“McCarthy also proposed stiffening work requirements for benefit programs like SNAP… That, likewise could hit Republican-leaning states harder: 3.1% of the population in those states could lose benefits, compared with 2.8% of residents in Biden states.”https://t.co/LqKXQJzq2e
— Jesse Lee (@JesseLee46) April 17, 2023
Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann Caldwell at WP:
“Everybody is going to be looking at each other much more suspiciously now,” said a Republican aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party dynamics. “It’s going to be much harder to do things.”
House Republicans have had some success, pushing through several bills that put Democrats on the record and were signed into law by President Biden, including those to declassify information pertaining to covid-19, end the covid national emergency and block a local D.C. crime bill from going into effect.
But Republicans’ first 100 days in the majority have been comparatively less productive than some previous Congresses. They have so far passed only a few of their top priorities, including an energy bill and voting to rescind money for IRS staffing — neither of which will be voted on in a Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans point to the protracted speaker’s fight and slow organizing of the Congress to explain the sluggish start on the legislative front.
The difficulty Washington will have dealing with the deficit and entitlement spending going forward was clear in several questions in the Fox News poll. When asked which of two things was most important to them, 26 percent said reducing the budget deficit, while 71 percent said continuing to fund entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare at their current levels was. In separate questions, 21 percent said the funding of Social Security was a crisis (43 percent a major problem), and 28 percent gave that response about the national debt (50 percent a major problem). Only 16 percent supported reducing future Social Security benefits for some future retirees.
Joseph Zeballos-Roig at Semafor:
But new polling from Data for Progress, provided first to Semafor, suggests Americans are cold on the concept. It finds that about 65% of likely voters are against lifting the retirement age for people in their 20s, compared to 27% who support it. Among self-identified GOP voters, the split is similar: 59% are opposed and only 32% are in favor.
The Data for Progress poll also looked specifically at three swing districts in New York, where GOP gains in 2022 helped the party take back control of the House. In one of the districts, just 20% supported raising the retirement age to 70 for future generations. In the other two, less than 10% supported it.
