In other news, the Biden administration is reportedly planning to impose sanctions on Cuban officials and paramilitary forces in response to a crackdown on public protests.
Meanwhile, a new study found that two doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are almost as effective against the stronger delta variant of the coronavirus as they are against the original strain.
Finally, Democrats say their reconciliation bill will increase in size to about $4.1 trillion to make up the difference if President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure deal collapses.
“I can’t give you an exact timeline, but I think that we are going to have every Democratic senator on board,” said Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “At the end of the day ... the $600 billion in physical infrastructure, you can do it in the bipartisan bill, or you can combine it with one bill. One way or another, it’s going to happen.”
Programming note... I have another laser treatment scheduled for tomorrow and while that would not normally interrupt my day, my appointment was scheduled for the middle of the day rather than the early morning like usual. I will most likely be offline tomorrow, but I won't be if I can manage. Have a good weekend in any case. I apologize for another slow week.