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Todd Young

Todd Young Becomes Third GOP Senator To Reject Trump In 2024

There are now three Senate Republicans who are declining to endorse former President Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2024 election, and that number may grow larger over the next eight months.

MSNBC columnist Steve Benen wrote that despite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) endorsement of the 45th president of the United States earlier this week, not all members of his caucus are as eager. On Friday, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) — who represents a state Trump won by 16 points in 2020 — declined to get behind Trump's 2024 campaign for the White House while speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill.

When asked what his other issues with Trump were, Young said, "Where do I begin?" He elaborated that his chief complaint with Trump was with his indifference toward Russian President Vladimir Putin's conquest of Ukraine.

"I think President Trump's judgment is wrong in this case, Young said. "President Putin and his government have engaged in war crimes."

At one point, CNN's Manu Raju asked Young, "does it worry you that he's your party's leading presidential candidate?"

"Of course it does," Young quipped. "That's why I don't intend to support him for the Republican nomination."

"Who do you plan to support?" A reporter asked.

"I haven't decided yet," the senator responded. "But it won't be him."

While Young noted that his lack of support for Trump is for the Republican presidential primary, the 45th president is the only Republican still in the running for the GOP's nomination after former UN ambassador Nikki Haley exited the race earlier this week. The former South Carolina governor had been Trump's final opponent following the New Hampshire primary, but she suspended her campaign after losing nearly every Super Tuesday contest with the exception of Vermont. Haley did not endorse Trump in her announcement ending her campaign, and said the ex-president would have to "earn" the votes of her supporters.

Todd Young is the third Senate Republican to publicly distance himself from Trump's third bid for the White House. Previously, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) have said they also would not be supporting the ex-president in 2024. If Trump is convicted of felonies in any of his four upcoming criminal trials this year, it's likely other Republican elected officials may join those three in declining to support Trump.

The former president will face his first trial in Manhattan on March 25, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted him on 34 felony counts relating to hush money payments he allegedly orchestrated in 2016. His former lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen, who was already sentenced to three years in federal prison for facilitating those payments among other crimes, will be Bragg's star witness.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Senate vote of bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Biden’s Popular Infrastructure Bill Passes Senate Over GOP Opposition

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

The Senate passed a bipartisan bill on Tuesday to invest $550 billion in infrastructure. But most Republican senators voted against it.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed 69-30. All of the no votes came from Republicans.

The package will provide a historic investment in transportation, water systems, broadband, and electrical grid infrastructure.

In March, President Joe Biden proposed a $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan, which included these and other infrastructure investments.

After months of negotiations, a group of 21 senators from both parties agreed in June on a framework for a bipartisan plan. Days later, Biden signed on.

Polls have shown the public strongly in support of the legislation. Large majorities of Democratic and independent voters backed the plan, as did a plurality of Republicans.

But one key Republican opposed it: former President Donald Trump.

Trump promised as a candidate in 2016 to invest in infrastructure and "build the next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, sea ports, and airports." Like many of his other pledges, he did not follow through— blowing up bipartisan negotiations to punish congressional Democrats for pursuing oversight of his administration.

On July 26, Trump warned Senate Republicans not to give "the Radical Left Democrats a big and beautiful win on Infrastructure" by passing the bipartisan package.

Two days later, he threatened that if the Senate GOP gives "a victory for the Biden Administration and Democrats," he and his followers will "never forget" and "lots of primaries will be coming your way!"

After those warnings, two of the Republicans who helped negotiated the deal flip-flopped and came out against it: Indiana Sen. Todd Young and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds. Rounds missed the vote for family reasons.

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

GOP’s Latest Obamacare Alternative Would Increase Uninsured, Deficit

GOP’s Latest Obamacare Alternative Would Increase Uninsured, Deficit

The Republican Party’s latest Obamacare “fix” would actually strip 1 million Americans of their health care coverage, according to a newly released report from the Congressional Budget Office.

The legislation in question is a bill authored by Rep. Todd Young (R-IN), which would change the rules governing the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate. Under the current law, employers with at least 50 full-time workers must offer their employees health coverage, or pay a fee. Young’s bill would raise the threshold for what constitutes “full-time work” from 30 hours per week to 40.

“We need a real solution for those hardworking Americans who just want to provide for their families,” Rep. Young said during the committee’s markup of his bill. “Simply put, this bill offers that solution by repealing the Affordable Care Act’s 30-hour definition of full-time employment and replacing it with the traditional 40-hour work week. This would restore the hours—and more importantly, protect the wages—of Americans who need them most.”

According to the CBO, however, Young’s plan isn’t quite as helpful as he claims.

In the report, the CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that Rep. Young’s bill — ironically titled the “Save American Workers Act of 2013” — would “Reduce the number of people receiving employment-based coverage — by about 1 million people.” Although they estimate that the bill would increase the number of people obtaining coverage through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or health insurance exchanges by between 500,000 and 1 million people, it would ultimately “increase the number of uninsured — by less than 500,000 people.”

That’s just the start of the political problems that the bill creates for Republicans. Although Rep. Young has claimed that out-of-control spending is “the single greatest threat to our nation’s future,” the report estimates that his legislation would increase the deficit by $74 billion over 10 years.

This poses an obvious dilemma for Republicans, who have spent years slamming Obamacare for supposedly costing Americans their health care coverage, and increasing the deficit.

Despite these flaws, Young’s plan — which passed through the House Ways and Means Committee in a party-line vote on February 4 — has been embraced by Republican leadership. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) recently included it in the caucus’ March agenda, which he said would “reform our health care system to one of patient-centered care and lowers costs.”

This is not the first time that Republicans have proposed an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, only to find that their solutions would create even worse problems. As it turns out, campaigning on “repeal and replace” is a lot easier if you don’t mention any details of the replacement.

Photo: Indiana Public Media via Flickr