Republican Jewish Coalition

The RJC Weekly Newsletter

April 01, 2021

Your weekly look at the latest news, analysis, and RJC activities around the country.

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Biden and Abbas

Biden Goes Big with “Infrastructure” Bill

President Joe Biden has announced a plan for more than $2 trillion in spending for “infrastructure” and a host of liberal priorities. (Read the White House fact sheet here.) Some Democrats are comparing it to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and say it will change how the government and the economy interact in this country.

 

The RNC has a fact sheet on the contents of the bill, including $174 billion to subsidize the electric vehicle industry and the “PRO Act” that would ban “right to work” laws against forced unionization. (You can read more on the bill’s protection and support for unions here.) The editors at National Review look at the terrible effects this bill would have on our economy.

Biden and Abbas

Rove Fights Back Against Biden’s Election-Reform Deception

Karl Rove takes on President Joe Biden’s false and misleading comments about efforts to reform election laws in Georgia and Iowa:

Mr. Biden made three specific claims. First, that Republicans would “end voting at 5 o’clock when working people are just getting off work.” That isn’t true. No state closes its polls at 5 p.m. Iowa’s new law moved up closing time by an hour, but polls are still open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Georgia’s election reforms left the state’s 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. polling hours unchanged.

 

The president also charged “there will be no absentee ballots.” That’s also false. Iowa’s only absentee voting change was to say ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Georgia made all of one significant change to absentee voting: replacing the requirement that counties verify the signatures of mail-in voters.

 

… Using the Biden Standard, let’s compare the supposedly un-American and racist practices of Iowa and Georgia with—to pick one state—Delaware. Iowa and Georgia both allow unlimited, no-excuse absentee voting by mail. Any registered voter can vote by mail rather than waiting for Election Day. Neither state’s new reforms restrict the practice.

 

Unlike Iowa and Georgia, Delaware forbids no-excuse mail-in absentee voting.

Read more here.

Biden and Abbas

Undoing Trump Policy, Doing More for Palestinians

Elliott Abrams: Reopening the PLO office in Washington, DC, as the Biden State Department appears to favor, would be a bad idea.

 

ABC News: The Biden administration is quietly ramping up assistance to the Palestinians after former President Donald Trump cut off nearly all aid. Since taking office with a pledge to reverse many of Trump's Israeli-Palestinian decisions, the administration has allocated nearly $100 million for the Palestinians, only a small portion of which has been publicized.

 

Washington Free Beacon: The Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog group, recently cited USAID over its failure to certify that taxpayer funds sent to the Palestinian Authority did not benefit organizations tied to terrorism. 

Biden and Abbas

Republicans Blast Biden Administration Offer to Roll Back Sanctions on Iran

Adam Kredo reports at the Washington Free Beacon:

Congressional Republicans are calling the Biden administration’s reported plan to roll back sanctions on Iran before it commits to renewed diplomatic talks an unacceptable concession that will only embolden the hardline regime and reward its bad behavior.

 

As Iran continues to balk at US proposals for direct negotiations on a deal, the Biden administration is becoming desperate. American officials are now said to be offering Iran immediate relief from tough economic sanctions in exchange for commitments to scale back portions of its nuclear program and halt enriching uranium to levels needed for a weapon, according to Politico. That proposal, Republican foreign policy leaders told the Washington Free Beacon, breaks multiple promises from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to not lift sanctions until Tehran agrees to sit down with the United States and other world powers. Republicans also are learning of the proposal via media reports, highlighting the administration’s continued efforts to conceal its diplomatic pursuits from critics in Congress.

Read more here.

Please visit the RJC’s new Iran deal portal, where you can learn more about the failures of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and see the RJC’s stance on dealing with Iran going forward. Most importantly, we’ve made it easy for you to tell President Biden that you oppose the US reentering the failed 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Click here to use our interactive tool to send an email to the White House today!

Biden and Abbas

Bad News: Iran and China Agree

Reuters reports that China and Iran, both subject to US sanctions, signed a 25-year cooperation agreement on Saturday to strengthen their long-standing economic and political alliance.

 

The New York Times provides disturbing details:

China agreed to invest $400 billion in Iran over 25 years in exchange for a steady supply of oil to fuel its growing economy under a sweeping economic and security agreement signed on Saturday.

 

The deal could deepen China’s influence in the Middle East and undercut American efforts to keep Iran isolated.

 

…[The presumed details include] $400 billion of Chinese investments to be made in dozens of fields, including banking, telecommunications, ports, railways, health care and information technology, over the next 25 years. In exchange, China would receive a regular — and, according to an Iranian official and an oil trader, heavily discounted — supply of Iranian oil.

 

The draft also called for deepening military cooperation, including joint training and exercises, joint research and weapons development and intelligence-sharing.

- Short Takes -

Democrat Rita Hart withdraws challenge in Iowa House race

Iowa Democrat Rita Hart announced Wednesday that she is withdrawing her challenge to the results of the 2020 race in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. The decision removes pressure from Democratic leaders in the House, who could have faced a difficult decision on whether to allow a vote on Hart's challenge in a race that she lost to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) by six votes.

Filibuster flip-flop

Thomas Jipping writes that Joe Biden has done a 180 on the filibuster since his time in the US Senate and explains exactly how the filibuster works and why it’s important.

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