Day: September 28, 2021

Briefings

Background Briefing: September 28, 2021

On By gram

 

The Showdown Between Progressive and “Corporate” Democrats Over the Infrastructure Bills

We begin with House and Senate progressives feeling angry at what some see as a betrayal of Speaker Pelosi’s promise not to decouple the already-passed Senate infrastructure bill from the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill because of fears progressive have that if the Senate bill is passed, Senators Manchin and Sinema will have no incentive to vote for the larger bill but will instead start whitling it down. Joining us is Adam Green, the cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee at boldprogressives.org, a one million member grassroots organization helping progressive candidates run progressive campaigns and win. We discuss the role of a handful of “corporate” Democrats like Sinema who took $750,000 from Big Pharma, in preventing the passage of popular programs like reducing the price of prescription drugs and providing dental, vision and hearing care. He argues the House progressives should vote down the Senate bill on Thursday or have Pelosi delay it. 

 

The Generals Testify in the Face of Petty Republican Sniping

Then we get an assessment of today’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee at which the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Milley, the head of CENTCOM General McKenzie and the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testified, facing partisan sniping from Republican senators over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Joseph Cirincione, a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute and author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, joins us to discuss Milley’s role in diffusing a possible nuclear exchange with China, an authorized and necessary move which Republicans complained about. 

 

Evergrande’s Impact on 30% of China’s Economy and its GDP

Then finally we go to Hong Kong and speak with Logan Wright, a Fellow and the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as well as director of China markets research at the Rhodium Group. He joins us to discuss the extent to which the real estate giant Evergrande’s $300 billion debt which is heading into default will impact 30% of China’s economy and shave 2 or 3 percentage points off of China’s GDP.