The Hustings will cover tonight’s presidential address to the joint session of Congress, which begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Our contributing pundits from the right and left will comment on President Biden’s comments and proposals here Thursday, April 29. 

We would like your comments on Biden’s address as well. Please email your opinion of his address and we will post it along with our contributors’ commentaries on this home page. Please include your city and state, or state’s region with your name.

The objective of The Hustings is to have political discourse — not those Molotov cocktails thrown back and forth on Facebook and Twitter, “arguments” that are simply tantrums — between thoughtful people. What we would like to have is a sufficient number of comments—from both sides—such that we can post them on a weekly basis. Whether you want to provide a sentence or a paragraph, all that we ask is that you be reasoned and respectful. 

Also in this column: “Public Health and Safety Should be the Goal,” Michelle Naranjo’s commentary on the center-column report, ‘Biden Vows George Floyd Justice in Policing will become Law.’

Scroll down on the track bar in the right corner to read earlier posts.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

Today's News & Notes returns to the News & Notes page. Please click on the tab above. Return to the home page later today for a debate on President Biden's address to the joint session of Congress.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021

With security on Capitol Hill expected to be at its highest levels, President Biden will present his address to a joint session of Congress tonight at 9 p.m. The audience will be limited due to coronavirus distancing protocols.

It’s Official: Biden Offers a New New Deal – President Biden tonight will introduce his American Families Plan (AFP), a $1.8-trillion “once in a lifetime investment in our nation’s future” according to a White House briefing. The plan entails $1 trillion in spending and $800 billion in new tax credits. This is a companion package to the proposed $2.3-trillion infrastructure plan. All of this comes on top of his $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief plan passed via reconciliation in March.

 The AFP proposes $1 trillion in new spending and $800 billion in new low-income tax credits that serves as a kind of counter to President Trump’s $1.5-trillion in tax cuts of 2017. 

 New spending proposals include:

 •At least four years of free education for every student, consisting of a.) universal high-quality pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds, and b.) two years of free community college for all Americans.

•Up to $1,400 in additional assistance to low-income students by expanding the Pell Grant maximum by 20%.

•Would make college more affordable for low-income students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions and create or expand educational programs in high-demand fields.

•Improve teacher training, especially for special education, bi-lingual education and certifications that improve teacher performance.

•Direct support to children and families by investing in affordable child care and by providing direct support to children and families to ensure low- and middle-income families pay no more than 7% of their income toward high-quality child care.

•Minimum $15 per hour wage for early childhood staff and improved training. 

•Expand nutritional benefits to about 9.3 million children of low-income families.

 New tax credits proposed include:

 •Extension of child tax credits in the American Recovery Plan through 2025.

•Make the child tax credit permanent and fully refundable.

•Make the earned income tax credit permanent for childless workers. 

Every dollar invested in early childhood programs results in more than $7 in economic benefits, the White House estimates.

 Note: While Republicans most certainly will attack the American Families Program as yet another high-cost expense the U.S. economy cannot afford, it also falls short of progressive Democrats’ wish list which included free college at state universities and school loan relief.

•••

 This May Not Be True — Laura Italiano, the reporter who wrote an untrue story in the New York Post about undocumented minors getting a swag bag including Kamala Harris’ children’s book, has resigned, The Washington Post reports. Italiano tweeted that she’d been “ordered” to write the piece despite knowing that it was, as the Former Guy might put it, fake news. 

 Note: This is just par for the proverbial course (of course, par for the Former Guy, it has been widely reported, is a variable thing) for outlets like the New York Post and “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” although it should be acknowledged that the first-named is ostensibly a “news” outlet, not one where making things up, like the Biden Administration’s climate planning calling for the outlawing of things like Whoppers (the burgers, not the lies that fall from the lips of the likes of Carlson), is not considered to be in good form.

•••

Building Back Together to Push Against Voter Suppression – Democrats have formed a new initiative aligned with President Biden to push back against voter suppression drives, including new laws making their way through many states’ legislatures, named “Building Back Together” (BBT), Politico reports. It will also support the Democrat’s For the People Act, the sweeping voter rights bill passed by the House earlier this year, and currently languishing in the Senate. Chief of BBT is Bob Bauer, who advised Biden’s presidential campaign and had served as White House counsel in the Obama administration.

•••

Promising Recovery, No Hike in Interest Rates – The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to maintain near-zero percent interest rates because the economy is improving, The Wall Street Journal reports. Fed members in recent comments have noted “recent pickups” in hiring, spending and inflation. –Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

The Hustings will cover tonight’s presidential address to the joint session of Congress, which begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Our contributing pundits from the right and left will comment on President Biden’s comments and proposals here Thursday, April 29. 

We would like your comments on Biden’s address as well. Please email your opinion of his address and we will post it along with our contributors’ commentaries on this home page. Please include your city and state, or state’s region with your name.

The objective of The Hustings is to have political discourse — not those Molotov cocktails thrown back and forth on Facebook and Twitter, “arguments” that are simply tantrums — between thoughtful people. What we would like to have is a sufficient number of comments—from both sides—such that we can post them on a weekly basis. Whether you want to provide a sentence or a paragraph, all that we ask is that you be reasoned and respectful. 

Also in this column:

“New Federal Laws won’t change our Hearts,” Bryan Williams’ commentary on the center-column report, ‘Biden Vows George Floyd Justice in Policing will become Law.’

Scroll down on the right-corner track bar to read earlier posts.

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By Michelle Naranjo

At times, the pace of deaths of Black people at the hands of law enforcement officers is relentless, and the rate just seems to escalate. 

Within the hour of the guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, a 16-year old girl was shot and killed in Columbus, Ohio, by a police officer. 

President Biden’s commitment to the family of the bill’s namesake that he will push the Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 (HR 1280) is a tall order. There are about 18,000 individual law enforcement organizations in the United States. Using federal funding as incentive to curb the rash of unnecessary violence and death against individuals, especially those of color disproportionately affected, is the goal. 

 Still, its practicality leaves many of the GOP senate cold because they insist that the police would not be supportive.

As Phillip Atiba Goff, co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, noted to NPR’s Dave Davies of Fresh Air this week, several police forces and communities are seeking help from his organization to dismantle the white supremacy inherent in law enforcement agencies. One such community trying to change is Ithaca, New York, which has organized its Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety, unarmed officials that will assist armed officers in non-violent situations. Armed police officers would not make routine traffic stops, which can escalate quickly when a badge and a gun are involved. Ithaca’s local police union is in favor of the new department. 

Goff believes such programs address policing policies developed during a time when the foundations of law enforcement were built on controlling the movement of Black people. While opponents decry this as “defunding” the police, Goff equates it to a quiet, longstanding movement to defund schools and health insttutions in Black and brown communities. 

As the Senate begins to hash out which details of HR 1280 will be kept and which will get tossed, or compromised, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina has offered a compromise he thinks will convert many of his Republican colleagues. His compromise would lose the provision to eliminate qualified immunity, which essentially protects individual police officers from criminal prosecution for any misconduct, thus leaving the responsibility with the law enforcement agencies themselves. Scott’s hope is this would give law enforcement agencies the obligation of stepping up to make sure bad police officers are not kept on the force.

This compromise is a horrible idea, and it has now been revealed that the Department of Justice is considering additional prosecution of Derek Chauvin, who has been accused of beating a Black teenager to unconsciousness and kneeling on his neck for 17 minutes, in 2017. And the Minneapolis Police Department are said to have known about this, yet Chauvin never was investigated. Law enforcement needs to be re-oriented toward focusing on public health and safety. HR 1280 would ensure that focus changes.

By Michelle Naranjo At times, the pace of deaths of Black people at the hands of law enforcement […]

By Todd Lassa

Last year’s HR 7120 was named the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” and passed in the House of Representatives;  it stalled in the U.S. Senate. This year, Rep. Karen Bass, D-CA, reintroduced the bill as HR 1280, the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.” President Biden plans to “use his bully pulpit” to get it passed, press secretary Jen Psaki said in comments following the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin on two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes, 29 seconds.

Psaki said Biden has promised George Floyd’s family that HR 1280 will become law, which means he must convince at least 10 Republican senators to support it.

Tall order, as many Republicans consider the matter a states’ rights issue, that the Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to tell local and state police departments and county sheriffs’ departments how they can and cannot police. 

Democrats and other supporters of the Justice in Policing Act say that many law enforcement officials and their departments would like to be relieved of having to respond to, for example, child protection problems and domestic disputes.

Key provisions of the bill …

•Eliminates qualified immunity so that individuals can recover damages in civil court when law enforcement violates constitutional rights.

•Bans chokeholds and carotid holds at the federal level and gives state and local governments the incentive to follow suit through conditions on federal law enforcement funding.

•Requires that deadly force be used only as a last resort and requires officers to employ de-escalation techniques first.

•Changes the standard to evaluate if law enforcement”s use of force was justified from whether the force was “reasonable” to whether it was “necessary.”

•Bans no-knock warrants in drug cases at the federal level and conditions law enforcement funding for state and local governments to ban no-knock warrants. 

•Limits local police departments’ access to military grade equipment.

•Requires federal uniformed police to wear body cameras and requires state and local enforcement to tap existing funds to ensure use of the cameras.

•Creates a nationwide police misconduct registry to prevent officers fired for misconduct to join law enforcement agency in another jurisdiction without accountability.

--HR 1280 at house.gov via The Poynter Institute

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By Bryan Williams

What’s there for a conservative not to like or disagree with in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act? Not much from my point. I have less of an issue with the substance of the bill than the hyper-activity of our politicians, who will do anything he or she can to be seen as doing something about a chronic problem. 

Does the federal government need to do anything in this case? Many places already have laws in place with the same provisions of HR 1280. Why duplicate efforts?

Joe Biden has fashioned himself as a president who wants to try to solve all our problems. Climate change, the border crisis, health care, taxes, infrastructure, foreign relations with China and Russia and the Middle East, the pandemic, LGBTQ rights, #StopAsianHate...you get the idea. But are they delivering? Beside the third COVID stimulus relief, this self-proclaimed champion of bi-partisan unity has relied on an endless number of executive orders. 

I believe most thinking Americans will agree that what’s going on is too many police officers reacting too quickly when a routine call or traffic stop involving a Black citizen escalates. (The police stop of U.S. Army Lt. Caron Nazario in Windsor, Virginia, comes most immediately to my mind.) 

How do you address such problems with a law? I’m willing to bet that the actions of the two police officers in the December 5 stop potentially violated rules or laws in any jurisdiction across the nation. One of the officers in Nazario’s stop was promptly fired after the video came to light. Soulds to me like the system is working.

So will the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act really make thoe affected by police brutality feel as if they’ve gained something? Will a federal bill change the tragic news we see on our television screens far too often? What needs to change, I believe, are the hearts and minds of everyone in the U.S. Yes, police officers need to be vigilant and protect us from those who wish us harm. Yes, people need to police themselves and act carefully in any situation regarding police, but especially late at night. Our hearts need to be changed toward each other in a way no law can enforce. Just don’t tell that to Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

The objective of The Hustings is to have political discourse — not those Molotov cocktails thrown back and forth on Facebook and Twitter, “arguments” that are simply tantrums — between thoughtful people. So we would like you to comment on the topics being examined here on the site. What we would like to have is a sufficient number of comments—from both sides—such that we can post them on a weekly basis. Whether you want to provide a sentence or a paragraph, all that we ask is that you be reasoned and respectful. Add your comment to the bottom of this page, or email editors@thehustings.news.

Liberal opinion on the center column news appears here. Scroll down with the trackbar in the right corner of this page to read:

•David Amaya comments on President Biden's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11.

•Comments by "negative" debaters on the resolution: Deficit spending is a major risk to the U.S. economy. Special coverage of a Braver Angels national debate (braverangels.org).

•Chase Wheaton discusses President Biden's commission to study whether the U.S. Supreme Court should be expanded by up to 13 justices.

•Does President Biden's infrastructure plan have a chance of Senate passage? Stephen Macaulay, The Hustings' centrist pundit-at-large, comments from the left column.

•Alleghany County Day of Civility debate, Resolved: Should government provide health care coverage for all citizens? Affirmative debaters' comments are on the left.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

The U.S. Census Bureau releases state population numbers in a preliminary report today. The population count will determine how many representatives each state will have in the House of Representatives, and the number of Electoral College votes. 

Son of Citizens United? — The U.S. Supreme Court today will hear a case challenging California’s requirement that charitable and non-profit organizations operating in the state provide its attorney general’s office with names and addresses of its largest donors, according to SCOTUSblog. The case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriguez (consolidated with the Thomas More Law Center v. Rodriguez) could challenge the last check remaining that puts a spotlight on rich donors contributing to political clauses. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-GA, have sent a letter to Justice Amy Coney Barrett asking she recuse herself from the case, because the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Koch Brothers’ political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, announced last September that it would spend “in the seven figures” on a campaign to assure Barrett’s confirmation, SCOTUSblog says. The Supreme Court’s April argument session ends next week. 

Note: Barrett recusal or no, considering the current court’s makeup, including two other Trump administration justices, it would appear Americans for Prosperity have the upper hand in the case.

•••

Who Wants a Jab? -- Twenty percent of U.S. Americans say they do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccination, according to polling done by Morning Consult. Fourteen percent are unsure and 66% have gotten a jab or plan to. Looked at in terms of party affiliation, 27% of Republicans don’t plan to get vaccinated, the same percentage of Blacks who are not interested in the vaccine. In terms of income, 24% with no college degree are not planning to get vaccinated. Twenty-four percent of these who are earning less than $50,000 per year are also not planning for a visit to a clinic. As for those who are expressing uncertainly, 36% are concerned with side effects and 29% say they think the vaccines ran through clinical trials too quickly.

In terms of who have already been vaccinated or plan to, 85% are over 65 years old; 80% are Democrats; 84% have a post-graduate degree; 69% are men; 80% earn $100,000 or more.

Note: While the results show that 27% of Republicans don’t plan to get a vaccine and only 10% of Democrats think the same way, it should be noted that 59% of Republicans have been vaccinated or plan to. (No surprise: 80% of Democrats.) Notably, 21% of Independents don’t plan to, although 63% of them have been vaccinated or plan to. When considered from the points of view of age, income, and education, older, wealthier and more-well educated Republicans are less opposed to the vaccinations: Only 9% of Republicans over 65 are not planning to be vaccinated; only 9% of Republicans with a post-grad degree are opposed; and 11% of those who earn $100K or more per year are not interested. Which seems to indicate that older, wiser and wealthier Republicans realize the value of a vaccine. 

•••

EU Opens to U.S. Travelers – Fully vaccinated travelers from the U.S. “should” be able to visit the European Union for non-essential travel over the summer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. The EU also has approved all three COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S.--Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson--which opens the door for tourism from the U.S., Politico reports. Meanwhile, the EU also has triggered an emergency assistance response to India’s spike in the coronavirus. “The EU is pooling resources to India’s request for assistance via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism,” von der Leyen tweeted over the weekend.

•••

Biden’s Approval Ratings at 52% -- President Biden’s approval rating is “above water,” The Washington Post reports, but while it’s 10 points above Donald J. Trump’s rating four year ago (42%) and higher than Trump ever reached (Gallup found Trump to have an approval rating of 49% five times during his four years in office), it is not as strong as previous presidents, including Barack Obama (69%), George W. Bush (63%) and going back to Eisenhower at this point, just short of their first 100 days in office. The Washington Post-ABC News poll published Sunday says that broken down by party, 90% of Democrats approve of Biden’s job as president, compared with just 13% of Republicans and 47% of independents, indicating an ever-growing rift between parties and political philosophies. Also, 60% of those polled believe Biden should try to win support from Republicans by “making major changes” to his policies, while 30% believe he should try to get his policies passed with no major concessions.  

Note: Making major changes to his policies will certainly not move the pro-Trump congress members who still appear to control the GOP, though it seems Biden could help strengthen the struggling moderate wing of the Republican party against the pro-Trump wing by reaching a satisfactory deal over his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. The moderate Republicans’ counter-bid of $568 billion doesn’t seem very serious, however, as it’s lower than the 2009 Obama stimulus package now criticized for being too modest. Can the two sides eventually get to a number somewhere around the $1.0 to 1.5-trillion level?

•••

Biden Acknowledges Armenian Genocide – On its 106^th anniversary, President Biden acknowledged the start of the Armenian genocide by Ottomans in Turkey, Saturday. On April 24, 1915, “with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination,” Biden said in a statement released Saturday. Even acknowledging the genocide has been a sensitive subject for modern Turkey for much of the last century, as previous American presidents have refrained from criticizing the United States’ closest ally in the region. 

Note: Raising the longstanding controversy clearly is easier now, with long-time Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan running what most consider an authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, Erdogan quickly responded to Biden’s statement, calling for opening Turkey’s national archives and for a “joint historical committee” to investigate the validity of the U.S. president’s remarks, Newsweek reports. –Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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The objective of The Hustings is to have political discourse — not those Molotov cocktails thrown back and forth on Facebook and Twitter, “arguments” that are simply tantrums — between thoughtful people. So we would like you to comment on the topics being examined here on the site. What we would like to have is a sufficient number of comments—from both sides—such that we can post them on a weekly basis. Whether you want to provide a sentence or a paragraph, all that we ask is that you be reasoned and respectful. To comment, scroll to the bottom of this page, or email editors@thehustings.news.

Conservative opinion on the center column news appears here. Scroll down with the trackbar on the right corner of this page to read:

•Stephen Macaulay, The Hustings' centrist pundit-at-large, comments on President Biden's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, from the right column.

•Comments by "affirmative" debaters on the resolution: Deficit spending is a major risk to the U.S. economy. Special coverage of a Braver Angels national debate (braverangels.org).

•Stephen Macaulay discusses President Biden's commission to study whether the U.S. Supreme Court should be expanded by up to 13 justices.

•Does President Biden's infrastructure plan have a chance of Senate passage? Bryan Williams comments from the right column.

•Alleghany County Day of Civility debate, Resolved: Should government provide health care coverage for all citizens? Negative debaters' comments are on the right.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

By David Amaya

Walk the streets of Manhattan, and you will see the bustling of determined faces getting from one skyscraper to another. The only conspicuous worrisome sign is the face masks they wear for the health of ourselves and others. The most solemn period of mourning a change in New York City's population and the skyline is behind us. The Nation has grieved past the need for anger and vengeance from the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center by al-Qaida. President Biden is justified in bringing back home our military men from Afghanistan because as commander-in-chief, he acknowledges that the reason America went into the country 20 years ago is not the same as the reason we are in Afghanistan 20 years later. 

Former President Donald Trump agreed with the Taliban to pull U.S. forces out of Afghanistan beginning May 1, 2021. If we are to show deference to American governance, we as Americans must accept the diplomatic decisions made by our head of state with others of the same status. Americans should not change diplomatic agreements retroactively, nor should they be thought to be null with foresight. 

As the president of one of the most salient times in American history, Biden's decision to pull out of Afghanistan shows a seminal shift of our nation's priorities regarding international relations (IR). Biden IR respects the outcomes of the previous Presidential term. Still, he also is not committed to an "America First" ideology that neglects the obligation to our allies and neighbors who seek U.S. assistance. Diplomatic and humanitarian aid will remain in Afghanistan, but they will be there without the "boots and straps" of armed U.S. forces.

Although the past 20 years of U.S. presence in Afghanistan has come to shape our foreign policy attitudes, no desired outcome is manifest other than the termination of Osama Bin Laden a decade ago. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan troops have been trained by the United States since then – more than enough to combat Afghanistan's domestic terrorism. As President Biden addressed the nation regarding his decision to remove our troops, Afghanistan has the right and responsibility to lead its own country. U.S. military presence will not create a durable and sustaining Afghan government. President Biden's decision is a welcomed return to Wilsonian foreign policy after four years of reckless "America First" policy. 

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By Todd Lassa

Declare victory and withdraw. It worked for President Richard M. Nixon in January 1973 when he announced U.S. troops would leave Vietnam. Two years later, with Nixon having resigned over Watergate, the South Vietnam we fought for fell to the communist Viet Cong and it was left to Gerald Ford to order remaining personnel and diplomatic corps out of Hanoi.

The U.S. involvement in Vietnam began with “advisors” circa 1955, so there was American presence for 20 years. Our tenure in Afghanistan began under President George W. Bush, who sent troops to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Even then, there were fair warnings about staying too long. Take care of the Taliban as quickly as possible and get out of the physically rough, mountainous Central Asian nation that had held against the Soviet invasion a decade earlier. (Some analysts credit the Soviet Union’s decade in Afghanistan for depleting its military sufficiently for it to have to concede the Cold War. It must also be said that the U.S. had had troops, currently about 23,500, in South Korea since 1957, four years after the armistice with North Korea; and has had major military presences in Japan and Germany since after World War II.)

President Biden  announced plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 American troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. 

The two schools of thought on this are a.) it’s way past time, as Biden’s old boss, President Barack Obama wanted the U.S. to leave and then President Trump promised withdrawal; and b.) it will leave Afghanistan’s local government exposed once again to the Taliban, waiting in the wings. Let’s try to negotiate a full peace, first.

So we have the unusual situation of Biden’s predecessor offering damning praise for the September 11 plan, while the current president’s military advisors appear to be opposed.

“Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do,” former President Trump said in a prepared statement. “I planned to withdraw on May 1^st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.”

Biden’s own military commanders disagree, according to The Wall Street Journal. The president’s top generals, consisting of Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, leader of NATO forces in Afghanistan and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged him to consider holding all 2,500 troops in-country while the State department tried to negotiate a peace deal, the Journal reports, quoting unnamed officials. 

Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin, a retired military commander who served in the region “shared the concerns of senior officers, cautioning that withdrawing all U.S. troops” would “suspend … an insurance policy for maintaining a modicum of stability” in Afghanistan, the newspaper reported. Biden is said to have weighed the generals’ and his defense secretary’s opinions, but concluded it was time to end America’s longest war engagement. 

After nearly 20 years in Afghanistan, there is no way for President Biden to satisfy both side of the argument, no way to stay long enough to cure the country’s ills and yet find a way out, and there is no way to declare victory before leaving.

UPDATE: The Taliban has withdrawn from peace talks with the Afghanistan government that were scheduled to occur in Istanbul, Turkey, NPR reports. They were said to be unhappy with President Biden's delay of a U.S. withdrawal to September 11, from former President Trump's original date of May 1.

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By Stephen Macaulay

In one regard, it is about symbolism.

Joe Biden will have the U.S. troops—about 3,000 of them—leave Afghanistan on September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. homeland by terrorists.

A primary reason why U.S. troops had been sent to Afghanistan (and Iraq, from which the U.S. troop withdrawal occurred in 2011) was because of the threat of terrorists to the U.S. homeland.

Have the terrorists been defeated? No.

Can the terrorists ever be defeated? Probably not.

So what’s the solution? Leave and cross your fingers?

There is a position that is being taken in support of Biden’s move that says that U.S. involvement has been going on far too long and so we’ve got to put a period at the end of that sentence.

One of the few cases where Lindsay Graham stopped being a lickspittle to the Former Guy was when said Former Guy decided that he’d pull the troops out in May. Graham knew then, as he knows now, that this is a short-sighted move. 

War in the 21^st century is a different thing. There aren’t clear lines. There aren’t people on both sides wearing uniforms with insignias.

It is hit and run. The other guys don’t play by the rules. They are terrorists, not “enemy combatants” in the traditional sense.

Biden had said as part of his justification for the forthcoming departure, “our reasons for remaining in Afghanistan are becoming increasingly unclear.”

There are still terrorists there. Terrorists who don’t like the West in general, and probably the U.S., in particular. Fairly clear, isn’t it?

Biden said that the U.S. went into Afghanistan in 2001 “to ensure Afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack our homeland again.”

He added, “We did that. We accomplished that objective.”

Huh?

Biden went on to say, “With the terror threat now in many places, keeping thousands of troops grounded and concentrated in just one country at a cost of billions each year makes little sense to me and to our leaders.  We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal, and expecting a different result.”

Let’s see. There are other threats, too. So let’s pull out the troops from one place where the threat is theoretically no longer that scary and, what, put them somewhere else?

Or is this simply an economic move (“a cost of billions each year”), the Former Guy’s rationale for all things military?

What if something goes south in Afghanistan in, say, January 2022? What then? Put troops back in? How much will that cost, after the currently existing military infrastructure is dismantled?

Twenty years seems to be a long time to Americans. But “endless”?

There is probably not a good solution to the situation in Afghanistan. But leaving doesn’t seem like a solution. It seems like the lack of one.

It is also symbolic of the U.S.’s impatience.

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The first negative speaker (arguing against the resolution) in the Braver Angels debate, Garrett Neaves, argued to disabuse the notion made by most deficit hawks that the federal government should act like an American household, and endeavor to spend no more money than it takes in. Rather, he said, federal spending should follow the precepts of early 20^th Century economist John Maynard Keynes. 

“Deficit spending by our government is almost always essential to avoid causing a recession,” Neaves said. "And because every dollar being spent is also a dollar of income to someone receiving that dollar, whenever a dollar is being saved rather than spent, someone is not getting that dollar as income."

Neaves said that the federal government is not like a household, but more like a scorekeeper, deciding who should receive tax money. Deficit spending is the foundation of an economy based on fiat currency. The U.S. dollar only has value because the nation’s citizens must have them to pay income taxes. 

On household spending versus federal spending, he said "In order to be responsible for ourselves, we need to be good savers, and in order to avoid a recession, we need there to be enough spending." 

It’s an economic theory that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt employed to pull the U.S. economy out of the Great Depression but found its nemesis in 1981 when Ronald Reagan took office and preached the theory of supply-side economics, which posits that job creation is made by private employers and not the government, and therefore tax cuts for employers is the way to grow employment and stem any economic downturns.

But recessions and economic downturns in general lead everyone in an economy to hold on to their savings. That leaves only the government to willingly flow more money back into the economy by spending on federal and state programs and pay for it by printing cash or buying up its own bonds. 

"Our federal government is nothing like a household," Neaves continued. "The federal government is our monopoly creator of dollars. We can decide to have our federal government spend as much as is necessary to allow us to save as much as we want without causing a recession."

Neaves made the distinction between the often-confused federal deficit and debt. In short, the deficit is the difference between the taxes and other revenues the government takes in over a fiscal year and the amount it spends on myriad programs in that same year. Federal debt is the accumulation of years of deficits when they are not paid off, usually by printing cash (an inflation risk) and/or buying back its own bonds. "Deficit and debt fear has been a highly dominant weapon used to manipulate us for the 50 years," he said.

Under Q&A, Neaves was asked why re-institution of the gold standard wouldn’t work. 

“The gold standard was a choice,” he replied. “The government issues currency, and the currency has a real and tangible value.”

Another question regarded government-issued bonds during World War II.

“I think we should use bonds to achieve public purpose,” Neaves replied. “Bonds were sold to regulate people so they wouldn’t buy refrigerators and cars” as the factories that otherwise assembled consumer goods converted to the war effort. “Because they were sacrificing by not buying cars, they should get a return (from bond interest) for the sacrifice.”

The second negative debater, Ethan Ableman, works in Washington reading the texts of appropriation bills, and says deficits are necessary for expenditures that fall outside the boundaries of such spending bills. 

“Unlike the federal budget, nearly every single state has a balanced budget requirement.” State legislatures find it next to impossible politically to raise taxes to pay for budget shortfalls, so they have to cut spending to such necessities as infrastructure and public schools. Pandemics, natural disasters and other emergencies fall outside both federal and state budgets, with “part of the federal budget set aside, but only so much” for such agencies as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Ableman said.

“If Congress had to balance the budget during the pandemic, people would have died (as a result) for sure.” Operation Warp Speed, for example, former President Trump’s effort to speed up approval of COVID-19 vaccines, cost $10 billion in deficit spending. 

“Even if we don’t like the monetary theory, there are times when the government needs to spend large amounts of money very quickly,” the second negative concluded.

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Should the federal government be as fiscally responsible as the average American household about spending more than it takes in? Supply Siders, Keynesians and at least one young debater speaking for a post-cash economy discussed, in a very civil manner, the meaning and weight of a federal deficit on the U.S. economy on Zoom Thursday night. 

In debate-speak, affirmatives are speakers who are in favor of the resolution and negatives are against it. For this resolution, affirmatives believe deficit spending is a major risk, while negatives believe it is not a big problem.

Braver Angels’ (braverangels.org) was founded in late 2016 to “bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic agenda.” Sounds more than a bit like the philosophy that drives The Hustings as a political news website. This post on the Braver Angels debate presents the opening arguments by the four scheduled debaters on the subject of federal deficit spending. 

Arguments by affirmatives for the resolution are in the right column. Arguments by negatives for the resolution are in the left column.

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What is your position on the resolution: “Deficit spending is a major risk to the U.S. economy”? Let us know at editors@thehustings.news.

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Affirmative John R. Dykers led off the scheduled Braver Angels debaters with a moderate, balanced view of the place of federal budget deficits in the modern economy. (Affirmatives argue in favor of the debate resolution.)

“It is likely that we can all agree that this is always the discussion. There must always be a balance of the problems on which we are spending the money, (which) must also be balanced against the tolerance of those who lend the money through the bond market,” he said. “If spending makes us as a nation a more effective producer of goods and services, and a more effective entity to repay the money,” and the spending creates more income to be taxed, then the circular nature of such spending is worthwhile.

This circular nature of the economy – the “multiplier effect” – only works if the deficit spending doesn’t overheat the economy and trigger high levels of inflation, which the U.S. has not experienced through several cycles, well before The Great Recession of 2009-10.

While deficit hawks often point to the portion of debt held by China, for example, it is not one of Dykers’ serious concerns. Japan holds about 5%, and China slightly less than 5% of our debt through bonds, he notes, while other countries hold about 30% with the rest held in the U.S. (by financial institutions and largely through 401Ks, by individuals). In the Q&A, moderated parliamentary style by debate chair Luke Nathan Phillips, Dykers was asked, “How do you know when you’ve spent too much?” 

Interest rates and bond prices, Dykers responded. When interest rates go up and bond prices go down, it’s a sign that we’re in for high inflation and an overheated economy that could result in high unemployment and financial pain for many Americans.

But, he added, “it’s so complex, it’s hard to know when that happens.”

Despite trillions of dollars of coronavirus relief programs through the Trump administration and to President Biden’s $1.9-trillion American Relief Plan Act (ARPA) and proposed $2.3-trillion infrastructure package, the Federal Reserve’s target rate for interest remained in March at an historical low, of 0%-0.25%. 

“We’re now such a global economy that inflation pressures are now down from when we were a local economy,” he said. “Often this is signaled by the bond market.”

The second of the two affirmative speakers for the resolution, software engineer Bett Bollhoefer, argued from the point of view of younger generations who are looking forward to a post-cash economy. 

“It’s not a major risk for the economy,” Bollhoefer said. “It’s a major risk for the citizens.” Her peers are “looking for places to put their money” with returns “higher than inflation.” 

In other words, crypto-currency, like Bitcoin appears to be the future. Currency by fiat, such as the U.S. dollar has no inherent value. Cash is through with, she posits, and this is what her peers looking for a currency of value greater than inflation are saying.

Bollhoefer likened recent quantitative easing – in which the Federal Reserve bought up government bonds in order to push more money back into the economy for consumer spending – to “giving every citizen a (currency) printer.” 

But deficit spending would build infrastructure projects and improvements “that we’ve been ignoring for years,” one debate audience member maintained.

“If the government is spending money for infrastructure, then the money has to come from somewhere,” Bollhoefer replied.

Opening arguments by the affirmative debaters didn’t fall closely in line with those of traditional deficit hawks, but the Braver Angels audience-member debaters, whom The Hustings will cover in the next post this weekend, will provide a more hard-line point of view.

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