Free Republic

A number of Democrats are beginning to fret over President Biden’s big spending proposals, worrying the steep price tag could cost the party in the 2022 midterm elections. While liberal Democrats are cheering Biden on, moderates say the $4.1 trillion in infrastructure and social spending, coming after the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief measure, could hurt their efforts to hold the House next year. “I can see the ads now. ‘Joe Biden the $6 trillion dollar man,’ ” said one Democratic strategist. “Most Americans want the government to work but spending $6 trillion doesn’t make political sense.”

Democrats are fretting that Obamacare is going to crush their hopes of big gains in the midterm elections, just like it cost them the House in 2010. And as bad-news headlines and big-time dips in the polls pile up, the signs of anxiety are starting to show. On Monday night, South Carolina’s Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a favorite of the Democratic left, couldn't get away from the law fast enough, calling Obamacare “extremely problematic” — a quote that got wide play from GOP groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Sen. Max Baucus warned that there could be a “train wreck”...

WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Reeling from months of protests, President Barack Obama's advisers are worried that administration approval for a planned oil pipeline from Canada could cost him political support from Democrats in 2012.Senior officials at the White House and Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters have fielded complaints from supporters who are unhappy about TransCanada Corp's plan to build a massive pipeline to transport crude from Alberta to Texas, sources familiar with the situation said.The concerns could contribute to a delay in the approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline just as the 2012 presidential campaign heats up.The State Department,...

RAMADI, Iraq – As the Marine Corps shrinks its footprint in Iraq's western desert, Iraqi community leaders here are publicly voicing worries about what will happen once the Americans are gone. They fear a wave of corruption and the return of the insurgency that once held sway over the area. Marines have begun divorcing themselves from the task of advising local leaders, the clearest signal that their role in Anbar province is quickly nearing its end. An Associated Press reporter embedded with the troops witnessed two cases in a single day of Iraqis — a headmistress and a party of...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO, April 14 (Reuters) - Growing demand for electricity, a slowdown in power plant construction, and tight supplies are worrying California power officials as summer nears, a spokesman for the state grid said on Wednesday.</p> <p>The California Independent System Operator, which runs most of the electric grid, expects to issue its summer supply-and-demand forecast shortly and ISO operators are concerned about electricity shortages "if base case assumptions on supplies and consumption don't come true," said ISO spokesman Gregg Fishman.</p>