The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: Friday October 29th

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

President Biden touted a new framework for the infrastructure package Democrats have been trying to deliver. The package dropped from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion. Will those cuts satisfy the senators holding out? Plus, abortion rights advocates shift their message. Warning: This episode contains some adult content.This episode: White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, White House correspondent Tamara Keith, congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh, and political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, this is Matt, checking in from Marion County, West Virginia. You can tell that this is the hometown of Senator Joe Manchin, because every billboard you see is trying to convince him to do, or not do, one thing or another. This podcast was recorded at... It is 1249 p.m. on a Friday, October 29, 2021, right before Halloween weekend. Yay, Halloween. Things may have changed by the time you hear it. Okay, enjoy the show.

So he's really living politics. Can you imagine like just like being in a town where the entire signage of the town exists to lobby just one man? They've got to be used to it by now, though. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. I'm Tamara Keith. I also cover the White House. And I'm Deirdre Walsh. I cover Congress. In the game of project infrastructure, one day you're in and the next day you're out. One day you're in and the next day you're out. Oh, my God. And I get to be Heidi Klune for one day, so I really wanted to say that. I was like, is this like a sports analogy? I don't understand. If you've

ever watched Project Runway, one day you're in and the next day you're out. And I say that the reason why that relates is because this week, President Biden spent a lot of time trying to negotiate this deal with his own party on infrastructure and a social safety net plan. And after trips to Congress, they may be closer to a deal or have a skeleton of a deal. And we're going to talk about what's in and what's out. But first, what do we have right now?

There's a framework, Deirdre? Yes, framework seems to be the word of the month or the week around here. There were a lot of negotiations, but they actually did make a lot of progress on Capitol Hill and the White House this week. They have a framework they're talking about for a domestic policy bill that includes a lot of the president and congressional Democrats priorities. It's not as big as they initially planned, but it still does have a lot of major items in it. And it just meant, you know, with the narrow majorities Democrats have, the 50-50 split in the Senate, the small majority that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has, they had to compromise. I want to thank my colleagues in the Congress for the leadership. We spent hours and hours and hours over months and months working on this. No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that's what compromise is. That's consensus. And that's what I ran on.

So they started out at $3.5 trillion, and now that's down to $1.75 trillion. What is in the bill now? There's a lot of priorities that Democrats have touted that they campaigned on in 2020. Things like universal pre-K are still in the bill, child care support. These are programs that will help roughly 20 million children for the next six years. There's money for elder care programs. There's an extension of the popular child tax credit for one year and the earned income tax credit for one year. On the issue of climate, there is half a trillion dollars in the bill for a mix of tax credits that expand solar energy, research and development, credits for, you know, expanding electric vehicles and setting up, you know, I think 500,000 stations across the country, the president talked about.

For healthcare, that's a big focus for Democrats. They are extending tax credits for the Affordable Care Act. These were in some of the coronavirus bills that we talked about before, but they're going to extend them through 2025. They're also going to expand Medicare coverage for hearing care for seniors. There's also money for housing programs. That's another big investment in the bill. And hearing aids are crazy expensive. So expanding coverage for hearing aids is a big deal, though initially Senator Sanders had wanted it also expanded for dental and vision benefits. And that's one of the things that looks to be out, right? It is. And it was just too

expensive. You know, originally they were talking about a three and a half trillion dollar bill. Once they had to cut it back to what it is now, which is 1.75 trillion, they just didn't have the money. And they made the strategic decision to try to include as many programs as they can, but some of them had to take trims, and then some of them just didn't make it in the final bill. And they also, there's no family leave in there right now. Is that correct? Right. Paid family leave is no longer in this package. Originally, they wanted to include 12 weeks, and then it went down to four, and now there's none in the framework as we know it today. They had also tried to include two years of free community college. That's not in this package either.

We talked about the Medicare expansion being out. The other sort of big item that Democrats have been trying to do for years is to try to require Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs. This would save people a lot of money. It would also raise a lot of money. But it just didn't make it in. There were, you know, there was opposition from a small group of Democrats. So, you know, the things that fell out of this bill were due to divisions inside the party. And just with these small majorities, they just had to make the call that they would just get as much as they could. Democrats are very tenuously in power in the House and the Senate, and there are zero Republicans on board. So this is really like a family meeting

within Democrats, and Democrats are not a monolith. But it is a big development, I think, Deirdre, that you have progressives and, we think, moderates all sort of signing on to this framework. I mean, I guess we know more about the progressives than we know about the two senators who everybody has their eyes on. We do. And, you know, they've been saying all along that they had certain demands that they wanted in the final package. But Democrats on the Hill have really shifted the conversation to stop talking about the fight over the money and the top line and instead try to talk about what's in the package and what the benefits of the package are. And the progressives who, you know, clearly wanted a lot more, at the end of the day, came out with a statement endorsing this framework. That was a big win for President Biden and for, you know, all of the Democrats that are trying to get to a final deal. That just puts them closer to getting this through. So I think that, you know,

as much as we focused on the sort of messiness of, you know, there was an effort to try to pass the separate $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill yesterday, the same day that the president was there urging them to support his agenda, that sort of fell apart because progressives wanted both of these bills to move at the same time. You know, the process may be messy, but at the end of the day, they are making significant progress. And they could end up with two packages that are a lot of money for a lot of things that they've been trying to pass for years. And those two main senators that we have been referring to who are West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who we mentioned earlier in the timestamp, and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema. They have been two of the

holdouts. Are they satisfied with this framework? Like, do they back it? That's really like the million-dollar question or the $1.75 trillion question, I they back it? That's really like the million dollar question or the $1.75 trillion question, I guess I should say. I mean, the one thing progressives have wanted for weeks is for Sinema and Manchin to clarify what they could accept, what they would vote for. Now they have this framework, and President Biden told House Democrats in this closed door meeting yesterday that he believed it had the support of all 50 Democrats. They wanted to hear it. A lot of the progressives wanted to hear that from the senators themselves. Jayapal, actually went and met with Sinema in the basement of the Capitol yesterday. And when Sinema came out, she refused to answer questions about whether or not she would vote for the bill. saying that, you know, they're making progress, and he's in a good faith effort. But if they're not saying that they can support all of these specific policies and suggesting that talks are still continuing, that's not enough for progressives. They want a firm commitment. And it seems like

leaders are still trying to get things in this package, even how Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was still fighting to get paid leave in. So these aren't really the end of the talks, but we're definitely moving forward. Yeah. I mean, like, is this framework the deal, a deal, or is this just another volley in a back and forth? You know, President Biden came out, delivered a speech. Well, first he went to the Hill, then he delivered this speech, and then he got on a plane to Europe. And, you know, I'm sure he had hoped to have passed legislation in his carry-on bag, but he didn't have that. And instead, though, he presented this like, here's this thing we've got, and here's what's in it, and like, it's going to happen. And then the White House rallied all of their allies and had statements coming out from various progressive groups and former President Obama and all these people, unions coming out and endorsing this framework almost as if to like will it to be the thing. But I guess is it is the deal? Or is it a framework? I think at this point,

it's definitely a framework. I think it could be close to what they end up on. But there is no doubt that as people see this window of an ability to still try to get things in or out, there's still going to be a lot of intense lobbying going on. And I think members who, you know, want the specific tax credit in or out are still going to be, you know, in there trying to get something else added. All right. Well, I think we're going to have to leave it there for now. Deirdre, Auf Wiedersehen. I get to be Heidi Klum, you see.

Oh, gosh, I really need to watch that show to understand this podcast. But no, thank you for joining us. I've just been waiting to do that. We're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we're going to look at how the proponents of abortion rights have shifted their strategy. Happy Halloween, guys. And we're back. And now we've got Danielle Kurtzleben with us.

Hey, Danielle. Hey, Aisha. You're going to talk with us about how abortion rights have once again become a front page issue as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in not one, but two abortion rights cases this year. And on Monday, the Supreme Court is going to examine the legality of that highly restrictive abortion law from Texas. But what we're actually going to talk about today is not the law, but the way abortion rights proponents have actually been shifting their message. Yes. And it's been a shift that's been taking place over a long period of time. But basically,

what I noticed when I was at the Rally for Abortion Justice here in Washington, D.C. at the start of October, a major, major strand, a really focal point of that rally was about talk about the abortions you have had, everyone. Listen to other people when they talk about their abortions and also do not be ashamed of having had one. Now, that is different from how abortion rights advocates have talked about it in the past. Here is a young woman who simply went by Anna. She got up on stage and talked about having had an abortion when she was a teenager in Texas. I had to prove to the judge that I was a good student and mature enough to have an abortion. Do you know what I wanted to say to the judge?

I am not a baby making machine and I should be able to decide if and when I become pregnant. So the basic idea is not just making a moral case, the longstanding case that people should have control of their bodies and people should decide for themselves. The government should not decide about their reproductive fate. But rather, let's put faces on this. Let's have people tell their personal stories and be very unapologetic about it. So, Danielle, kind of as you were alluding to, for a long time, the message on abortion from people who support abortion rights was that it should be safe, legal, and rare. But this is quite different. Yes, it very much is. And in fact, that phrase, safe, legal, and rare, is very controversial

within the abortion rights movement right now. You still will hear that phrase pop up occasionally, and it is always met with pretty heavy backlash from people within the movement who say, actually, that it is stigmatizing, that the inclusion of the word rare makes people feel ashamed of their abortions because it implies, abortion rights advocates say, it implies that, well, ideally, you wouldn't have had one. Ideally, people wouldn't have to have them. This is a very big point of controversy within the movement, and people argue both ways about it. But yes, Safe, Legal, and. Here's another person from the march, Kenya Martin. She is from the National Network of Abortion Funds. And she had some of the strongest wording around this from the whole day. And it's okay to have abortions after some hot sex simply because you don't want to be pregnant. I just didn't want to be pregnant. And I want you to know that if that's your experience, that's okay, too. Your story deserves to be pregnant. And I want you to know that if that's your experience, that's okay, too. Your story deserves to be heard. And that gets at another facet of this, which is talking about

your abortions, no matter why you had them, whether your pregnancy was the result of rape, incest, whether it was to save your life, or whether you simply chose to have an abortion for another reason. And so this has become, once again, sort of one of the central tenets of the abortion rights movement. Yeah, I mean, I think this is really interesting because this almost skipped past the part where people were talking about really wrenching decisions that they had to make because of a dangerous pregnancy or something like that. And this skips all the way to just sort of like throw the doors wide open in terms of messaging moves in a very progressive direction. You know, in terms of the party,

there is a hope out there among Democrats that that abortion will be a motivating issue. And certainly you've seen Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, the candidate for governor, the Democrat who is in a very close race. He has run ads about the abortion issue saying you don't want Virginia to become Texas. For a long time, people who supported abortion rights had abortion rights. The threat of those rights being taken away was not particularly stark. And the people who oppose abortion rights and Republicans, that's where the anger was. That's where the energy was. They're in a better position now. They're sort of winning now. And Democrats can see very clearly with with laws like what's happening in Texas that this right that had maybe been taken for granted is is in peril. And Democrats are hoping that fear about that right being taken away will be motivating for Democratic voters in a way that abortion hasn't necessarily been motivating. The courts haven't motivated Democrats in the way that they motivated Republicans for so long. What we're talking about here, this change in rhetoric, has something to do with Americans becoming more sorted by party, sorted S-O-R-T-E-D, sorted by party.

Not sorted. Right. In other words, what I'm saying is that you have fewer Democrats who and rare was considered instrumental in getting people who were maybe on the fence, perhaps getting some Republicans, some more culturally conservative people onto the side of abortion rights. Well, if people are sorting themselves into parties, then maybe you don't need to do that anymore. And maybe instead, what works best is to get more people talking about the abortions they have had and just to rally the people who already might be, quote unquote, on your side to your cause. That's one thing. And yet, the other aspect of this is that, very broadly speaking, Americans' abortion opinions are relatively static. If you look at numbers from Gallup over time, the plurality of Americans, around 50 percent, give or take several points either way, but for decades, around 50 percent of Americans have said

they think abortion should be legal in some cases. A smaller share right now, around a third say legal in all cases and around a fifth say illegal in all cases. But the fact that it doesn't move much does raise the question of, okay, how would you go about changing people's opinions? Because this stuff hasn't changed in a very long time. And yet, I have anecdotally heard from a couple of people who support abortion rights who do also feel that being too unapologetic or too brash is going to be counterproductive, could potentially alienate some people who otherwise might be sympathetic to promoting abortion rights. So like I said, it's complicated. This is an issue that is going to continue to be in the news and that we will continue to be talking about. But we're going to leave it there for now. We're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go. And we're back and it's time to end the show the way we do every week with Can't Let It Go.

The part of the show where we talk about all of the things from the week that we can't stop thinking about or laughing about politics or otherwise. So let's start with Tam. What can't you let go of? Well, this is entirely otherwise. And I'm a little late to the party or a lot late to the party. Lots, millions, millions of people have already gotten on board this. But did you know that today is a bones day and we should be taking this day by storm? Okay, okay. I'm glad somebody is going to talk about this. Yes, Bones Day. However, there are other days that are no Bones Days, at which point we should wear soft pants. That feels right. So apparently there's this pug named Noodle who is 13 and his owner goes on the TikTok every morning, tries to stand up the pug Noodle. And if Noodle wants to stand, then he stands and it's a bones day.

And if he flops back down, then it is a no bones day. Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to yet another round of No Bones, the game where we find out if my 13-year-old pug woke up with bones. And as a result, we'll find out what kind of game we're going to have. He pets him. He pets him. He's like, okay, buddy, okay, buddy, time to go. He props him up. And then he just flops down like he has no bones. No Bones Day, but that's not a bad thing.

Today we reclaim the No Bones Day as a day for kindness and self-care and just listening to what you need this is so cute like it's so cute and it's so relatable because i feel like every day is a no bones day for me um because i don't want to get out to bed i checked with my husband the veterinarian because i was a little worried about noodle the pug yeah just just to see my husband writes back and he says, I have seen it and have no idea if it is just a lazy pog or if he has some sort of narcolepsy. So there you go. His diagnosis is either lazy pog or maybe narcolepsy. Tam, I so appreciate the extra mile you went to doing research on this. This isn't just pop culture. This is animal facts. I am delighted. It's very good. But when it is a Bones Day, that means you can try that new thing.

You can ask that person out on a date. You can try to ask for a promotion. It's a good day to try those hard things, right? Yeah, like take life by charge. Yes. I like that it's also just a, it's just a two option horoscope, really. Instead of 12. That truly is what it is. It's just one or the other. Danielle, so what can't you let go of? Well, so I know on this podcast, we have talked in the past about a certain Apple TV show that is uplifting, about soccer, about connection. I would like to talk about an Apple TV show that is uplifting, about soccer, about connection. I would like to talk about

an Apple TV show that is a chaotic, kind of demented soap opera that is somewhat about our jobs, that is also about COVID, that is about the Iowa caucuses, that is about... I know. It is called The Morning Show. Oh, okay. First of all, listeners, go listen to Pop Culture Happy Hours' episode from this week about the show. They dissect it better than I will here. But The Morning Show is supposed to be a show about what happens on a show like Good Morning America or The Early Show or whatever the morning shows are called these days. It takes place in a newsroom, so I'm vaguely familiar with it, but it has about nine gazillion times the backstabbing that there might be in, say, the NPR newsroom. So you think. So you think.

That's true. That's true. You know, I might be out of the loop. But also, I have to say, we work in a warm, fuzzy environment where people help each other. We're nice. You know, we have tote bags. But like, we're very nice. Very nice. Watching this particular season, I'm not saying it's good. That is not what I'm saying. But I am saying it is Friday.

It is the day the morning show's new episodes come out. When we are done with this episode and when I am done doing my work for the day, I am going to book it 20 feet over to my television. And I'm going to watch the living bejesus out of the latest chaotic episode. And I'm going to love every second of it. Wow. And I like how you said after you're done with all your work. You can really just do it like after this. I'm pretty sure that's just what you're saying.

Shush. I have other things, I swear. Aisha, what can't you let go of? Okay. So mine is, I guess it's not as dark or chaotic as that, but there is some chaos in it. And this is about something that I guess I know me and tam have have been keeping our eyes on um so there there was a pfizer vaccine trial for five to twelve year olds because we you know we we want to get them vaccinated so they're doing the trial and there were uh 4,647 participants.

And there were only five severe adverse events. And none of them were related to the vaccine. But you know, when you do a study, you have to, I guess, document any adverse event. And this was not related to the vaccine. But one of the severe adverse events was ingestion of a penny. So one person in the vaccine group from 5 to 12 ate a penny, and that was the adverse. And I did say that, well, they do say that some of these vaccines make you magnetic. Now, I know it ain't no real metal in opinion, but, you know, maybe there was an attraction to the bloodstream.

Shaw. I think what's really going on is 5 to 11-year-olds seem like rational creatures, but they are not rational creatures. No, no, no, they're not. They are definitely not rational creatures. And no they're not definitely not rational creatures and i do look around on the floor i did one time i was at the white house in the booth and i saw penny on the floor and i picked it up because i said someone could swallow this um because and i realized i had been around children too often oh my god i realized i had been around like children

too often because i like it was just my instinct. It was like, let me get that. Someone could swallow this. And I didn't. I realized. There are rodents. Yes. And then I realized. Protect those rodents. I'm around adults. I'm not around children.

I guess we can just leave it there. Hopefully, penny or no penny, these kids will be able to get vaccines soon. You know. This time next week, baby. This time next week. And another thing that I can't let go of, I'm just going to sneak this in there, and they better not cut it, is that the Bad News Babes, didn't they win their softball. We have a... I had two solid hits and no plays at home and we beat Congress.

Bad News Babes, being the press team, beat Congress 5-1. It felt a lot closer than the final score made it seem. And so this is a softball game between Congress and the media and our very own Tam was on the team and they won. They beat Congress. So I can't let go of that too. And Barton, you better not cut it. Oh, and we raised half a million dollars for the Young Survival Coalition, which is a breast cancer organization.

Also important. Yes. Okay. So that's a wrap for today. Our executive producer is Shirley Henry. Our editors are Mathani Maturi and Eric McDaniel. Our producers are Barton Girdwood and Elena Moore. Thanks to Lexi Shapiro and Brandon Carter. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. I'm Tamara Keith. I also cover the White House. And I'm Danielle Kurtzleben.

I cover demographics and culture. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.