Biden's America #2

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rose this week to its highest level since early June following a string of legislative victories, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday.

The two-day national poll found that 40% of Americans approve of Biden's job performance, a level of support that is historically low for a U.S. president.

But the recent upward turn in Biden's approval rating - including gains in each of the last three weeks - could temper the concern among his Democrats that the party is poised to take a drubbing in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when Republicans hope to seize control of the U.S. Congress.

On Sunday, the U.S. Senate approved a landmark bill to fight climate change, lower drug prices and raise some corporate taxes. The Biden-backed measure, which is expected to win approval in the U.S. House of Representatives, was a major legislative win that Democrats hope will boost voter enthusiasm ahead of November.

Biden signed another major bill into law on Tuesday to provide subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production and to boost efforts to make the United States more competitive with China's science and technology efforts.

Tuesday's poll showed 78% of respondents who identified as Democrats approved of Biden, up from 69% a month earlier. Only 12% of Republicans approved of Biden this week, a figure that has remained largely steady in recent weeks.

Biden's overall approval rating had hit the lowest level of his presidency - 36% - in May, and has been below 50% since August of last year as Americans grapple with high inflation and an economy still scarred by the COVID-19 crisis.

Biden's lowest ratings have rivaled the lows of his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose popularity bottomed out at 33% in December 2017.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English throughout the United States. The latest poll gathered responses from a total of 1,005 adults, including 445 Democrats and 357 Republicans. It has a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of four percentage points.

Pathetic.

Time is running out for the midterms.

Here’s what wide-scale student loan forgiveness means for your student loans.

Here’s what you need to know.

Student Loans

President Joe Biden could announce his decision on wide-scale student loan forgiveness any day. No matter what the president decides, more than 40 million student loan borrowers will be impacted. Biden said he would decide on student loan forgiveness before the student loan payment pause ends on August 31, 2022. Let’s explore what student loan forgiveness could mean for you. Here are 4 things to know about wide-scale student loan forgiveness.

1. Student loan forgiveness could be life-changing

For some student loan borrowers, wide-scale student loan cancellation could be life-changing. For example, if the president cancels $50,000 of student loans for each borrower, approximately 36 million student loan borrowers would have all their federal student loans canceled. Progressive Democrats have been lobbying the president to enact wide-scale student loan forgiveness of $50,000. However, Biden likely won’t cancel that amount of student loans. The president has consistently supported $10,000 of student loan forgiveness. That said, $10,000 of student loan cancellation can be life-changing for borrowers too. Despite popular belief, student loan borrowers with lower student loan balances — such as less than $10,000 — often struggle financially and have higher student loan default rates. By canceling $10,000 of student loans, Biden could deliver a financial lifeline to these student loan borrowers.

2. Student loan cancellation: don’t expect a $10,000 check

If Biden enacts wide-scale student loan forgiveness, don’t expect a $10,000 check. Why? Unlike a stimulus check from the Covid-19 pandemic, student loan forgiveness would be a reduction in your principal student loan balance. This means you won’t receive a physical check for the amount of any student loan forgiveness. For example, you won't receive a check if you have $100,000 of student loans and get $10,000 of student loan forgiveness. Instead, the U.S. Department of Education would automatically reduce your student loan principal balance to $90,000. So, you won’t receive a lump-sum payment. Instead, you would have a lower monthly student loan payment based on your new, lower student loan balance.

3. Student loan forgiveness: you may not qualify

Student loan forgiveness may not be available to every student loan borrower. According to leaked documents from the U.S. Department of Education, student loan forgiveness could be limited to specific borrowers. For example, wide-scale student loan forgiveness could only be limited to federal student loan borrowers. This means that borrowers with private loans won’t qualify. That said, a proposed plan from Biden’s Education Department would include borrowers with Direct Loans, FFELP Loans, Perkins Loans, Parent PLUS Loans and Grad PLUS Loans. The Biden administration is considering an income limit of $150,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families. You could be excluded from wide-scale student loan forgiveness if you earn more income than these thresholds.

4. Don’t expect more wide-scale student loan forgiveness

If Biden enacts wide-scale student loan cancellation, don’t expect the president to cancel student loans for every student loan borrower again. Therefore, expect wide-scale student loan cancellation to be a one-time event. That said, Biden will continue to enact targeted student loan forgiveness through programs such as borrower defense to repayment and public service loan forgiveness. This week, Biden canceled $3.9 billion of student loans for 208,000. In the coming days, Biden will announce whether he will extend the student loan payment pause for the seventh time. Even if Biden extends student loan relief, remember that the student loan payment pause won’t last forever. That’s why developing a game plan for student loan repayment is critical. Here are some of the best ways to get out of student loan debt and save money:

Student loan refinancing (lower interest rate + lower payment)
Income-driven repayment (lower payment)
Student loan forgiveness (federal student loans)

By now you’ve surely heard: Reports of the Democrats’ inevitable defeat this November (might) have been exaggerated. The party infamous for its disarray is suddenly passing legislation left and right (well, center), making a mockery of its effete opposition, and scoring huge abortion-rights victories in Republican strongholds. Inflation may have peaked, and President Joe Biden slayed a terrorist (while sick with COVID). On Capitol Hill, Democrats finally mounted an effective case against former President Donald Trump, who, by the way, had his mansion searched by the FBI for the possible pilfering of nuclear and other highly sensitive secrets.

The Democrats’ recent hot streak has political prognosticators reassessing the party’s once-brutal outlook for this fall’s midterm elections. Its chances of retaining control of the Senate and swing-state governorships are rising, and although Democrats remain an underdog in the battle for the House, a GOP majority isn’t the sure thing it once was. Republicans have nominated highly flawed candidates in key Senate races (most notably Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia), and Democrats have gained ground in the closely watched generic-ballot polling measure.

Democrats have plenty of reason for caution. Polls are notoriously unreliable in August, and recent elections have shown that political fortunes can change fast. Biden’s lackluster approval ratings remain a clear drag for the party, and even a slowdown in inflation means prices will remain high for a while. The president’s party historically loses seats in a midterm election even when voters are happy about the economy; the Democrats’ majorities in Congress are tiny to begin with. Yet the party’s prospects are clearly better now than they were back in the spring, thanks in large measure to three main developments.

The Overturning of Roe

If Democrats somehow maintain control of the House, or even lose their majority by less than expected, history will look at June 23—the date that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The 5–4 decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito was not a surprise to political junkies, but surveys suggest that it stunned rank-and-file voters who consistently told pollsters that they did not believe the end of Roe was coming. “It’s always been theoretical. People thought, Oh, they won’t go that far. And now it’s here,” Kelly Dietrich, a longtime Democratic operative who founded the National Democratic Training Committee, told me.

The clearest signal of an electoral backlash came just six weeks later in Kansas, when voters in the solidly Republican state overwhelmingly defeated an amendment that would have allowed the legislature to ban abortion. Democrats, however, have seen indications of higher engagement in several elections in which abortion was not directly on the ballot. In special elections in Nebraska and Minnesota, Democrats lost both House races but kept the gap several points below Trump’s 2020 margin of victory in each district. They performed better in Washington State’s nonpartisan primaries than they did in comparable contests in 2010 and 2014, both GOP “red wave” years. And in Alaska, the party exceeded expectations in a special House election, positioning Democrats to possibly capture a seat that the party has not held in more than 50 years.

Polls show Democratic enthusiasm for voting in the midterms—a data point in which they had severely lagged behind Republicans—spiking after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Dietrich told me that registrations for candidate trainings have also surged in the past two months, and new Democratic voter registrations have significantly outpaced Republican ones in states where abortion rights are at risk, such as Wisconsin and Michigan, according to data compiled by TargetSmart, a Democratic firm.

Joe Manchin Gets to Yes

After more than a year of on-and-off-again negotiations, the Senate’s Hamlet on the Potomac finally agreed to a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to back legislation lowering prescription-drug prices and making the nation’s largest-ever investment in the fight against climate change. The oddly named Inflation Reduction Act, which doesn’t do much to tame inflation but will reduce the deficit, hands an enormous and long-sought victory to Biden and the Democrats just in time for the fall campaign.

The law contains only a fraction of Biden’s original transformative vision, but because most Democrats had given up on Manchin entirely, they were ecstatic at his surprise, eleventh-hour decision to support a robust climate, health, and tax package. The elements of the law poll exceedingly well with key constituencies, making it an easy—and timely—issue for Democratic candidates to campaign on this fall.

Whether the Inflation Reduction Act by itself will boost the party in the polls is hard to say. But its enactment is the latest in a string of legislative achievements for Biden, including the passage of a modest gun-reform bill, the CHIPS Act to support high-tech manufacturing, and the PACT Act to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. Along with last year’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the $1 trillion infrastructure law, the recent run should erase the image of a do-nothing Congress and a Democratic Party that was seen as squandering its two years in power. “It’s an opportunity—almost a mandate—for Democrats to get out there and brag,” Dietrich said. “Democrats can’t be humble anymore.”

The January 6 Hearings: This Summer’s Surprising Smash TV Hit

Many cynics in media had low expectations for the hearings that the House Select Committee on January 6 would hold. But Democrats running the panel hired a former ABC News executive to help produce the events, and the result was a series of newsy and often riveting hearings that drew strong TV ratings and built a compelling case against Trump. The starring role of Vice Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming lent the hearings a bipartisan sheen and helped obscure the lack of involvement from most other Republicans, and the committee made a smart decision to almost exclusively feature testimony from current and former Trump confidants rather than famous critics of the former president.

Did the hearings change public opinion? For Democrats, the early evidence is mixed at best, and it’s possible that this month’s FBI search of Trump’s Florida home helped him consolidate support among Republicans all over again. Yet the hearings succeeded in reminding voters of the horror of the attack on the Capitol and what many of them disliked most about Trump. To that end, Democrats believed the hearings helped energize their base about the urgency of the fall elections, potentially protecting against a drop in turnout that would seal their defeat.

The biggest question about the Democrats’ newfound momentum is how long it will last. Did the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and the party’s flurry of legislative success in Congress represent a decisive turning point, or merely a brief calm before the crashing of a red wave? Republicans have history and, they believe, political gravity on their side. Biden’s approval ratings have ticked up a few points to an average of 40 percent, but that dismal standing would still ordinarily point to a rout for a president’s party in November. Democrats are left to hope that this is no ordinary year, and if they do come out ahead in the fall, this summer’s comeback will likely prove to be the reason.

How Democrats can deserve the independents' vote

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How Democrats can deserve the independents' vote

This list is assuming that "independents" support the same causes that left-wing Democrats do. But, on the whole For instance, independents might object to receiving a $600 handout made with the expectation that they'll vote for a Democrat. Independents might believe that the parliamentarian has an important role to play in moderating the power of the two parties. Some independents might own rental property and fear losing their (already limited) ability to evict deadbeat tenants. How many independents care about Leonard Peltier?


There are some good suggestions on this list, but it's not a list that will cause a majority of independents to enthusiastically support Democrats.