Biden’s Good News, Problems from the GOP

May added 339,000 new jobs in the U.S., far above the projected 190,000. In 27 months, President Joe Biden added 13.6 million new jobs, over double those in the first three years of former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). And DDT lost all his jobs in his fourth year, bungling management during the Covid pandemic. Republicans will stay silent.

With the dark cloud of default gone, the Dow increased 710 points on June 2, over two percent. S&P went up almost 1.5 percent, and Nasdaq over 1 percent.

The removal of Title 42, the Covid rule keeping immigrants from crossing the southern border, has produced no large influx in migrants. Instead, the number plummeted from 65,000 living in northern Mexico ready to cross into the U.S. now at 20,000. More of them are using the asylum app provided by the U.S. government to book appointments for asylum. 

The Biden administration is tackling racial bias in home valuations that produce lower values for homes owned by people of color. It will also create an easier path for consumers to appeal possibly unbiased valuation. According to VP Kamala Harris, building assets through home ownership is vital, and Black and Latino families’ homes are more the most likely to be undervalued.

A Missouri nonprofit is providing free emergency contraception by mail, legal in the state. Federal Title X funds for family planning programs provide the necessary money. The medication, also known as the morning-after pill and Plan B, can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex to avoid pregnancy by preventing ovulation. Available over the counter, it’s legal in all 50 states. For almost a year, Missouri has outlawed abortion except for medical emergencies.

In Connecticut, two Republican members of the Newtown Board of Education resigned after a book-banning debate in which they voted to restrict two books: Mike Curato’s Flamer, chronicling  a queer Filipino-American teen bullied for his race, his weight and his effeminate presentation, and Craig Thompson’s Blankets, depicting a boy’s struggle with religion, relationships, and sexual abuse. One resigned member cited the need for a better work-life balance and the other, “abhorrent” behavior by people attending public meetings.

The district superintendent and a committee composed of the school principal, medial specialist, two teachers, and an assistant superintendent unanimously agreed to keep the widely-acclaimed books on the shelf. The superintendent said that parents wanting to pull the novels use a double standard, opposing books personally offending them while retaining others possibly bothering people of different identities or political persuasions. He said that parents can choose what their children do and don’t read but shouldn’t impose those preferences on other families.The librarian said the book challenges are the worst since the 1950s Red Scare.

At a June 1 school board meeting, the school board unanimously agreed to keep the books in the library. State lawmakers are proposing subsidies for “sanctuary libraries,” making available challenged or banned books. Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of a shooting massacre a little over a decade ago, is in Newtown.

Utah’s new book banning bill blocks those with “pornographic or indecent” content, defining the terms so loosely that many age-appropriate books addressing characters’ gender, sexuality, and race have been eliminated. A parent complained about a book including “incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide”—the Bible. The district banned it from elementary and middle school libraries for containing “vulgarity or violence.” Another parent appealed the removal; the district fill form a committee of three Davis School District’s Board of Education members to make a recommendation  and submit it to the board for a vote.

DDT has another reason to avoid the GOP presidential debates on August 23 and 24: the RNC will require all participants to agree that they will support the primary winner for the general election. Criteria to participate include the number of donations from each state.

In a win for labor union protection with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting, the high court ruled against unionized drivers who walked off their jobs leaving trucks loaded with wet cement. The 1935 National Labor Relations Act mandates unions take reasonable precautions to protect an employer’s property when workers strike. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, agreeing with the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling that the complaint should have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board that has the responsibility to decide labor disputes. The three most conservative justices—Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas—wanted to reverse many protections for striker rights. Alito told the plaintiff and other business interests to refile lawsuits against the union.

In an unusual pro-union decision for this court, seven of the nine justices required the Ohio National Guard to deduct payroll union dues. Alito and Gorsuch dissented from the majority.The ruling also confirmed the power of a federal agency, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), over a state government militia. Union opponents view the decision as an opening to intrusive federal power in the workplace.

The decision permits voluntary paycheck dues deductions for “dual-status” civilian members of the National Guard, full-time civilian employees of the Guard who are also part-time uniformed military members. The Supreme Court also allows the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to resolve disputes involving National Guard units that report to both state and federal officials. Claiming that the National Guard wasn’t bound by the labor relations statute, state officials stopped withholding union dues for 89 employees in 2016. 

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who won’t turn over information he gathers for the Judiciary Committee to any Democratic members, is demanding that the DOJ report a breakdown of the number of FBI personnel working on the John Durham case, including whether any have previously investigated DDT.

The end to the default threat revealed previously unknown promises that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) supposedly made to Freedom Caucus members to get their votes for his position. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) sited an agreement refusing bills with more Democratic votes than Republican ones. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said the GOP members on the Rules Committee had to unanimously vote for bills to be moved to the House floor. Earlier he gave the number as seven. Despite these claims, eight Freedom Caucus members voted for the debt ceiling bill. The Freedom Caucus learned that the House doesn’t need their votes to pass bills. 

Will Saletan calls the obstructionist subset of the Freedom Caucus the Antagonism Caucus. Biggs explained Republicans should vote for bills with Democratic support. Democrats didn’t like the bill’s provisions, but they didn’t want a default. The Antagonism Caucus was willing to send the U.S. into a spiraling default. Rep. Bob Good (R-PA) complained that House GOP has a disgusting habit of associating with Democrats. The Antagonism Caucus also hates approval by moderate—or reasonable—Republicans and acceptance by conservative Bill Kristol. Even Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), formerly considered “reasonable,” follows the AC position. Republicans who claim they want unity oppose anything the other party supports.  

A fact check about McCarthy’s claim that the new law “is the largest cut that Congress has ever voted on, more than $2.1 trillion” garnered three Pinocchios from Glenn Kessler. McCarthy’s statement came from a preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimate leaked by GOP sources assuming caps will remain for the next six years. Only the first two years of caps on discretionary budgets are semi-binding, meaning huge loopholes. Inflation makes McCarthy’s cuts flat for the next two years.

The biggest debt reduction deal in the past four decades was the 1985 Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, 1.72 percent of GDP, but the Supreme Court invalidated the law. Three other agreements—those in 1990, 1993 and 2011—exceeded 1 percent of GDP, but many of the cuts were later reversed. McCarthy’s $2.1 trillion, based on savings over ten years that included net interest savings from budget caps over six years, did not account for inflation or a measure of the percentage of GDP.

After the agreement was made, the CBO released its official score: $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years if only the first two years of caps remain in place. That would be the smallest of the seven deficit-reduction deals.

The media praises McCarthy’s great leadership, but Democrats had to bail him out. More of them voted to save the country than Republicans, and Biden orchestrated the entire process. Biden succeeded where DDT failed; the current president negotiated and compromised, a skill DDT said he had before he bullied and got nothing. In 27 months, Biden’s bipartisan achievements were an infrastructure package, CHIPS and Science Act, expansion of veterans benefits in the PACT Act, Respect for Marriage Act, Postal Service Reform Act, and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the first major law addressing gun violence in almost three decades. DDT? Bupkis.  

Wooing the far-right, McCarthy’s surrogate, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), said he is giving full access to the Capitol security footage from the January 6, 2021 insurrection to three conspiracy-peddler “journalists”—John Solomon, Julie Kelly, and “a third outlet.” Solomon was fired from the conservative Hill after he laundered Rudy Giuliani’s theories to claim Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election and the Biden family, not DDT, held up funding to Ukraine. Kelly accused the policeman attacked in the insurrection of being a “crisis actor” and the pipe bombs left near political parties a hoax.

Greene has mysteriously changed her delight in releasing the footage to a warning that their release could “put the security of the Capitol at risk.” She told Real America Voice that left-wing groups could use facial-recognition technology to identify people in the videos and “hand them over” to the FBI and DOJ.

Debt Ceiling Solved Until 2025, plus Extras

On June 1, the U.S. had only four days before defaulting on its past debts; Republicans planned to deny these payments if their opposition didn’t pass draconian cuts in the nation’s discretionary budget. President Joe Biden’s “negotiations” led to an agreement going to the House, much to the dismay of the far-right Freedom Caucus members. Passed in that chamber on May 31, the bill moved to the Senate on June 1, and the bill, which included no debt ceiling hostage until January 2025 after the next general election, passed at 10:54 pm on June 1, 63-37, after a fast-track agreement between Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).  

In the Senate, 44 Democrats, 17 Republicans, and 2 independent voted in favor of the bill; four Democrats, 31 Republicans, and 1 independent opposed it. Biden will sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk. How each senator voted. 

In the House, the bill passed 314-117 for the 99-page measure, 165 Democrats and 149 Republicans in favor,  46 Democrats and 71 Republicans opposed, and two Republicans highly opposed to the bill, Jim Banks (IN) and Lauren Boebert (CO), showing up too late to vote. How each representative voted—or didn’t. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had claimed over 95 percent of his caucus was excited about the bill: he overestimated them by almost 30 percent.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), a bill obstructionist, complained about having only three days in which to read 99 pages, double-spaced with large print and margins. He has also voted against protection of child sex abuse victims, refused to wear masks during the height of Covid because he was tired to, denied that January 6 insurrectionists were DDT supporters, urged the Supreme Court to make discrimination against LGBTQ people legal, and pushed DDT’s White House for “marital law” to deploy the military nullifying the 2020 election. He also claimed that children are being aborted after being born. Fox network John Roberts told Norman, “It’s only 99 pages.”

The number of people willing to depose Speaker McCarthy is up to seven. According to new rules, it only takes one.

The House had insisted on an additional work requirement for benefits to cut the national debt. Yet the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that this provision would save only $1 billion a year because of the expansion of those benefits to veterans, unhoused people, and children aging out of foster care. The measure adds 78,000 people a month to food assistance programs.

At the State of the Union speech, Biden pushed Republicans into promising that they would not be cutting Social Security or Medicare, but McCarthy announced on Fox that he is launching a “commission” for budget cuts, including those two areas. Earlier, he had promised that these programs were off the table, but he’s likely trying to return to his wish to strip them. To get Freedom Caucus members on the 15^th ballot when he was elected, he offered a House rules change that would allow only one person to propose his being deposed; the number is up to at least seven. McCarthy is likely making an attempt to placate them.

In February, McCarthy rejected any commissions, saying Republicans don’t need one “to tell us we have spent too much.” All the commissions in the past decade, at least seven of them, have failed because the GOP refuses to make concessions on taxes. Both congressional chambers have  budget committees with the responsibility of looking at the “entire budget,” the supposed purpose of McCarthy’s proposed commission.

McCarthy also complained that Biden had “walled off” all except 11 percent of the budget. This is the percentage of the budget after removing Social Security, Medicare, other healthcare, and the military. McCarthy misrepresented his problem of being limited to only non-military discretionary budget funds: the Republicans knew that they would be extremely unpopular if they attacked these parts of the budget.  

Before passing the bill to raise the debt ceiling, the Senate passed a measure to overturn Biden’s student debt relief plan with a 52-46 vote after it passed the House. No filibuster was permitted because it was a Congressional Review Act bill; only 50 votes were required. Biden had promised to veto the bill, but the debt ceiling measure also erases the relief. The Supreme Court should be releasing its decision about the student debt relief within the next three weeks.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) top military adviser, Morgan Murphy, has resigned after publicity that orchestrated Tuberville’s blocking hundreds of military promotions. Murphy called himself just “a staffer.” Tuberville’s blockade could affect Biden’s choices for the Joint Chiefs chair.

Musician Charles Tuberville also criticized his senator brother’s racist remarks, including the one about inner-city teachers being lazy and illiterate and another praising which supremacist in the military. In a Facebook post the brother said:

“Due to recent statements by him promoting racial stereotypes, white nationalism and other various controversial topics, I feel compelled to distance myself from his ignorant, hateful rants.

“What I’m trying to say is that, I DO NOT agree with any of the vile rhetoric coming out of his mouth. Please don’t confuse my brother with me. Thanks, Charles Tuberville.”

Tara Reader, a former Senate staffer and worshipper of Russian President Vladimir Putin who accused Biden of a 1993 sexual assault in 2020, has applied for Russian citizenship. She sat next to a convicted Russian agent released to Russia when she talked with the Russian press outlet Sputnik. Biden denied her accusation. Reade apologized to Russians for the “aggressive stance” from “American elites.”

Charlie Sykes quoted some of a post she has since deleted:

“President Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women.

“President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity. It is evident that he loves his country, his people and his job.” 

To prove that Biden is innocent, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted, “I believe Tara Reade.”

The far-right judge known for erasing, at least temporarily, mifepristone, the abortion medication, from the U.S. is going after Planned Parenthood. Matthew Kacsmaryk is hearing a $1.8 billion lawsuit from an anonymous anti-abortion activist that will give most of the money to Center for Medical Progress, an ironic name for an anti-abortion. Texas AG Ken Paxton, now impeached, is backing the suit. The accusation is Planned Parenthood defrauding Texas and Louisiana Medicaid systems. The cost of complying with a federal court order would bankrupt the organization, attacked by an illegal sting, and eliminate the two states’ affiliates despite investigations finding no wrongdoing.

Even the Washington Post can’t tolerate the ultra-conservative columns of its employee Mark Thiessen. After the publication of “The Durham Report is a damning indictment of the FBI—and the media” about former DDT’s former AG Bill Barr’s special counsel, WaPo published a number of the corrections to Thiessen’s disinformation.

“An earlier version of this column incorrectly identified the Trump campaign as the target of an FBI FISA warrant application. The warrant application was for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. It also implied that the FBI’s statements to special counsel John Durham regarding its doubts about the case were made before the investigation started; they were made after it had begun. The earlier version also should have described the respondents to a question about the mainstream media from a New York Times-Siena College poll as “among those who say democracy is under threat. This version has been updated.”

Thiessen had attacked a New York Times article by Charles Savage titled “After Years of Political Hype, the Durham Inquiry Failed to Deliver.” Savage tweeted that the report failed to produce evidence leading to indictments of those accused in a “deep state conspiracy” against DDT. He also detailed Thiessen’s omissions, misrepresentations, factual errors, dishonesty, etc. in a thread of serious distortions in Thiessen’s column. In its series of corrections, the Washington Post agreed with Savage.

Seven months ago, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. It is now worth one-third of the purchase price.

The Church of Chick-fil-A has lost its evangelical followers after the anti-LGBTQ fast-food restaurant hired a DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) vice-president. Too “woke,” say the conservatives. They were also offended by the company’s chair Dan Cathy stating in 2020 that white people should speak up against racial injustice toward Blacks. The corporation also claims it will stop anti-LGBTQ donations. The Fox network has played the video of Cathy’s statements, and conservatives are debating whether to boycott Chick-fil-A.  

 During a committee hearing on childcare, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) furiously described a children’s book explaining race and called for schools to provide books about Jesus Christ instead. He attacked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for being a “self-declared democratic socialist.” A witness tried to pacify him by answering his question about which book is “better to teach” by saying teaching about Jesus is important, saying “but the reality is—.” Mullin snapped, “I don’t want reality” before he said he “misspoke.”

“I don’t want reality.” What a great slogan for Republicans! 

 

Possible Debt Ceiling Agreement, Paxton Impeached

With little fanfare, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced a tentative agreement to end the battle over raising the debt ceiling two weeks before the default would begin on June 5. McCarthy is trying to remain Speaker with his announcement:

“I just got off the phone with the president a bit ago. After he wasted time and refused to negotiate for months, we’ve come to an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people.”

Far-right House members are disagreeing with his semi-positive view of the deal which will require Democratic votes to get the settlement through Congress.

Some of the provisions:

• Suspend the debt limit through January 2025, after the 2024 presidential election.
• Cap spending in the 2024 and 2025 budgets at the 2023 levels for one year and increase it by one percent in 2025.
• Claw back unused Covid funds.
• Pare back some of the $80 billion for the IRS in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act law. (The exact amount has not been published.)
• Speed up the permitting process for some energy projects. Changes in the landmark 1970s’ National Environmental Policy Act will designate “a single lead agency” to develop environmental reviews.
• Add work requirements for food aid programs by extending the age from 49 to 54. The provision exempts veterans and homeless people while sunsetting in 2030.
• Create no changes in Medicaid and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
• Include an administrative pay-as-you-go provision requiring Biden to find offsets for rules and regulations increasing federal spending.
• Slightly increase funding boosts for the military and veterans affairs in line with inflation.
• Exempt Medicaid from additional work requirements.

McCarthy is giving House members 72 hours to read the legislation, yet to be written, before asking them to vote on it on June 1. Although McCarthy said he has already sent out a fact sheet to House members, he added that more work needs to be done. He expects to post the legislative text on May 28. Ultra-conservative members in the House Freedom Caucus  such as Reps. Bob Good (VA) and Scott Perry (PA) are already complaining, but McCarthy hopes to cover himself by not agreeing to any higher taxes for the wealthy and big business. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) tweeted a vomit emoji about McCarthy getting “almost zippo in exchange” for the debt ceiling hike.

The media of the next couple of weeks will be filled with more details about the “agreement” and the problems involved in passing it. For now, this is a rough summary.

Ken Paxton‘s Impeachment:

In landmark news today, the Texas House impeached AG Ken Paxton by a vote of 121-23 with two were present but not voting, and three who were absent from the chamber after hours of debate.   According to a Texas GOP legislator, Paxton personally called House members before the session to threaten them with political payback if they vote to impeach him. The Senate either remains in Austin after the regular session ends Monday for a trial or set a date in the future; the trial has no deadline.  

Before this vote, only two officials in Texas’s nearly 200-year history had been impeached, both for misuse of public funds: a state district judge in 1975 and the governor in 1917. After the impeachment vote, Paxton tweeted an accusation of House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) and the “corrupt politicians he controls” of colluding with Democrats, the Biden administration, “the abortion industry, anti-gun zealots, and woke corporations.”

Paxton ally Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will schedule and preside over the Senate trial. Members can request documents, witnesses, and testimony; meet privately for deliberations; and exercise “any other powers necessary.” The chamber’s 19 Republicans include Paxton’s wife and Sen. Bryan Hughes, mentioned in the House articles of impeachment for having helped Paxton. Twelve senators are Democrats.

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), a strong supporter of Paxton, posted a video Paxton had used to show Phelan was drunk while presiding over the legislature last week. Phelan’s speech was slurred at the end of a 14-hour session.

Republicans’ Stand on Not Raising the Debt Ceiling: ‘Our Hostage’

A default by not increasing the debt ceiling will be good for the Republican party, according to the national chair, Ronna McDaniel. Maybe that’s why the GOP doesn’t feel any necessity in backing off their hardline demands, sometimes even increasing them. Wednesday, before the GOP House members left Washington on Thursday to celebrate nine days off going to barbeques and otherwise entertaining themselves, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that it wasn’t his “responsibility to represent the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.”

The GOP, however, raised the debt ceiling three times during the reign of former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) with no spending conditions and increased the national debt by 25 percent, $7.8 trillion. At his infamous CNN town hall, DDT found no problem with using the default as negotiating leverage “because I’m no longer president.”

Asked Tuesday if he was willing to make any concessions in budget talks with Democrats, McCarthy said, “We are going to raise the debt ceiling.” Wednesday, he said the standoff “was not my fault” five times during a 13-minute press conference. McCarthy and other Republicans echo then-House Majority Leader Eric Canto who said in 2011 that the GOP “concession” is “the fact that we are voting—the fact that we are even discussing voting for a debt ceiling increase.” House GOP leaders mean that compromise is out of the question; they will settle for nothing less than capitulation. Indifferent to disasters from their drastically cutting the safety net, GOP House members aren’t due back until June 5, two days after the federal deadline for a default from the bill that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) calls “our hostage.”  

Republican spending cuts will “Make America Worse Again.” For a decade, federal spending caps have caused worsening problems such as declining school performance, surging mental health issues, and levels of poverty and hunger. In a new analysis of 178 federal programs serving people with low incomes, the Coalition on Human Needs found that over two-thirds of people in this population lost ground from 2010 to 2023. Areas included job training, education, nutrition, mental health, and housing programs, all hindered by the 2011 debt ceiling agreement in effect from 2012 through 2021 with caps less draconian than those in the 2023 House GOP House bill.

The struggling labor force also hurts the nation’s economy because openings, especially those with adequate pay, require skills that the unemployed lack. According to the National Skills Coalition, spending on worker training dropped by over two-thirds over the past forty years, far less than other developed nations. Over the past decade, major federal job training programs lost more than a quarter of their funding. The new House bill requires cuts of over one-third with the military, Veterans Affairs, and mandatory programs not reduced, as Republicans want. Training programs, even one serving homeless veterans, would be slashed. By 2033, the House measure will result in across-the-board cuts of about 60 percent, far worsening the calamity.

The catastrophes resulting from the House bill will be repeated in other areas. Federal spending in the Children’s Mental Health Services program declined by nearly one-quarter over 10 years from the 2011 spending caps although emergency room treatment rose between one-fourth and one-third from 2019 to 2020. Again this area would be cut by one-third, and 60 percent by 2033.

When Republicans claim, as they did with the VA, that they won’t be cutting a specific area, other areas such as education, will be vastly increased. The one-third cut in K-12 education for low-income school districts serving 26 million children and for 7.5 million students with disabilities would eliminate 150,000 teachers for these students in just one year.

The Public Housing Operating Fund already lost 23 percent from the former cap, despite the severe housing shortage. About 800,000 more households will lose assistance with the proposed one-third cut. Republicans don’t want to be specific about the horrifying damage they plan to inflict on people in the United States to give themselves and their wealthy friends “welfare” they can stash in foreign countries.

Republicans have adamantly refused to create more income through a partial replacement of the 2017 massive tax cuts for the wealthy and big business. Instead, they are putting together another major tax cut package of $3 trillion for their wealthy friends soon after their return, against blowing up the national debt. The bill should be ready by June 16, two weeks after the Treasury Department runs out of money. According to Politico:

“Key parts of the [tax cut] package… will likely include a full restoration of research and development deductions, full bonus depreciation, removing caps on business interest expensing, and a doubling of the $1.08 million limitation on the section 179 deduction (which, like bonus depreciation, allows a company to deduct an asset’s cost up-front).”

The 2017 law already makes business tax cuts for businesses permanent, and the GOP plans to do the same for the wealthy. Known as the TCIA Permanency Act, the measure has almost 100 GOP co-sponsors. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), originator of the bill, financially benefited from the 2017 tax law. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that just extending the 2017 law would add $2.5 trillion to the deficit in the next decade.  Only one percent of the benefits from the TCJA Permanency Act would go to the poorest fifth of U.S. taxpayers, and the richest fifth would get two-thirds of the tax benefits.

The GOP are united in not raising taxes for revenue, but research shows that the GOP tax cuts under George W. Bush and DDT have caused the rising debt. Spending is down, but the slashed taxes enacted by Republicans disproportionately for the wealthy and the profitable corporations during the 21^st century increased 57 percent of the debt ratio since 2001.

Republicans are willing to pay for the military, which pays highly inflated prices. The $1.1 trillion in annual militarized spending is almost double over the past two decades although the country is supposedly no longer in a war after George W. Bush’s debacle in the Middle East. Sixty-two percent of the budget’s $1.8 trillion discretionary funding goes to the Pentagon, nuclear weapons, law enforcement, prisons, and federal immigration enforcement as well as such perks for military members such as golf courses, private chefs, etc. Republicans have exempted any of this budget from spending cuts. Less than 40 percent of the discretionary budget after the government pays for mandatory Social Security, healthcare, and the nutrition (part of the Farm Bill), about $700 billion, is left for human needs such as education, disaster relief, environment, scientific research, housing, environment, etc.

While Republicans preen about benefiting from the default inflicted on the U.S., they overlook the benefit of their actions on China, supposedly their enemy. Currently, the U.S. dollar is the dominant global currency, accounting for 60 percent of official reserves and used widely for trade invoicing and financial transactions. Since GOP dominance for the past four decades, the Japanese yen has started to supplant the dollar as the top currency of the financial system, and the euro has also been rising in this century.

The GOP’s determination to destroy the U.S. economy has put China, the dominant trade partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Central Asia, on the rise. By 2015, one-fourth of Chinese trade was invoiced in Chinese renminbi (RMB), becoming the world’s second-most frequently used invoicing currency. Expanded use of the RMB in trade moves to its expansion in other areas. In addition, U.S. status in international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be reduced, and U.S. ability to use financial sanctions on foreign countries would be weakened.

DDT made problems more serious when he pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. China became the dominant trade partner of Japan, Korea, and the Asia-Pacific region by negotiating new or expanded free trade agreements in Asia. As the U.S. falters, China can replace it as a benign stable leader.

• Coping with the grim possibility of a default, satirists ridicule the GOP approach toward spending cuts. Alexandra Petri has a few suggestions: 
• Buy secondhand jets.
• Tell the presidential motorcade to double as an UberPool for people heading in the same direction as the president.
• Rent runways on aircraft carriers for private planes to use.
• Pay defense contractors in “experiences”: take Lockheed Martin skydiving or spend time with the family.
• Offer China interest payments with Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards.
• Hire more women because they make only 82 percent of what men are paid.
• Rent out places such as the Jefferson Memorial.
• Sell more of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s chapstick; the last one brought $100,000.
• Start a GoFundMe.

As the default closes in, more people realize the seriousness of the issue. By a 52 percent-to-42 percent margin, respondents to a Marist poll said Congress should increase the debt ceiling first to avoid a default and discuss spending cuts separately rather than only increasing it if significant cuts are made at the same time, even if that means the U.S. defaults on its debt. A Monmouth poll has 51 percent in favor of dealing with the increase separate from the budget compared to 25 percent who want the two of them connected.

Debt Ceiling Talks, Elections

The immediate problem in the nation is the GOP resistance in increasing the nation’s debt ceiling, one-fourth of it caused by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and his Republicans. The same four political leaders of Congress met with President Joe Biden at the White House on May 16. He said there is “still work to do” and that staff will continue to meet daily. Biden frequently says he won’t make spending cuts in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling to pay prior U.S. debts but will discuss spending levels because they are two separate issues.

After the meeting, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters that the “structure” of the negotiations had improved, but Republicans and Democrats are far apart on a potential deal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took comfort in McCarthy’s acknowledgement that default was “the worst outcome” and a bipartisan bill was necessary.  Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries (NY) told members that he considered any additional work requirements a nonstarter in the debt ceiling negotiations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that “we’re not going to default, but we’re running out of time.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen still gives June 1 as the absolute deadline before default. By that date, congressional leaders must negotiate a deal to raise the ceiling and persuade their caucuses to vote in favor of the same bill with Biden also approving the measure. Before Congress’s looming departure from Washington for Memorial Day, the House will be in session only six days and the Senate only five. Biden will be out of the country for the next five days.

To call the debt ceiling talks a negotiation is a farce: negotiations require a give and take—and McCarthy is intent only on taking. Before the meeting, McCarthy complained that President Joe Biden didn’t want a “deal,” but McCarthy isn’t offering anything. He said he wouldn’t compromise on work requirements and refused to close tax loopholes for more revenue—in short, no compromise. Democrats have rejected the GOP’s proposal to cut non-defense discretionary spending by 27 percent across the board and resisted efforts to impose such caps for more than two years. If the veterans funding is removed from cuts, as McCarthy maintains, the cut for all discretionary spending would be 33 percent.

McCarthy claims he wants austerity, but Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tweeted that 275 of the 317 pages of McCarthy’s debt limit bill are “giveaways to the fossil fuel industry.” Just the reduction of royalty rates for drilling on federal land costs $430 million. Taking back $71 billion from the $80 billion for the IRS in last year’s climate bill costs an additional $115 billion in lost revenue. These additions to the national debt don’t match McCarthy’s meme of “we owe it to our children.”

The GOP proposed default can push the unemployment rate near or beyond ten percent in the next quarter along with a drop in GDP of over 6 percent. Even a brief default could lower the yield on Treasury bills by $750 billion over the next decade, and the default threat is driving down stocks, damaging retirement accounts. DDT, who wants another term in the White House, has no idea of the seriousness of a default saying, “Maybe it’s—you have a bad week or a bad day.”

The government is already losing revenue from “extraordinary measures” forced on the administration since January. The same accounting maneuvers cost the federal government $260 million in 2011 and $230 million in 2013 from rising yields on Treasury bills. The average of these sums plus inflation brings the current estimate to $328 million loss added to the $115.4 billion McCarthy’s bill costs the government. Saving this amount would be big news if Republicans mentioned it but kept quiet if they spend it.

Civics classes teach the process for passing a bill: write a bill, send it to committee, hold hearings, work on changes, hold debates, and try to pass it before it might move to the other chamber. House Republicans changed the system:

• Meet in secret to put together a list of far-right desires.
• Skip committee hearings, debates, policy analysis, and pass it on the House floor without committee hearings, scrutiny, policy analysis, and permission to add amendments.
• Order the Senate to support it, even with voters opposition, with the threat of an economic catastrophe.

Success with this measure can lead to a federal abortion ban, a pardon for insurrectionists, etc. The GOP could use extortion to chop Social Security and Medicare. And civics books will need to be rewritten.

A Democratic proposal put McCarthy between the proverbial rock and hard place. He promised his far-right caucus he would strip people of benefits to cut back on the U.S. debt—at least until the next GOP president—but moderate Democratic congressional members offered to protect him as Speaker if he doesn’t default on the debts. Just one House member can call for a vote to select the Speaker, and Democratic support could keep him as Speaker. In the 2013 debt ceiling fight, Democrats made the same offer to then-Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) who later chose to resign instead of counting on his opponents. If McCarthy doesn’t reach a deal with Biden, which looks unlikely, Democrats also have the discharge petition as an option, but it requires support from some Republicans.

In a survey, only 37 percent realized that a default on the debt ceiling would cause significant rate increases, a serious fall in the stock market, and an unstable financial system. After an explanation of the problems, only 30 percent agreed the ceiling should not be increased. Forty percent say they will blame Republicans for a default, and 76 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll agree that a default would add financial stress on families like theirs—including 77 percent of self-described Republicans.

To continue discussions, Biden cut short a long-planned foreign trip. He still leaves on May 17 for a G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, but returns on May 21, skipping stops in Papua New Guinea, which would have been the first for a U.S. president, and Australia.

Across the U.S., states are holding elections on May 16, 2023, some of them primaries for lawmakers and judges along with special elections for state legislators.

Pennsylvania:

Democrats kept their narrow hold on the state House when Heather Boyd was kept her seat, replacing Democratic state Rep. Mike Zabel, who resigned after allegations of sexual harassment. A GOP majority might have passed an abortion ban.

Cherelle Parker will likely become the first Black female mayor of Philadelphia in the heavily Democratic city after she defeated eight opponents in a competitive primary to be the Democratic candidate for the general election in November. Billionaire Jeffrey Yass, Pennsylvania’s wealthiest man and a charter school advocate, gave $1 million to a group opposing another candidate, progressive Helen Gym. She came in ten points below Parker who received one-third of the Democratic votes.

In a primary, Judge Carolyn Carluccio defeated a judge who stopped the certification of the 2020 election results in support of DDT. She faces Democrat Dan McCaffery for the seat in the November general election in a court with a Democratic majority of 4-2 after the death last fall of Democrat Chief Justice Max Baer. Current court issues are the use of public funds to help women get abortions, restrictions in the sale and possession of guns, and permission to count mail-in ballots delayed by the pandemic disruptions.  

Kentucky:

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the DDT-endorsed candidate, won the GOP gubernatorial nomination defeating 11 rivals, including Kelly Craft, who served as DDT’s ambassador to the UN and Canada. In the November general election, the Black candidate opposes Gov. Andy Beshear (D) who has a 63 percent approval rating.

Incumbent Secretary of State Michael Adams fended off two challengers who cast doubts on the state’s election system. Adams, praised for running fair elections, has spoken against election deniers, calling the trend “demagoguery.”

Florida:

In a big upset, Democrat Donna Deegan flipped the Jacksonville mayor from Republican to Democratic with 52 percent of the vote in a one-third turnout. The 12^th largest city in the U.S., Jacksonville was the largest city with a GOP mayor until the current one became term limited. State Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed the GOP candidate; DeSantis’ endorsement for Kentucky’s gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft lost to DDT’s preference.

In Thailand, a youthful democratic movement may have defeated the military control in power since a 2014 coup. The progressive Move Forward Party, led by 42-year-old Ivy League-educated business executive Pita Limjaroenrat, came in first with a predicted 152 seats in the 500-seat lower house. In second place with 141 seats was Pheu Thai, the main opposition party, led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 36-year-old daughter of exiled populist former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, former miliary leader who seized office and renewed his position in a 2019 controversial election, had only 36 elected seats.

The alliance among Move Forward, Phew Thai, and smaller parties could hold 60 percent of Thailand’s lower house but perhaps not enough to oust Prayuth and his allies. Control is determined by a majority of both the 500 seats of the lower house and the 250 members of the unelected Senate, full of establishment boosters appointed by the country’s military leaders. Exact vote counts must be finished in 60 days.

Pita’s party campaigned on lessening the military and the monarchy and a faster economic growth by diversifying Thailand’s tourism-dependent economy to spread it beyond the capital of Bangkok. Ending military conscription would also improve the economy. Another aim is decriminalizing criticism of the monarchy, laws used to target and persecute political opponents. Weary of being controlled “by generals and kings,” protesters flooded the streets in 2020.

May 9 – Overwhelmed by DDT, GOP

Yesterday the meeting at the White House looked like the major news story for May 9, but it may have fallen to the bottom.

Deliberation among the nine jury members in E. Jean Carroll’s civil trial for the attack by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) 27 years ago lasted under three hours before a unanimous guilty plea against DDT for battery and defamation, awarding Carroll $5 million damages—$2 million for sexual abuse count and almost $3 million for defamation, for branding her a liar. They did not find that DDT raped her.

DDT still claims he has no idea who Carroll is although photographs show him with her. Defending himself on his Truth Social and at his rallies, refusing to testify at the trial. His lawyers, especially Joe Tacopina, believed that they could win by battering Carroll in court.

In the two-week trial, the judge kept jury members anonymous to keep them from being persecuted. He recommended they maintain their anonymity and not reveal their identities of other jury members. Before jury deliberations, DDT lied on his Truth Social that he was “not allowed to speak or defend” himself in the trial, but he voluntarily avoided it, even when given the opportunity to return from Ireland to testify after he said he would.

The verdict is the first time a person elected as president of the U.S. has been legally branded as a sexual predator. The judge said that DDT subjected Carroll to sexual contact without consent by use of force for the purpose of sexual gratification.

Republicans who want to “dump Trump” wonder what effect the verdict will have on his 2024 election chances. Alyssa Farah Griffin, DDT’s former White House communications director, tweeted that the GOP “must walk away from this man. It is beyond morally indefensible.” GOP strategist and former DDT campaigner Brian Seitchik wrote that the guilty verdict “won’t help among the suburban women that were with Trump in 2016, but abandoned him in 2018, 2020 and 2022.” Only 44 percent of women voted for DDT in 2020.

One of DDT’s election opponents, Vivek Ramaswamy said the verdict seemed like “just another part of the establishment’s anaphylactic response against its chief political allergen: Donald Trump.” (Whatever that means.) Another opponent, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said:

“Over the course of my over 25 years of experience in the courtroom, I have seen firsthand how a cavalier and arrogant contempt for the rule of law can backfire. The jury verdict should be treated with seriousness and is another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump.”

Other Republicans were on the opposite side, claiming that the verdict won’t have any impact. Keith Naughton, however, pointed out that DDT’s reaction will make the difference and said that when DDT “goes on appeal … it could make it worse.”

After DDT was indicted on 34 charges for falsifying business records to provide $130 million hush money to Stormy Daniels, his poll numbers went up. Whether DDT suffers from the verdict may depend on the intelligence of his avid followers.

Media attention may move to DDT’s indictment. He ignored the judge’s caution to curb his comments about that criminal case so he has been barred from publicizing evidence and other material about the case available. DDT can’t even see the evidence except in the presence of his lawyers and can’t copy any of it. The order was based on concern that he would “inappropriately” use the material or post the information on social media or elsewhere. A prosecutor called the risk “substantial.” Assistant DA Catherine McCaw wrote:

“Donald J. Trump has a longstanding and perhaps singular history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, trial jurors, grand jurors, judges, and others involved in legal proceedings against him, putting those individuals and their families at considerable safety risk.”

The judge also said that names and identifying information of DA employees in the case other than sworn law enforcement, assistant Das, and expert witnesses will not be revealed until after the jury selection begins.

The next news for the day was that federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Rep. George Santos (R-NY). Specific charges are under seal, but he is expected to appear before a federal court in New York as soon as May 10. Returning to New York, Santos skipped House votes on Tuesday evening. His collection of lies and fabrications are astonishing, even in a political world filled with corruption. Democrats called on Santos to resign, but Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) kept him because of the narrow GOP margin in the House.

According to a CNN article, Santos, in the House for a few days over four month “has been accused of breaking campaign finance laws, violating federal conflict of interest laws, stealing cash meant for an Iraq War veteran’s dying dog, masterminding a credit card fraud scheme, and lying about where he went to school and worked. Santos has admitted to making some misleading claims about his education and financial status, but continues to deny the more serious allegations.” (And these are just a few accusations.) Santos blamed his Democratic candidate for crime and inflation in the New York suburbs.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who lost his position as Secretary of the Interior during DDT’s term after misusing his position, said he was “surprised [Santos] made it as long as he did.” Rep. French Hill (R-AR) said a congressional member charged with a federal crime should resign. McCarthy has a hard decision to make. Conviction from crimes resulting in two or more years in prison prevents a member of Congress from voting on the floor or in committee.

Harlan Crow, Justice Clarence Thomas’ munificent billionaire benefactor, has written to the Senate Finance Committee, telling them he will not provide them with a list of gifts he bestowed on Thomas. Crow’s lawyer, Michael D. Bopp wrote:

“The Supreme Court has explicitly stated that Congress has no authority to engage in law enforcement investigations or to conduct investigations aimed at exposing citizens private affairs for the sake of exposure.”

The refusal is separate from the investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee that also requested a complete list of the gifts valued at more than $415 from Crow to Thomas and other Supreme Court justices.

Biden met with congressional leaders to discuss raising the debt ceiling. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the only person at the meeting who wants draconian cuts for a miniscule debt ceiling increase after Republicans spent much of the money, has a choice: destroy the nation—and perhaps the world—or destroy his own career with the far-right wing. “I didn’t see any new movement,” McCarthy told reporters after he left the White House. He continued to insist on serious spending cuts, and President Joe Biden demanded Congress raise the debt ceiling unconditionally to pay previous debts and avoid a default.

Aides will meet through the week, and leaders will reconvene on Friday to discuss spending levels for next year. The House has still not presented a budget. Biden said that the U.S. will pay his debts. He’s “prepared to begin a separate discussion about my budget and spending priorities but not under the threat of default.” Although he wants Biden to compromise with McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, “The United States is not going to default.” Biden and McCarthy did agree to dismiss the idea of a short-term debt ceiling increase for more discussions. McCarthy said that they need a deal by next week to pass legislation by the early June deadline.

Biden is now considering the possibility of bypassing Congress to pay debts on his own under a provision of the 14th Amendment that states “the validity of the public debt of the United States” authorized by law “shall not be questioned.” He noted that Laurence H. Tribe, longtime Harvard Law School professor, now believes a president has such power. Because the solution must be litigated, the U.S. can still be in trouble.

A union of federal workers has also filed a lawsuit to block the debt ceiling enforcement, declaring it unconstitutional. The lawsuit claims that the Treasury Department is forced to pay interest on debt because of the constitutional requirement to meet obligations to bondholders.

Scheduled to attend the G7 summit in Japan next week, Biden said he might have to curtail or skip the trip. He met with reporters and answered questions for about 20 minutes after the meeting. In his lengthy meeting with reporters McCarthy accused the White House of lying about cuts to the veterans’ programs which the House has not yet protected. In his answers, Biden talked about the ambiguous nature of the discretionary spending cuts in the Republican debt limit bill. The impasse continues to disturb financial markets in fear of default.

That’s the major news for May 9. The next day will surely bring more, including CNN’s hour-long “townhall” with DDT—if anyone wants to hear him repeat his lies.

Carroll’s Trial, Debt Ceiling Crisis, Supreme Court Hearing in Senate

Big news for today starts with the resolution of the mass shooting in Cleveland (TX) last Friday. After four days, the man who allegedly murdered five of his neighbors after they asked him to stop shooting an AR-15-style weapons has been arrested in Montgomery County, 17 miles from the massacre. A tip led authorities where he was hiding under laundry in a closet. The home belonged to one of his relatives. The undocumented migrant possessed at least five guns, the victims’ family reported deputies were slow to respond, and the FBI published the wrong photo and spelling of his name. The 38-year-old Mexican national had been deported from the U.S. four times since 2009. His mass shooting was the 180^th one in the first 120 days of 2023. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had called the victims “illegal immigrants,” but at least one of them was not undocumented. The nine-year-old boy may be a citizen if he was born in the U.S.

E. Jean Carroll’s trial continued on Monday after the judge failed to agree with multiple requests from Joe Tacopina, attorney for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), for a mistrial based on the judge’s “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings.” The 18-page complaint included such issues as Tacopina’s courtroom table being larger than the one for Carroll’s lawyers. Failing to understand during his cross examination that part of Carroll’s memoir was satire, like that of 18^th-century author Jonathan Swift, Tacopina claimed that the judge and Carroll belong to a kind of elite culture that excludes him.  Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said that DDT’s lawyers are establishing arguments for an appeal if DDT loses.

On Tuesday, a longtime friend of Carroll’s testified about the contents of a telephone call from the plaintiff in the lawsuit minutes after the rape, and Tacopina said DDT would not be appearing to take the stand. Because the case is civil, he does not need to appear in court, but he is one of only two defense witnesses listed by his attorney. Carroll’s attorney plans to play part of DDT’s testimony from his deposition in October. Another member of DDT’s legal team, W. Perry Brandt, cross-examined her.

Jessica Leeds, an 81-year-old retired stockbroker, also testified about DDT groping her on an airplane in the late 1970s after he moved her up to first class. She did not know who he was when he made the offer to upgrade her seat. She said that after she had to fight off his attempts to kiss her and grab her breast, she returned to her seat in coach.

According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the U.S. will fail to pay all its obligations starting on June 1 because of April’s lower-than-expected revenue if the det ceiling is not raised. Without a congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling, the country and the world will be in dire financial problems. The House is gone for this week, leaving it in session for only 12 days before June 1. President Joe Biden will be in Australia and Japan for two weeks in May.

Republicans are upset about a fact sheet from the Department of Veterans Affairs describing the results of the House GOP bill cutting the department’s budget by 22 percent:  

• Over 6,000 staff eliminated.
• 30 million fewer Veteran outpatient visits.
•  81,000 jobs lost in the VA causing veterans unable to obtain healthcare including wellness visits, cancer screenings, mental health services, and substance use disorder treatment.
• 134,000 disability claims put in a backlog.
• Stop construction on VA healthcare facilities. (The median time a VA hospital was built is almost 60 years ago compared to 13 years in the private sector.)
• $565 million loss for construction projects including clinical upgrades to hospitals and clinics.
• 500 staff eliminated in VA’s National Cemetery Administration including the delay of five new national cemeteries to serve almost 1.6 million veterans and eligible family members.

Outside the VA but affecting veterans:

• Eliminate funding for Housing Choice Vouchers for up to 50,000 veterans, increasing their risk of homelessness.
• Increase food insecurity for 1.3 million veterans relying on SNAP.
• Deprive veterans of mental health, substance sue, and other health services.
• Deprive veterans of mental health, substance use, and other health services.
• Stop job training and other support for 4,200 homeless veterans.

When Republicans claimed they didn’t make these cuts, Biden provided them with a diagram to show they did.

Question: “Did you vote for a bill that cuts domestic spending by 22%?”

If answer is yes – question: “Did the bill say, ‘This does NOT apply to veterans benefits?'”

If the answer is no – statement: “You voted to cut veterans benefits.”

With the bill’s growth cap at one percent per year exempting military spending, Social Security, and Medicare, cuts must be at least 22 percent across the board, perhaps 28 percent. If veterans’ care isn’t cut, everything else must be cut by one-third in 2024, increasing to 59 percent in 2033.

Republicans have vowed not to raise taxes, but 218 GOP House members voted to do exactly that. Their bill repeals clean-energy tax credits created last year, raising taxes on manufacturers, car buyers, etc. by $300 billion in the next decade. Republicans simply believe, however, that this tax doesn’t exist.

A large number of current Republicans in the House were not present for the last crisis in 2011, and their level of incompetence is stunning. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), in his second term, thinks that September is the “actual drop-dead rate, so we’re good.” In only his third term, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said the Senate could “take the heat for shutting [the government] down.” A default is far more than a simple “shutdown.” Coming into Congress in 2012, Rep. Tom Massie (R-KY) still hasn’t learned that the Federal Reserve is an independent agency. And others, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-IN) who is in his fourth term, think that the debt-limit bill used a process known as the “committee of the whole,” meaning devised on the chamber floor during discussion, although the bill came from a secret backroom deal.​

Predictably, the GOP threat of a debt default is driving the stock market down. The pain to investers and the destruction of the economy can help Republicans in 2024—or so they think. The House GOP insists it will crash the economy on purpose unless its radical demands are met, and Democrats refuse negotiations with threats of deliberate harm to people in the U.S. Emmer declined to say whether the U.S. would default.

In addition, a default will increase the debt, even temporarily, because it will cause the relatively low interest on current debts to skyrocket. Global investors may also look for alternatives because the U.S. would no longer be considered a safe asset.  

Biden has invited the four congressional leaders—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)—to the White House on May 9 for discussions about the House’s bill. Of the five, only one, McCarthy, is charging toward default, and presently he is out of the country telling Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Biden is wrong about the U.S. foreign policy. Schumer has begun the Senate process of both a clean debt ceiling bill to suspend the limit for two years and one to consider the House bill for future budget negotiations.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote about whether the constitution requires the government to pay its bills whether Congress actually raises the debt ceiling or not. She quotes the fourth section of the Fourteenth Amendment:

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

Richardson’s explanation of the GOP lawmakers adding this section to the constitution after the Civil War:

“When Republican lawmakers wrote the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866, they recognized that a refusal to meet the nation’s financial obligations would dismantle the government, and they defended the sanctity of the commitments the government had made. When voters ratified that amendment in 1868, they added to the Constitution, our fundamental law, the principle that the obligations of the country ‘shall not be questioned.’”

The other big news of the day is a rancorous Senate hearing about the Supreme Court justices’ ethical problems. Democrats want a code of ethics, either from the justices themselves or, if they refuse, from Congress. Republicans say everything is just fine and that the Democrats are being political, just like the “liberal media.” For 32 years, the Supreme Court admits it is bound under federal financial disclosure rules—although they don’t follow them—but no other code of judicial conduct. Minority ranking member Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went so far as to accuse Democrats of encouraging assassination attempts against conservative justices. Other dialog disagreed about whether Congress could take action with authorities on both sides.    

Noted conservative J. Michael Luttig, a former appeals court judge, wrote that the constitution gives Congress the power “to enact laws prescribing the ethical standards applicable to the non-judicial conduct and activities of the supreme court of the United States” although it cannot mandate that the court “prescribe such standards for itself.”

Michael Mukasey, a former attorney general under George W. Bush, said “the public is being asked to hallucinate misconduct,” ignoring the evidence of unethical and inappropriate “record-keeping” by some of the justices.

Over half the people in the United States don’t trust the Supreme Court—and for good reason. Three of them—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas—think a man should be executed without permission for DNA testing that could prove his innocence.

Out of room for today—more about the Supreme Court tomorrow!

Trials, GOP Extortion, Supreme Court,

President Joe Biden announced his run for a second term on the first day of his major opponent Deposed Donald Trump’s (DDT) civil trial for allegedly raping E. Jean Carroll 27 years ago. Carroll, the second witness, described the assault’s trauma and the disastrous aftermath that destroyed her ability to have intimate relationships. Furious, DDT posted smears of her and her attorney on social media. The trial judge warned DDT’s attorneys to tell their client to stop the posting with the possibility of a contempt of court ruling or other legal consequences if he continued and said that DDT appeared to be trying to influence the jury.

DDT’s first posting, that LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman was paying Carroll’s legal team, violated a previous order from the judge who ruled that Hoffman’s involvement should not be mentioned in front of the jury. Another post demanded that the DNA on her dress be considered although DDT waited until past the deadline to submit a DNA sample. The judge also barred any mention of the DNA. DDT’s lawyer Joe Tacopina struggled in court because he had already argued that the DNA be excluded. He told the judge he would talk to his client about restraining himself in his posts “to the degree that I have an ability to,” sounding meeker than during his hostile opening statements on April 25 attacking Carroll’s account.

Former U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance stated:

“Trump can’t be bothered to be in the court room & has said he won’t testify–probably afraid of cross ex. It’s easier to take cheap, untrue shots on social media.”

Former VP Mike Pence must testify before the DOJ grand jury probing the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court. DDT sued to block the testimony and then appealed after he lost.

The Supreme Court has returned the fate of mifepristone, an abortion medication, to the 5^th Circuit Court. The Biden administration has filed an appeal to overrule the ruling by federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas to outlaw the drug in the entire U.S. Plaintiffs have until May 8 to respond to the government’s filing; the appeals court will hear arguments on May 17.

The bill designed to strip millions of people in the U.S. of assistance to give a small amount increasing the national debt for a few months passed the House in a squeaker—217 Republicans to a total of 215 nays from all Democrats and GOP Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Ken Buck (R-CO), Tim Burchett ((TN), and Matt Gaetz (FL). Burchett realistically pointed out that the bill will “cut the rate of growth [and] actually add to the deficit over 10 years.”

Despite his win, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), needing the bill to keep his position, doesn’t look pleased with himself as he meets with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Biden. His only hope is that passing the bill will force the president to “negotiate” with him over its terms although McCarthy repeatedly said that he will not negotiate anything in the bill. The measure has no hope in the Senate, according to Schumer.

Biden said he would meet with McCarthy but not give in to his demand for negotiations. Deciding whether the debt limit gets extended is “not negotiable.” Biden has always been open to talking about the GOP budget, but the House cannot come up with one. A White House official said that the bill is “not a real budget, but they’ve now put forward a plan.”

Biden’s meeting will also not be with only McCarthy; it will include the top four House and Senate leaders and possibly top appropriators.

“I will not change the [debt ceiling] bill,” McCarthy had said and then changed the bill at 2:00 in the morning to get enough votes, caving into Midwestern GOP congressional members demanding the measure include ethanol tax credits. It also accelerated the time for work requirements for benefits to October. The bill cuts Medicaid and food stamps recipients with stricter limits for work requirements, especially difficult in rural areas, predominantly GOP. SNAP already requires able-bodied adults without dependents to spend 20 hours a week in employment or training, a mandate which states could waive during the pandemic from a DDT bill.

Even without the GOP bill, benefits have been cut this year for millions of people. Over 16 million households have seen shrinking amounts for food through the supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). Seniors receiving an increase two years ago from the pandemic saw their allotment go from $295 a month to as little as $23. Up to 15 million individuals are soon losing Medicaid since the change in the pandemic policies that now requires continuous rechecking of eligibility.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) summarized what the GOP vote means:

“In tax cuts in 2017 passed by the other side of the aisle, we see wonderful tax cuts for yacht owners and private jets. But in order to balance our budget now, we’re talking about cuts to SNAP, to food out of babies’ mouths.”

Ocasio-Cortez was referring to the GOP tax cuts that gave massive benefits to the wealthy and big businesses. McCarthy and his tribe refuse to even consider any partial replacement of those cuts.

McCarthy lied when he said “a no-strings-attached debt-limit increase cannot pass,” according to Jonathan Chait. A bill to raise a clean debt ceiling would require very few Republicans to join the Democratic caucus. “Republicans say their least conservative members might be willing to raise the debt ceiling without concessions, but they are afraid of what the craziest Republicans would do to them,” Chait wrote.  McCarthy needed the bill for a ransom in his extortion plan.

Republicans are following the same pattern as they have for decades: the GOP automatically raises the debt ceiling when they control the government, but House Democrats don’t use the same extortion against a Republican president. The GOP is playing a game of chicken, risking the global economy, and Biden won’t pay the ransom.

In the Senate, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has refused an invitation from Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) to testify at a hearing about the high court’s ethics rules and potential reforms. Roberts indicated that doing so would threaten judicial independence because it is a separate branch. The Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate aspects of the court’s structure and procedures. One of these categories is “Judicial Ethics.”

In a letter to Roberts, Durbin stated, “It is time for Congress to accept its responsibility to establish an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court.” Roberts responded with a restatement of court’s ethics, principals, and practices. He called the requested testimony “exceedingly rare” for what he called “mundane matters.”

Roberts’ attitude indicates that all is well with his court, far from the truth. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) requested a full account from Harlan Crow of extravagant undisclosed trips, gifts, and payments he gave Justice Clarence Thomas as well as evidence that Crow complied with federal tax law. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is the second senator to call for Clarence Thomas’ resignation.

In a bipartisan action, Sens. Angus King (I-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are introducing legislation requiring the high court to create its own code of conduct within a year and publish the code on its website to be available to the public. The court would name someone to handle complaints of code violations and give the court authority to initiate investigations for conduct by justices or staff affecting the administration of justice or violating federal laws or codes of conduct.  

Ocasio-Cortez declared:  

“Under Roberts, the Supreme Court has unraveled constitutional rights and seen several justices engage in corrupt financial arrangements. Now he is refusing to answer questions. How does Roberts expect SCOTUS to maintain authority if they reject accountability themselves?”

In June, only 25 percent in a Gallup poll found people having “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the Supreme Court, a drop from the 36 percent of respondents who said so in 2021. 

Thomas justified his actions by claiming Crow had not had cases before the court, but he was wrong—or lied. In January 2005, when Thomas stopped disclosing Crow’s gifts, the Crow family had a “non-controlling interest in a commercial real estate development company sued by an architecture firm for more than $25 million. Thomas did not recuse himself in the court decision declining to hear an appeal from the architecture firm. Crow’s company said tenant protections threatened its profits so Thomas voted to end them—twice. 

In another Supreme Court ethics problem, Justice Neil Gorsuch made as much as $500,000 on a real estate sale of $1.825 million but didn’t mention it was from the chief executive of law firm Greenberg Traurig with business before the high court. The offer was made for the property a few days after DDT nominated Gorsuch on January 31, 2017, eleven days after DDT was inaugurated and almost a year after the position had been vacated. Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) held it open until DDT could name the nomination. The firm has been involved in at least 22 cases at the court; in 12 cases, Gorsuch voted for the firm eight times.

McCarthy Makes Debt Ceiling Fight Front and Center

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) finally has a plan (proposal?) for managing the debt ceiling and wants his caucus to pass it next week. When he and other radical Republicans have declared they won’t pass an increase in the debt ceiling to the national debt, they completely ignore the fact that a debt ceiling is paying past bills. Without paying bills, the U.S. goes into default which causes financial disaster for both the nation and the world.

The proposal is actually a budget, which the House Republicans have been unable, or unwilling, to prepare. It’s just a way to remove $130 billion from the sliver of the national budget for domestic projects such as education, healthcare, etc. That $130 billion is almost 20 percent of discretionary funding. The other piece of the proposal is to increase the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion until March 31, 2024, before shutting down payment of debts again in the midst of the 2024 campaigns until another deal is made. The real goal of the proposal is to create votes for Republicans.  

The White House pointed out that supporters of McCarthy’s bill vote “to cut education, veterans medical care, cancer research, meals on wheels, food safety, and law enforcement.” They also support offshore manufacturing, take healthcare from people, threaten food for older people, increase energy bills, raise taxes, and “protect wealthy tax cheats.” They also vote to offshore America manufacturing, take health care away for Americans, threaten food assistance for older Americans, increase energy bills, raise taxes, and “protect wealthy tax cheats.”

McCarthy says his plan will create $4.5 trillion in cuts, but this is the same party that claimed tax cuts for the wealthy and big business would bring the U.S. about $1.8 trillion. Instead, the 2017 GOP tax cuts is losing $1.7 trillion; the loss of that revenue has caused the debt ceiling to increase. Corporations used their largess to buy back stocks instead of investing money in their businesses and creating more jobs. McCarthy’s idea, even if the U.S. doesn’t default, will trigger a recession in 2024, cost the economy up to six million jobs, and push unemployment to up to nine percent, according to Moody’s economists. Interest rates can skyrocket and $15 trillion in household assets can be wiped out. The GOP sees this as a win.

When Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) came into office, the national debt was $19.9 trillion; on his departure, it was $27.7 trillion. He promised to get rid of the debt but added almost 40 percent to it. Republicans don’t care about the debt. They just want to destroy Democrats by causing chaos.  Republican presidents run up the deficit with their bad ideas, and Democrat presidents have to reverse the problem. Obama’s first two years were so bad because of W. Bush’s tax cuts, wars, and housing bubble leading to a serious recession. 

Some pieces in McCarthy’s 320-page proposal:

• Revert funding for fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2022 levels.
• Limit spending growth to 1 percent annually over the next decade. (Hopes for inflation are keeping it down to 2 percent.)
• Roll back student loan actions, including the ongoing loan repayment pause, implemented by DDT, and plan for forgiveness.
• Boost oil and gas production by cutting time to greenlight energy projects. (McCarthy said the legislation targets “green giveaways,” (his term for green energy tax credits).
• Eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles along with credits for solar and wind infrastructure.
• Increase work requirements for food stamps for people between 50 to 56 years old and Medicaid.
• Take back unobligated coronavirus funds approved in March 2021.
• Remove $70 billion in an IRS funding increase at a revenue loss of $180 billion.
• Eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles along with credits for solar and wind infrastructure.

McCarthy didn’t list specific cuts, but House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) asked agencies what would happen with his ideas to reduce 2024 discretionary, non-defense spending. Examples:

• Shut down 125 air traffic control towers.
• Eliminate nutrition services for 1 million senior citizens.
• Lose house assistance for 1.1 million families.
• Impact 6.6 million students relying on Pell Grants.
• Lessen support for 1.2 million women, infants, and children receiving WIC.
• Take 200,000 children from Head Start.
• Remove 100,000 children from childcare.

McCarthy insisted that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and President Joe Biden “come to the table” and negotiate. Biden and congressional Democratic leaders call for a “clean” debt limit bill with separate negotiations on a budget. On the Senate floor, Schumer said:  

“With a default approaching, Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy yesterday capitulated to the MAGA right and rolled out a partisan wish list masquerading as legislation. This MAGA wish list has no chance of moving forward in the Senate, and it doesn’t move us any closer than we were yesterday to avoiding default.”

Biden said his budget would save $3 trillion in the next decade and added:

“Take default off the table, and let’s have a real serious, detailed conversation about how to grow the economy, lower costs and reduce the deficit.”

From far-right Scott Perry (R-PA) to “moderate” Nancy Mace (R-SC) with gadfly Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in between, Republicans are critical of McCarthy’s “Limit, Save, Grow” proposal for the same reason that Biden is—it’s not a plan. Their comments also demonstrate a distrust in the Speaker: after McCarthy walked Republicans through the proposal in a closed meeting, Perry said, “I don’t think that’s the entire package.” Mace said that “the debt ceiling vote without a plan [doesn’t] bode well for the outcome.” Gaetz added that McCarthy’s bill “couldn’t possibly have 218 votes because it doesn’t even exist.”

Arguments come from legislators who want to be more punitive; conservatives, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-MD) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), want to raise the mandatory number of work hours for benefits to 30 a week. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) also criticized the bill because it didn’t go through committees of jurisdiction although McCarthy had agreed to move most legislation through regular order so that he could be elected Speaker. Biggs was one of the hardline conservatives who had demanded that change. Roy told Biggs, “Most of it’s just cutting a bunch of things.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3961740-gop-leaders-scrambling-to-unite-skeptical-republicans-behind-debt-limit-bill/

Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who has been deeply involved in creating the bill, admitted that they must do more work to get enough support. McCarthy assigned Garret Graves, on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, to be instrumental in preparing the proposal, overlooking involvement from Reps. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), budget committee chair, and Steve Scalise (R-LA), in preparing the proposal.  Arrington’s name will still be on the bill. 

Behind the scenes, McCarthy has said he has “no confidence” in Arrington and called his TV appearances “unhelpful.” McCarthy also regards Arrington “as incompetent.” Comments by McCarthy about Scalise:

“McCarthy has told colleagues and allies that he cannot rely on Mr. Scalise, describing the majority leader as ineffective, checked out and reluctant to take a position on anything.”

Both Arrington and Scalise wanted to be Speaker instead of McCarthy.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/senate-finance-gop-rich-taxes  Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) recognizes that the House Republicans may vote for the bill when he said that nothing unites the GOP more than “helping rich people cheat on their taxes.” He called it “a centerpiece of the ransom Speaker McCarthy has cobbled together as he threatens to trigger a catastrophic default.” To protect their wealthy friends, GOP legislators have repeatedly described armed IRS agents descending on small businesses and homes of ordinary U.S. people. Without intervention, the traditional IRS dodging by the wealthy may cost the government over $7 trillion in the next decade. The richest 1 percent of U.S. households don’t report 21 percent of their income while the working class pay their fair share of taxes.

The first bill passed by Republicans in the 118^th Congress was to remove IRS funding. For decades the IRS has been underfunded, but the last decade has been the worst, with the enforcement budget dropping by almost 25 percent. In 2017, the under 10,000 revenue agents were the same number as in 1953 when the IRS annually handled 100+ million fewer individual income tax returns. Antiquated IRS technology is at least 25 years old with obsolete programming languages and lack of vendor support, training, and maintenance support. Instead of the mythical “gun-toting enforcement agents” that Republicans claim will be hired, the IRS needs employees to process refunds and answer phone calls. Increased audits with new funding will be used only for those annually earning over $400,000.

Thirteen years ago, a similar debt ceiling crisis resulted before President Obama agreed to a sequester imposing tough caps on discretionary spending. Under GOP control of Congress of both Congress and the White House, however, the spending caps set in 2011 were ignored, and discretionary spending increased by 16 percent. Now the Republicans are demanding a massive reduction with a Democratic president, waiting until they get a Republican back into the White House. To smear Biden, McCarthy is releasing doctored videos from 2011 with mixes of clips from 2011 taken out of context.

McCarthy’s timing for trying to pass his bill may be a bit off. With Fox and Dominion Voting Systems having settled, the media focus can return to the problems with settling the debt ceiling which must be finished by June before the U.S. runs out of money.

Dominion Settles, McConnell Returns, House GOP Storm NY

Fox settles Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit, paying $787.5, almost half of what was requested, and admitting it lied about Dominion machines and software. A Dominion lawyer said the company will not stop holding people accountable, and Smartmatic will continue with its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox. The lawyer for the voting systems company said that the lawsuit will reveal the remainder of the “misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is back in full force following a five-week absence after a serious fall. He’s leading the GOP senators in blocking a replacement for Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the judicial committee to prevent any of President Joe Biden’s nominees from consideration and defending Justice Clarence Thomas from an investigation into his possible violation of federal ethics in his relationship with wealthy GOP donor Harlan Crow.

Thomas has “reasons” for his inaccuracies: he doesn’t understand how to fill out the forms, and he was told he could not record gifts, real estate sales, and profits on his financial statements. Another reason: these are just two good guys who are good chums—nothing to see here. Also it doesn’t matter Thomas would have voted the same way without Harlan Crow’s influence.

The Senate leader who refused to allow consideration of President Obama’s nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court is accusing Democrats of pushing through “extreme or especially unqualified” judicial candidates without any Republican votes. Republicans used this MO during DDT’s administration at least 324 times with a few Democratic votes. For example, Matthew Kacsmaryk, the GOP judge who determined that he should be able to overturn scientific opinion by the FDA when he outlawed the use of mifepristone for abortions received no Democratic votes. One Republican senator voted against the confirmation, and he had to be nominated twice. McConnell also rammed through a vote on a justice just five weeks before a presidential election after declaring a rule that a president couldn’t appoint a justice in the last year of his term.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked the Judicial Conference of the United States to examine Thomas’s failure to disclose travel and real estate deals with Crow and refer the matter to AG Merrick Garland. The Democrats stated a “reasonable cause … that Justice Thomas willfully failed to file information required to be reported under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.” McConnell, however, declared “total confidence” in Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to handle Supreme Court ethics issues. For the past two decades Thomas has revised his financial forms whenever his transgressions have been made public.

At least four doctored classified Pentagon documents were posted by a former Navy non-com officer pretending to be Russian and passing along Russian disinformation under the banner of “Donbass Devushka.” She posed as a Russian Jew from the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk and a geopolitics expert, but Sarah Bils, her real name, sends her pro-Russian propaganda from her home in Oak Harbor (WA). Bils was assigned to a maintenance team on Whidbey Island (WA) until March 2022 but left the service on November 27, 2022, after being demoted, a little over nine months after Russia invaded Ukraine. The DOJ is now investigating her. Tucker Carlson has used Bils’ falsehoods to “prove” that Ukraine is losing the war.

The weather in Manhattan on April 17 was lovely for the GOP invasion of House members on the 100^th day of Republican rule in the U.S. House. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) used the New York Stock Exchange as a backdrop for his general proposal for defeating an increase in the debt ceiling. He said he wouldn’t default on the debt, raise taxes, increase interest rates, etc., but he would cut domestic benefits to pay off the national debt, one-fourth of it borrowed by the GOP and DDT during his term.

McCarthy said House Republicans will raise the ceiling for a small amount and force President Joe Biden to accept a basketful of their demands—slash federal spending, cap agencies’ budgets, take back coronavirus assistance, eliminate Biden’s student cancellation plan, etc. He also plans to attach an expansive energy bill to favor fossil fuel industries. 

Citing his perception of the current plight of the U.S., McCarthy ignores the present: 

“Record inflation and the hardship it causes….” Inflation is rapidly dropping, many prices equal to two years ago.

“Time to get Americans back to work.” Unemployment is 3.5 percent, a 54-year low, a new historic low for Black unemployment.

Grow the economy. According to economists, the economy, growing too fast, needs to be slowed to avoid a recession. Growth in the economy will bring higher inflation. Last year, real income after factoring inflation increased 7 percent for people having incomes under $35,000.

Create more job openings. The labor force at record highs, and McCarthy also said that the U.S. doesn’t have enough people to fill existing openings.

Put people on food stamps to work. Most families on food stamps already have people working at least one job.

“We are very generous nation.” Yet most industrialized nations provide far more services such as universal healthcare.

Debt Ceiling too high. During the past two years, the deficit decreased by $1.7 trillion under Biden.  

McCarthy was specific about his plan to starve people in the U.S. with cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), nicknamed food stamps, which supports millions of Americans. Growth will slow, according to Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist Mark Zandi,  if Congress votes to slash federal spending on health, education, science and labor programs by about $130 billion. The GDP could fall by about 0.6 percent and reduce employment by 720,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2024, at exactly the same time as the 2024 general election.

The plan will have the biggest negative impact on red states that supported DDT in 2020. In Reuters, Andy Sullivan reported those states “received roughly $172 billion in the last fiscal year for highway construction, housing, public health and other purposes, amounting to $1196 per person [while the] 25 states plus the District of Columbia that backed Democrat Joe Biden received $205 billion, or $1079 per person.” The amount varies from $760 per capita in California to $6423 for each Alaska resident.

Ian Millhiser went to the heart of the speech when he tweeted:

“Kevin McCarthy literally going to the New York Stock Exchange to pitch cutting food stamps for poor people is… well, there’s a reason why people think Kevin is an idiot.”

Others made the same point, and McCarthy’s own caucus may not support him. GOP defectors of just four House members means that the Republicans can’t pass anything that Democrats won’t support. If he passes his plan, the next debt ceiling battle will be during summer campaigning in 2024.

The other GOP performance in Manhattan on April 17 was the attempt by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the Judicial Committee, to prove that crime is horrible under DA Alvin Bragg who has indicted DDT. GOP-picked witnesses largely avoided any mention of guns although Democrats attempted to bring up the topic. During the hearing, however, witnesses expressed dissatisfaction at not being able to answer Democrats and Jordan’s “management” of the hearing’s disruption and noise talking. One of them asked Jordan not to “talk down to the witnesses.”

New York is the 5^th safest city in the U.S., much safer than cities in Jordan’s state of Ohio. Columbus, near Jordan’s district has three times the crime rate of New York. Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-RI) suggested the hearing be moved to Ohio, but Jordan told him his time was up.

The hearing was immediately after the mass shootings in Kentucky and Alabama. New York’s state homicide rate was 4.7 per 100,000 in 2020; Alabama’s homicide rate was 14.2 per 100,000, and Kentucky’s was 9.5. Ohio’s homicide rate (8.7 deaths for every 100,000 residents) is 73 percent higher than Manhattan’s (5.0 deaths per 100,000 residents). Murders, robberies, rape and shooting incidents are all down in Manhattan for the first three months of this year.

According to David Pucino, Deputy Chief Counsel, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence:

“We know that fewer than 8 percent of the guns that are used in crime in New York City came from New York. They come from Georgia, they come from Virginia, they come from Pennsylvania, they come from South Carolina, they come from North Carolina. 92 percent of the crime guns used in New York are coming from out of state.”

The first 100 days after a rocky election with 15 ballots for the Speaker have not been rosy. Republicans wanted to pass 11 bills in the first few weeks, but only six of them passed the House. The Senate hasn’t touched any of them. McCarthy satisfied the ultra-conservatives by permitting any number of amendments and allowing anyone to write legislation, making support difficult among all the factions and bipartisan support almost impossible. 

After 100 days, the House GOP cannot agree on the debt ceiling, a budget, border security, etc. amidst the growing rancor and distrust. Skepticism and distrust is growing among GOP leaders. Some of them want McCarthy’s position, and the new rules permit only one person to get a vote. The United STates may go into default.