It’s hard to believe, but 20 years ago on Saturday, Josh Groban released his self-titled debut album. Today, he’s marking that anniversary with the release of a new digital version of the album that includes some rare and unreleased tracks.
The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Josh Groban is out now, and in addition to well-known songs like “You’re Still You,” “To Where You Are” and his version of “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night),” it includes two new bonus tracks.
One of the new tracks is “Mia Per Sempre (Mine Forever),” which originally appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of the album, and the other one is Josh’s first-ever studio demo recording: an Italian song titled “Roma Nun Fa’ La Stupida Stasera,” which translates to “Rome, Don’t Be Stupid Tonight.”
Josh Groban has so far sold over five million copies in the U.S. Josh’s most recent album is last year’s Harmony.
A man was shot on Thursday afternoon near the site of a memorial for rapper Young Dolph, who was shot and killed in Memphis on Wednesday.
The shooting on Thursday afternoon took place near Makedas Homemade Butter Cookies, the shop that the hip-hop artist was visiting when he was killed. The bakery, which has been boarded shut, has since become the site of a memorial for the rapper, where mourners gathered to pay their respects.
“Officers are on the scene of a shooting at 2630 Airways,” the Memphis Police Department tweeted Thursday afternoon. “One male was shot and is listed as non-critical. Officers immediately detained two suspects, and a third was detained at Kerr and Mississippi after a brief pursuit. The cause of this shooting is under investigation.”
It is unclear whether the shootings are connected. ABC News reached out to the Memphis Police Department but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
Hours before the shooting Thursday, Memphis Police released photos on Twitter of the suspects and the suspected vehicle connected to Young Dolph’s killing, and urged anyone with information to contact police.
According to police, Dolph was killed while he was inside Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in South Memphis. The rapper, born Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 36.
The NAACP Image Awards will return with an in-person ceremony, airing live February 26 on BET.
Four new podcast categories have been added to this year’s ceremony, include Outstanding News and Information Podcast; Outstanding Lifestyle/Self-Help Podcast; Outstanding Society and Culture Podcast; and Outstanding Arts and Entertainment Podcast.
The NAACP Image Awards traditionally honors achievements and performances of people of color across more than 80 categories, including film, television, music and literature.
“Black artists over the past year have not only showcased our history and uplifted values of progressive change, but have also redefined genres and brought our stories to the screen in so many creative ways,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “Now more than ever, we need Black voices to push the envelope, educate, and inspire audiences around the world. We’re proud to once again provide a space that both elevates and celebrates these voices through the 53rd NAACP Image Awards.”
Nominations for the 53rd NAACP Image Awards will be announced on January 11.
The days are getting shorter, but luckily as we head into the holidays, Disney+ already has a full slate of seasonal goodies for you to unwrap on those cold winter nights.
Have a movie night with friends and family with the newly released Home Sweet Home Alone, starring Archie Yates, Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, and Aisling Bea, or spend a weekend binge watching all of The Simpsons’ Christmas specials.
Marvel Studios’ latest show Hawkeye debuts on November 24, with a decidedly “Christmas in New York” settling. Classics such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Home Alone and The Santa Clause are also available to watch on Disney+, and there are even holiday-themed episodes of throwback shows like Kim Possible and Even Stevens to check out this season.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Here’s the full list:
Movies and specials
‘Twas the Night 12 Dates of Christmas A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa — premiering Nov. 19 Babes in Toyland Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas Christmas…Again?! — premiering Dec. 3 Cloud 9 Cool Runnings Decorating Disney Holiday Magic’ Disney’s A Christmas Carol (2009) Disney Channel Holiday House Party Disney Channel’s Epic Holiday Showdown Disney’s Fairytale Weddings: Holiday Magic Duck the Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special — premiering Nov. 26 Ernest Saves Christmas — premiering Nov. 26 Frozen Frozen 2 Full-Court Miracle Good Luck Charlie: It’s Christmas! High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special Home Alone Home Alone 2 Home Alone 3 Home Alone 4 — premiering Dec. 17 Home Alone: The Holiday Heist — premiering Dec. 17 I’ll Be Home For Christmas Ice Age — premiering Dec. 3 Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas — premiering Nov. 26 Jingle All The Way Jingle All The Way 2 Life Size 2 Mickey & Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas — premiering Dec. 10 Mickey’s Christmas Carol Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish Santa Buddies: The Legend of the Santa Paws Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups Snow Buddies Snowball Express Snowglobe The Christmas Star The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe The Disney Holiday Singalong The Mistle-Tones The Muppet Christmas Carol The Nutcracker and the Four Realms The Santa Clause The Santa Clause 2 The Santa Clause 3 The Search for Santa Paws The Ultimate Christmas Present Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Togo Toy Story: That Time Forgot While You Were Sleeping Winnie The Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year
Disney+ Originals premiering during the holiday season
Hawkeye — premiering Nov. 24 Arendelle Castle Yule Log: Cut Paper Edition — premiering Dec. 17 Godmothered High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special Home Sweet Home Alone LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special Noelle Once Upon a Snowman Arendelle Castle Yule Log
Duck the Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special From Our Family to Yours Olaf’s Frozen Adventure Once Upon a Snowman Pluto’s Christmas Tree Prep & Landing Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa Puppy for Hanukkah — premiering Nov. 19 Santa’s Workshop The Small One
The Simpsons Christmas episodes
“Bobby, It’s Cold Outside”
“Grift of the Magi”
“Holidays of Future Passed”
“I Won’t Be Home for Christmas”
“Kill Gil, Volumes I & II”
“Marge Be Not Proud”
“Miracle on Evergreen Terrace”
“She of Little Faith”
“Simpsons Christmas Stories”
“Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire”
“Skinner’s Sense of Snow”
“The Burns and the Bees”
“The Fight Before Christmas”
“The Nightmare After Krustmas”
‘”Tis the 30th Season”
“‘Tis The Fifteenth Season”
“White Christmas Blues”
If busting makes you feel good, then you’re in luck this weekend — Ghostbusters: Afterlife opens in theaters.
It’s directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, who directed and produced the original films, and his dad couldn’t be more proud.
Jason tells ABC Audio, “I think most parents had this dream that their child will one day want to work with them and pick up what they’ve built over their lifetime. And my father built Ghostbusters, and I think it was his dream that I would one day work in the shop behind the counter.”
The film is also about family — specifically, Egon Spengler’s — which Jason describes as “three generations of a family reckoning with itself as these young kids find a proton pack and Ecto-1. And in uncovering them, figuring out their new adventure, their legacy.”
Jason made it very clear to his dad that he wanted to make his own film, which was fine with Ivan, who encouraged him to make a Ghostbusters for a new generation.
“Anything new, my father was thrilled about,” notes Jason. “Oddly, it was when I would echo the past and lean into the nostalgia that my father’s back would get up and get uncomfortable.”
At the same time, Jason and co-writer Gil Kenan “felt this responsibility to simultaneously look forward, but also give people who have always loved this franchise another moment with characters they love [and] all the equipment…the music, the sound effects, the ghosts…that we’ve been wanting to see again.”
Father and son did have one major disagreement:
“If my father had his druthers, there’d be a lot more slime in this movie, I will say that,” Jason admits. “And I perhaps should have conceded just to make him happy.”
(NEW YORK) — With a winter virus surge lurking and no readily available vaccines, Thanksgiving 2020 was very different for most families. This year, expectations are much higher.
But even this year, a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases means public health experts are still urging caution. Health professionals still agree that getting vaccinated is the single best a person can do to protect themselves and their loved ones — especially unvaccinated children.
“Vaccines are only as efficacious as the number of people that get them. So a good time to remind people to get their COVID vaccines if they’re still holding out,” said Dr. Molly Fleece, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. “What we do not want to see this year is a so-called twin-demic, where we have peaks of influenza as well as COVID during our holiday season.”
Layering different protective measures is the best overall strategy, experts told ABC News. Dr. Anne Liu, an infectious disease and allergy specialist at Stanford University, advises people “to not rely just on vaccination, but to also be thoughtful about when to implement masking and rapid testing.”
Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, said she’s asking family members to limit activities that could potentially expose them to COVID-19 in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
“We are asking everybody to reduce their overall risk for the three- to five-day period before, and we’re all taking a rapid test the morning of,” she added.
Another option is testing.
“Testing ahead of time does make a low-risk situation with all vaccinated people even lower risk,” said Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I especially recommend it if someone at the gathering is older or potentially immunocompromised.”
There are multiple types of COVID-19 tests, including PCR tests, rapid tests and antibody tests. Infectious disease experts agreed that an antibody test, which looks for traces of a prior infection or prior vaccination in your blood, isn’t going to be a helpful way to protect your family over the holidays. Instead, opt for a PCR test, if you have time to wait for the results, or, a rapid test — less accurate, but faster.
“PCR test is obviously the best,” said Dr. Marc Siegel, director of infectious diseases at George Washington University. Unfortunately, during times of high demand these tests can be hard to take or results are delayed. Sax suggests that if a person is asymptomatic, doing a rapid antigen test the day before and the day of the gathering would be reasonable in lieu of a PCR test.
Once gathered, experts also suggest paying attention to ventilation. Weather permitting, have parts of gatherings outdoors helps decrease risk. It’s admittedly easier in some states.
“We’re going to actually have it outside — it’s supposed to be 65 and sunny on Thanksgiving day,” said Dr. George Rutherford, a doctor and infectious disease researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. “Plus, we can get a lot more people at the table because we can string tables together.”
But there are still options for those in colder climates.
“Even in a cold environment, it’s possible to open up a window,” said Siegel. “You might be losing some of the heat, but at least opening up a window on each side of the room to allow some room air to circulate.” Using air filters is another consideration, Sax added.
If possible, those with prior vaccinations should get their boosters before the holiday, experts said.
Ultimately, between rapid testing, better knowledge of COVID-19 transmission and the mass availability of vaccines, this year’s holiday season has the potential to be more joyous than last year’s.
Lauren Joseph, a student at Stanford Medical School, and Jacob Warner, an internal medicine resident at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, are contributors to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — The number of fliers this year will approach pre-pandemic levels, according to the Transportation Security Administration. However, experts said staffing shortages and a storm on the horizon threaten to disrupt Americans’ holiday plans.
“One of the things folks have not accounted for is that conditions have changed,” Willis Orlando, senior product operations specialist at Scott’s Cheap Flights, told ABC News. “If you’re checking in for a flight and it’s an international flight, airline agents now have to check many more layers of documentation depending on where you’re going. So those lines are going to take longer. Add to that lingering staffing shortages and you have a recipe for long lines and delays.”
Here’s what you need to know about the best and worst times to travel:
Sunday after Thanksgiving projected to be busiest travel day of year
The TSA is prepping for a busy Thanksgiving travel period — with travel volumes expected to reach 2019 pre-pandemic levels. The agency said it expects the Sunday after Thanksgiving to be the busiest travel day of the year — with an estimated 2.4 million passengers on Nov 28. It expects 2-2.1 million passengers on Nov. 23, 24, 27, and 29.
Despite a looming vaccine mandate on Monday for all TSA agents, the agency insists it’s “confident” that it has the staffing needed to manage the holiday travel crush.
But experts still recommend heading to the airport early next week.
“Don’t count on fast check-in lines,” Orlando said. “Get there two hours before a domestic flight and two and a half or three hours before an international flight. It’s better to get there early and be prepared than to get there late and be sorry.”
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will be busiest US airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International will be the busiest airport on Thanksgiving weekend, with 154,000 departing seats on Wednesday, Nov. 24, according to travel booking app Hopper.
Atlanta is followed by Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport as the second and third busiest airports, with 103,000 and 101,000 passengers expected respectively.
All three airports are expected “to be really busy” on Wednesday morning, Hopper Economist Adit Damodaran told ABC News.
“The Wednesday before Thanksgiving — Nov. 24 — will be the busiest travel day to depart at most airports across the U.S., especially in the morning,” Damodaran said.
Majority of Americans will drive to their destination over Thanksgiving.
AAA predicts 53.4 million people will travel on the roads and in the skies for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is up 13% from 2020. This year’s forecast marks the highest single-year increase in Thanksgiving travelers since 2005, bringing travel volumes close to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to AAA.
Of those 53.4 million, AAA says a majority of them, 48.3 million, will hit the road.
Worst time to drive is Wednesday afternoon.
Data from analytics company INRIX shows that anytime after noon all the way through 8 p.m. Wednesday will see the most congested roads.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving could have some traffic jams as well from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
In Atlanta, congestion during peak times will reach a high of 340% over normal, in New York a whopping 482% and in Los Angeles — 385%.
If you are driving, experts said to also be mindful you might be paying more at the pump than you’re used to at $3.35 per gallon.
“We’re just cents away from the highest Thanksgiving gas prices ever recorded,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a press release. “With global oil demand surging this year as the pandemic has eased, we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory – some of the highest Thanksgiving gas prices on record.”
(WASHINGTON) — Candidate Biden acknowledged it was legitimate for Americans to question his fitness for office.
“The only thing I can say is watch. Watch! Check my energy level, determine whether I know what I’m talking about,” he told voters during the 2020 campaign.
Now, on Friday, nearly a year into his term, Biden was getting his first physical as president at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
It comes the day before he turns 79.
Biden waved to reporters as he arrived at the hospital.
The White House revealed that for some of the exam he will be under general anesthesia and briefly transfer power to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This morning, the President will travel to Walter Reed Medical Center for a routine physical. While he is there, the President will undergo a routine colonoscopy, ” press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
“As was the case when President George W. Bush had the same procedure in 2002 and 2007, and following the process set out in the Constitution, President Biden will transfer power to the Vice President for the brief period of time when he is under anesthesia. The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time,” she said.
Psaki added that, later Friday afternoon, the White House will publicly release a written summary of the president’s physical.
To date, the most recent physical and medical report was one his campaign released in December 2019: a three-page summary that declared Biden “a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
At the time, Biden was said to be under treatment for four different conditions: non-valvular atrial fibrillation — a type of irregular heart rhythm, hyperlipidemia — higher concentrations of fats or lipids in the blood, gastroesophageal reflux and seasonal allergies.
The most notable health incidents in Biden’s past were the two cranial aneurysms he suffered in 1988.
Since winning the presidency, Biden suffered a fractured foot after falling while chasing his dog Major at his Wilmington, Delaware, home last Thanksgiving. He had to wear a walking boot for the injury, and was said to be “healing as expected,” according to scans from a follow-up appointment in December.
Biden named Dr. Kevin O’Connor as his White House physician shortly after taking office.
O’Connor has served as Biden’s primary care physician since 2009, when he was appointed physician to the then-vice president. Biden chose him for the new role due to their long history and personal relationship, according to a White House official.
Questions about fitness for office are far from exclusive to Biden — President Donald Trump, who was the oldest president elected before Biden, also faced questions about his mental and physical fitness.
Trump faced particular scrutiny for the first physical of his administration in January 2018, which his then-White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, said went “exceptionally well.”
He came under fire for his effusively rosy outlook on Trump’s health while briefing reporters afterward.
In other recent administrations, physicals have generally been conducted within a president’s first year in office.
President George W. Bush got a physical in August 2001, and was found to be “fit for duty” with “every reasonable expectation that he will remain fit for duty for the duration of his Presidency.”
President Barack Obama received his first physical in office just over a year into his presidency, in February 2010. He also was found to be in “excellent health,” although doctors told hi to stop smoking.
(WASHINGTON) — It was a question that plagued Joe Biden’s presidential campaign: Could a 77-year-old man — who at age 78 would be the oldest person ever to assume the presidency — handle the rigors of the job?
Candidate Biden acknowledged it was legitimate for Americans to question his fitness for office.
“The only thing I can say is watch. Watch! Check my energy level, determine whether I know what I’m talking about,” he told voters during the 2020 campaign.
Now, on Friday, nearly a year into his term, Biden is getting his first physical as president at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
It comes the day before he turns 79.
“Later this morning, the President will travel to Walter Reed Medical Center for his routine annual physical. We will provide more details after he arrives at Walter Reed,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in an early morning statement.
To date, the most recent physical and medical report was one his campaign released in December 2019: a three-page summary that declared Biden “a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
At the time, Biden was said to be under treatment for four different conditions: non-valvular atrial fibrillation — a type of irregular heart rhythm, hyperlipidemia — higher concentrations of fats or lipids in the blood, gastroesophageal reflux and seasonal allergies.
The most notable health incidents in Biden’s past were the two cranial aneurysms he suffered in 1988.
Since winning the presidency, Biden suffered a fractured foot after falling while chasing his dog Major at his Wilmington, Delaware, home last Thanksgiving. He had to wear a walking boot for the injury, and was said to be “healing as expected,” according to scans from a follow-up appointment in December.
Biden named Dr. Kevin O’Connor as his White House physician shortly after taking office.
O’Connor has served as Biden’s primary care physician since 2009, when he was appointed physician to the then-vice president. Biden chose him for the new role due to their long history and personal relationship, according to a White House official.
Questions about fitness for office are far from exclusive to Biden — President Donald Trump, who was the oldest president elected before Biden, also faced questions about his mental and physical fitness.
Trump faced particular scrutiny for the first physical of his administration in January 2018, which his then-White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, said went “exceptionally well.”
He came under fire for his effusively rosy outlook on Trump’s health while briefing reporters afterward.
In other recent administrations, physicals have generally been conducted within a president’s first year in office.
President George W. Bush got a physical in August 2001, and was found to be “fit for duty” with “every reasonable expectation that he will remain fit for duty for the duration of his Presidency.”
President Barack Obama received his first physical in office just over a year into his presidency, in February 2010. He also was found to be in “excellent health,” although doctors told hi to stop smoking.
(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats passed their roughly $1.75 trillion social and climate spending package on Friday morning, even as Republicans successfully delayed a final vote.
The vote on passage of the “Build Back Better Act” fell largely along party lines at 220-213.
As the vote crossed the threshold to pass, Democrats started applauding on the floor and chanting “Build Back Better!”
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to oppose the package, signaling opposition to a provision to raise the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes that could benefit high-earning homeowners. Democrats could afford to lose three votes and still pass the legislation. Not a single Republican supported it.
The social spending bill would generate the largest expansion to the social safety net in 50 years and contains $555 billion for climate and clean energy investments. It would reduce the cost of some prescription drugs, extend the child tax credit, expand universal preschool and includes electric-vehicle tax credits, paid leave, housing assistance and dozens more progressive priorities.
Now that it’s passed the House, the Senate is expected to amend the proposal in the coming weeks after the Thanksgiving recess as Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have not committed to the package in its current form.
Since Democrats plan to pass the measure through reconciliation, a lengthy budget process that would not require them to have any Republican support since Democrats have a narrow majority in both chambers, the legislation — months in the making — still has a long way to go, including back to the House, before it would even hit Biden’s desk.
Overnight, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., took to the floor for more than eight hours to rail against the bill and Democrats’ agenda, breaking a record previously held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for longest House floor speech, knocking Democrats off their plans to approve the measure late Thursday evening, in a show to his conference that he’s fighting for the GOP on his quest to become speaker.
“I know some of you are mad at me and think I have spoken too long, but I’ve had enough. America has had enough,” he said, rallying his conference after a week of intraparty tensions over his leadership as the party seeks to recapture the House.
When Pelosi took the floor on Friday morning ahead of a full floor vote, she took a swipe at McCarthy’s lengthy speech.
“As a courtesy to my colleagues, I will be brief,” she said, wearing an all-white suit to mark the occasion. Pelosi said Democrats are “proud to pass this legislation under President Joe Biden.”
Earlier Thursday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total Democratic package would add $160 billion to the national deficit over the next 10 years, an assessment requested by some moderate Democrats ahead of any vote to send the Build Back Better Act to the Senate.
Democratic leaders, progressives and most moderates have rallied around the package they said would make historic investments in fighting climate change, lower prescription drug prices, expand Medicare coverage and provide universal pre-kindergarten.
“Those of us who serve on this date will be able to tell our children and grandchildren we were there when the Congress passed one of the most transformational bills in the history of the Congress,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on Thursday.
Republicans, meanwhile, assailed Democrats over the scope and cost of the package — given President Joe Biden’s initial pledge that it would cost “zero dollars” — and predicted it would further fuel inflation ahead of Thanksgiving.
Speaking through the night on the House floor, McCarthy repeatedly likened Biden to President Jimmy Carter, the one-term Democratic president who presided over inflation and rising gas prices in the late 1970s. Republicans repeatedly said Democrats were overstating their mandate from the 2020 election and argued that a Republican victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race earlier this month signaled unease with Democrats’ spending plans.
“Nobody elected Joe Biden to be FDR,” McCarthy said.
The tone of floor debate was acrimonious, with tensions between Republicans and Democrats still running high after Democrats voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for posting a provocative cartoon video showing him killing Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Biden.
McCarthy was heckled repeatedly by Democrats over the course of his speech, and lawmakers shouted at each other from across the chamber.
“No one’s listening!” Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, shouted at McCarthy at one point.
As Republicans and Democrats flitted in and out of the chamber and wandered around to stretch their legs, McCarthy riffed on everything from foreign policy and not being able to afford a Tesla, to the 1984 film “Red Dawn” and China’s development of hypersonic missiles. He also lamented that former President Donald Trump did not win a Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Abraham Accords.
Democrats mocked McCarthy’s speech on social media, while Republicans cycled in and out of the chamber to fill the seats immediately behind the California Republican in a show of support.
Pelosi at a press conference on Thursday expressed confidence that with control of Congress hanging in the balance ahead of the midterm elections less than a year away, Democrats will be able to successfully sell their work to the American people — and do so more effectively than they did in 2010 after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, due, in part, to Biden using the “bully pulpit.”
Democratic members of Congress are also planning to hold 1,000 events before the end of the year to make clear to Americans what’s in Biden’s infrastructure plans.
“The messaging on it will be immediate, and it will be intense, and it will be eloquent, and it will make a difference,” Pelosi said.
Giving remarks in Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, Biden endorsed Pelosi’s timeline to pass part two of his infrastructure agenda this week.
“I’m confident that the House is going to pass this bill. And when it passes, it will go to the Senate,” Biden said. “I think we’ll get it passed within a week.”
McCarthy blasted Pelosi at his press conference on Thursday and said the reconciliation bill will “be the end of their Democratic majority.”
While the already-passed bipartisan infrastructure law itself and its individual components — rebuilding and repairing bridges, ports and roads, expanding broadband internet, and more — are widely popular, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Americans aren’t giving Biden credit for championing the law and getting it through Congress. The president’s approval rating is at an all-time low at 41%.
Pelosi on Thursday tried to defend Democrats’ “Build Back Better” proposal from criticism over a key tax provision that has angered some in the caucus. Some moderates and leading progressives have criticized plans to undo a cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deductions — a reversal of Republicans’ 2017 tax law — popular in California, New York and New Jersey, given that the change would benefit wealthy suburban property owners.
The change would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $80,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax returns after Republicans imposed a $10,000 cap on federal deductions four years ago.
A recent analysis from the Tax Policy Center found the SALT cap increase would primarily benefit the top 10% of income-earning Americans. About 70% of the tax benefit would go to the top 5% of earners, who make $366,000 a year or more, the analysis said.
“That’s not about tax cuts for wealthy people. It’s about services for the American people,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t about who gets a tax cut, it’s about which states get the revenue they need to help the American people.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her briefing Thursday that the White House was “comfortable” with the SALT cap increase being included in the version of the “Build Back Better” bill on which the House is expected to vote — but she wouldn’t say the president’s excited it.
“This is a part of the bill that the president — that has been proposed, that is important to key members, as you all know,” Psaki said. “That’s why it’s in the package. The president’s excitement about this is not about the SALT deduction. It’s about the other key components of the package. And that’s why we’re continuing to press for it to move forward.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
