Build back never?

President Joe Biden swept into office on the promise of aggressive climate goals and with 40 years of experience in reaching across the aisle to strike deals. Over a year into his presidency, many climate activists and the media have pegged the failure to move his Build Back Better agenda—along with its heavy spending on addressing the climate crisis—on him. Yet as with much of the stasis in Washington, more of the blame belongs to Congress, and in particular, a deadlocked Senate. To be fair, $555 billion is a huge amount of money that doesn’t entirely make fiscal sense given the size of the federal deficit (a better way to address climate change might be through a revenue-neutral, border-adjustable carbon tax, for example), but the cost of inaction continues to rise as well. In 2021 alone, more than 20 natural disasters costing $1 billion or more plagued our country, killing almost 700 Americans. In other words, doing nothing is simply not a reasonable option. Like the climate crisis, as well as the pandemic, most of our national challenges are agnostic and don’t care which side of the aisle you sit on. But they’ve been needlessly—and in some cases, dangerously—politicized, resulting in little to no action to resolve them. For the time being, we sit at the crossroads of a congressional stalemate, where obstruction appears as unstoppable as the impacts of climate change, which, like so many of the problems we face, are sounding an ever louder alarm. Congress can no longer afford to hit snooze. —Mary Anna Mancuso, National Spokesperson, Renew America Movement

• Biden to split frozen Afghan funds for 9/11 victims, relief —Associated Press

• Schools lift mask requirements, change rules as Omicron recedes —The Wall Street Journal

• Global democracy hit a record low in 2021, report from Economist Intelligence Unit says —The Washington Post

• ‘Uncharted territory’: Jan. 6 lawsuit could cost GOP lawmaker his job, experts say —Yahoo! News

• ‘We have a project’: QAnon followers eye swing state election official races —The Guardian

Burning the midnight oil 

President Biden’s Build Back Better plan is still languishing, and federal voting rights legislation has gone nowhere. But all is not lost on Capitol Hill. This week saw a flurry of bipartisan activity. The Senate approved a bill yesterday to end the employment practice of forcing women to resolve sexual assault allegations in closed-door arbitration settings. On Wednesday, senators unveiled a compromise to renew the Violence Against Women Act, and top appropriators announced a "framework" agreement for a full-year omnibus spending bill. And the House voted on Tuesday to pass a bill to improve the finances—and the service—of the U.S. Postal Service, which the Senate plans to take up next. All in all, it was a productive week. —NBC News

• Climate. Since Sen. Joe Manchin declared Biden’s Build Back Better agenda "dead,” Democrats have been exploring other options for tackling climate change. Climate is considered a top issue for Democratic voters before the 2022 midterm election cycle, so some Democrats are imploring the president to prioritize the area as he seeks to resurrect "chunks" of his $2 trillion legislative agenda. Is bipartisan action possible? Sen. Kevin Cramer thinks so, as long as Democrats emphasize emissions reduction rather than “their opposition at fuel sources,” he said. Stay tuned. —Washington Examiner

• Inflation. The news this week that inflation rates in the U.S. are the highest they’ve been in 40 years was not welcome news for the president, despite otherwise strong economic growth in 2021. Biden acknowledged it at an event in Culpeper, Virginia, yesterday. “Inflation is up. It’s up,” Biden said. “But the fact is that if we’re able to do the things I’m talking about, it will bring down the cost for average families.” He specifically cited bringing down prescription drug and gas prices as targets for legislation. —Associated Press

• Stock Trading Ban. A bipartisan push is growing to bar members of Congress from trading individual stocks. With pressure mounting from rank-and-file members in both parties and both chambers, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the once reticent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled an openness to action this week. Some members have suggested the ban could dissuade capable people from running for Congress. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, co-sponsor of the legislation, disagrees. “There are a lot of jobs and millions of Americans out there,” she said. “If this is too much of a limitation, you’ve just demonstrated what your priorities are, and you shouldn’t be in Congress.” —The New York Times

MORE: U.S. majority supports tech regulation to preserve democracy —Axios

Tafuri: Putin wants to destroy Ukrainian democracy. We can’t let him

“In 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait without any legal basis for doing so, the U.S. organized a coalition and mobilized in Kuwait’s defense, with U.N. authorization. This sent a message to aggressors around the world that if they invade their neighbors, they could be destroyed. If Putin successfully invades Ukraine without serious consequences, it would send the opposite message—and might lead Putin to believe he can do it again... It would also signal to other nationalist regimes with extraterritorial aspirations—including China, Iran, and Turkey—that they too could orchestrate cross-border offensives to stamp out democratic tendencies in their region without repercussion.” —David Tafuri in The Hill

David Tafuri is an attorney who served as the U.S. Department of State’s Rule of Law Coordinator for Iraq at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad during the height of the war in Iraq.

MORE: U.S. ramps up Ukraine warning, says Russia may invade in days —Associated Press

Ed Board: Truckers test the bounds of democracy

“These nascent efforts pose a challenge for Mr. Trudeau, President Biden, and every other leader searching for ways to restore a degree of normalcy while maintaining defenses against a disease that still has the power to fill hospitals and kill in large numbers. Effective leadership in this stage of the pandemic means finding ways to confront the understandable frustrations and legitimate protests engendered by the pandemic without stoking more strife, compromising the rule of law, or succumbing to unreasonable demands.” —The New York Times

MORE: Truck blockade at U.S.-Canadian border shuts auto plants in both countries —Associated Press

Robinson: White House documents belong to us. Congress must make that clear

“In one month alone, September 2016, the GOP-led House Oversight and Reform Committee held five days of emergency hearings about [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton’s emails and issued a dozen subpoenas. Clinton was indeed careless. But Trump appears to have been both deliberate and persistent in his unlawful destruction of documents. Either the Presidential Records Act means something, or it doesn’t. Congress must choose.” —Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post

Eugene Robinson is a Washington Post columnist focusing on politics and culture.

MORE: Maggie Haberman book: Flushed papers found clogging White House toilet —Axios

Foley: Ranked-choice voting could save American democracy

“[S]omething like Alaska’s model can liberate America from the threat of Trump and his recruits dismantling democracy. If they no longer can control which Republicans get on the November ballot—so that all voters and not just partisans who show up for primaries get a chance to weigh in—then Republicans can feel free to counter Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. … [T]he United States’ right-of-center party, which sooner or later will get a chance to govern again, is succumbing to Trump because of the existing electoral system. Alaskans are showing that this isn’t inevitable. Will the rest of America follow their lead before it’s too late?” —Edward Foley in The Washington Post

Edward Foley writes on matters relating to election law and administration. He holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State University, where he heads the university’s election law program.

MORE: Utah House committee abruptly yanks bill expanding use of ranked-choice voting from agenda —The Salt Lake Tribune

Schmidt: ‘RINO’ has become a badge of honor

“The giants of the Republican Party would all be considered RINOs by today’s Republican standards. President Abraham Lincoln was the standard bearer of the anti-insurrection sentiment. The current party of Lincoln seemingly has no problem embracing an insurrection and fealty to one man. Former President Dwight Eisenhower, who served as Allied supreme commander in Europe during World War II, probably could have never imagined the authoritarian movement swelling within his own shores. Would Ronald Reagan still consider the United States ‘the shining city on a hill’ today?” —Lynn Schmidt in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lynn Schmidt is a Renew America Movement Fellow and a member of the editorial board at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

MORE: Is Donald Trump losing his grip on Republican voters? —The Economist

I have been a registered Republican for a little more than 50 years. What was the RNC thinking when it voted to censure Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger just because they are on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot? More than ever, the RNC needs some adult supervision. —John C., Florida

So finally Mike Pence had an epiphany that “President Trump was wrong.” And Mitch McConnell now calls out the RNC for whitewashing the "violent insurrection" instigated by Trump. Perhaps the RNC...and the country...would be in a much better place had these spineless opportunists not enabled Trump and validated his antics for four years. —Malcolm J., Texas

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff, the Renew America Movement, or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.