Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden/Sipa USA via AP Images The more progressive drug-pricing bill, which allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, would provide the federal government with huge cost savings. The particulars of Joe Biden’s infrastructure package continue to trickle out. Now a two-part, multitrillion-dollar omnibus, part new spending, part tax credit, the bill features some of the biggest Democratic priorities from all over the party platform. The first part, some $2 trillion in spending, was announced yesterday; the second part is expected in the coming weeks. All told, there’s money...…Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden/Sipa USA via AP Images The more progressive drug-pricing bill, which allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, would provide the federal government with huge cost savings. The particulars of Joe Biden’s infrastructure package continue to trickle out. Now a two-part, multitrillion-dollar omnibus, part new spending, part tax credit, the bill features some of the biggest Democratic priorities from all over the party platform. The first part, some $2 trillion in spending, was announced yesterday; the second part is expected in the coming weeks. All told, there’s money...WW…

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on the nomination of Andrew Saul to be commissioner of the Social Security Administration, October 2, 2018, on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, March 24, House Democrats Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), Richard Neal (D-MA), John Larson (D-CT), and Danny Davis (D-IL), members of the Ways and Means Committee, sent a to Social Security Administration commissioner Andrew Saul, complete with an ultimatum. According to the letter, nearly 30 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients, some of the country’s...…J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on the nomination of Andrew Saul to be commissioner of the Social Security Administration, October 2, 2018, on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, March 24, House Democrats Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), Richard Neal (D-MA), John Larson (D-CT), and Danny Davis (D-IL), members of the Ways and Means Committee, sent a to Social Security Administration commissioner Andrew Saul, complete with an ultimatum. According to the letter, nearly 30 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients, some of the country’s...WW…

Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo Uber driver Jose Luis Guevara, a member of the Mobile Workers Alliance, which opposes the California ballot initiative making gig workers independent contractors, outside Los Angeles City Hall, January 12, 2021. Just a handful of weeks have passed since California’s Proposition 22, a concocted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists to lock rideshare and food delivery drivers out of basic employee wages, benefits, and protections, went into effect. It has arrived with a bang.Already, companies beyond just the usual digital suspects have embraced the new law, which...…Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo Uber driver Jose Luis Guevara, a member of the Mobile Workers Alliance, which opposes the California ballot initiative making gig workers independent contractors, outside Los Angeles City Hall, January 12, 2021. Just a handful of weeks have passed since California’s Proposition 22, a concocted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists to lock rideshare and food delivery drivers out of basic employee wages, benefits, and protections, went into effect. It has arrived with a bang.Already, companies beyond just the usual digital suspects have embraced the new law, which...WW…

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Pelosi’s pandemic-era control marks a dramatic departure from the regular operation of the House. The past several months have been like a scavenger hunt for D.C. congressional reporters, as they root around for any scrap of news about negotiations for a bill on coronavirus economic relief. Each day provides optimism and pessimism in equal measures, with a final agreement just out of reach. The fact remains that, despite the White House’s renewed commitment to an upwards of $2 trillion pact, it’s extremely unlikely any such agreement will pass Mitch...…Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Pelosi’s pandemic-era control marks a dramatic departure from the regular operation of the House. The past several months have been like a scavenger hunt for D.C. congressional reporters, as they root around for any scrap of news about negotiations for a bill on coronavirus economic relief. Each day provides optimism and pessimism in equal measures, with a final agreement just out of reach. The fact remains that, despite the White House’s renewed commitment to an upwards of $2 trillion pact, it’s extremely unlikely any such agreement will pass Mitch...WW…

Jandos Rothstein Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a leading candidate to be Joe Biden’s running mate, repeatedly and openly defied U.S. Supreme Court orders to reduce overcrowding in California prisons while serving as the state’s attorney general, according to legal documents reviewed by the Prospect. Working in tandem with Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris and her legal team filed motions that were condemned by judges and legal experts as obstructionist, bad-faith, and nonsensical, at one point even suggesting that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to order a reduction in California’s prison...…Jandos Rothstein Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a leading candidate to be Joe Biden’s running mate, repeatedly and openly defied U.S. Supreme Court orders to reduce overcrowding in California prisons while serving as the state’s attorney general, according to legal documents reviewed by the Prospect. Working in tandem with Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris and her legal team filed motions that were condemned by judges and legal experts as obstructionist, bad-faith, and nonsensical, at one point even suggesting that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to order a reduction in California’s prison...WW…

Jandos Rothstein Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a leading candidate to be Joe Biden’s running mate, repeatedly and openly defied U.S. Supreme Court orders to reduce overcrowding in California prisons while serving as the state’s attorney general, according to legal documents reviewed by the Prospect. Working in tandem with Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris and her legal team filed motions that were condemned by judges and legal experts as obstructionist, bad-faith, and nonsensical, at one point even suggesting that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to order a reduction in California’s prison...…Jandos Rothstein Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a leading candidate to be Joe Biden’s running mate, repeatedly and openly defied U.S. Supreme Court orders to reduce overcrowding in California prisons while serving as the state’s attorney general, according to legal documents reviewed by the Prospect. Working in tandem with Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris and her legal team filed motions that were condemned by judges and legal experts as obstructionist, bad-faith, and nonsensical, at one point even suggesting that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to order a reduction in California’s prison...WW…

Kathy Willens/AP Photo New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks to the media in Astoria, Queens, June 23, 2020. In New York, Kentucky, and Virginia, ballots are still being counted. The slow count comes as no surprise, as voting systems recently overhauled by coronavirus won’t report final, much less official, results for days. And yet, in New York and elsewhere, Tuesday night was a dominant showing for progressives, who handily won numerous upset victories in high-profile races, building on what’s become a triumphant election season for a resurgent left in the past few weeks.Going...…Kathy Willens/AP Photo New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks to the media in Astoria, Queens, June 23, 2020. In New York, Kentucky, and Virginia, ballots are still being counted. The slow count comes as no surprise, as voting systems recently overhauled by coronavirus won’t report final, much less official, results for days. And yet, in New York and elsewhere, Tuesday night was a dominant showing for progressives, who handily won numerous upset victories in high-profile races, building on what’s become a triumphant election season for a resurgent left in the past few weeks.Going...WW…

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Engel is down ten points to progressive opponent Jamaal Bowman in the latest poll. House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Eliot Engel’s three-decade tenure in Congress may be coming to an end.According to from Data for Progress, middle school principal and progressive congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman has cracked open a 10-point lead in his primary bid to unseat Eliot Engel, the 16-term incumbent in New York’s 16th district. In a survey conducted between June 11 and June 15, Bowman showed a commanding advantage, holding a 41-31 margin over Engel,...…Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Engel is down ten points to progressive opponent Jamaal Bowman in the latest poll. House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Eliot Engel’s three-decade tenure in Congress may be coming to an end.According to from Data for Progress, middle school principal and progressive congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman has cracked open a 10-point lead in his primary bid to unseat Eliot Engel, the 16-term incumbent in New York’s 16th district. In a survey conducted between June 11 and June 15, Bowman showed a commanding advantage, holding a 41-31 margin over Engel,...WW…

Evan Vucci/AP Photo UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann, far right, takes part in a meeting on the coronavirus with President Trump and other health care company leaders at the White House, March 10, 2020. Few industries have escaped the squeeze of the coronavirus crisis. That’s true of obvious sectors like restaurants and hotels, of places where mandatory shutdowns have led to mass layoffs, as well as of reopened regions where supply now exists but demand still doesn’t. It’s also true of industries where demand remains high, like health care. Hospitals, of course, have been strained to a...…Evan Vucci/AP Photo UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann, far right, takes part in a meeting on the coronavirus with President Trump and other health care company leaders at the White House, March 10, 2020. Few industries have escaped the squeeze of the coronavirus crisis. That’s true of obvious sectors like restaurants and hotels, of places where mandatory shutdowns have led to mass layoffs, as well as of reopened regions where supply now exists but demand still doesn’t. It’s also true of industries where demand remains high, like health care. Hospitals, of course, have been strained to a...WW…

Mark Lennihan/AP Photo BlackRock is the world’s biggest asset manager, handling $7.4 trillion in customer assets. Our government—its administration, its policymakers, and the policy itself—has long been beholden to various financial firms with massive balance sheets and influence, in both good times and bad. But the occurrence of destabilizing economic events, going back at least a century, has often resulted in one particular entity taking the reins. In 1907, for instance, a financial panic led to John Pierpont Morgan , a reflection of his and his bank’s underlying power as almost a...…Mark Lennihan/AP Photo BlackRock is the world’s biggest asset manager, handling $7.4 trillion in customer assets. Our government—its administration, its policymakers, and the policy itself—has long been beholden to various financial firms with massive balance sheets and influence, in both good times and bad. But the occurrence of destabilizing economic events, going back at least a century, has often resulted in one particular entity taking the reins. In 1907, for instance, a financial panic led to John Pierpont Morgan , a reflection of his and his bank’s underlying power as almost a...WW…