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Why it's getting even harder for Biden to pass his legacy-defining agenda
CNN
Democrats were already attempting the near impossible with Joe Biden's presidential agenda in peril. But a string of recent setbacks is making it even more crucial -- and difficult -- to pass his legacy-defining agenda.
Biden spent Wednesday urgently trying to mend splits between moderate and progressive Democrats that threaten to topple his foundational $3.5 trillion spending bill and a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package within days. His efforts at classic Oval Office cajoling took place under extreme political pressure at a moment that will prove whether the President's party has the capacity to fully use the power it won in 2020.
Minute majorities in the House and the Senate were always going to make it tough to live up to the soaring expectations of Biden's election win. Then the Senate Republicans' use of the filibuster forced Democratic leaders to cram almost all of his popular goals on health care, education, climate change and expanding the social safety net into one massive bill that could pass on a majority vote. The downside: If the monster spending plan fails it could take down much of Biden's legacy in one crushing collapse.
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The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and former officials who served with him as a professional with a “strong moral center.”
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.