The Beltway & Beyond

Congress is headed for a high-stakes showdown over the debt ceiling. The federal government could run out of funding authority next month if the two sides can’t crack a deal. Will the federal government enter yet another shutdown and create a debt crisis that would rattle global financial markets? Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss the p...

A solemn nation on Saturday marked two decades since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a milestone that came less than a month after President Biden formally ended the war in Afghanistan launched in response to the attacks. Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Patrick Martin, Towner French, and Kaitlyn Martin talk about their memories of that calamitous day in American history...

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation on Tuesday, a week after State AG Tish James issued a scathing report detailing accusations of sexual harassment and one day after state lawmakers convened for impeachment proceedings. Underscoring both the tarnished brand of her soon-to-be predecessor and the public’s desire for a reset, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is signaling the start of a new era i...

A partisan stalemate is poised to drag out Senate efforts to advance the infrastructure bill for days, with GOP Sen. Hagerty (TN) vowing he will block attempts to speed up passage of the legislation. But the Senate still remains on track to conclude its work on proposed revisions, potentially by early next week, putting Democrats one step closer to delivering on President Biden’s economic policy p...

On Wednesday, just days before the House left for its August recess, Senate Democrats and Republicans banded together to advance an infrastructure proposal - including $550 billion in new spending, to improve the country’s aging infrastructure, overcoming months of political deadlock on one of President Biden’s signature economic policy priorities. Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderm...

What happens in New York, the country’s largest and most diverse city, has national ramifications. What is the projected mayoral race winner Eric Adams’ relationship with NY Governor Cuomo, whose investigation by state attorney general’s office has upended his national reputation as he gears up to run for a fourth term next year? What about Adams’ rapport with President Biden, whose ambitious legi...

The Supreme Court on Thursday, by a 7-2 vote, left “Obamacare” intact and showed that the conservative majority doesn’t fall along partisan lines as much as the left thinks it does. In other big news this week, antitrust scholar and Big Tech critic Lina Khan – a prominent figure in the “New Brandeis Movement” - which espouses a 21st century version of the populist competition policies once champio...

President Biden is in Cornwall, England, where the G-7 annual economic summit began on Friday with a sense of new unity among the group and an endorsement of the theme that a renewed global alliance and commitment to multilateralism were ready to prove themselves capable. Yet, in an odd dynamic, it was the former president who was in the headlines of all top publications, an acknowledgment he is s...

The U.S. appears to be trying to close the curtain on the pandemic, as COVID-19 cases continue to fall and increasing numbers of Americans are getting vaccinated. Combined with the latest jobs report, with the economy knocking the unemployment rate below 6 percent, many analysts are hoping for an economic boom this summer as a full “reopening” draws nearer. But is it really that simple, or are the...

Mask-wearing in the U.S. has become another flashpoint in the partisan culture wars. As a result, despite the recent change in CDC mask guidelines, which signaled a welcome shift toward pre-pandemic social norms yet left people across the country scrambling to make sense of the abrupt change, the debate about masks will almost surely continue. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to reconsider a co...

A president who prides himself on choreography and planning faced a string of unexpected events last week that showcased the need for political agility: from the Colonial Pipeline shutdown and the resulting surge in gas prices to a rapid escalation of violence in the Middle East, a spike in the costs of consumer goods, and new CDC mask guidance which, although welcome by most Americans, caught the...

A months-long dispute over Republican principles among House leaders and across the broader GOP landscape is expected to culminate this week with a vote to remove Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney from her position as the third-ranking House Republican. Meanwhile, Friday’s mediocre jobs report for April puzzled many analysts who expected hundreds of thousands of more new jobs and added fuel to argu...

On his 99th day in office, Joe Biden pitched an ambitious plan to reshape America in his first major address to Congress, striking a decidedly optimistic tone and ushering in a new era of big government and big government spending. It was a historic evening, as for the first time in US history, two women were seated behind the president addressing a joint session of Congress, including House Speak...

The June 22 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, which will likely determine the City’s next mayor, is now less than two months away. Two Republicans and 12 Democrats are running to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio. The new mayor, to be chosen in the general election on Nov. 2, will inherit a city profoundly affected by the pandemic, racial and social inequality, and a spike in shootings. Despite...

In 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington made their states the first in the country to pass measures legalizing cannabis. At the time, 51% of registered voters polled said they supported legalization. On March 31 and April 7, 2021, New York and Virginia became the 15th and 16th state, respectively, to legalize adult-use cannabis for residents 21 and older. And a recent survey indicates that supp...

For decades, corporations have steered clear of politics. Now, however, there's more of an expectation for big businesses to speak out and weigh in on hot-button social issues, as reflected in their recent response to Georgia's new voting legislation. Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Patrick Martin, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss corporate America’s growing political activism and,...

On the heels of the just-enacted $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law, President Biden unveiled on Wednesday his $2 trillion infrastructure plan, a far-reaching program that he will seek to pay for with a substantial increase in corporate taxes. If his full set of proposals become law, they would mark a new era of ambitious federal spending to address longstanding social and economic problems. Pub...

With President Biden’s cabinet confirmed, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss how to talk to the Administration, the political implications of the new Georgia voting law, and President Biden’s recent press conference.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo faces growing pressure to resign in the wake of numerous allegations of sexual harassment. The allegations, which followed a mushrooming scandal around the deaths of nursing home residents, are complicating other political priorities in the state including negotiation of the State Budget, leaving many to wonder how long it will take to complete four ongoing investiga...

On Thursday, President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, cementing the first major legislative victory of his presidency that will set off a massive government rescue effort aimed at sending aid to millions of Americans. Is the bill, which had broad bipartisan public support but which no Republican lawmaker voted for, a blueprint for Biden’s legislative agenda? Public S...

Since January 20, there has been a noticeable change of style in Washington: in sharp contrast with the previous administration, the Biden White House has been more calculable, with extreme message discipline and carefully managed appearances. Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss whether, despite deep factors in our politics and society that make unity m...

Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Patrick Martin, Matt Glavin, and Kaitlyn Martin discuss the contentious legislative negotiations over the proposed stimulus package and grade the new administration’s efforts during its first 30 days to meet the daunting challenge to balance Biden’s stated desire for bipartisanship with his sense of urgency to provide the much-needed relief to the economy. Mat...

As an unprecedented winter storm crippled the Lone Star state’s deregulated electrical grid and triggered mass outages - leaving millions trapped without heat for days in freezing homes and putting nearly half of all Texans under a boil-water advisory, Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, made a spectacularly ill-timed decision to leave with his family for a vacation in Cancun in the middle of...

In the midst of impeachment and the latest coronavirus relief package negotiations, Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, and Kaitlyn Martin debate whether bipartisanship still matters if actions ultimately take place along partisan lines, and ponder whether President Biden is a transitional or transformational president.

In the shadow of the former president, the GOP is struggling to find its footing, as it continues to wrestle with a deep cultural divide that has moved to the forefront of Republican politics. Meanwhile, the White House is forming a government that must battle a variety of simultaneous crises. Where is the true power in Washington? Public Strategies’ Howard Schweitzer, Mark Alderman, Patrick Marti...