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The Congressional process known as reconciliation a way for Congress to enact legislation on taxes, spending, and the debt limit with only a majority in the Senate was successfully used to pass the American Rescue Plan. And now leading Democrats say an infrastructure bill could play out the same way.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), who is involved in infrastructure negotiations, was overheard during an event Monday saying Democrats will most likely have to use reconciliation to get the deal done. The Republicans will be with you to a point, and then..," Cardin said before trailing off.

Jared Bernstein, one of President Biden's economic advisers, told Yahoo Finance the president wants a bipartisan deal, but if Republicans wont work with him to fulfill his campaign promises, he will push ahead.

He is absolutely devoted to making sure the American people get the kind of investments that he believes they put him there for, Bernstein said.

Republican lawmakers have already painted the just-enacted economic relief plan as a "liberal wish list" and would surely do the same about an infrastructure bill passed solely by Democrats.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speak during an event on Monday as as Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) listen on. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

But an infrastructure deal via reconciliation wont just impact the politics surrounding it, it would likely change the makeup of any legislation.

During an event on Monday former Republican Congressman Bill Shuster who once chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee predicted a bipartisan deal could end up in the $1 trillion range. But he noted that if Democrats go for reconciliation, I think youll see a package bigger than that, in the range of $1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion.

Reconciliation is a process that has been used more than 20 times in recent decades as a way to speed up consideration of certain types of legislation. Lawmakers could attempt to use the process for a second time this year to get an infrastructure bill done, but they'd be barred from including certain provisions that would otherwise be included in a bipartisan bill.

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A Democratic effort to raise the minimum wage was stripped out of the economic relief package because of reconciliation rules, and Shuster says similar policy changes could fall by the wayside in an infrastructure bill. He said he hopes Republicans and Democrats would be able to work together, which might lead to a deal that includes far-reaching changes in areas like rural broadband, pandemic preparation, or the electrical grid.

In a Yahoo Finance interview last month, Cardin also said he was hopeful for bipartisan support in order to deal not only with transportation, but to deal with water infrastructure, to deal with broadband, to deal with our schools, deal with our energy issues.

Gen Nashimoto, of Luminalt, installs solar panels in Hayward, Calif., on Wednesday, April 29, 2020. From New York to California, the U.S renewable energy industry is reeling from the new coronavirus pandemic, which has delayed construction and sowed doubts about major projects on the drawing board. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Bernstein, who currently serves on the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors and previously was the Chief Economist to then Vice President Biden, is also focused on making any infrastructure bill long-lasting.

I can tell you, not just from an economic standpoint but from a political economy standpoint, that if you want to sustain a lasting program in this country, paying for it is often an important way to help that occur, he said.

What Bernstein didnt give additional details on were tax increases the White House might pursue to pay for the bill. Bernstein pointed to Bidens promises on the campaign trail tax increases on the highest earners, as well as on corporations but beyond that promised when the time is right, we'll come back and give you details.

Additional tax provisions could be on the table in a Democrats-only bill, including a financial transaction tax. During the campaign, Biden didnt promise such a tax but when asked about it, he said, I think we should have a financial transactions tax without offering further details like an appropriate rate level.

Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist for brokerage and investment banking firm Stifel, told Yahoo Finance interview on Monday a financial transaction tax could be on the table.

It's one of those things that I don't think has gotten enough attention, said Gardner. It's going to get a very close look from Congress. Democrats have been pushing for such a tax for years and have renewed their calls around the GameStop saga.

White House Council of Economic Advisors member Jared Bernstein spoke to reporters at the White House in February. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also refused to rule out administration support for a wealth tax, which progressive Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) have been pushing.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.V.), a moderate Democrat, might be an obstacle to the Democrats' reconciliation push. His vote would be crucial and, in a recent Axios interview, said he believed it was possible to get the 10 Republicans on board who would be needed. "I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying," he said.

Bernstein also said Biden is hoping for a bipartisan bill: That is where he will start. But like the administrations approach to the economic relief package, he underscored that the White House is keeping other options on the table to get it done.

There's no reason to get ahead of ourselves, he said.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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The infrastructure deal may be bigger if Democrats decide to go it alone - Yahoo Finance

It has become a clich to declare that Republicans and Democrats live in two different worlds these days, but it turns out there is some truth to the observation.

New research on political behavior finds that most Democratic and Republican voters live in partisan bubbles, with little daily exposure to those who belong to the other party. For instance the typical Democrat has almost zero interactions with Republicans in their neighborhood, according to an article by Harvard doctoral student Jacob R. Brown and government Professor Ryan D. Enos published March 8 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Theres a lot of evidence that any separation between groups has a lot of negative consequences. We see this in race; we see this in religion; we see this in all kinds of things, said Enos. And increasingly, we see this in partisanship in the United States.

Using geolocation data and the exact addresses of all 180 million registered voters in the U.S. as of June 2018, the two were able to precisely map, for the first time, where Democrats and Republicans live in relation to each other in every town, city, and state in the U.S. Then, rather than rely on the usual precinct or data aggregations, they used weighted measures and recorded the distance between voters to show how people are divided by geography and partisanship across the country.

No area of the country is immune to the segregation, but its intensity varies. Democrats in large, densely populated cities like New York are the most politically isolated, with 10 percent of them encountering a Republican only one out of 10 times in their neighborhood. Republicans in rural areas are similarly segregated.

Overall, most Democrats and Republicans live in levels of partisan segregation that exceed what scholars of racial segregation consider highly segregated, the study found.

Their analysis of U.S. Census tract data showed that 98 to 99 percent of Americans live in areas segregated by partisanship. Loving County, Texas, a county of about 200 people along the New Mexico border, is the only tract in the entire U.S. where Democrats and Republicans mix freely, the researchers found.

This social splitting is not the result of an urban/rural divide, where cities attract more Democrats, and Republicans typically favor the country life, Brown and Enos say. Whether in small to mid-size cities, the suburbs or ex-urbs in between, the data showed that Republicans stick close to other Republicans, and Democrats stick close to other Democrats.

Even within a neighborhood, Democrats and Republicans are separating from each other a little bit, said Enos. That seems like an almost unnatural level of segregation given the similarities people from the same neighborhood usually share and might indicate theres something pretty pernicious going on, he added.

Race and ethnicity are closely associated with partisanship and do affect where people live. The study shows, however, that partisan segregation is distinct from racial and ethnic segregation. White Democrats who do not identify as Hispanic had similar levels of exposure to members of the other political party as white Republicans, levels that were greater than Democrats from other racial and ethnic groups, who are the most isolated. Since non-Hispanic whites are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats, their lower rate of partisan segregation among whites, when race and ethnicity are taken into account, is suggestive evidence that white voters cluster with other whites regardless of party, according to the study.

If white people were more willing to live near non-white people, partisan segregation would be even higher, said Enos.

High levels of partisan segregation pose a number of negative consequences for democracy, the researchers say. Exposure to different sociopolitical ideas and viewpoints has long been shown to reduce prejudice and to improve social cooperation. Not only does partisan segregation help fuel a never-ending cycle of legislative stalemates, it affects whether voters, and the policy choices made on their behalf, are accurately and fairly represented in government, as heavily gerrymandered congressional districts already demonstrate.

Even within a neighborhood, Democrats and Republicans are separating from each other a little bit.

Ryan D. Enos

I would hope that we can all agree that its important that we get exposed to different ideas. We can reject them. We can do whatever we want, but its good that we hear both sides, said Enos.

Brown and others have found evidence that people engage in most of their political communication with people in own neighborhoods. The self-reinforcing nature of partisan isolation can easily open the door to extreme views and radicalized behavior, so the views of our neighbors really matter.

When you have things like ideology and party and geography all lining up on top of each other, on top of race and income and a lot of other things, these parties really, really start to matter for people, and can result in events like the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Enos.

What causes this segregation, what are the consequences and how it can be undone are among the many questions that scholars hope to be able to answer eventually. Unlike racial segregation, the field is still in its infancy, so much more work needs to be done before any definitive conclusions can be drawn fairly, said Brown and Enos.

The pair are now studying several related issues, including an examination of U.S. voter data from 2012 to 2020, to understand the trend and its effects over time, and digging into the effects such segregation has on peoples views, especially those in the out party for their area, as part of a broad project on partisan segregation.

For those Democrats in major metropolises like Manhattan or Chicago, or even smaller cities like Boston, who are stunned that they and not folks living in less-cosmopolitan confines like the suburban Midwest could be the most politically segregated voters in the country, it can be easy to lose sight of how blue most urban ZIP codes are when immersed in a racially diverse or multicultural environment.

I live in Harvard Square, and I think, as urban high-density Democrats, we tend to think we are surrounded by all this diversity, and in a way we are, said Enos. But we live in real, real homogenous political environments, and it is important to think about what the implications of that are for our views on the world.

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Democrats and Republicans live in partisan bubbles, study finds - Harvard Gazette

MANKATO, Minnesota (AP) Mary McGaw grew up in a Republican home on the rural prairie of south central Minnesota. But as she moved from her tiny town of Amboy to the nearest city of Mankato to study nursing, her politics migrated, too.

McGaw was moved by the plight of underinsured and became concerned about the viability of safety programs. She cast her vote for Democrat Joe Biden in November, and three months later she is pleased with how hard the new president is fighting for his priorities.

Hes trying to get something done, even though theres pushback from all sides, said the 37-year-old registered nurse, who now works at a Mankato branch of the Mayo Clinic.

Counties that went Bidens way in 2020 after favoring Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 tend to be home to universities or large medical centers that draw educated and racially diverse newcomers. Their economies are better than average.

McGaws transformation is driving Democrats hopes as they charge into what the party considers its new frontier: small-city America.

As Democrats continue to lose votes in small towns, theyve seen clear gains in regional hubs that dot stretches of rural America. Biden carried roughly 60 counties President Donald Trump won in 2016, many were places anchored by a midsize or small city that is trending Democratic. They include places like Grand Rapids, Mich.; Wilmington, N.C.; Dayton, Ohio; and Mankatos Blue Earth County.

Their similarities are striking: Most include universities or, like Mankato, large medical centers that draw educated and racially diverse newcomers. Their economies are better than average. And in 2020, their voters showed a bipartisan streak voting for Biden for president and Republicans downballot in large numbers.

These voters are in line with Bidens personal brand, said Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, a bipartisan demographic and public opinion team. Hes pegged as a moderate Democrat, rightly. But hes also making sure theres room for moderation in the party.

Biden won Blue Earth County by 4.5 percentage points, about the same percentage Democrat Hillary Clinton lost it by in 2016. In November, voters in the area dumped 30-year Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, arguably the most conservative Democrat in Congress, but reelected two Democratic state lawmakers.

Interviews with voters around Mankato help make sense of this partisan zigzagging.

While there remains support for Trump, voters stress that action carries more weight than ideological purity. Even devout Democratic activists who wish the new $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package Bidens chief legislative accomplishment so far contained more arent frustrated.

See: Biden played Sheriff Joe role in rollout of 2009s recovery package this time around he is being cast as salesman-in-chief

Sure, I wish it had contained the $15 minimum wage, said Jim Hepworth, the areas Democratic chairman. But we can have that fight another day.

Blue Earth County has long swung back and forth in presidential elections. But the demographic trends are now steady in Democrats favor.

The expansion of the Mayo Clinic to Mankato from nearby Rochester in 1996 increased the supply of medical professionals from around the country and the world. Since 2010, healthcare jobs have increased in the county by roughly 70%.

About 40% of Mankato residents have college degrees a key indicator of Democratic voting compared with 33% nationwide.

Racial diversity has accelerated another boost for Democrats. Minnesota State University, Mankato, has drawn more international students to its expanded health care programs. And manufacturing and food-processing plants on the citys outskirts have attracted immigrants from North Africa and Latin America.

The transition has not been without tension, but the area has come a long way since Abdi Sabrie, a Somali-American member of the Mankato School Board, arrived in 2009.

Then, his two daughters were the only students of North African descent in their elementary school. Today, 28% of Mankatos enrollment are students of color.The changes are welcome, but Sabrie gets frustrated.

Sometimes I want Democrats to use their control to the max, regardless of the other side, he said. But this diversity shows me we can bring back the politics of collaboration.

Annual household income in Blue Earth rose by roughly $20,000 over the past decade to nearly $60,000 in February, still below the state average of $71,300. Blue Earth housing, too, has jumped from an average home price of roughly $140,000 to $226,000. Buoyed by health care, unemployment was 3.2% in January, up slightly from 2.6% a year ago. The states was 4.5% in January.

Signs of changes are easy to find.

A decade ago, hijabs were forbidden for Mayo employees. Today, the colored head coverings worn by some Muslim women are common on campus. The nations racial reckoning has played out in a debate over whether to rename Sibley Park, whose namesake is a general who ordered the hangings of 38 Dakota warriors in 1862, the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

From near that solemn spot along the Minnesota River, Mankato grew east to its wooded bluffs. Along the river, brick hulls of grain exchanges still stand but now so does Karshe, an East African tea shop, and the arty Fillin Station coffee house, among used bookstores, spas and brewpubs.

Midway up the slope, Mayos campus sits among the tidy, middle-class homes that made the difference for Biden. In that precinct, Biden netted 500 more votes than Clinton did in 2016, a third of his winning margin in the county.

Fetching her children from school, McGaw says she and her husband, a Spanish-language medical interpreter, felt Biden was more task-oriented and less about himself than Trump. She voted straight-ticket, but groused Peterson had become too conservative for the district.

McGaw said her family has lived modestly during the COVID-19 pandemic. They qualify for $2,800 in household aid, and another $2,800 in child tax credits. McGaw sees others are more needy.

Weve been doing OK, she said. I was never nervous about my job security. In fact, I was always asked to work more. Do we need the money? Honestly, we can do without it.

McGaw isnt necessarily typical. Nationally, 53% of Democrats say they have experienced at least one form of income loss during the pandemic, slightly more than the 43% of Republicans, according to a March poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

A few blocks away, retired office administrator Jaci Lageson said she was pleased with Bidens compromise with Senate moderates who wanted to lower the income threshold for those receiving the checks.

It gets money in the pockets of people who need it to survive, said Lageson, a 67-year-old former Republican who has voted Democratic over the past 20 years. Lagesons 73-year-old husband, Larry, a devoted Trump supporter, called Biden a pawn of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The number of counties Biden flipped in November is well short of the 206 Trump flipped from Barack Obama in 2016 proof partisanship has hardened across the U.S. But the Democratic trend in these smaller, well-educated pockets looks sustainable, researcher Griffin said.

Its not surprising to have higher-education areas shifting back to the Democrats, given that educational polarization has increased, he said.

Though Mankato remains among the smaller cities in this class, it has grown by 35% since 2000 to about 44,000.

The growth has turned this sleepy rural college island into a microcosm of Democratic America, mixed with pragmatic sensibility reflected in Elizabeth Van Slyke, a progressive willing to compromise.

Im not so dead set in my ways, the 57-year-old marketing executive said. Some progress in the right direction is better than no progress.

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What counties that flipped to Biden from Trump tell us about Democrats' pockets of renewed small-city vigor - MarketWatch

Former Attorney General during the Trump Administration, Ken Cuccinelli, returns to the Dom Giordano Program for a discussion about whats been done to further secure voter integrity moving forward after the controversial 2020 election, and to give his thoughts on issues of the border. This week, Joe Manchin was the first Democrat to step up and say that the situation at the border is a crisis. Cuccinelli explains that he vehemently agrees, and further explains what makes the situation so dire. Then, Cuccinelli explains what the Trump administration put in place in effort to prevent a surge at the border like were currently seeing, and explains why its become such an issue under the Biden administration. Then, Cuccinelli gives an update on the continued push by Republicans throughout the country to further ensure election security in the future.

Paris Dennard, Spokesperson for the GOP, returns to the Dom Giordano Program to discuss President Joe Bidens trip to the Philadelphia region, as he comes to Delaware County to tout his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Dennard and Giordano first discuss why the President has to go on a tour to pump up the bill if its indeed as beneficial as hes making it out to be. Dennard mentions that if this bill was solely about COVID relief, they wouldnt have only 9% addressing COVID itself. Also, Dennard explains how the stimulus bill is a vessel to implement socialistic policies in the United States.

Harry Hurley, host on Atlantic Citys WPG Talk Radio, rejoins the Dom Giordano Program after breaking a huge story regarding Congressman Jeff Van Drew. For a while now, the Ocean City Sentinel has been publishing Op-Eds written by an Ocean City resident by the name of John McCall. In multiple columns, McCall has written violent threats and sexually harassed Van Drews wife. Then, McCall called Van Drew at his home and threatened the Congressman, saying, I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are deposed if not dead. Hurley spoke with the Congressman earlier in the day and got an update, which he reveals to our listeners, and gives some context surrounding the newspaper in question.

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Giordano: If These Threats Were Made Toward A Democrat Instead Of Van Drew, The World Would End - Talk Radio 1210 WPHT

The Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Cherokee Sheriffs OfficeATLANTAA Georgia man who professed a passion for guns and God was in custody on Tuesday night after a string of shootings that police said appeared to target Asian women at massage parlors and left eight people dead.Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, was caught on video at the crime scenes and later nabbed on a highway two hours south of Atlanta following a police chase, authorities said.Police stressed that it was still much too early to announce a motive, but the horrific attacks come amid a wave of targeted violence against the Asian-American community. Details about the suspect that began to trickle out offered few clues.Pizza, guns, drums, music, family, and God. This pretty much sums up my life. Its a pretty good life, read the tagline on an Instagram account that appeared to belong to Long.A student who graduated from Sequoyah High with Long in 2017 who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Daily Beast, He was very innocent seeming and wouldnt even cuss. He was sorta nerdy and didnt seem violent from what I remember. He was a hunter and his father was a youth minister or pastor. He was big into religion. Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs have left multiple people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said Tuesday. Brynn Anderson/AP The rampage began at Youngs Asian Massage in Acworth in Cherokee County, where two people were killed, one other person succumbed to their injuries en route to a nearby hospital, and one died while in treatment, according to the sheriffs office. The victims were two Asian women, a white woman, and a white man, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A Hispanic man was also injured in the shooting and was rushed to a hospital for medical treatment, a spokesman for the sheriff said. About an hour later and 30 miles away, two spas on the same Atlanta streetGold Spa and one in Aroma Therapy Spawere targeted by gunfire, and four Asian women were killed.Officers had just arrived at one of the spas to find the victims when they were summoned to the second. While at [the first location] we received another call across the street of shots fired, and responded to find another individual shot at that location, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney N. Bryant told reporters.While no details about the Acworth victims were given, Bryant said that it appears that all the [Atlanta] victims are female and it appears that they may be Asian.Two men who live just across from Gold Massage Spa who refused to give their names said their neighbors started asking them about the incident around 6:15 p.m. They said the area was very diverse, but that the spa was known to be an Asian-owned business.This is the worst shooting since 99 I think, one of the men told The Daily Beast. There was a shooting then where a guy went through his office and killed a bunch of people and he killed his family. That was 12 people I think, so this is the worst one since Ive been here.Bryant has declined to say whether police believe the shootings in Georgia Tuesday amounted to a hate crime, saying, We cant make that determination just yet. Law enforcement officials confer outside a massage parlor following a shooting on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Brynn Anderson/AP Cherokee County Sheriff s Capt. Jay Baker told reporters: Nothing is going to be ruled out. Wherever the investigation leads us, thats where we are going to go. Atlanta police said video surveillance of Longs car at all three massage parlors captured Tuesday night made it extremely likely he was the main suspect in all three shootings. Crisp County Sheriff's Office President Joe Biden recently condemned the surge in crimes of hate, which have included a brazen, deadly assault on an 84-year-old from Thailand who was killed on a morning stroll in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), in offering condolences to the families of the victims of the Atlanta shootings on Tuesday night, noted that many of the victims are Asian.These murders occurred at a time when anti-Asian violence has been spiking. All officials should do their part to condemn violence and not inflame further discrimination, he tweeted.The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus said it was horrified by news of the shooting at a time when were already seeing a spike in anti-Asian violence.The legal advocacy nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta released a statement saying the group was shaken by the shootings. Now is the time to hold the victims and their families in our hearts and with light.In testimony to the Georgia State Senate the day before the shootings, Michelle Au, a Democratic state senator representing Johns Creek, GA, said, In the last year, 32 incidents of hate crimes towards our Asian-American and Pacific Islander community here in Atlanta have been reported. Recognize that we need help, we need protection, and we need people in power to stand up for us against hate.Baker said that Long was arrested by Crisp County Sheriffs officers who performed a PIT maneuver, or a pursuit intervention technique, in which police force another car to plow sideways and stop.Longs family did not respond to calls for comment. His youth pastor at the Crabapple First Baptist Church confirmed he was the suspect and said elders would be releasing a statement.A 2018 video on the Crabapple Facebook page features Long discussing his Christian journey toward baptism. As many of you may remember, when I was 8 years old I thought I was becoming a Christian, and got baptized during that time. And I remember a lot of the reason for that is a lot of my friends in my Sunday school class were doing that, Long says in the clip.And after that time, there wasnt any fruit from the root that is our salvation.He goes on to say that when he was in seventh grade he attended a youth group and a speaker was discussing the biblical story of the prodigal son.The son goes off and squanders all that he has and lives completely for himself and then, when he finds hes wanting to eat pig food, he realized theres something wrong and he goes back to his father and his father runs back to him and embraces him. And by the grace of God I was able to draw the connection there and realize this is a story between what happened with me and God. I ran away living completely for myself, and he still wants me, and so thats when I was saved.with reporting by Rachel OldingRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Rev. Al Sharpton on George Floyd familys settlement with Minneapolis: It doesnt end there - Yahoo News