Daily News & Notes returns Wednesday, December 1. Send your comments on news and politics, and on our three-column debates to editors@thehustings.news.
FRI 11/19/21
•The Hustings joins the Senate and House of Representatives in taking Thanksgiving recess. The Senate returns Monday, November 29, the House returns Tuesday, November 30 and The Hustings returns Wednesday, December 1. Happy Thanksgiving.
Build Back Better Passes House, 220-213 – Since when does the House filibuster? They call it the “Magic Minute” and House leaders may use it to speak for as long as they want. Then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, used it to delay a vote on a Trump administration immigration bill in 2018.
Current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s, R-CA, Magic Minute came to eight hours, 32 minutes, by the time he finished at 4:46 a.m. EST Friday, The Hill reports, on his getting a COVID-19 booster, inflation, the Gettysburg Address, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, President Washington crossing the Delaware, and U.S. policy toward China.
This was McCarthy’s Magic Minute to try and delay President Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill. On that, the minority leader said this: “You are spending so much money. Never before!”
McCarthy’s warning on the level of spending surely will echo on the Senate floor when that chamber takes up the bill next month, or more likely, next year.
Keep in mind the $1.75-trillion BBB covers 10 years of spending. Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office turned in its report scoring the BBB, with the estimate it will add $367 billion to the federal budget deficit over those next 10 years. HR 3576’s Democratic proponents argue the CBO score does not count an additional $207 billion in revenue it has estimated the BBB would bring in by providing more money for IRS enforcement, according to The Hill’s report.
The math v. McCarthy:
•BBB deficit spending minus the estimated increase in tax revenues from the added IRS enforcement comes to $160 billion over 10 years, or an average of $16 billion per year, per the CBO report.
•The CBO projected the contentious Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, which averages out to $190 billion per year.
•Senators have proposed nearly 1,000 amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which reached the Senate floor Thursday (Politico). One of these is by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a lead proponent of BBB, who wants to slash 10% from military spending. The White House has requested $715 billion – that’s for 2022 – but the Senate Armed Services Committee has requested $740 billion, or $25 billion more. For one year.
Republicans can legitimately protest a big social safety net spending bill coming during the pandemic and 6.2% annual inflation. They cannot legitimately claim it is anywhere near the biggest spending bill, ever.
The House passed HR 5376 just before 10 a.m. Friday, by 220-213 vote. Rep. Jared Golden, D-ME, was the only congress member to vote against his party on the bill, which now proceeds to the Senate.
“This bill is monumental,” Speaker Pelosi said in a press conference after the vote. “It’s historic, it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done.”
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Navarro Subpoenaed by House COVID Committee -- Peter Navarro, failed politician (he ran for office in San Diego five times and secured victory zero times) and economist of dubious repute (he is a big proponent of tariffs, which even Adam Smith knew didn’t work out well for those on the receiving end), the man who served in the Trump administration as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy (a position created for him that ceased to exist post-Trump presidency, which gives you an indication of its value: Do created positions in government ever go away unless they are completely dubious?), has been issued a subpoena by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, according to Politico.
Note: When Politico contacted Navarro regarding the congressional investigation, he responded, “I will be delivering a case of my new book In Trump Time to members of the committee which explains why this is indeed a witch hunt.”
What do we see here?
•The completely mercenary approach of people who were in the Trump administration (“my new book”). One of Navarro’s roles was to secure medical supplies and drugs. Apparently, there were contracts let to companies without open bidding to, Politico reports, “companies with close ties to the administration.” Remember the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)? That was in Navarro’s remit.
•The continued nonsensical claims (“witch hunt”). Navarro, when leading efforts to respond to the pandemic, a man with no background in science, no background in medicine, pushed hydroxychloroquine. Even though the FDA had revoked emergency use authorization for the drug, Navarro still promoted it.
All the best people.
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Keep Your Kids Away from the Computer Screen for This – In the scrum following QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley’s sentencing to 41 months in federal prison for obstructing an official proceeding by participating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, one reporter asked the defendant’s attorney what he considered “appropriate accountability” for ex-President Trump Mediaite reports.
“If you’re asking my opinion, my opinion is meaningless,” Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, replied. “I will say that I would probably be far more effective over a beer with former President Trump, even if he didn’t have a beer, because I understand he doesn’t drink beer, but I’d have a beer. And I’d tell him, ‘you know what? You’ve got a few fucking things to do. Including clearing this fucking mess up and taking care of a lot of the jackasses that you fucked up because of January 6.” (Note that Chansley pleaded guilty to his charges.) Watkins continued, “In the meantime, I might talk to him about some other things that I agree with him on. But my opinion doesn’t mean shit.”
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
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THU 11/18/21
•President Biden will host the first “Three Amigos” summit since 2016 at the White House today, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
•Biden has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether retail gas and natural gas prices are being manipulated by Big Oil. ‘Unfinished’ gas costs are decreasing while gasoline prices at the pump are up 60% from a year ago (Marketplace).
•Not political, thankfully, but worth noting: The longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years may be viewed anywhere in North America, beginning 1:02 a.m. EST Friday/10:02 PST tonight and runs three hours, 28 minutes and 24 seconds.
House Censures Gosar – That Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, was censured by the House of Representatives 223 for and 207 against (with one being “present”) should come as no surprise. As there were only two Republican members — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — who joined the Democrats in punishing Gosar for posting a video showing an anime video of him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and threatening the president is also not surprising.
What is surprising is how the GOP — once the party that was arguably the “grown-up” party, standing for things like morality and responsibility -- has become the Party Without Shame.
Here’s a simple metric: remember the book that came out some years ago titled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Let’s apply author Robert Fulghum’s metric to the behavior of the Republicans in this instance.
First, there is Gosar. Unrepentant for that video. Is this behavior that should be supported in children: “Here’s a picture of me killing Johnny: Whaddaya think, Mom?”
There is the claim that his staff posted it and he didn’t. Where is the taking of responsibility? “I didn’t make Sally do, it, Dad, she just did it herself. Yes, I gave her some money. But I didn’t do it.”
There is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowing revenge. “You just wait, Billy. I’m gonna get you real bad.” How is that laudable?
Being a grown-up is hard.
Clearly the Republicans are no longer interested in doing hard things. Like taking responsibility and holding a higher moral standard.
It has become the party that would flunk kindergarten.
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Meanwhile, Democrats Fail Math – Latest on President Biden’s Build Back Better social infrastructure program is that the House could take up a vote as early as today or Friday (believe it when you see it). “If there’s any chance of preserving their majority,” Punchbowl News says, referring to the midterms now less than a year away, “House Democrats will have to get BBB passed and on to the Senate. They will deal with whatever is sent back their way.”
Note: Remember when progressive House Democrats, backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held bipartisan infrastructure hostage, saying they wouldn’t vote for the bill until BBB was passed along with it, which of course requires backing from Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, and, oh by the way, we should double that to $6 trillion? If the House had passed bipartisan infrastructure in September, the progs would have had these last two months, and potentially some goodwill from bipartisan infrastructure, to sort out the social programs bill.
Prediction: “Whatever is sent back” will be a reduction from $1.75 trillion to Manchin’s ceiling of $1.5 trillion, if it’s sent back to the House at all.
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January 6 Tourist Sentenced to 41 Months – Jacob Hensley, the spear-carrying January 6 Capitol insurrectionist seen all over cable news with a horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint, was sentenced to 41 months in prison Wednesday after pleading “guilty” to felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding, the AP reports. Hensley, of Arizona, was one of the first to enter the Capitol and has received the longest sentence so far among 38 rioters prosecuted.
“I have no excuse, no excuse whatsoever,” Hensley told the judge. “My behavior is indefensible.” (So was his attire on January 6.) His attorney had tried to get Hensley credit for the 10 months he has spent in jail over the case.
Note: Meanwhile, former Trump campaign advisor Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt of Congress charges and is free (though he had to give up his passport to federal authorities) to continue posting his fiery pro-MAGA podcasts (CNN).
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One More from the House of Kindergarten – Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, “would probably make a good congressional intern,” Rep. Max Gaetz, R-FL, told Newsmax Wednesday, according to The Washington Post, which has apparently found a reporter willing to stomach the pro-Trump cable “news” outlet. Yes, that Kyle Rittenhouse, who faces potential life in prison if he’s found guilty of homicide in the fatal shooting of two people in last year’s Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests. Of course, upon his arrest (when he was still 17), Rittenhouse quickly became a hero on extremist outlets. The jury in his trial began their third day of deliberations today.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
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WED 11/17/21
•President Biden promotes the bipartisan infrastructure program today at General Motors’ electric vehicle assembly plant in Hamtramck, Michigan (NPR). Meanwhile, House Democrats are considering removal of a tax credit for union-built EVs (like those to be built in Hamtramck) from Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better plan in order to promote passage by the Senate(Roll Call).
•Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, wants a vote on the Build Back Better bill by Christmas, though Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, is pushing to waive it off until next year (NBC News). The House is scheduled to vote on it (very) late this week.
•The U.S. plans to buy 10 million Pfizer and Merck COVID-19 pills, which officials believe could be a pandemic game-changer (WaPo).
•The prosecution wrapped yesterday, and now defense presents its case in the Georgia trial of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, as the Wisconsin jury in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse enters its second day of deliberations.
House to Vote on Censuring Gosar – Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, the former dentist whose two brothers and a sister (out of nine siblings) have called for his resignation, is up for House censure in a vote today, according to Politico, over an animated video posted online depicting Gosar fatally stabbing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, in the neck. Gosar also is shown about to attack President Biden in the cartoon video reportedly posted by the congressman’s staff. Along with the censure, the House will vote on removing Gosar from his committee assignments, a la Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, who lost her assignments way back in February for pro-QAnon postings prior to running for Congress.
MTG, meanwhile, is pushing Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, to strip 13 House Republican “traitors” who voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill of their committee assignments.
Note: Pundit chatter points to this dichotomy as evidence the GOP is as much in disarray as the Democratic Party, though of a disarray particular to Republicans. McCarthy was once a relatively moderate Republican himself – he’s from California, after all – but now he must consider giving in to MTG’s (and thus Donald J. Trump’s) wishes, as the House Democratic majority votes to censure and strop Gosar, anyway.
Meanwhile, cable news stations and other outlets that are not Fox News report on House Republicans who voted against bipartisan infrastructure but are touting bridge repairs and the like they are bringing home to constituents.
Bottom Line: No matter what McCarthy does to stifle the increasingly loud arguments between his party’s factions, no pundits are backing off the presumption that a GOP massacre in next November’s House midterms will shift power to Republicans. The guarantee of a GOP House is not a guarantee of McCarthy as House speaker, however – if a majority of a Republican House majority are pro-Trumpers, there remains a real chance the former president, and not McCarthy, would replace Nancy Pelosi.
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Rep. Speier Announces Retirement – Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, announced she will not seek re-election in next year’s midterms, per Roll Call. Speier, 71, ran for the House of Representatives after she was shot by members of the Peoples Temple cult at Jonestown in Guyana in 1978. Her boss, Rep. Leo J. Ryan, was killed at the airport there following the massacre of 37 cult members. Speier currently holds senior positions on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and chairs subcommittees on both.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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TUE 11/16/21
•Retail sales rose 1.7% in October, the Commerce Department reports, a stronger showing than expected and compared with an 0.8% increase for September. The latest numbers provide much-needed good economic news for the White House.
•Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was released Monday after turning himself in to the FBI in Washington, D.C., over Contempt of Congress charges. He faces up to $200,000 in fines and two years in jail if convicted, NPR reports, and was required to turn in his passport.
•Jury deliberations have begun in the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
•In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 65% said the Supreme Court should overturn Texas’ abortion law restricting the procedure after the sixth week of pregnancy, and 60% believe Roe v. Wade should be upheld. SCOTUS will consider December 1 a Mississippi law restricting abortions after 15 weeks.
Social Infrastructure Vote Saturday? – The House vote on the Build Back Better plan, President Biden’s $1.75-trillion social infrastructure bill, could slip to Saturday, The Hill reports, citing a “senior Democrat source.” Considering how the House dragged out the bipartisan infrastructure vote, Saturday seems pretty optimistic, though the Thanksgiving break looms.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office promises its price tag on the bill by end of the day Friday. What’s the over-under on a Sunday vote?
Note: Forget the comparisons with FDR and LBJ over Build Back Better. Thanks largely to the 6.2% U.S. inflation rate, Biden is now being compared with Jimmy Carter.
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Pep Rally for Biden’s BIF Signature – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, was busy, as promised, with other matters. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, who is gearing up for a Trump-picked primary challenger in next year’s midterms, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, who already has announced he will not run for re-election, both attended President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill-signing ceremony Monday afternoon.
House Republicans Don Young, of Alaska (who is not seeking re-election) and Tom Reed, of New York (who is) also attended.
Biden has chosen former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to be his infrastructure czar. He and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will administer the $1.75-trillion infrastructure budget, $550 billion of which is new spending.
At the ceremony, Portman had this to say about attacks against the 13 Republican representatives and 19 Republican senators who voted for the bill, which Donald J. Trump has criticized though he had proposed a similar $1 trillion package during his many “Infrastructure Weeks” as president: “Finding common ground to advance the interests of the American people should be rewarded, not attacked.” (Per NPR’s All Things Considered.)
Portman said bipartisan infrastructure will help create jobs and reduce inflation, which might be enough of a win for Biden no matter how his social infrastructure bill goes down.
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Wonder Where the Flat Screen Was Made – The virtual summit between President Biden from the Oval Office, a big flat screen to his left broadcasting the video call, and Chinese President Xi Jingping from Beijing went on for more than three hours Monday night. The two discussed Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, human rights, climate change and Taiwan but did not produce any major resolutions, according to White House officials (from The Wall Street Journal’s report).
Biden told Xi he remains committed to the “One China” policy, according to White House officials, though he added the U.S. “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
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On Christie’s Republican Rescue Effort – Though former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has yet to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, he is making the rounds of non-Fox News media outlets in a tour for his new book, Republican Rescue. Though this Republican comeback kid, a sort of GOP counterpart to former perennial presidential candidate Joe Biden, wrote the book to pick a fight and distance himself from former President Trump, the punditocracy isn’t very sympathetic. Christie was one of the earliest mainstream Republicans to support Trump’s 2016 run and was an advisor early in the administration.
The big question though is whether Christie’s re-emergence as a never-in-2024-Trumper is any indication that the GOP is backing away – however slowly – from the former president. On MSNBC’s The 11th Hour Monday, Christie cited the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll showing that 61% of self-identified Republicans say they have more allegiance to the GOP than to Donald Trump (26%).
Note: Though The 11th Hour host Brian Williams pressed Christie on his fervid loyalty to Trump through most of the administration, Williams didn’t ask him about the polls over the past 10 months – countering the latest Iowa poll -- that show a vast majority of the nation’s Republicans believe Donald J. Trump’s Big Lie.
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Alex Jones Found Liable in Sandy Hook Case – Infowars host Alex Jones must pay eight families who filed a lawsuit against him for defamation over the Sandy Hook school shooting, The Washington Post reports. Jones had made up stories that families of the 26 killed at the Newton, Connecticut elementary school were paid actors who “faked” the shooting. The judge in the case found for the plaintiffs after Jones refused to turn over documents related to the case.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics
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MON 11/15/21
•Big Monday for President Biden, who signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill at 3 p.m. and holds a virtual meeting this evening with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
•Stephen K. Bannon turned himself in to the FBI’s Washington field office Monday after the Justice Department indicted the former Trump adviser with two counts of contempt of Congress, for failing to respond to a subpoena from the 1/6 House select committee (NPR).
Build Back Better This Week? – Democrats in the House of Representatives expect to pass President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social safety net Build Back Better bill this week, but “this week” could mean “by the weekend” or even “early next week.” Whether even “this year” is realistic, Congress members’ desire to take their Thanksgiving week break adds extra pressure, according to Punchbowl News. Progressives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, want a vote this week, and moderates led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, “see no reason for a delay” on the vote, according to the Punchbowl News report.
And Then There’s the CBO: However, the Congressional Budget Office is expected to update today its timetable for the scoring of the BBB. Moderate Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, want to see that the program is fully funded. The CBO probably won’t release anything until Thursday.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, says the Senate cannot complete its “Byrd Bath” until it receives the CBO report, anyway. So the bill potentially could sit in the Senate between Thanksgiving and New Year’s 2022.
The ‘Byrd Bath’ is – Late-Sen. Robert Byrd’s, D-WV, rule that prevents extraneous provisions tacked on to a budget reconciliation bill, and thus potentially be approved without filibuster challenges. Byrd sponsored the rule, which the Senate adopted in 1985-86, according to Congressional Research Service.
Fun Fact: Upon Byrd’s death in 2010, then-Gov. Joe Manchin, D, of West Virginia, named Carte Goodwin to fill out the rest of his term. When Goodwin chose not to run for re-election in November 2010, Manchin ran for the Senate seat himself. The rest is Democratic Party history.
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There Will be Oil – At what price? Gasoline and diesel, and home heating oil prices are at the forefront of inflation fears that continue to dog President Biden’s agenda. Opposition to his Build Back Better program, now set at $1.9 trillion, is tied to the 6.2% annual inflation rate the Commerce Department reported last week.
Republicans and other opponents of the Build Back Better program say they worry this part of Biden’s agenda, in particular, will only fuel the high inflation rate. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says inflation will come down as supply chains open up next year. In other words, the beginning, or the middle, or worst-case scenario for the Democrats, near the end of the midterm elections.
But oil prices tend to be controlled by Big Oil. There are no signs yet of delivery problems to the pump. AAA, by the way, says the national average price of regular gas is $3.415/gallon as of Monday, up from $2.126/gal November 15, 2020. Diesel averages $3.646/gal, versus $2.386/gal a year ago.
United Nations Climate Change Summit, Blah, Blah, Blah: Big Oil has been in a constant fight for years to slow the advance of the renewable energy industry. Oil price spikes come at the convergence of a restart of world economies after the pandemic shutdown and of the fairly ineffective COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The nations did not meet summit goals of a plan to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius per year.
According to The Washington Post, the COP26 summit ended last weekend with nearly 200 countries agreeing to ramp up carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poorer countries to help them convert to renewable energy sources. But language to “phase out” coal was watered down to “phase down” coal after a last-minute request by the world’s two most populous countries, China and India.
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Washington Real Estate News – The Trump Organization is selling its lease for its hotel in Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office for $375 million, The Wall Street Journal scooped over the weekend. Subject of House committee investigations and hearings on conflicts of interest and the emoluments clause involving former President Trump, the hotel’s lease was sold to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm. The federal government still owns the building.
Elsewhere within the District, friend-of-Trump Peter Thiel has been identified by Politico as the purchaser of Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross’ 10,000-square-foot house in the Woodland-Normanstone neighborhood for $13 million. Wilbur Ross was Trump’s Commerce secretary. Thiel is the German co-founder of PayPal, who secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.com, putting the media outlet out of business, and was known for his speech praising Trump at the 2016 GOP Convention. He has made separate $10 million donations to super PACs supporting the 2022 House candidacies of J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona, according to Politico.
Note: The soon-to-be ex-Trump Hotel (no recounts, please) may go from being a meeting place for Republican power brokers to a meeting place for Democratic and Republican power brokers. The former Ross residence? Not so much.
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Leahy to Retire – Vermont’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, 84, has announced he will not run for re-election in 2022, NPR reports. Leahy is serving his eighth term in the Senate.
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O’Rourke Shoots for Texas Gubernatorial Race – Will his third campaign be a charm? Former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced he will run for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott’s re-election next year, The Texas Tribune reports. O’Rourke conducted a high-profile challenge to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R, in 2018, and entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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