Biden’s Strategy Wins

By Ken Zino

Presidents Biden began his State of the Union speech to set this up: “The story of America is a story of progress and resilience … We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it. That is what we are doing again.” The president too was stronger -- much stronger. He used the Republican politics of grievance and destructive posturing against them to promote another two years of progressive headway.

“We’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives,” Biden said. 

Then Biden out-foxed, the Republicans starting with a jab at Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “I look forward to working with you,” he said, adding the caveat; “I don’t want to ruin your reputation.” Biden then loaded his speech with facts in the spirit of New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who in similar situations called on his political opponents to look at the record. 

Enter a tsunami of Administration triumphs: 

  • “Two years ago, our economy was reeling.”
  • “As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.”
  • “Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.”
  • “And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.”
  • "As we gather here tonight, we are writing the next chapter in the great American story, a story of progress and resilience. I define our country in one word: Possibilities.”

Republicans face crossroads. Will sanity prevail and dump Trump and his losing, racist, sexist, fascist, insurrectionist ways? A party overhaul is needed. Biden Democrats did it: Look at the party’s stunning reversal of a global trade policy that had made the rich richer and harmed the middle class. Now the rest of the Democratic Party is firmly backing Biden’s policy of building and buying American. 

Biden’s jab at Republicans who wish to end Social Security was brilliant. When a witness heckler said that it wasn’t so, Biden offered to produce the document. Heckling ensued claiming it was only one individual’s position (Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who also was chair of the party’s midterm campaigns last year). 

Biden used an assumptive close that shut down the obstructionist noise. “So Medicare and Social Security are off the books in the next budget?” Biden stared them down, into silence. 

During his first State of the Union, Biden’s Unity Agenda sought areas where both parties could work together and make progress for We The People. These are now -- again -- populist policies that only heartless Republicans could oppose: a “moonshot” at finding a cure for cancer; delivering on obligations to veterans; tackling the mental health crisis; beating the opioid and overdose epidemic; immigration reform. 

I realize that many Republicans have a George Santos-like relationship to facts. However, Biden signed more than 300 bipartisan bills. And the positive effects of, say, his infrastructure bill are just beginning, including projects in Republican districts where Biden promised to attend the groundbreaking ceremonies. 

Biden Tuesday announced a new wave of plans toward more progress, with better results for families. Along the way, Biden had Republicans on the ropes with jab after jab and devastating left hooks. 

The president said he was proud to work with Democrats and Republicans to enact major legislation that delivers on all aspects of this agenda. This starts with the deficit. As I looked at the Republicans, I saw later-day Benedict Arnolds who spent too much on tax cuts for the rich. Now they want the middle class, the poor and retired to pay the price for their actions. 

Biden’s predecessor signed nearly $2 trillion worth of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. This Republican deficit went up every year under Trump’s mis-administration. Biden has cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion. Democratic reforms to take on Big Pharma, lower prescription costs, and make the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars more.

Here’s the key to the winning strategy: Biden knows that the work to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out is far from done. “Let’s finish the job” is the rallying cry. Biden teased the budget he will send to Congress on March 9th, building on the historic economic progress of the past two years by continuing to invest in America and its people, continuing to lower costs for families; for child care, housing, college costs and health care, while protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and reducing the deficit through additional reforms.

Why abandon a winning strategy? 

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Biden Negotiates Budget in SOTU

By Todd Lassa

In the buildup to his sucker-punch of MAGA Republicans, President Biden in his State of the Union address repeated recent Democratic talking points of how he has cut the federal deficit after Congress raised the debt ceiling for his “predecessor.” Even without mentioning Donald J. Trump by name, Biden riled up those Republicans in the House of Representatives who remain resolute in support of said predecessor by describing the last administration’s budget battle in a manner few would have expected from the longtime politician.

“For the last two years my administration has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion. The largest deficit reduction in American history.” Biden’s fellow Democrats began applauding. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), sitting behind the president and next to Vice President Kamala Harris, appeared to be looking in the direction of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) while he silently mouthed appeals to shut up. 

“In the previous administration, the deficit went up four years in a row,” Biden continued. “Because those deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years of my predecessor. Nearly 25% of the entire national debt that took over 200 years to accumulate was added by just one administration alone … the last one.”

GOP grumbling began to build. 

“That’s a fact,” Biden dug in. “Check it out.” 

Boos from the MAGA wing rose to a crescendo when Biden said “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset … some Republicans. … I’m politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed.”

From the Republican side of the gallery, MTG rose to call out “Liar!” She took Biden’s bait.

“So, folks,” Biden responded, “as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the table.” 

Biden Tuesday evening gave his most loyal supporters reason to feel good about his deft balance of pugilistic politics and bipartisan comity. But it’s hard to tell whether the most progressive Democrats were sufficiently impressed with the considerable dose of anti-supply-side reverse-Reaganomics that Biden served up.

“Let’s sit down and discuss our mutual plans together” for raising the debt ceiling, Biden continued. He wants to cut the deficit by another $2 trillion. This will entail Biden’s decidedly un-bipartisan plan to impose a minimum 15% tax on billion-dollar businesses and raise taxes for rich individuals (while funding better IRS enforcement) but with no tax increases for anyone making less than $400,000 per year.

Continuing with his theme of a more blue-collar, less limousine-liberal Democratic Party, Biden outlined his new Junk Fee Protection Act, which would reduce exorbitant bank overdrafts and credit card late fees, and force airlines to return payments for cancelled flights.

Biden called for restoration of the full Child Tax Credit and proposed a public education package that would make pre-school available to all 3- and 4-year-olds, increase public school teacher pay, increase Pell Grants and expand two-year colleges. 

With Row Vaughn and Rodney Wells, parents of Tyre Nichols, in the audience as guests of first lady Jill Biden, the president voiced support for police, but said, “when police violate the public trust, they must be held accountable.” He called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Calling out Brandon Tsay, another guest of the first lady, who in January disarmed a shooter at a Monterey Park, California, Lunar New Year celebration, Biden demanded a ban on assault weapons. 

He called on Congress to “restore the right” taken away by the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

“If Congress passes a national ban [on abortion], I will veto it,” Biden said.

And Biden expressed continued support of Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. Some hard-conservative Republicans want to limit U.S. spending on military aide, while a few MAGA Republicans are more blatantly sympathetic to Vladimir Putin.

“Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages,” Biden said. “Would we stand for the defense of democracy?”

For at least the two-plus hours of his State of the Union address Tuesday night, it was hard to objectively avoid the conclusion that President Biden was owning the MAGAs. But as Capitol Hill returns to the cold, hard reality of a politically split 118thCongress, much of Biden’s agenda still faces likely opposition in the House, as well as four more months of arguments against raising the debt ceiling.

-30-

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Say Goodbye, Joe

By Stephen Macaulay

Warren Buffett is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a multinational holding company with a wide range of investments. The so-called “Oracle of Omaha”—a moniker he earned because of prescient investment decisions that have made a whole lot of people a whole lot of money — is 92. His sidekick (a.k.a., Berkshire vice chairman) Charlie Munger is 99.

And so we wonder about Joe Biden, president of the United States (a.k.a., leader of the free world), who is 80. His birthday is November 20, 1942, so fifteen days after the 2024 presidential election, he will be 82.

If Buffett or Munger make a mistake — a big mistake — in their roles at Berkshire Hathaway, then, comparatively speaking, the fallout will be limited. Lots of people will lose lots of money, but the losses are bounded.

If Biden makes a mistake — a big mistake — in his role as the guy who has access to the nuclear codes, then comparatively speaking, the fallout will be horrifying.

Too much? Weren’t people feeling profoundly uneasy a few years back knowing that Trump had access to the codes?

According to recent polling by Gallup, Biden averaged a 41% job approval rating during his second year in office (January 20, 2022 to January 19, 2023).

Arguably, 41% is the very definition of “meh.”

And while people might pound the desk and say “But Trump was worse!,” while true, Gallup measured that in his second year (January 20, 2018 to January 19, 2019) Trump was at 40.4%.

Arguably, 0.6% is the very definition of “not much.”

Consider this:

There are three things that are required of someone who is running for president:

  • Natural-born citizen of the United States
  • At least 35 years old
  • Resident of the U.S. for 14 years

Scranton, Pennsylvania-born Biden checks all those boxes. No question about it.

But here’s an interesting thing: Biden first ran for president in 1988. That’s 35 years ago.

So arguably someone who was born the year he made his first unsuccessful attempt could run against the Biden.

As he might put it, “C’mon, man.”

Biden has been committed to public service since winning a seat on the New Castle County Council in Delaware in 1970. More than half a century ago.

There can be little doubt of the man’s dedication to helping make his county — or his country — a better place.

Certainly being president puts him in a good place to do this — and he has certainly done a considerable amount of good, with things including the Inflation Reduction Act to the CHIPS and Science Act to actual infrastructure funding rather than another week of bloviation.

Certainly he has a list of other accomplishments that he’d like to check off. While this is laudable, it simply may be something he may not even get a chance to start working on. It seems as though the country — yes, even Democrats — thinks there needs to be change of a generational nature.

In his State of the Union he said he wanted to “finish the job.” 

The job is never finished. There is always something else to do in the same way the Buffett has another investment to make.

One of the phrases heard over the past few years was that there are too many politicians who are putting “party ahead of country.”

All of his good work notwithstanding, it seems as though if Joe Biden decides to run again he’ll be putting “personal interest ahead of country.”

Stepping down doesn’t mean he’s out. He becomes the quintessential “elder statesman.” His predecessor didn’t get that gig.

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Response from the Prog Left

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will not give the sole response to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday. Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez also will follow up with a response, this from the progressive left, according to The Nation.

Ramirez “will counsel that Democrats can and must offer a bold progressive program as the counterpoint to Republican obstruction and extremism,” according to the report.

“That gives Democrats an opportunity – if we can seize it,” Ramirez told The Nation. Her response to the address is on behalf of the Working Families Party, described as “promoting a progressive agenda deeply rooted in commitments to economic, social, racial justice, climate action and just foreign policy.”

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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White House SOTU Guests …

RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, parents of Tyre Nichols, are among the 25 White House guests for first lady Jill Biden’s box at President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Other guests of the first lady include Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was brutally attacked by an intruder at their San Francisco home last autumn, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova, U2 lead singer and HIV/AIDS and anti-poverty activist Bono, Lynette Bonar, who opened a special cancer center on a Native American reservation, and Ruth Cohen, a Holocaust survivor and special guest of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. 

For a complete list of Jill Biden’s guests, go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/07/the-white-house-announces-guest-list-for-the-first-ladys-box-for-the-2023-state-of-the-union-address/

--Compiled and Edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Arkansas Governor Has GOP Response

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will give the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Sanders, 40, is the nation’s youngest governor, BBC notes, and is a rising star in the GOP. She is also the daughter of Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and political commentator who served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and ran for president in 2008 and 2016.

•••

Illinois Republican Won’t Attend – Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) plans to stay away from the Capitol Tuesday night and avoid President Biden’s State of the Union address completely, Newsweek reports. Miller cites Biden’s “lies” on energy prices, immigration and the Justice Department’s probe into classified documents discovered at the president’s Wilmington, Delaware, home.

•••

Club for Growth Snubs Trump – The Club for Growth, an anti-tax organization that spent nearly $150 million in the last two election cycles has invited six potential Republican 2024 presidential candidates to its annual donor event in Florida next month. None of them are former President Trump, The New York Times reports. In a recent Club for Growth internal poll, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis beat President Biden by three points and Donald J. Trump by seven points. 

The other five Republicans invited are Trump’s UN ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. 

The Koch Brothers’ donor network, led by Americans for Prosperity, also has pivoted from Trump, turning “the page on the past,” with plans to financially support the ex-president’s opponents in next year’s GOP primaries, according to an internal memo viewed by the NYT.

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Omar Removed from House Foreign Affairs

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, 218-211, Thursday afternoon for comments she made mostly on social media sites three years ago, Roll Call reports. As a freshman in 2019, Omar appeared in social media and in public repeating an antisemitic trope equating influence in U.S. politics with money from “wealthy Jewish Americans.”

Democrats, in control of the House moved on after Omar apologized, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in anticipation of becoming House speaker this year, promised in 2021 to remove her if his party reclaimed the majority this year, calling her past remarks “appalling, wrong and disqualifying.”

Before the vote, at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) said the Democratic caucus condemned Omar’s comments three years ago and added that the vote would be about “political revenge.” 

That’s “revenge” for the House’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress having removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments two years ago over apparent endorsement of violence against Democratic lawmakers. 

Prior to her removal, Omar said; “My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I’m not on this committee for one term. My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been.”

Omar Removed from House Foreign Affairs

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, 218-211, Thursday afternoon for comments she made mostly on social media sites three years ago, Roll Call reports. As a freshman in 2019, Omar appeared in social media and in public repeating an antisemitic trope equating influence in U.S. politics with money from “wealthy Jewish Americans.”

Democrats, in control of the House moved on after Omar apologized, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in anticipation of becoming House speaker this year, promised in 2021 to remove her if his party reclaimed the majority this year, calling her past remarks “appalling, wrong and disqualifying.”

Before the vote, at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) said the Democratic caucus condemned Omar’s comments three years ago and added that the vote would be about “political revenge.” 

That’s “revenge” for the House’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress having removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments two years ago over apparent endorsement of violence against Democratic lawmakers. 

Prior to her removal, Omar said; “My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I’m not on this committee for one term. My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been.”

Go to the Comment section below or in the right column (if that’s how you lean) or email editors@thehustings.news with “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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SOTU is Tuesday

MONDAY 2/6/23

(Strong new jobs numbers certainly will be a key subject in President Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday. Scroll down to read about last month's job growth numbers and 3.4% unemployment rate.)

President Biden gives his State of the Union address Tuesday, February 7 at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Look for the president to tout last week’s surprise jobs numbers, and the big spending programs Republicans want to diminish in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. 

Biden has been touring East Coast cities in recent weeks to promote bridge and tunnel rehab projects that will be funded by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.

China’s Spy Balloon … certainly will come up. U.S. military shot it down at 2:39 Eastern time off the coast of South Carolina, immediately drawing the ire of China despite Beijing describing it as a “civilian” balloon that went off course. Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), already considered a potential presidential candidate for 2024 had criticized the White House for failing to drop the balloon from the sky the moment it entered U.S. airspace. 

The Politics: Biden is expected to announce his run for a second term soon. Much of Tuesday’s SOTU will be about his agenda, and his campaign arguments.

White House Links: The Biden administration offers this handy link on how to watch the annual State of the Union address Tuesday: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2023/02/04/how-to-watch-president-bidens-2023-state-of-the-union-address/

--TL

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...meanwhile...

SAT-SUN 2/4-5/23

New Early DNC Primary Schedule -- The Democratic National Committee has knocked the Iowa caucus out of the pole position for its 2024 early primary schedule, The Hill reports. DNC committee members moved South Carolina, the state that saved Joe Biden’s candidacy in 2020, to the lead for next year, at its winter meeting in Philadelphia. 

The early schedule, per Ballotpedia:

February 3, 2024: South Carolina

February 6: New Hampshire and Nevada

February 13: Georgia

February 27: Michigan

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...meanwhile...

FRIDAY 2/3/23

Huge Job Gains in January – The U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reports Friday, and the unemployment rate slid slightly to 3.4%, lowest since 1969. Despite a wave of high-profile layoffs at tech companies, there was widespread job growth across many industries, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says, though it highlights the usual suspects; Leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. There were also job gains in government, the BLS notes, reflecting workers returning from a strike.

•••

Spy Balloon Over Montana – Beijing is looking into reports of a Chinese spy balloon spotted over U.S. airspace, including three nuclear silo fields at Malstrom Air Force Base in Montana, NPR reports. Spokesperson Mao Ning said she has no information on whether U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China next week, as planned. Blinken would be the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit the country. 

The U.S. has not shot down the Chinese surveillance balloon, which is flying well above commercial airspace, for fears of the potential danger of falling debris.

The report comes a day after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed an agreement in Manila to open four additional U.S. military bases in The Philippines in support of America’s allies in the region. 

This Just In: Beijing has “expressed regret” for the Chinese surveillance balloon spotted flying over the U.S. (The New York Times) and says it’s for “civilian research” and drifted off-course. Meanwhile: Blinken has postponed his trip to China in light of the balloon, The Washington Post reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Up for Discussion

Will President Biden use Friday’s surprisingly strong jobs report as an argument against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to raise the federal debt ceiling without budget cuts? You can bet on it. 

Remember, from the get-go Biden has argued for his big spending programs as a sort of reversal of trickle-down Reaganomics, which itself was a reversal of FDR’s New Deal, a philosophy dear not as much to the Red Hats as to mainstream, traditional conservative Republicans. 

Also Up for Discussion: After the House of Representatives removed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Relations Committee Thursday (see left column), Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked whether he thought a Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, who was trying to break into the speaker’s office (then Rep. Nancy Pelosi) on January 6th, was doing his job. McCarthy responded; “I think he was doing his job.” Context is that ex-President Trump posted a lengthy screed on his site, Truth Social, strongly disagreeing with McCarthy and accusing police of “murdering” the pro-MAGA rioter (per MSNBC’s Morning Joe). 

Scroll down for …

•The House Judiciary Committee, under its new chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has begun investigating Biden’s “border crisis.” (Right column.)

•New hope for revival of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act? (Left column.)

•Nikki Haley, former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor is planning to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. (Right column.)

•Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wants to be running mate for the only Republican who has announced his candidacy, so far, Donald J. Trump.

Go to the Comment section below or in the left column (if that’s how you lean) or email editors@thehustings.news with “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Hope for George Floyd Policing Bill?

Vice President Kamala Harris and Rowvaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols, called for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Wednesday at Nichols’ funeral in Memphis, and now Black congressional leaders are talking about “jumpstarting” negotiations over the bill on Capitol Hill. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus told theGrio he met with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Monday to discuss police reform and that he plans to reach out to other Republican leaders on the issue.

The House passed the bill after President Biden made it a priority last year, but it stalled in the Senate where 10 Republicans were needed to break a filibuster. Better GOP support will be needed because of the new Republican majority in the House. 

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

(Defense Secretaries Lloyd Austin (U.S.) and Carlito Galvez (The Philippines) sign agreement in Manila Thursday.)

THURSDAY 2/2/23

New U.S. Military Bases in The Philippines – The United States has reached agreement with The Philippines to add four new military bases there, where American troops will be allowed to build facilities and “preposition defense assets” nearly nine years after the two nations signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Rappler reports. 

This is “a really big deal,” U.S. Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said from Manila, where the agreement was signed Thursday (per NPR). The agreement gives the U.S. access to a total of nine bases in The Philippines. 

Definition: “Preposition defense assets” are military arms and equipment that “reduce deployment time,” according to Tactical Defense media. 

Context: The deal is meant to check Chinese military presence in the region, especially in support of Taiwan. The EDCA was signed in 2014 between the Obama administration and the Aquino administration, but Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte pivoted the country toward Beijing when he took over in 2016. 

Thursday’s agreement was signed under the administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. – son of the late dictator Ferdinand Sr. and famous shoe-collector Imelda – who was elected president of The Philippines last year. 

•••

Record Profits for Oil’s Big Three – The oil industry’s “three big majors” posted $134 billion in record profits for 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic’s global hibernation caused skyrocketing prices at the pump in the U.S. and elsewhere. Shell was the latest to post its record profit Wednesday, of $41.6 billion, up from its previous record of $31.4 billion in 2021, The Wall Street Journal reports. The other two of the “big three” are …

•ExxonMobil: $55.7 billion.

•Chevron: $36.5 billion.

For Comparison Purposes: General Motors and Tesla both have posted record net income for 2022; $14.5 billion for GM and $13.7 billion for Tesla, Autoweek reports.

•••

Powell on the Rate Hike – Chairman Jerome Powell said this about the Federal Reserve’s eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday: “We can now say I think for the first time that the disinflationary process has started.” (Per Fortune.)

What This Means: The Fed is satisfied with improvements in the Consumer Price Index and after raising its interest rate from near-zero to more than 4% over the last year, passed an 0.25% increase Wednesday (to the 4.5% to 4.75% range). Though Powell warned of further increases this year, Wall Street took his comments as indication the hikes are over, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ up 2.2% and the New York Stock Exchange composite up 0.53% Wednesday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

‘Biden Border Crisis’ Investigation Begins

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) kicked off “The Biden Border Crisis – Part 1” Wednesday, arguably the GOP’s biggest issue in talking points against the second half of the current Biden administration. Jordan blamed Biden for a record number of migrant apprehension at the border over the past two years, NPR’s Morning Edition says, and took testimony from Brandon Dunn, whose 15-year-old son died last year from fentanyl poisoning. 

“It is open. The border is dangerous,” committee member Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) countered that the investigation amounts to “political theater.”

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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Senate vs. House in Debt Ceiling Showdown

Congress has four months to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a potential global depression. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) believes his party’s arguments can turn House Republicans on the matter.

“The plan is to get our Republican colleagues in the House to understand they’re flirting with disaster and hurting the American people,” Schumer said (per The Hill). “And to let the American people to understand that as well. And I think we’ll win.”

Senate Republicans appear to be on Schumer’s side, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is giving no support to his party’s House majority, so far. 

Who’s Not on Board?: Wall Street is not backing the White House’s urgency to raise the limit. “They’re banking on the Treasury department’s ability to prioritize payments so that bondholders keep getting paid with the limited cash available,” Politico reports.

•••

Interested in discussing political news in a safe, civil media environment? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

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…meanwhile…

(Funeral for Tyre Nichols is Wednesday, with eulogy by National Action Network founder Rev. Al Sharpton and a call to action by Ben Crump, national civil rights attorney representing the Nichols family. (AP) About 2,500 are expected to attend.)

WEDNESDAY 2/1/23

UPDATE ON REHOBOTH – No classified documents were found in the FBI’s search of the president’s vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware, Biden’s attorney said (AP). Federal agents did take some handwritten notes and other materials related to Biden’s time as vice president, however. 

•••

UPDATE ON THE FED – The Federal Reserve boosted its interest rate by 0.25% Wednesday afternoon, as expected, but warned that ongoing increases are warranted (per The New York Times).

•••

FBI Searches Biden’s Beach Home – The FBI began a search of President Biden’s beach home in Rehoboth, Delaware, for possible classified documents Wednesday morning, weeks after discovering classified documents in Biden’s former Washington, D.C. office and his primary home in Wilmington, Delaware, The Hill reports. Unlike his longtime home in Wilmington, Biden purchased the Rehoboth home after he left office as vice president in 2017.

•••

Debt Ceiling Confab – President Biden is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over raising the debt ceiling and avoid U.S. government default this June. House Republicans want to make cuts in the federal budget already passed, though McCarthy has said Medicare and Social Security cuts some House Republicans have favored are “off the table,” The Hillsays.

•••

The Fed’s Next Move – The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday. Last year’s increases were at a steep 0.75% as the Consumer Price Index peaked at 9.1% in June, except for December’s hike of 0.5%, when the CPI eased to 6.5%. An 0.25% hike is expected for Wednesday, The Washington Post says, which would put the prime rate at 4.5%-4.75%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference at 2:30 p.m.

--TL

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...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 1/31/23

(Two more Memphis police officers were disciplined and three emergency responders were fired, officials said late Monday, over the death of Tyre Nichols –AP. See “Will Nichols’ Death Force Policing Change?” below.)

“Distracting” Santos Steps Down from Committees – Rep. George Santos (R-NY) told House Republicans he will step down temporarily from his assignments on the Small Business, and Science, Space & Technology committees “because he’s a distraction,” an unnamed Republican colleague tells The Washington Post. Santos, who faces “multiple investigations” into his 2022 campaign finances and has lied about key aspects of his education, employment and religious history, met privately with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday.

•••

Criminal Charges for Trump? – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Briggs (D) is showing a grand jury evidence that about $130,000 in hush money paid by Donald J. Trump to adult film star Stormy Daniels just prior to the 2016 presidential election, a “clear sign” the D.A. is nearing a decision on whether to bring criminal charges against the former president. According to The New York Times, the charges could hinge on whether prosecutors can show that Trump and his company falsified records to hide the hush money payment from voters. 

--TL

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Will Nichols' Death Force Policing Change?

MONDAY 1/30/23

After a weekend of peaceful protests in Memphis, Washington, D.C. and other cities following the late-Friday release of video depicting the brutal beating and pepper-spraying by police of Tyre Nichols (above), debate on the danger young Black men face from local police departments seems to be shifting to the need for systemic change. 

Nichols is the 29-year-old Black man who died three days after Memphis police pulled him over for erratic driving and dragged him out of his car and according to body camera and remote footage, chased him down and beat him as he called out for his mother. Five officers involved in the beating first were fired, then were charged last week with murder, and their special unit, Scorpion – Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods – was disbanded, all within three weeks of Nichols’ traffic stop. Charges against other officers may be forthcoming.

All Scorpion officers who attacked Nichols according to the four videos released last week are Black. As The New York Timesnoted over the weekend, “It took 13 months and an order from a judge for the authorities in Chicago to relase videos showing a police officer firing 16 bullets into Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager on a busy roadway in 2014.” Until the swift actions taken by Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, a Black woman in the job since 2021, it was typical for local police departments to delay for months or even refuse to take action against white officers involved in such cases. 

But Ben Crump, attorney for the Daniels family in the Memphis case says these cases are about intstutionalized racism in police departments, no matter the racial makeup of police officers involved.

“We have to talk about this institutionalized police culture that has the unwritten law, you can engage in the excessive use of force against Black and brown people,” Crump told ABC News’ This Week.

•••

This Week On the Hill – The Senate and the House are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

President Biden is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) at the White House Wednesday to discuss the debt ceiling, MSNBC’s Morning Joe reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Report Says Haley to Announce This Month

Former UN ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to announce her candidacy for president in Charleston Wednesday, February 15. Haley would become the second candidate for next year’s GOP nomination after former President Trump, whom she served as UN ambassador. The story was first reported by The Post and Courier of Charlotte, which cites an “invitation going out soon to her backers…”. 

Haley said in 2021 she would not run in 2024 if Trump does, Politico notes, but she “telegraphed” her change-of-mind in a January Fox News interview. Since at least the November midterms, Gov. Ron DeSantis has consistently led Trump in polls of potential Republican presidential hopefuls – often by a large margin -- though the Florida governor has yet to announce himself. By announcing this early, Haley would likely gather support from more moderate Republicans, and potentially bring some longtime never-Trumpers back into the fold.

--TL

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Moving On From Trump?

TUESDAY 1/31/23

How large is Donald J. Trump’s loud and faithful base? A poll published Tuesday by The Bulwark/North Star Opinion Research puts it at 28% to 30% of Republicans potentially voting in the 2024 GOP primaries, which seems about right considering Trump’s approval ratings while president. 

The poll offers three scenarios; 

*One-on-one versus Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who has led Trump in various polls for months – with a 52% to 30% lead.

•DeSantis vs. Trump vs. a “generic” third candidate.

•A 10-candidate ballot, including DeSantis, Trump, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney.

We’ll leave it to The Bulwark (thebulwark.com -- subscription required) to earn your readership with the poll’s details, but you should know that a warning comes with the poll, comparing results for Trump to his take of the early presidential primaries in 2016. 

--TL

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House Committees Begin Investigations

MONDAY 1/30/23

With their thin majority in the 118th Congress resulting from last year’s midterm elecitons, Republicans leading the House Oversight and Judiciary committees begin investigations this week into pandemic relief spending under the Biden administration. 

“There’s been reports of lots of waste, fraud and abuse with respect to the stimulus funds, the PPP loan funds unemployment and all of that,” Oversight chair James Comer (R-KY) said, per NPR’s Morning Edition. Comer’s committee also will investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop, a MAGA-right issue since before the 2020 presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee under Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) will investigate “Biden’s border crisis,” according to NPR.

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Interested in discussing political news in a safe, civil media environment? What are your thoughts on these and other recent political stories and issues? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

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