(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Democrats score a big win on insulin, while GOP continues to fight dirty with dark money [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-03-01
On Tuesday, House Republicans (along with useless Democrat Jared Golden of Maine) voted 216-204 to overturn a Department of Labor rule to encourage fiduciaries of pension plans to take environmental, social, and governance—or ESG—factors into consideration when choosing retirement investments. The Senate is taking it up Wednesday. It’s a Congressional Review Act resolution, a process that Congress can use to reverse executive-branch actions within 60 legislative days. It is not subject to a filibuster, and it’s privileged in both the House and the Senate—meaning it has to be taken up.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) sponsored it in the Senate, and he’s got Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on board. Because of course he is. Republicans are trying to get more Democrats with them on this, which is one reason we saw this on Tuesday; an op-ed from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the Wall Street Journal explaining what a ridiculous issue this is.
ESG opponents are trying to turn it into a dirty acronym, deploying attacks they have long used for elements of a so-called woke agenda. They call ESG wokeness. They call it a cult. They call it an incursion into free markets. We’ve heard it all before. I say ESG is just common sense. Republicans conveniently ignore something very important: America’s most successful asset managers and financial institutions have used ESG factors to minimize risk and maximize their clients’ returns. In fact, according to McKinsey, more than 90% of S&P 500 companies publish ESG reports today.
He’s not wrong about the opponents. The extremist behind this campaign is none other than Leonard Leo, Federalist Society leader who has succeeded in taking over the federal judiciary, and particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, to advance his white evangelical nationalist ideology with billions in dark money. Of course Joe Manchin is going to fall for that.
Biden has promised to veto the bill if it gets through the Senate. But, coming full circle, there’s already a legal challenge from Republican states and the oil industry. They brought that challenge to a federal court in Texas. To U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo. Yes, the same Leonard Leo pick elevated by Trump who is systematically attempting to undo the 20th century.
He’s the flashpoint right now in the rigged judiciary system created by Leo, Mitch McConnell, and Trump because he’s the guy who could block 50% of abortions in the entire country with just one ruling, a ruling that will be handed down any day now.
This is a huge week in contrasts: the massive win by Democrats for affordable, life-saving health care versus a bullshit, ginned-up culture war on behalf of Big Oil using dark money-rigged courts. That’s 2023 in a nutshell.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego has thrown his hat into the ring! Gallego will to try to take progressive-turned-bizarre-centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat in 2024. Today on The Brief, Markos and Rep. Gallego talk about the state of the country and his campaign, and what Americans want from the officials they elect to office.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/1/2155656/-Democrats-score-a-big-win-on-insulin-while-GOP-continues-to-fight-dirty-with-dark-money
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
