Recent special election and off-year victories for Democrats have the party convinced they’re looking at a blue wave in the 2026 midterms. Even if they are able to regain the majority in Congress, the tense fight between progressives and moderates and younger and older candidates threatens to severely bruise the Democrats in the process.

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Lefty Democrats Purged Their Only Congressman Without Trump Derangement Syndrome

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Republicans are licking their chops after progressives helped drive Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden to retire from Congress, with local operatives and party consultants telling the Daily Caller it gives them a clearer path to victory in Golden’s red-leaning district.

“Bottom line on Maine’s 2nd Congressional District: It’s a Republican-leaning district, now absent the one Democrat who could hold it,” a Republican consultant who has worked on congressional and statewide campaigns in the state told the Daily Caller.

Maine has been long regarded as a moderate state Golden is viewed as one of the few Democrats capable of effectively representing the rural 2nd District’s constituents.

“The district has been getting more and more difficult for the Democrats to win for a decade now,” a longtime Maine political operative told the Caller.

Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who began his political career working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins, flipped Maine’s 2nd in 2018, ousting Republican incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin. It was the first time an incumbent lost reelection in the district since 1916.

Trump won Maine’s 2nd all three times he ran for president, including by almost ten points in 2024.

In 2024, Golden’s campaign messaging straddled both sides of the political spectrum. His ads simultaneously called former President Joe Biden “unfit to serve” while highlighting Republican opposition to abortion. Ahead of Trump’s election last November, Golden said he’d be “OK” if Trump won, accusing his own party of “pearl-clutching” about the ramifications of a Trump presidency. He was one of a handful of Democrats to join Republicans in a vote to reopen the government earlier this week.

Golden’s bipartisan stances often angered the Democratic Party. In 2020, a source familiar told the Caller that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded Golden endorse Collins’s Democratic challenger, state Rep. Sara Gideon, or risk losing their support. Golden told party leadership to “pound sand,” the source said, and asserted they’d lose the seat if they didn’t back him.

The attacks were even more acute from the Democrats’ left flank.

Progressive activists bashed Golden repeatedly over his four terms, accusing him of not standing up for marginalized communities, being too soft on Trump, and abandoning Democrat values.

“The Democrat Party has moved so far to the left and it really just got to the point where he couldn’t do anything. Any vote he took was going to be the wrong one … but he couldn’t move any further to the left because that would absolutely cook him in a general,” a senior Republican strategist said.

The Maine operative echoed the view that Golden was taking a lot of heat from progressive groups but would not allow himself to be bullied by them.

“There was a lot of pressure from the Indivisible group here. They have an organized presence and they were sort of pushing and harassing — they would call it advocating — and he wouldn’t give in to them,” the operative told the Caller. “He kind of dug his heels in with the progressive left a little bit. He was sort of still their ally, but he just wouldn’t let them push him around.”

The mounting frustrating that Golden wouldn’t capitulate to the party’s left-wing base and special interest groups lead to a 2026 primary challenge from State Auditor Matt Dunlap, who planned to campaign aggressively on Golden’s record of siding with Republicans on certain issues, according to a NOTUS report.

The strategist said the overall situation reflected growing frustration within the Democratic Party with Golden.

“They saw Golden was the only one who could win that seat, and so they put up with his nonsense. It is very clear they were not happy with him. Jared Golden’s always just given them the middle finger, and that’s really what led to Dunlap feeling emboldened to jump in,” the strategist told the Caller.

In addition to Dunlap, former chief of staff to progressive Democratic California Rep. Katie Porter, Jordan Wood, is leaving the California Senate race to run in the Democratic primary for Golden’s seat, according to a Politico report.

“I don’t know when he last even visited the 2nd District,” the operative asserted.

Golden’s exit has given Republicans a better opportunity to flip the seat with former two-term Governor Paul LePage, multiple people familiar with Maine politics told the Caller.

The operative said, “LePage is kind of a folk hero to the people in rural Maine.”

The Republican consultant identified Golden as being a rare figure who can capture the district’s independent-minded voters and warned Democrats that putting up a progressive challenger to LePage wouldn’t end well.

“In an entirely nationalized political environment, people tend to forget that actual people end up deciding the fate of these elections. Golden was as unique as Maine’s 2nd District: a veteran, former Susan Collins staffer who refused to endorse Sara Gideon despite strong-arming from Schumer and Pelosi in ’20, and wore flannel not because it poll-tested well but because he’s actually from there and wears flannel,” the consultant explained.

Golden claimed in a lengthy column announcing his decision not to run for a fifth term that he was concerned about rising political violence and extremism, citing in part the two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump. The congressman also received a bomb threat of his own last Thanksgiving.

“I don’t fear losing. What has become apparent to me is that I now dread the prospect of winning,” Golden wrote, adding that he has “never loved politics.”

A Republican strategist who worked on the LePage campaign said Golden’s excuse for giving up his seat, though, is “ridiculous,” noting, “Since he left the military, every single job he’s had has been in politics.”

Golden’s sudden departure surprised many, though signs of internal pressure had been building within his own party. The congressman’s op-ed excoriates Democrats for giving into extremism, hinting perhaps at the role an intra-party divide played in his decision to leave.

“We’re allowing the most extreme, pugilistic elements of our party to call the shots,” Golden asserted about the Democrats.

The Maine operative also pointed to a recent slate of polls that indicated Golden’s path to reelection was not as clear as in previous cycles.

“He was getting poll after poll after poll saying he was not going to win … He was the most viable of their potential candidates as far as I could see,” the operative explained.

Golden’s campaign approach shifted noticeably during his 2024 re-election, suggesting he had all but given up amid inner party turmoil and falling poll numbers. The senior strategist observed that Golden was rarely seen at public events or making the kinds of appearances most candidates consider essential in the crucial final months of a campaign.

“He wasn’t someone that was always present in the district, always out and about, and I think he really, at some level, benefited from running a sort of basement campaign,” the strategist told the Caller. “It wasn’t that he was getting all of these Republican or Trump voters to also vote for him and split their ticket — he just wasn’t making Republicans angry enough to vote against him.”

The longtime Maine operative recalled an instance during the late summer of that election year when Golden was allegedly canoeing along the remote Allagash River in Maine’s North Woods — a notably desolate setting just months before the November election.

“We were asking where he was, and the response from his campaign team was, ‘He’s canoeing in the Allagash and he’ll be back next week.’ It was just this kind of surreal moment. It was almost like he no longer took anything seriously,” the operative said.

Golden has long touted his reputation as a moderate within his party, highlighting his ranking on the Bipartisan Index from the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, which placed him 7th out of 435 members in the 117th Congress, according to a May 2022 press release.

Golden has earned begrudging respect from a large amount of Republican operatives in the state, the consultant said, adding that Golden’s relationship with Collins has remained positive and productive over the years. The pair recently collaborated to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to increase investigations and crackdowns on illegal Chinese-owned marijuana operations in Maine.

Losing a key ally of Collins will likely be another blow to Democrats as they aim to hold the 2nd District.

“Susan Collins is at the top of the ticket,” the consultant said. “Collins, a political behemoth, has always run ahead of the national environment for Republicans. Maine’s 2nd District is likely in the ledger for Speaker Johnson”

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Here’s What The Senate Changed In The ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill

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The Senate passed President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” on Tuesday morning, but only after senators spent hours negotiating changes to the near-1,000 page sweeping budget legislation.

Senate GOP holdouts, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, were pushing for amendments to Medicaid provisions and clean energy tax credits, and using their leverage to strike deals with Senate Majority Leader Thune throughout the night. Here are some of the last minute changes that were made to the budget reconciliation package.

Medicaid

Collins — who ultimately was one of three Republican senators to vote against the bill — has been a staunch advocate of procuring extra funding for rural hospitals affected by the Medicaid provider tax legislation and initially pushed for a $100 billion rural hospital fund. Senate Republicans instead placed a $25 billion safeguard fund into the bill.

Collins introduced an amendment to raise the fund to $50 billion by raising taxes on billionaires, but the vote failed 22-78 with 18 Republicans and four members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voting in favor. Despite her failed amendment, Collins’ increased rural hospital fund was added into the bill without the need for taxes to be increased.

Green Energy Tax Credits

Senate Republicans made last-minute alterations to green energy provisions, striking a controversial excise tax and giving tax credits to solar and wind projects that begin construction within a year of the bill’s enactment. The amendment still requires projects with later construction dates than summer 2026 to produce electricity by the end of 2027 to qualify for the credits.

Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Curtis of Utah and Murkowski all played key roles in negotiations over the energy amendments.

Other Tax Credits 

A new tax credit for contributions to nonprofits granting scholarships to elementary and secondary schools has been added to the budget bill. Taxable contributions include those made to scholarship organizations that provide funds to eligible students within the state of the organization.

Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly’s bill aiming to change the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 also made it into the reconciliation bill. Kelly’s measure would restore the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) subsidiary asset test by increasing the asset percentage threshold from 20% to 25%. It would provide REITs more flexibility in how they format their subsidiary holdings.

The added bill would take effect December 31, 2025.

The Bill’s Title 

The legislation’s former name, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is officially no more. Democrats used special Senate budget rules to delete the Trump-given title on Tuesday, much like Republicans revoked the Inflation Reduction Act title in 2022. Democrats also pulled a similar move in 2017, removing the name of the Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Artificial Intelligence

In a 99-1 vote, the Senate removed a ten-year moratorium on state and local artificial intelligence (AI) regulation. Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn introduced the amendment to revoke the proposed ban after dropping out of a deal with Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to cut the moratorium from ten years to five.

Blackburn claimed she left the deal with Cruz due to the carveouts allowing states to regulate child sexual abuse content and children’s online safety, claiming the compromise could still “allow Big Tech to continue to exploit kids, creators, and conservatives.”

SNAP

Throughout hours of negotiation, Murkowski also secured changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for Alaska, claiming they will allow for “greater flexibility” for her constituents. Democratic Senators such as Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota took issue with the special Alaska-specific provisions, arguing other states should get SNAP carve outs also.

Even with the changes in the bill, Murkowski has still called on the House to send the bill back to the Senate to continue making alterations to the text.

“Do I like this bill? No. But I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests,” Murkowski told NBC News after the final vote on the bill. “My hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.”

AUTHOR

Andi Shae Napier

Congressional Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Senate Passes Trump’s ‘Beautiful’ Bill After Holdout Supplies Critical Vote

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The Senate approved President Donald Trump’s landmark bill largely along party lines Tuesday morning after senators took dozens of votes on amendments and procedural motions in a marathon session that lasted more than 24 hours.

Senators voted 51 to 50 with Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine opposing the president’s sweeping domestic policy legislation. The bill’s passage is a massive victory for Senate GOP leadership who were able to keep defections to a minimum and convince one holdout, Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, to supply a critical vote to pass the president’s tax and immigration bill.

Vice President JD Vance, who arrived in the Capitol shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, cast the tie-breaking vote. The Senate-amended bill now heads to the House for consideration where lawmakers are racing to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline.

Given Senate Republicans’ 53-47 majority, Thune could afford to spare just three votes. Every Senate Democrat, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted no on the Senate version of the president’s “big, beautiful” bill.

The “vote-a-rama” that preceded the vote on final passage was one of the longest voting sessions in American history. Senators cast more than 45 votes in a session that started at 9 a.m. Monday as Senate GOP leadership lobbied holdouts to support the bill.

The Senate agreed to pass just a handful of amendments to the bill during the course of voting. Senators overwhelmingly backed a measure offered by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn to eliminate a provision freezing state and local AI regulation.

The Senate also approved a “wrap-around amendment” immediately preceding to a vote on final passage that incorporated last-minute changes to the bill. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

Tillis and Collins justified their opposition to the president’s domestic policy bill, citing the proposal’s aggressive reforms to Medicaid.

Paul, a fiscal hawk who almost never supports bills that increase budget deficits, also voted against the president’s budget bill. He said he could not support the legislation given a provision that would raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.

The president notably criticized Tillis and Paul for voting against starting debate on Trump’s megabill Saturday.

“Thom Tillis has hurt the great people of North Carolina,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social Tuesday. “Even on the catastrophic flooding, nothing was done to help until I took office. Then a MIRACLE took place! Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER! He’s even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!”

Congressional Republicans are using the so-called budget reconciliation process to circumvent Democrat’s opposition and pass tax and spending legislation by a simple majority vote.

The upper chamber’s bill combines a staggering number of Trump’s policy priorities into one budget package. It would permanently extend the president’s 2017 tax cuts, temporary eliminate taxation on tipped wages and overtime pay for certain Americans and restore several business tax breaks sought by the private sector

The budget package would also boost immigration enforcement and defense spending by hundreds of billions of dollars while achieving the largest cut to mandatory spending in American history, including slowing the rate of federal Medicaid spending by roughly $1 trillion over a decade.

The final bill is the product of Republicans’ legislative ambition that was years in the making. The last time Republicans had a trifecta in Washington to pass a budget reconciliation bill was nearly a decade ago during the start of Trump’s first term in office.

“This is Republicans fulfilling our promise of growth and prosperity for the American people,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said Monday on Fox News. “It’s more money in people’s pockets for gas, groceries, for rent. All of those things, and as the president said, we need to stop this $4 trillion tax increase, which would be the biggest increase in taxes in the history of our country.”

The combined effects of these tax provisions are projected to result in $7,800 to $13,000 higher take-home pay for the average family with two children, according to a White House report analyzing the initial House-passed bill that was published in May.

The Senate bill now heads to the House where it faces uncertain prospects. A flank of House conservatives have pledged to tank the upper chamber’s proposal for violating a framework in the House to pair tax cuts with dollar-for-dollar spending reduction. A cohort of moderate GOP lawmakers have signaled they will vote “no” on the Senate bill, citing opposition to aggressive reforms to Medicaid.

Any changes the House makes to the Senate’s bill would have to pass the upper chamber for a second time before Trump can sign the measure into law.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Congressional Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

19 Republican Senators vote to give Biden $13 billion to resettle unvetted Afghan evacuees in the US..

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If you wanted to destroy the country, what would you do differently from what Congress and Biden’s handlers are doing? No one knows how many jihadis are among these people; they’re largely unvetted. But the key part of this story is at the end: “The data revealed also that most Afghan arrivals in the U.S. live on welfare.”

That’s the goal. Create a group of people that is utterly dependent upon the government, and will keep on voting for those who will keep the gravy train going.

The List: 19 Senate Republicans Give Biden Over $13B to Resettle Unlimited Flow of Afghans Across Their States

by John Binder, Breitbart, December 3, 2021:

President Joe Biden’s massive Afghan resettlement operation, with no end date, has been funded by Congress to the sum of more than $13 billion thanks to 19 Senate Republicans who helped advance the plan.

Late Thursday evening, House Democrats and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) passed a government funding bill that will keep the federal government operating through mid-February. In the bill is more than $7 billion in funding for the Biden administration to resettle an unlimited number of Afghans across the United States.

In the Senate, 19 Senate Republicans joined Senate Democrats to send the bill to Biden’s desk — now authorizing, in total, $13.3 billion for the administration to resettle Afghans after 49 House and Senate Republicans voted in September to fund the resettlement operation $6.4 billion.

These 19 Senate Republicans who backed the bill are:

  • Roy Blunt (R-MO)
  • Richard Burr (R-NC)
  • Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
  • Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
  • Susan Collins (R-ME)
  • John Cornyn (R-TX)
  • Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
  • Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
  • John Kennedy (R-LA)
  • Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
  • Jerry Moran (R-KS)
  • Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
  • Rob Portman (R-OH)
  • Mike Rounds (R-SD)
  • Marco Rubio (R-FL)
  • Richard Shelby (R-AL)
  • Thom Tillis (R-NC)
  • Roger Wicker (R-MS)
  • Todd Young (R-IN)

In the bill, Afghans and other foreign nationals are identified as “individuals at risk” who can take part in “relocations” to the U.S. “as a result of the situation in Afghanistan.”

Senate Republican support for Biden’s Afghan resettlement operation comes even as Republican voters are deeply opposed to the plan, multiple polls have shown. The latest Pew Research Center survey shows that 63 percent of GOP voters oppose the plan.

In addition, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has admitted that “not all” Afghans are being vetted through standard in-person interview procedures.

“We are not conducting in-person, refugee interviews of 100 percent individuals,” Mayorkas told lawmakers last month during a hearing….

The data revealed also that most Afghan arrivals in the U.S. live on welfare.

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