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Matt: On Thursday, history was made with President Joe Biden signing a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.

President Biden: This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation, working people, middle-class folks, people who built the country, a fighting chance.

Matt: The stimulus package called the American Rescue Plan is intended to alleviate the brutal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis. As we discussed earlier this week, aside from stimulus checks, it carries with it major changes including child tax credits and aid to local and state governments. No Republican voted in favor of the bill. That's not the only piece of news coming from DC, lawmakers are also looking at other blockbuster legislation, including a new voting rights bill.

At the same time, the Justice Department continues to release information on the major players leading the January 6th Capitol riot. Not only that, but we're seeing movement on Biden administration officials' confirmations, including Marcia Fudge's confirmation for housing Secretary this week. There's a lot happening in DC right now. I'm Matt Katz and breaking down developments in Washington is where we start today on The Takeaway.

I'm joined now by three journalists who have their ears to the ground on all things politics, Perry Bacon Jr. senior writer for FiveThirtyEight. Maya King, politics reporter at POLITICO, and Nick Fandos, congressional correspondent for The New York Times. Hey, guys, thanks for joining us.

Maya: Hi, thanks for having us. [crosstalks]

?Speaker: Hey.

Matt: All right, so Nick, let's start with the big, big news of the week, nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill, can you just break down a bit how Americans' lives are going to be affected by this? If you were to explain this to someone who hasn't read the bill or followed politics in the last few weeks, what would you tell them about it?

Nick: Sure. Well, this is just a scragging amount of money on top of $4 trillion the Congress had already spent basically, in the last year to address the coronavirus crisis. I'd say, there's a set of short-term and longer-term provisions in here that are probably going to end up affecting Americans' lives. The most immediate one is a lot of people are going to be getting another round of direct checks from the government, this time up to $1400 and more if you have kids and meet certain income thresholds. That's a lot of money that could be showing up in the next few weeks.

If you're unemployed, there is a significant extension of the federal unemployment benefit, which was put in place for the first time about a year ago, it'd be $300 a week on top of whatever your state gives you. If you're living in a state or a city with a big budget deficit that's looking at cutting services, they're probably going to get an infusion of cash from this bill. If you're a small business owner, this helps firm up the PPP, small business loan program, there's money for all kinds of different industries, restaurant industry, airlines, and more money for vaccines in schools to try and get them in people's arms and get schools open as quickly as possible.

That portion, I think, is really about trying to bridge the last portion of this crisis, and then there's a set of longer-term policies which Democrats have been advocating for, for a long time, and finally had a chance to advance in this bill. The most significant one, which you alluded to just a minute ago, is a big expansion of the child tax credit, which experts estimate could alleviate child poverty by as much as 50%, so a lot of, in fact, most American parents are going to start seeing this year I think about $300 check per kid showing up each month. That's money in their pocket that they can choose to do with what they want.

Then there's a host of other provisions that will have a long life, probably and hopefully longer than the pandemic.

Matt: Maya I want to ask about one thing that Nick mentioned, the aid to local and state governments. It seems to me that that's potentially a big deal. There have been huge deficits in local governments due to tax revenue shortfalls from the pandemic. Does this mean that teacher layoffs that would have happened won't happen and that roads will get paved, those kinds of things that people wouldn't necessarily realize is coming from this relief package?

Maya: Well, it's interesting that you had mentioned roads getting paved. I think infrastructure has been front of mind for a number of years and political reporters now for the last four years. The thing that I think I'll be watching, as it relates to how state and local governments really distribute this money is, of course how they're thinking about which communities will be able to benefit from it. I think that the forefronts of a lot of these conversations are how schools will be funded, and how a lot of these equity gaps will be filled by some of this funding.

We know that a number of low-income schools have really had a hard time being able to open and bring kids back because, in part, they just haven't had the infrastructure in place to be able to do so healthily. I think also, this aid to state and local governments has opened a very interesting and unusual opportunity for bipartisanship. We've seen a number of mayors and state leaders who are republicans come forward and say, "Actually, we really do need this money. We support this legislation and we'd like to see this funding come to us as soon as possible because a lot of these municipalities have really taken just a major beating as a result of the virus." That's also something I think that will have some long-term effects, particularly in these larger cities across the country.

Matt: Perry, what is the passage of this bill tell us about how Washington is going to work under a Biden administration. You wrote that this bill indicates that this democratic party that's in power right now is governing more to the left than in previous years and I'm curious why we're seeing such a significant course correction from the Trump era. Is it the influence of stars like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or is it the protests from last year or just maybe the pandemic and the public's desire for more government assistance due to COVID? Why do you think that is? Why are we seeing such a leftward tilt?

Perry: The answers will be all of the above a little bit, but just to put this in context, I guess, the one thing that's in worth with this bill is the 2009 stimulus with $787 billion, which is about 940 billion in today's dollars. This bill at 1.9 trillion is more than double that. You could argue in some ways that the crisis is worse, but I'm not sure it's two times as bad as the crisis of 2009, 2008 was. It just goes to the point that--

Also, this revision has built things in it that I think that the Bill Clinton or Barack Obama Democratic parties would not have done. We're talking about-- and you think about these child tax credits, as well as the direct checks, we're talking about families getting $7,000 or more a family of four than they would have otherwise had. $7,000 in a year, they wouldn't have had from a single bill, their direct money to them, is something that we were not seeing from past Democratic administrations.

I'd say there were three reasons. First of all, I think that, yes, I think the party-- Joe Biden is a moderate person, more moderate than our Senator Warren, our Senator Sanders or AOC, but throughout his career, Biden has tried to position himself in the center of where the Democratic Party is. I would argue that center has moved left because of those leftward figures that I'm talking about so AOC, Warren. That's part of it, is the party is just more left.

I also think that the crises of 2020, I think, in some ways, changed politics, and I'd say COVID obviously changed the economy [unintelligible 00:08:34] being unemployed, has exposed a lot of the problems that the economy already had in terms of inequality. I think that made everybody-- Mitt Romney is also proposing more liberal ideas than he proposed before, and he's a Republican.

I think the actual conditions on the ground also have dramatically changed where people are and I think that the protests and you saw a movement of people really talking about the idea that America's not working for them, the COVID deaths, I think a lot of the talk about inequality that happened was happening during the 2020 primary and seem real, but not necessarily in your face.

The COVID deaths, the George Floyd protests, put those things really in people's faces and in the news all the time and I think that affected how Biden govern. I don't think I would have imagined Biden would assign this kind of bill even a year ago, maybe not even six months ago. The third thing being, I think that January 6th, in a lot of ways, changed the Democratic Party, in the sense that I think-- and the reaction to it, I think that there was a sense from Biden and a lot of other Democrats that the fever of Trump will go away. We can work with the more moderate Republicans.

I think that come January 6th, what happened that day, combined with the Republican Party having an internal discussion, and then going back to Trumpism, and basically rejecting the idea that the Republican Party has come back to be aligned with Trump. I think that has convinced a lot of Democrats, okay, there's no need to-- we can't really work with them. If you watch this whole process, Biden and his staff pretended to be bipartisan, they had meetings, they had discussions, but there was no real sense that they were really trying to get Republicans to vote for this bill, nor was there a real sense.

In my view, the Republicans on the Hill were going to vote for this bill. I just think the Democratic Party in '09 and 2010 with Obama was very focused on bipartisanship. I think that they've decided that's not possible and why bother to some extent now.

Matt: Interesting. Nick, the conditions on the ground that Perry spoke of, even though there was no bipartisan support for this bill, there's bipartisan public support for this at least in general stimulus legislation. Is that right?

Nick: Yes, that's right. Public polling has been pretty consistent over the last several weeks and around its passage in the last week that the public is by and large on board with the broad strokes of this bill, including people who identify as Republican voters. Now, I think that Republican politicians seem to be a little bit split between thinking yes, there are popular provisions in here, but there's a lot of ones that we can educate the public on that will be seen as excesses or too radical on the part of the Democrats.

This bill's popularity will wane over time in the way that the bailout 10 years ago or so did, but at the same time, we've also seen Republicans pretty aggressively try and pivot. There's a lot of talk this week on Capitol Hill from Republicans about the situation at the southern border where there's been an increase in migrants and a real overwhelming of government systems down there.

Republicans seem far more eager to talk about that particular crisis [unintelligible 00:12:11] than the pandemic at this point. We'll just have to see going forward, which half they pick. I think which one may determine how popular this stuff remains, or maybe it'll be the other way around and they just won't be able to dent this bill and they'll move on to other things.

Matt: Maya, something called the Equality Act recently passed the House, which would bar discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. Can you tell us who that bill is geared for?

Maya: Yes, this legislation, it's very much in line with the Biden administration's commitment to equity. I think that Congress and congressional Democrats have taken that charge and making sure that this is something that follows also with their legislation. This is something that would bar, as you said, the discrimination on the basis of gender and would open up more opportunities for those, I think in the past who have struggled to breakthrough. This is something that again, the Biden administration has really prioritized and will of course be pushing through I think in Congress, in the coming weeks.

Matt: Then there's also a couple of gun control bills that the House approved. Perry, I'm wondering if this is doomed in the Senate and then if that's indicative of other bills that are going to go to the Senate over the next couple of years and only to die because moderate Democrats kill them, what do you think?

Perry: The Background Checks bill was passed by the House of Democrats last time too in 2019 or-- 2019, I'm not pretty sure and also moved nowhere. We're headed toward this big fight. This week we saw what I think is the biggest illustration of it and where it's going to become most central, which is that you have basically three blocks of Democrats.

The most left were Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster and add [unintelligible 00:14:17] Supreme Court, and just do a lot of really liberal things by getting rid of the filibuster. You had the Joe Manchin's and the Kyrsten Sinema's, the senators who are opposed to given the filibuster, but you saw this week what I think is an emerging division among Democrats, which Jim Clyburn and Stacey Abrams both raised.

They're two of the most prominent Black figures in the party, which is that you shouldn't get rid of the filibuster for everything, but you really need to get rid of the filibuster so that you can pass voting rights bills that protect particularly people of color's right to vote, and the ability to vote, particularly in response to all these bills, moving into states like Georgia, that would make it harder to vote.

I think the filibuster fight is going to be about a lot of issues, but it's really going to be about these voting rights issues, where you're going to see a lot of Black Democrats pressuring Manchin and Sinema, particularly in saying on some level, you may want the filibuster in theory, but you cannot prioritize the filibuster over Black voting rights. That's where we're headed toward, is going to be this real fight in the next few months in the Democratic Party.

Biden so far has tried to say-- his staff's been saying his preference is to keep the filibuster. People have lots of preferences in life that they don't necessarily abide by. I think he's signaling maybe some openness to some changes on an issue himself.

Matt: Nick, it was just over two months ago, believe it or not, that violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and the FBI is continuing its investigations. They announced more arrests this week. Has this crazy thing that happened been largely forgotten with Capitol Hill, just back to business as usual, or is it still centering the conversations that you're having with sources?

Nick: I wouldn't say it is the center of all conversations. This conversation has made evident Congress is very busy, but it really is in the background of quite a lot of things. Thousands of people that go to work in the Capitol every day can't escape it. The building is surrounded by a fence and razor wire. There's still thousands of National Guard troops on patrol every day. That sets a tone.

Frankly, I think there is a real and palpable lack of goodwill and animosity between a lot of Republicans and Democrats, particularly in the House of Representatives where there are a lot of Democrats who are basically refusing to work with Republicans who even after the riot voted to overturn certain election results in states that President Biden had won, saying they won't co-sponsor their legislation, they won't vote for their bills on the floor. They're going to try and ostracize them in hearings.

Republicans, on the other hand, are pushing back and accusing Democrats of continuing to nurse wounds over this for too long, saying they need to take the fence down, they need to get rid of the National Guard. They're blaming it somewhat quizzically on Speaker Pelosi who does not have unilateral control over any of those things. There's a lot of recrimination.

There's also still investigations going on. They're trying to figure out how to put together an independent commission to look at what happened and even that's been a subject of a considerable partisan disagreement so much so good. Here we are a couple of months later and it's yet to be put together.

Matt: Nick just referred to the National Guardsman hunkered down in the Capitol. I'm curious to get Perry and Maya to give me a quick lightning take about how the biggest way your life as a Washington reporter has changed in the post-Trump era. No more Trump tweets waking you up in the morning, I guess, but what else? Perry, can you give me a quick take on that?

Perry: I think that's the takeaway though, in a certain way, is like weekends and nights are-- not that they're-- we have plenty of news happening, but it's much more predictable. Like Biden, you know he's going to sign a bill on Friday. Apparently, Biden has a Twitter account, but I have no idea what he says because the tweets, I assume, were quite boring because no one retweets them or tells you what they say. I think that's the biggest thing, is things are more, there's a lot of news happening, but it's much more predictable and so is, therefore, it's an easier job kind of.

Matt: Maya, tell me, is your life just much more chill now that a tweeting president is no longer in the White House?

Maya: It is and it allows us to focus on some other storylines like the first dogs or even a reparations bill. It gives us an opportunity to focus on some stories that perhaps would not have at all been storylines under the Trump administration.

Matt: Perry Bacon Jr. is senior writer for FiveThirtyEight. Maya King, who we just heard from, is a politics reporter at POLITICO, and Nick Fandos is congressional correspondent for the New York Times. Guys, thank you all for joining us. I really appreciate it. Enjoy your weekends.

Maya: Thanks for having us.

Nick: You too.

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Matt: The last four years was a heavy news cycle where stories seem to be breaking every minute. Many of you were very engaged, but the election of President Joe Biden has seemed to slow the constant desire to watch and follow the news 24/7. We asked you how your engagement with politics has changed since Biden took office and what stories are important to you?

Kat: Hi, my name is Kat and I live in Middletown, New Jersey. Since Biden took office, I would say that I've taken a teeny break from being super engaged in the politics. I still listen to WNYC every day, just about, but I am very concerned still about the voting rights bill that's coming and how just polarized the Senate is and my hope is [unintelligible 00:20:12].

Jenn: Hello, my name's Jenn. I'm from Houston, Texas. For me, my political engagement has not changed since Joe Biden took office. I've seen a lot of people pretending that everything is "normal again" and just going back to brunch and ignoring everything that's going on around us. I think we have to hold Biden to account for the bad things that he has done, like refusing to fight for $15 an hour minimum wage and for the bombing of Syria that it doesn't seem like he's gotten very much attention at all. It's important that we stay engaged and fight for the things that we need. Thank you.

Diana: Hi, I've totally disconnected from anything political, from listening to the radio or TV even my daily briefings. I might glance at it but nothing like it was the last four years. I really needed a mental and emotional break from you know who. This is Diana from Miami, Florida. Thanks.

Doug: With Joe Biden in the White House, I've been following along more with actual legislation, like H.R.1 or For the People Act, and less concerned about drama and antics emanating from the White House. This is Doug in Portland, Oregon.

Participant 1: My news engagement has definitely changed since the Biden administration has been in office. I am not listening with a clenched jaw and tight shoulders. My stomach is not a knot. I also don't feel the need to check in every hour to see what new disaster has taken place. I'm closely following social issues as well as the minimum wage discourse.

Josh: This is Josh from Philadelphia. Personally, I do have a greater sense of calm with the new administration. I'm a registered independent but I do see a greater focus on achieving and accomplishing tasks at least one at a time and I don't see a tendency to micromanage the world around the president in the same way that the previous administration did. I do feel a lot better in general and I see a positive impact on my community. Feels pretty good.

Matt: Listen, folks, sometimes you guys send us messages that we may need to interpret a little bit. Mia in Nashville responded about our political engagement question by sending us this.

Mia: I never thought that this would work out easy,

I never thought that you would try to come please me,

Sometimes, sometimes I just get tired,

Sometimes, sometimes I just get tired.

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Matt: That was lovely. Thank you, Mia, and thanks to all of you for chatting with us. Remember, you can always go to thetakeaway.org and click on contact us to leave your take or you can send us a voice memo and email to us at thetakeawaycallers@gmail.com.

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