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Stormy Daniels wins TV war: overshadows taxes, health care

Caitlin Owens, author of Vitals

Tax cuts and the Affordable Care Act are supposed to be big issues in the midterm elections, but both have faded from the attention of the cable news networks now that they're no longer front and center in Congress, according to data from GDELT, a service that monitors television news coverage.

Expand chart
Data: GDELT Television Explorer. Volume in all tracked national stations using keywords: Obamacare, repeal and replace, Affordable Care Act; tax cuts, tax plan, tax bill, tax reform; Stormy Daniels. Chart: Lazaro Gamio/Axios

Why it matters: Democrats are campaigning hard on the GOP's unpopular attempt to repeal and replace the ACA, and Republicans are pushing the financial benefits of their tax law. But while the tax cuts have gotten another burst of attention during tax filing season, both issues are getting less cable news attention than Stormy Daniels right now. Both parties will have to hope that changes in time for the elections.

Go deeper

Lachlan Markay
28 mins ago - Politics & Policy

By the numbers: Where the earmarks are wanted

Expand chart
Data: House Committee on Appropriations; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios

The Dallas-Fort Worth area is being targeted for the largest collective earmark request in the country, according to a detailed breakdown of overall requests released by the House Appropriations Committee.

Why it matters: House appropriators are trying to balance bipartisan momentum for infrastructure investment with "pork-barrel" spending's checkered political history. The data dump is an effort to provide transparency for what are now termed "community project funding" requests.

Go deeper (<1 min. read)Arrow
Hans Nichols, Alayna Treene
28 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Democrats open to user fees for infrastructure deal

President Biden sits Thursday with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) as they discuss his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Some Senate Democrats are open to paying for a compromise infrastructure package by imposing user fees, including increasing the gas tax and raising money from electric car drivers through a vehicle-miles-traveled charge.

Why it matters: By inching toward the Republican position on pay-fors, some Democrats are bucking President Biden's push to offset his proposed $2.3 trillion plan by focusing only on raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow
Lachlan Markay
31 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Progressive legal advocacy group spinning off from sponsor

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

A leading progressive legal advocacy group is spinning off from the sprawling dark money network that seeded it, the group tells Axios.

Why it matters: Demand Justice's decision to separate from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a "fiscal sponsor" for scores of largely left-wing organizations, will provide the public with its first detailed look behind the curtain of the influential progressive nonprofit.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow