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California Approves First State-funded Guaranteed Income Plan

California lawmakers on Thursday approved the first state-funded guaranteed income plan in the U.S., $35 million for monthly cash payments to qualifying pregnant people and young adults who recently left foster care with no restrictions on how they spend it.

The votes — 36-0 in the Senate and 64-0 in the Assembly — showed bipartisan support for an idea that is gaining momentum across the country. Dozens of local programs have sprung up in recent years, including some that have been privately funded, making it easier for elected officials to sell the public on the idea.

California’s plan is taxpayer-funded and could spur other states to follow its lead.

“If you look at the stats for our foster youth, they are devastating,” Senate Republican leader Scott Wilk said. “We should be doing all we can to lift these young people up.”

Local governments and organizations will apply for the money and run their programs.

The state Department of Social Services will decide who gets funding. California lawmakers left it up to local officials to determine the size of the monthly payments, which generally range from $500 to $1,000 in existing programs around the country.

Federal child tax credit

The vote came on the same day millions of parents began receiving their first monthly payments under a temporary expansion of the federal child tax credit many view as a form of guaranteed income.

“Now there is momentum, things are moving quickly,” said Michael Tubbs, an advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom, who was a trailblazer when he instituted a guaranteed income program as mayor of Stockton. “The next stop is the federal government.”

For decades, most government assistance programs have had strict rules about how the money could be spent, usually limiting benefits to things like food or housing. But a guaranteed income program gives money to people with no rules on how to spend it. The idea is to reduce the stresses of poverty that cause health problems and make it harder for people to find and keep work.

“It changes the philosophy from ‘big brother government knows what’s best for you,’ ” said state Senator Dave Cortese, a Democrat from San Jose. “We’ve been very prescriptive with that population as a state and as counties go. Look at the failure. Half of them don’t get their high school diplomas, let alone advance like other people their age.”

But critics like Republican Assemblyman Vince Fong of Bakersfield say guaranteed income programs “undermine incentives to work and increase dependence on government.”

No job training, skills development

“We should be pushing policies that encourage the value of work,” said Fong, who abstained from Thursday’s vote. “Guaranteed income doesn’t provide the job training and skills needed for upward mobility.”

Guaranteed income programs date to the 18th century. The U.S. government even experimented with them in the 1960s and 1970s during the Nixon administration before they fell out of favor.

But recently, guaranteed income programs have been making a comeback. Programs have been announced in New Orleans; Oakland, California; Tacoma, Washington; Gainesville, Florida; and Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city, which has a plan to give $1,000 a month to 2,000 needy families.

The state wants to target the money on programs that benefit pregnant people and young adults aged out of the foster care system to help them transition to life on their own. The latter includes people like Naihla De Jesus, who was removed from her mother’s custody at 17 and bounced between living with an aunt, a godmother and a boyfriend until landing in a transitional housing program.

She became ineligible for that program when she turned 24 last year, which normally would have ended her government assistance as a foster child. Instead, the taxpayers of Santa Clara County have been paying her $1,000 a month with no restrictions on how she can spend it, part of a guaranteed income program targeting former foster care children.

De Jesus is also caring for her 9-year-old brother as his temporary guardian while battling anxiety and depression. She said her condition made it hard for her to keep a job because some days she wouldn’t have enough energy to get out of bed and wouldn’t go to work.

In the workforce

Now, she has a full-time job as a client support specialist with the Bill Wilson Center, where she works with young people who are in situations like hers. She says she doesn’t worry about money like she used to, choosing to save most of what she gets from the guaranteed income program. She used some of it to buy things for her brother, whose interest in expensive electronics grows as he gets older.

And she used the money to save for a down payment for her “dream car,” a blue Subaru WRX.

“I’m proud of myself, of where I am,” she said. “I don’t have to stress and then isolate myself and overthink, ‘Oh, I’m not going to have enough money to pay my rent or pay my phone bill.’ ”

Santa Clara County’s program has cost the county $1.4 million so far. Participants get the money on a debit card, which they can use for purchases or to withdraw money from an ATM. County officials ask them to fill out surveys to monitor how they are doing, but they haven’t completed a thorough analysis, said Melanie Jimenez Perez, who oversees the program.

An analysis of a guaranteed program in Stockton found full-time employment increased among participants after the first year of receiving the money.
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Trump’s Lawsuits Against Social Media Highlight Platforms’ Power

Former President Donald Trump is struggling to put himself back at the center of America’s attention. His recent lawsuits against Google, Facebook and Twitter highlight the platforms’ power to control digital speech, even that of world leaders. Michelle Quinn reports.Producer: Michelle Quinn.
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Biden Backs $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan; Republicans Blast Massive Package

President Joe Biden made the case for his sweeping, two-track infrastructure initiative Wednesday on Capitol Hill, a day after leading Senate Democrats agreed on a $3.5 trillion plan billed as the biggest boost in decades for U.S. families. Biden joined fellow Democrats for a closed-door lunch where he sought their support and discussed strategy for passing both a FILE – Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 24, 2020.Biden urged senators to think about how the package would affect average Americans, said Senator Chris Murphy. “He just kept on telling us to think about his neighbors in Scranton,” Murphy said, referring to Biden’s Pennsylvania hometown. “Think about whether what we’re doing is going to pass muster with the folks that he grew up with.” An Ipsos poll conducted this month for Reuters found that most Americans want the kind of infrastructure improvements that are included in the Biden plan. It also found that nearly two-thirds of the country supports increasing taxes on “the highest-earning Americans” to pay for the improvements. Democrats face a tricky path ahead in getting the two measures approved by a narrowly divided Congress. They will need the support of all 50 of their senators — plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote — to pass the $3.5 trillion bill over Republican opposition in the 100-seat Senate, using a maneuver called reconciliation that gets around the chamber’s normal 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. Elements of the $3.5 trillion plan also would have to pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, who has the power to rule specific provisions ineligible for inclusion under the special reconciliation rules for that legislation’s consideration. While some of the more liberal Democrats on Wednesday said they had hoped for a bigger plan, they had yet to reject the $3.5 trillion deal. FILE – Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill, April 22, 2021.”The need is so much greater than what we’re providing. But still, this is very significant,” Senator Mazie Hirono told reporters. As the day wore on, Democrats across Capitol Hill tried to demonstrate unity over the 10-year investment framework. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a “victory for the American people.” And just as Biden was leaving the Capitol, he got a boost from the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a nearly 100-member group of lawmakers whose support is essential. FILE – Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 29, 2020.”We are still looking at all the details, but we certainly see this as important movement forward,” said Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal, who heads the group. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, an outspoken moderate, stressed the need to offset the $3.5 trillion cost amid large budget deficits. Manchin also fretted that the plan could eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels, a key demand from progressives worried about climate change. “Anybody moving in a direction where they think they can walk away and not have any fossil in play, that’s just wrong. It won’t happen,” said the senator, who represents the coal-mining state of West Virginia. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, whose panel oversees tax legislation, said a Democratic plan to raise international taxes on corporations would raise “several hundred billion dollars” on its own. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 13, 2021.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wasted no time going on the attack. “With inflation raging … [the Democrats’ budget plan] is wildly, wildly out of proportion to what the country needs right now,” he told reporters. U.S. consumer prices rose by the most in 13 years last month amid supply constraints and a rebound in the costs of travel-related services from pandemic-depressed levels as the economic recovery gathered momentum, according to data released on Tuesday. Republican Senator Rob Portman dismissed any notion that the level of spending being proposed would sink prospects for passage of the smaller, bipartisan bill. A group he leads plans to provide details on the legislation in coming days. Even if they pass the Senate, both measures would also need to make it through the House before going to Biden’s desk for signing into law. The $3.5 trillion plan agreed to by senior Democrats and White House negotiators includes a significant expansion of the Medicare health care program for the elderly — a top goal of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, who joined Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in unveiling the deal Tuesday night. FILE – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., right, sits next to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during a meeting with Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 16, 2021.Senate Republicans, who assail Biden’s larger spending ambitions as unnecessary, have voiced qualified support for the narrower $1.2 trillion plan, which includes nearly $600 billion in new spending for roads, bridges, rail, public transit, water and broadband internet systems. The Senate’s 50 Republicans are not expected to back the broader infrastructure effort, which would undo Republican then-President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts by raising taxes on U.S. corporations and wealthy individuals. Asked about the Democrats’ deal on Wednesday, Republican Senator Mitt Romney said in a brief interview in the Capitol that it was “stunning. It’s a shocking figure, particularly at a time when the economy is already heating. It seems that our Democrat friends may have lost their bearings.” 
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Senate Democrats Announce $3.5 Trillion Budget Agreement

U.S. President Joe Biden heads to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Senate Democrats after the lawmakers announced an agreement on a $3.5 trillion plan to expand spending on health care for the elderly, climate change and programs to help families, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. The package would be “the biggest investment in the middle class in decades,” Schumer said on Tuesday.  Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters the plan included provisions that would fully cover the cost of the programs. While Warner did not specify how the measure would be paid for, Biden has pushed for raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Republicans in Congress oppose such tax increases, after having achieved a round of tax cuts — including to the corporate tax rate — during the previous administration of President Donald Trump. In order for the plan to proceed, it will need the support of the full 50-member Democratic caucus. Democratic leaders want to pass a budget resolution that would provide the framework for the legislation before lawmakers leave town for their August recess. With Republicans not expected to support the measure, Democrats are likely to proceed under a special process known as a budget reconciliation. That would allow the bill to advance with only a simple majority and not be subject to a potential filibuster, a move by the minority Republicans to block or delay a vote. A budget resolution would allow Democrats to pass spending legislation later in the year, also with a simple majority, to fill out the specifics of the programs. There is also ongoing negotiation on a separate, bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure for items such as roads, bridges, water systems and broadband internet. U.S. President Joe Biden heads to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Senate Democrats after the lawmakers announced an agreement on a $3.5 trillion plan to expand spending on health care for the elderly, climate change and programs to help families, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. The package would be “the biggest investment in the middle class in decades,” Schumer said on Tuesday.  Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters the plan included provisions that would fully cover the cost of the programs. While Warner did not specify how the measure would be paid for, Biden has pushed for raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Republicans in Congress oppose such tax increases, after having achieved a round of tax cuts — including to the corporate tax rate — during the previous administration of President Donald Trump. In order for the plan to proceed, it will need the support of the full 50-member Democratic caucus. Democratic leaders want to pass a budget resolution that would provide the framework for the legislation before lawmakers leave town for their August recess. With Republicans not expected to support the measure, Democrats are likely to proceed under a special process known as a budget reconciliation. That would allow the bill to advance with only a simple majority and not be subject to a potential filibuster, a move by the minority Republicans to block or delay a vote. A budget resolution would allow Democrats to pass spending legislation later in the year, also with a simple majority, to fill out the specifics of the programs. There is also ongoing negotiation on a separate, bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure for items such as roads, bridges, water systems and broadband internet. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Biden Urges Passing of Voting Rights Law but Offers No Strategy

U.S. President Joe Biden was in Philadelphia Tuesday to urge the passing of voting rights legislation that has stalled in Congress, but he did not outline a path to overcome Republican opposition. The speech came as Republicans in state legislatures sought to pass measures restricting access to voting. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.Produced by: Barry Unger   
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Biden Calls Republican State Election Law Changes ‘Assault on Liberty’

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday assailed Republican-led states pushing to tighten voting rules, calling it an “unfolding assault … on liberty.” Republicans say they are tightening voting rules so that no election fraud occurs in the future and that Americans can have confidence that votes are fairly counted. But Biden, in perhaps the most emotional speech of his six-month presidency, contended that the 28 laws already adopted in 17 states “make it harder for Americans to vote.” “This is election subversion,” he declared. “It’s simply unconscionable.”Without naming him, Biden rebuked former President Donald Trump for his continuing claims that he was cheated out of another four-year term in the White House by voting and ballot-counting fraud in last November’s election. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2021.”The big lie is just that, a big lie,” Biden declared to the loud applause of supporters gathered at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Biden chose the city for the voting rights address because it is the cradle of American democracy: It’s where the country’s Founding Fathers first declared their independence from England in 1776. “In America, if you lose, you accept the results,” Biden said of Trump, who skipped Biden’s January inauguration and has yet to publicly declare that Biden won the election. Biden called again for the Senate to pass voting-rights legislation already approved by the House of Representatives that would nationalize congressional and presidential election rules, overriding the newly enacted state restrictions that Biden and Democratic lawmakers say would especially inhibit voting by minorities, who most often vote for Democrats. But as it stands, the legislation has little chance of passage in the 100-member Senate, split evenly between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Republicans recently blocked debate on the measure. Biden emotionally implored lawmakers, saying, “Stand up, for God’s sake, and protect the right to vote.” For the moment at least, the United States will head into next year’s congressional elections with no change in the long-standing practice whereby each of the 50 states sets its own rules on voter registration, voting hours, mail-in ballots and more. In advance of Biden’s trip to Philadelphia, the White House said that “an alarming number of states … are erecting new barriers to voting, with additional barriers threatened elsewhere.” Republicans say the laws are necessary to ensure election integrity and prevent fraud, although there were almost no irregularities found in the 2020 voting, and not anywhere close to enough to have upended Biden’s victory.  In the latest state political voting law confrontation, Republican legislators in the southwestern state of Texas, the country’s second most populous, are attempting to push through new restrictions.  Democratic lawmakers first blocked passage of the measure in May by walking out of a legislative session to deny Republicans a quorum for a vote. This week, they fled the state during a special session to visit national Democratic lawmakers in Washington and push for countrywide election rules. The Texas Democrats said they plan to stay away from their home state until the legislative session ends in early August. Empty seats are seen in the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol, July 13, 2021.The White House said other recent events are undermining voting rights, including what it called the “sham ‘audit’ in Arizona” of the 2020 presidential vote in a state that Biden won over Trump. State Republican officials in Arizona authorized the new recount there, looking for vote-counting irregularities, although official tallies were completed months ago with no evidence of consequential fraud that would have overturned Biden’s victory in the state. The White House contended that the Arizona Legislature “gave conspiracy theorists access to 2020 election ballots without consistent rules or supervision,” eroding “faith in the electoral process.” It said a recent Supreme Court voting rights decision “greatly weakened existing federal tools to combat regressive voting laws.” The government’s Justice Department recently sued the state of Georgia in an attempt to block its election changes, and Biden named Vice President Kamala Harris to lead his administration’s fight for voting rights.  She said the Texas Democratic lawmakers “have shown great courage, and certainly great conviction and commitment” in leaving the state to block passage of the proposed Republican election law changes. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden is redoubling “his commitment to using every tool at his disposal to continue to fight to protect the fundamental right of Americans to vote.” But congressional legislation remains unlikely, with Republicans opposed to the Democratic-proposed nationalization of elections, and at least two Democratic senators opposed to changing legislative voting rules to allow passage of election rules changes with a simple majority vote. 
 
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Biden Delivers Speech on Voting Rights in Philadelphia

President Joe Biden on Tuesday spoke in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the U.S. constitution, to charge that Republican maneuvering is putting democracy in the worst peril since the Civil War.The speech in the city where the founding document of the U.S. democratic system was drawn up and signed in 1787 was Biden’s highest profile foray yet into a controversy that both Republicans and Democrats describe in dire terms.According to the White House and congressional Democrats, Republicans are using state legislatures to restrict voting rights across the country under the guise of increasing election security.Republicans — led by former president Donald Trump and his unprecedented campaign, based on lies, to overturn his election loss to Biden — insist tougher voting rules are needed to crack down on voter fraud.This means things like cutting back on mail-in voting, shortening hours at polls and imposing heavy fines against poll workers who make mistakes. While Republicans say such measures would clean up U.S. elections, Democrats point to an already extremely low incidence of fraud and say the measures target Black and other non-white voters, who tend to vote Democrat.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that Biden would “lay out the moral case for why denying the right to vote is a form of suppression and a form of silencing.”Biden sees this as “the worst challenge to our democracy since the Civil War,” she said.It’s not clear, however, what difference Biden can make.Democrats in Congress have tried and failed to enact federal laws that would protect access to polls, but with only a razor-thin majority they failed.The impasse has put a spotlight on the Senate rule known as the filibuster where by custom — though not law — it takes 60 out of the 100 senators to pass most legislation. This ensures that Republicans can easily block any bill, since the chamber is split 50-50, but Biden has been reluctant to press for change.In the most dramatic episode of the ongoing struggle over voter access, Democratic lawmakers in Texas fled the state on Monday to prevent a quorum in the legislature, where the Republican majority was about to vote in new restrictions.The Democrats’ exodus was the second time they’d used the unusual tactic to derail the bill. The Texans headed for Washington where they were lobbying congressional lawmakers to push ahead on federal voting protection laws.
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Texas Democrats Leave State to Try to Stop GOP Voting Bill

Democrats in the Texas Legislature bolted Monday for Washington, and said they were ready to remain there for weeks in a second revolt against a GOP overhaul of election laws, forcing a dramatic new showdown over voting rights in America.  Private planes carrying a large group of Democrats took off from an airport in Austin, skipping town just days before the Texas House of Representatives was expected to give early approval to sweeping new voting restrictions in a special legislative session. Hours after they took off, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told an Austin television station he would keep calling special sessions through next year if necessary, he and raised the possibility of Democrats facing arrest upon returning home.  More than 50 Texas lawmakers landed in the Washington suburb of Sterling, Virginia, Monday evening and were taken on two large charter buses from a private terminal to a parking lot near the main terminal of Dulles Airport. Most wore street clothes rather than formal dress. “We are determined to kill this bill,” said state Rep. Chris Turner, who said he and his colleagues will remain away from their state until the special session ends early next month.  By leaving, Democrats again deny the GOP majority a quorum to pass bills, barely a month after a walkout thwarted the first push for sweeping new voting restrictions in Texas, including outlawing 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes and empowering partisan poll watchers.  “This is a now-or-never for our democracy. We are holding the line in Texas,” said Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer. “We’ve left our jobs, we’ve left our families, we’ve left our homes. Because there is nothing more important than voting rights in America.” The decision to hole up in Washington is aimed at ratcheting up pressure on President Joe Biden and Congress to act on voting at the federal level.  Biden is set to deliver a major address on the issue Tuesday in Philadelphia, after facing growing criticism for taking what some on the left call too passive a role in the fight. Turner said the state lawmakers were calling on Congress to pass the Democrat-backed, federal voting rights law before they go on August recess, which is around the same time Texas’ special session will end. He said the group would meet with Democrats across Washington, but a White House official said there are no current plans for a White House visit.  Turner said in order to pass the voting rights expansion law, the Senate may have to modify its procedural rules, but added, “I don’t really care how they do it.” The mass exodus lays bare how Democrats are making Texas their last stand against the GOP’s push to enact new voting restrictions in response to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. More than a dozen states this year have passed tougher election laws — but only in Texas have Democrats put up this kind of fight.  This is the first time since 2003 that Texas Democrats, shut out of power in the state Capitol for decades, have crossed state lines to break quorum.  Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan promised to use “every available resource” to secure a quorum. He did not elaborate, but some House Republicans signaled they would take action when the chamber reconvenes Tuesday. When Democrats fled the state two decades ago — in a failed attempt to stop new GOP-drawn voting maps — state troopers were deployed to bring them back. In an interview with Austin television station KVUE, Abbott said he was prepared to keep calling special sessions though next year’s election.  “If these people want to be hanging out, wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year. As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done,” Abbott said.  His spokeswoman did not immediately return a message.  Over the weekend, Texas Republicans began advancing measures that also bring back provisions to ban drive-thru voting, add new voter ID requirements to absentee ballots and prohibit local elections officials from proactively sending mail-in ballot applications to voters. Abbott also gave lawmakers a lengthy to-do list this summer, heavy on hot-button conservative issues including restrictions over how race is taught in schools and banning transgender athletes from playing in girls’ sports. The decision to flee carries risks, and no guarantee of victory in the long run. Abbott, who is up for reelection in 2022, could keep calling 30-day special sessions until a bill is passed. He also punished Democrats after their May walkout by vetoing paychecks for roughly 2,000 Capitol employees, which will begin taking effect in September unless the Legislature is in session to restore the funding. Staying away for an extended time could also carry repercussions in next year’s midterm elections, although many Texas Democrats are already expecting a difficult cycle in 2022, particularly with Republicans set to begin drawing new voting maps this fall that could cement their majorities.  As Democrats prepared to settle in for a possible long haul in Washington, it was not immediately clear who was footing the bill for the exodus. Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said he would use his own campaign funds to pay for hotels for House members but declined to comment on who funded the chartered flights. Vice President Kamala Harris applauded Texas Democrats for their “courage and commitment” before they boarded the flight. Back in Texas, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signaled that he would still try to pass a voting bill as early as Tuesday in the Senate. It was unclear whether Democrats in that chamber would continue showing up.  
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