Your guide to how Washington shapes business and the economy
 | TUE, JUL 20, 2021 | | | Hello, It's getting into crunch time for Congress, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and Democrats' bid to expand the social safety net. Inflation is rising. And so are Democrats' fears about their chances in the midterm congressional elections next year. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has quite a few things to say about what happened on Jan. 6. Here's what's happening: - The Schumer squeeze: New York's Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, wants to get moving on infrastructure already. It's been nearly a month since President Biden announced a bipartisan deal. But there's no bill yet. Schumer wants one within days. First, he wants the Senate on Wednesday to sign off on the mechanism that will enable him to pass the $1.2 trillion plan, even if it's essentially a shell of a bill. Republicans are pushing back, however, threatening to sink the procedural vote that will be the key to getting Congress on the road to pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation's infrastructure.
- The rising price of power: Democrats are looking to approve more than $4 trillion in new spending this year when you combine the infrastructure bill and the ambitious family care and climate budget plan. Critics of government spending say the plans would make inflation, which has picked up later, an even bigger concern for American consumers. If prices keep rising beyond the short term, Democrats are worried it could hurt them in next year's midterm elections. Biden's speech Monday spoke to that concern. CNBC's Christina Wilkie weighs in here.
- What Trump wanted: The former president isn't quite a fan of all the new books about him that are hitting the market. The latest is "I Alone Can Fix It," by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. While Trump has slammed the tome, he did actually sit down for an extensive interview with the authors. On Monday, Vanity Fair ran an excerpt that focused on the interview, and it included several eye-opening quotes from Trump, particularly about the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. "Personally, what I wanted is what they wanted," Trump said of the people who broke into the legislature in a bid to overturn Biden's election victory.
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