Tag: debt ceiling

Debt Ceiling Crisis Averted

FRIDAY 6/2/23

It is Done – All but President Biden’s signature, coming with a weekend to spare before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s deadline for averting economic catastrophe. Now all is left is for Fox News pundits to repeatedly declare Republican victory while MSNBC pundits do the same for Democrats and the White House. 

The vote: Perhaps closer than it needed to be, 63-36. The bill suspends the $31.4-trillion debt ceiling to January 1, 2025, and places a two-year cap on discretionary spending.

The quote: “It is so good for this country that both parties have come together at last to avoid default.” – Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

The irony?: After the Senate voted down 11 amendments for fear the bill would have to go back to the House for reconciliation, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sought a commitment to take up a supplemental funding bill, according to Roll Call. A supplemental to increase funding for a bill Republicans sought to cut spending from the Biden agenda. 

This is, for Republicans, a matter of defense spending vs. domestic spending.

“We’ll be here ‘til Tuesday until I get commitments that we’re going to rectify some of these problems,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who wants to ensure more funding for the Pentagon, Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.

Counting the oppo: Five Democratic senators and 31 Republicans voted against the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Here is the list, from The Hill:

Democrats:

•John Fetterman, Pennsylvania

•Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts

•Jeff Merkley, Oregon

•Bernie Sanders, Vermont (Independent, but caucuses with the Democrats)

Republicans:

•John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming

•Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee

•Mike Braun, Indiana

•Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, Alabama

•Ted Budd, North Carolina

•Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, Louisiana

•Tom Cotton, Arkansas

•Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, Idaho

•Ted Cruz, Texas

•Steve Daines, Montana

•Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, Nebraska

•Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, South Carolina

•Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, Missouri

•Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker, Mississippi

•Ron Johnson, Wisconsin

•James Lankford, Oklahoma

•Mike Lee, Utah

•Roger Marshall, Kansas

•Rand Paul, Kentucky

•Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, Florida

•Dan Sullivan, Alaska

•J.D. Vance, Ohio

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile...

THURSDAY 6/1/23

Debt Ceiling Bill Clears House – Democrats moved quickly to fill in when 29 hard-right Republican congressmembers voted against a procedure to advance the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 to the floor for a vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held up a green card indicating to his caucus they should vote with the majority of Republicans in order to push the procedure past the 218 votes needed to pass. 

And with that, the House went on to pass the bill with a bipartisan 314-117 vote, The Hill reports. “Nay” votes break down to 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats. The bill covers the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025, when President Biden and staff will be writing his second inaugural address or preparing to turn over the White House keys to his Republican challenger.

Speaker McCarthy’s future might be far less certain, as dissenting Republicans are not tamping down talk of whether a single congressmember might move to vacate him.

But don’t tarry; on to the Senate: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) expects to bring the bill to the Senate floor Friday, three days ahead of potential federal government default. 

•••

Republican Candidates on Deck – Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to announce his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before the end of this week in New Hampshire, his 2016 campaign’s Waterloo. Former Vice President Mike Pence plans to announce next Wednesday, Axios reports.

•••

Lordy … There is a Tape – Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio tape recording of ex-President Trump acknowledging that he held on to a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran near the end of his presidency, multiple sources have told CNN. In the recording, sources said, Trump said he would like to share information about an attack on Iran, but he is aware of limitations on his ability, post-president, to declassify records, two of the sources told the cable news network. 

The recording reportedly was made at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club by communications specialist Margo Martin between the former president and two people working on former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ book. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump allegedly holding on to classified documents he should have turned over to the National Archives when he left the White House in 2021 is said to be nearing its end. No indictments have been issued so far.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/31/23

House Rules Moves Debt Ceiling Bill, But … The Rules Committee voted 7-6 to move the debt ceiling compromise bill to the full House, which is set to vote on it Wednesday. “Libertarian-minded” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) provided the crucial seventh vote, The Washington Post reports. But as many as 30 House Republicans on Wednesday could vote against the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 negotiated between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). 

While the punditocracy debates which side won this fight to avoid economic disaster by averting government default, “roughly a dozen” members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus took to a Capitol Hill news conference to criticize the deal McCarthy made with Biden, according to the WaPo. Some progressive Democrats have slammed Biden for giving up too much, though the criticism is starting to look like sandbagging to cover for a very experienced negotiator. A sufficient number of House Democrats – perhaps all 213 – certainly will fill in for 30 or so Freedom Caucus members casting “nay” votes. 

Upshot: That doesn’t leave McCarthy off the Freedom Caucus hook. As we’ve all learned from his drawn-out 15-ballot election to become speaker last February, it takes only one House member to move to vacate him from that role, and MAGA-minded Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) has refused to rule out such a move.

•••

Ukraine to Negotiate Peace Without Putin – Ukraine and NATO allies are planning a peace summit without Russia, according to an exclusive by The Wall Street Journal. The summit will be aimed at Kyiv’s terms for ending the war and is to be held ahead of a meeting of NATO nations planned for July.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/30/23

House Takes Up Debt Ceiling Bill – Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the full House will take up the debt ceiling bill negotiated with the White House last week, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, on Wednesday. But first, the House Rules Committee, led by a 9-4 Republican majority must move the bill forward. Three members of the Freedom Caucus who sit on Rules could potentially stick up the bill: Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Thomas Massie (R-KY).

McCarthy wants the bill to advance as-is, but Norman told NPR the bill would have to go to the full House Wednesday with amendments.

“The bill as-is is unacceptable,” Norman told Morning Edition.

Upshot: McCarthy appointed the three Freedom Caucus members to the Rules Committee in exchange for their support to become speaker.

•••

Up on The Hill – Only the full Senate was scheduled to be in session Tuesday through Friday this week, but the House will be in session for part of the week to try and advance the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 ahead of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s June 5 federal default ETA.

•••

Drone Attack Hits Moscow – A drone attack hit Moscow Tuesday morning, “just hours” after a “barrage” of Russian airstrikes killed one and injured more than a dozen in Kyiv, The Washington Post reports, “a prelude to a major escalation in hostilities.” It also comes ahead of Ukraine’s anticipated offensive to push Russian troops back across the Dnipro River. Moscow Mayor Sergei Subyanin confirmed the attack, which damaged two residential buildings.

UPDATE -- Russia claims at least eight drone attacks by Ukraine, calling them "terrorist attacks." (Per NPR)

•••

Trump Attorney Says He Was Diverted from Classified Docs – Trump attorney Evan Corcoran said he was told classified documents taken by the former president would be found only in Mar-a-Lago’s storeroom, according to a scoop in The Guardian. Corcoran was waived off from searching elsewhere at the Florida compound, including Donald J. Trump’s office, where the FBI found the most sensitive material anywhere on the property in their search last summer. Thirty-eight classified documents were found in the storage room.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Memorial Day 2023

Who Won the Debt Ceiling Fight? -- Neither Republicans nor Democrats on Capitol Hill are likely to be terribly satisfied with the Biden-McCarthy deal to lift the $31.4-trillion federal debt ceiling through the next presidential election. Even before the 99-page bill was released late Sunday progressive Democrats expressed disappointment that the White House was willing to negotiate at all over its hard-fought agenda. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told the eponymous host of MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki there may not be enough Republican support to pass the bill, taking away the potential victory from the only clear winner, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Last week, Yellen eased up on her warning that the government could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1, by four days, to June 5. 

The deal raises the debt limit through January 2025, in time for either another default showdown with a re-elected President Biden or a new round of cuts with his Republican challenger if successful. In Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) bill narrowly passed in the House last April, HR 2811, the debt ceiling would have been covered to 2033.

The deal that now will go to the full House and Senate keeps non-defense spending essentially flat through fiscal year 2024, the Associated Press reports, and raises it by 1% in FY25. It would match Biden’s defense budget proposal for FY24 at $886 billion and fund non-defense spending at $704 billion. It aims to limit federal budgetary growth to 1% per year for the next six years, beginning in FY25.

Other provisions:

•Gives special treatment to West Virginia’s Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline, the subject of a fight with environmental groups for years. While this is not treated as the lead provision elsewhere, it demands mention at the top of our list as a concession to the state’s senators, especially moderate-right Democrat Joe Manchin (the junior senator is Republican Shelley Moore Caputo). 

•The above Robert Byrdian item is in conjunction with a provision that simplifies some requirements for environmental reviews. It would simplify environmental assessments and impact statements, giving environmental agencies one year to complete, or up to two years for “complex” impacts on the environment. Though a longtime item on Republicans’ wish lists, the GOP removed this item from the White House’s Inflation Reduction Act in retaliation against Manchin for supporting the IRA in the first place.

•Rescinds about $30 billion in unspent coronavirus relief funds.

•Rescinds $1.4 billion in new Internal Revenue Service funding targeted to tax fraud. In all, $21.4 billion of $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS would be rescinded. 

•Expands work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP – formerly food stamps).

•Fully funds medical care for veterans at levels included in Bidens FY24 blueprint, including $20.3 billion in funds for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

Left in-tact: No new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, no repeal of the clean energy tax credit.

Biden: “Good news. The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a default, for the first time in our nation’s history.”

McCartby: “At the endo of the day, people can work together to be able to pass this.”

•••

Erdogan, 3, Liberal Democracy, 0 – Authoritarianism dealt liberal democracy another blow Sunday when Recep Tayyip Erdo¨gan won a third five-year term as president of Turkey in a runoff election Sunday. He beat Kiliçda Ro¨glu with 52.1% to the challenger’s 47.5%, with all but 0.57% of the vote counted, Al Jazeera reports. Erdo¨gan was Turkish prime minister, taking over in 2003 before running for president.

--TL

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FRIDAY 5/26/23

Two Years of Debt Ceiling Relief? – Republicans and the White House are inching toward a debt ceiling deal late Thursday that would lift borrowing caps to some-time in 2025 and freeze spending to current levels, rather than impose the 8% cut imposed by HR 2811, the House imposed in its bill passed in late April, according to CQ Roll Call. HR 2811 also would impose discretionary caps to 2033.

President Biden stands firm… on work requirements for certain safety-net programs, which may be the biggest sticking point. If negotiators can reach a deal here, the full House would likely vote on the debt relief bill this weekend and hand it over to the Senate in time for June 1. 

Upshot: Assuming some version of the above is passed and signed in time – before next Thursday – the debt ceiling issue will become a big issue in the 2024 elections, both presidential and congressional as Biden seeks to continue his work to dismantle Reaganomics, while a Republican president and control of Congress would give conservatives the chance to restore spending cuts imposed by the House bill.

•••

Rhodes Gets 18 Years – Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. An attorney himself, Rhodes said he “felt like a character in a Franz Kafka novel” and compared himself to a Soviet dissident sentenced to years in a prison camp, according to NPR’s All Things Considered. 

Current lead Republican candidate for president in 2024, Donald J. Trump, has said he would pardon some of those convicted of participating in the January 6th insurrection, though he has not singled out individuals who rioted.

•••

Texas House to Impeach AG – Texas’ majority Republican House has adopted 20 articles of impeachment against the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, Texas Public Radio reports. Articles of impeachment includes allegations Paxton disregarded official duties, misappropriated public resources and committed constitutional bribery and obstruction of justice. 

This stems from four employees of the AG’s office turned whistle-blowers who made and reported accusations about Paxton’s misdeeds. Most relate to a $25,000 contribution to Paxton by Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, TPM’s The Texas Newsroomreports. 

Paxton denies all articles of impeachment and says they are an effort to overturn his win in the 2022 elections. He is on the hook for $3.3-million paid to the whistleblowers. After the House votes to impeach, the case would go to the Texas senate, where Paxton’s wife is a member.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Downgrade Imminent?

Fitch Ratings placed U.S. credit on a negative watch Wednesday, in case the White House and Republican lawmakers fail to reach a deal on the debt ceiling, The Hill reports.

Become a citizen pundit and help us advance our quest for civil discussion over real news stories. Hit the Comment section below, or in the right column if more appropriate for your politics or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

Among debate issues; 

• Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), a close ally of President Biden (who was senior senator from Delaware when his first term began in 2001) has announced he will not seek a fifth term next year. Carper is the fourth incumbent Democratic senator choosing not to run in 2024, after Diane Feinstein of California, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Ben Cardin of Maryland.

•Will debt-ceiling discussions put the kibosh on President Biden’s agenda, and on his legacy as well?

•Should Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) resign early and potentially hand the 2024 Democratic primary for her seat to Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)?

•The Consumer Price Index was up 4.9% in April, still too high for the Federal Reserve, but reflecting a slow and continuing improvement over last year. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported a week earlier that the U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, higher than most economists had predicted. This comes after the Fed indicated its latest quarter-point interest rate hike might be its last for a while. All these high numbers could be fond memories of our 2023 economy if Congress fails to pass a debt ceiling increase in coming weeks.

•A Manhattan court awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million in her sexual abuse and defamation case against Donald J. Trump, who of course, will appeal.

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…meanwhile…

FRIDAY 5/19/23

Haley Welcomes DeSantis – From Des Moines, where Decision ’24 already is heating up, former North Carolina governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley grabbed a bit of spotlight from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (above), who is expected to announce his presidential candidacy next week.

“Welcome to the race. We’ve been waiting,” Haley said in an exclusive interview with The Hill. “I’m glad that he’s going to be out there because I want the American public to see who they’re choosing from.”

Haley was the second GOP candidate to announce, after Donald J. Trump, in February.

Meanwhile, back in Florida: Disney has cancelled plans for a $900 million Florida campus in Orlando’s Lake Nona and will close one of its most expensive attractions, the “Star Wars” adventure hotel, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Lake Nona, where more than 2,000 new employees were to work, is dead, Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney’s Parks, Experiences and Products division said.

“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward.”

Though “changing conditions” include Disney’s “significant” job and budget cuts, they also include a governor, DeSantis, who is not acting a Republican when it comes to his treatment of big business.

•••

Feinstein Resists Early Retirement – “Early” for the 89-year-old senator from California means before her current term is up in January 2025. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) already has announced she will not run again, and Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff and Katie Porter each have announced their intention to fill her shoes. 

Feinstein appeared “shockingly diminished” upon her return to the Senate last week after she was out more than two months for complications from shingles. Key among them was the revelation of a previously unreported case of encephalitis, The New York Times reports. The shingles also spread to Feinstein’s face and neck, resulting in Ramsey Hunt syndrome. 

While the drumbeats for her early retirement continue and she continues to resist, Feinstein only needs to remain in office to the March 5, 2024 primary, when Democratic voters in the state will choose from Lee, Porter and Schiff. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has stated his intention of choosing California’s first female senator, which could set up Lee as the catbird seat candidate for next year.

--TL

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THURSDAY 5/18/23

Santosland Diaries -- House Republicans defeated a symbolic House Democrat resolution to expel truth-challenged Rep. George Santos by referring the resolution to the Ethics Committee, by a 221-204 party line vote. Democrats on the Ethics Committee voted “present” to avoid conflict of interest, according to NPR. The unsuccessful expulsion resolution was introduced by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA).

Garcia raised the question of privilege, which allows members to force a vote on certain resolutions without support of House leadership. House leaders then have two days to bring the resolution to the floor.

Santos was indicted last week on federal criminal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to the House.

Doing the math: It takes two-thirds majority to expel a congress member for what would be only the fourth time in U.S. history, Roll Call reports. If successful, it would reduce Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s four-vote majority to just three. McCarthy said the Justice Department’s investigation of Santos should proceed as the congress member continues to participate in floor votes. 

On MSNBC’s All in With Chris Hayes, Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) said other House Republicans “cheer” Santos’ vote as he helps them make laws. 

“They are certainly interested in protecting him,” Balint said. 

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/17/23

Deal or No Deal? – Anyone who ever has been involved in labor negotiations from either side will recognize the pattern of the dance between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over raising the debt ceiling in time to avoid economic disaster. For weeks, months even, each side stands firm while blaming the other for not negotiating in good faith. 

Biden will not give up hard-fought programs like the Inflation Reduction Act to assure the federal government will pay its debts incurred over the last fiscal year. McCarthy and his thin House majority will not pay those debts unless the White House cuts back on its spending. The two sides get closer, closer, closer, though they never seem to be close to a deal until the last possible minute. Then suddenly, a breakthrough. Or not, though Congress and the president have always come through in the past. 

With barely two weeks to go until a very likely economic meltdown as early as June 1, if the government doesn’t pay its bills, we’re in that amorphous period where the union is determined not to strike and the employer truly does not want the down-time, but progress is not obvious.

Tuesday, Biden said he would cut short a diplomatic trip to Asia, which begins with a G7 summit in Hiroshima. But Biden has cancelled a planned trip afterward to Australia, next week in order to concentrate on the debt ceiling. Both Biden and McCarthy “showed signs of optimism” after an hour-long meeting in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon (labor negotiations are never that short), The New York Times reports.

“We just finished another good, productive meeting with congressional leadership about a path forward to make sure America does not default on its debt,” Biden said.

McCarthy told reporters that he could see a deal reached “by the end of the week.”

Apparently the White House sees the Republican light on calling back unspent COVID relief bills.

We predict a spoiled Memorial Day weekend for one or both of the chambers.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/16/23

Durham Reports on Trump Investigation – John Durham, a special counsel appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney Gen. William Barr to investigate the investigators in alleged Russian tampering into the 2016 Trump campaign, released more than 300 pages of criticism for the way the FBI handled the probe, The Washington Post reports. 

According to Durham’s report, the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s first presidential campaign – codenamed ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ was based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence.” 

Conversely, the FBI “proceeded cautiously” on alleged influence by a foreign actor in the 2016 Clinton campaign, WaPo says. The FBI’s conduct in Crossfire Hurricane previously came under fire in a 2019 report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which did not find “documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct” on the part of the Trump campaign. 

Democrats have denounced the Durham report, which comes after an investigation from which no one was sent to jail.

Trump, who predicted four years ago the special counsel would uncover the “crime of the century” on Monday claimed victory, writing in social medial; “the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!”

--TL

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Meanwhile This Week

MONDAY MAY 15, 2023

More UK Arms to Ukraine – The United Kingdom will send “hundreds” more missiles and attack drones to the Ukraine, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced in a meeting with President Volodomyr Zelinskyy in England, Monday, Time reports. Sunak told Zelinskyy, who landed at Sunak’s Chequers country retreat; “your leadership, your country’s bravery and fortitude are an inspiration to us all.”

On Sunday for the third stop on a whirlwind European tour that also included Paris and Rome, Zelinskyy told reporters in Berlin he is not interested in negotiating a peace deal with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whom he called “insane.” 

“It’s a joke for him. He does not understand what is happening. He is an insane human,” Zelinskyy said, according to a Ukrainian government readout of a press conference following his talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as reported by Newsweek. 

“Putin started the war. Russia took lives. The war is on our land. …

“We have not proposed an artificial plan,” Zelinskyy continued. “We have proposed how to get out of this situation, to end the war, according to the law, respecting the UN Charter, international law, people, values.” Ukraine’s Peace Formula is a 10-point plan that outlines Kyiv’s conditions for peace, and Zelinskyy says he is “not interested” in meeting with Putin for peace talks.

•••

Erdogan Beats Earthquake – Incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdo¨gan pulled out an upset, but not quite a victory, against Republican People’s Party (CHP) challenger Kiliçda Ro¨glu in Turkey’s presidential election Sunday. Erdogan received 49.51% of the vote, not enough to avoid a runoff, but well ahead of Ro¨glu’s 44.88%, a “bitter disappointment” for the challenger who had led in many polls. 

Third-party candidate Sinan Og¨an took 5.17% of the vote, indicating the potential to flip Sunday’s vote in the runoff.

Erdo¨gan, Turkey’s president for 20 years, took his hit in the polls over a slow government response February’s earthquake, which claimed 50,000 lives, and his low interest rates to revive the economy that resulted in 85% inflation, according to The Guardian.

The bigger picture: Though his nation is a NATO member, Erdo¨gan has cozied up to Vladimir Putin, in part by refusing to enforce Western sanctions against Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and buying heavily discounted Russian oil, The New York Times reports. Erdo¨gan opposes Sweden’s application for NATO membership unless Stockholm first hands over Kurdish refugees, particularly those from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Erdo¨gan during his tenure also has jailed dissidents and suppressed independent media.

Though Western officials assiduously avoid being accused of interfering in Turkish politics, “it is an open secret that European leaders, not to speak of the Biden administration, would be delighted if Erdo¨gan were to lose,” the NYT says.

•••

More Debt-Ceiling Tuesday – President Biden is scheduled to resume talks with Congressional leaders over the debt ceiling Tuesday, NBC News and Bloomberg News reported Sunday, after a weekend of talks between Congressional and White House staffers. Biden was quoted from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Sunday as being “optimistic” over reaching a deal by a potential June 1 deadline for the federal government running out of money to pay its bills. 

“I think they’re moving along, hard to tell,” Biden said. “We have not reached the crunch point yet.”

•••

Up On The Hill – Both chambers are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

--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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…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.

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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

Crunching the Debt Ceiling Numbers

House Republicans are kvetching again on the budget ceiling, which hit its $31.4-trillion limit last Thursday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen manipulated some of the government’s check-writing in order to stave off default until June, but if the hardliner Republicans don’t get the budget cuts they want in exchange for raising the ceiling – negotiations into which the White House is unwilling to enter – they could let the government default on expenditures already made and potentially tank the global economy. 

In a Sunday front-page story explaining the history of the federal government’s debt ceiling, The New York Times gathered all the available numbers and repeated the oft-mentioned fact that Republicans did not hesitate to raise the ceiling three times during the Trump administration. It concludes with a rough estimate -- noting “It is difficult to fully assign responsibility to individual presidents or parties for total levels of debt,” – that the national debt grew by $12.7 trillion when Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump were in office, and by $13 trillion under Presidents Barrack Obama and Joe Biden. 

Let us know what you think in the Comment section below or in the right column, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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Social Media Fueled 1/8

Social media stoked Sunday’s attack by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Brazil’s Congressional building, federal court and presidential palace, NPR reports. The riot was organized on such outlets as Telegram and Whatsapp, often using coded language, and was livestreamed by Bolsonaro supporters on YouTube, and could be found on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter, according to a report on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Bolsonaro supporters were also cheered on January 8 by Donald J. Trump confidant and supporter Steve Bannon, as “freedom fighters.” NPR notes that Facebook is expected to announce soon whether ex-President Trump will be allowed to return to the platform. Trump’s two-year Facebook ban was up on Sunday, January 8.

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Debt Ceiling Showdown to Come?

TUESDAY 1/11/23

With a thin majority in the 118th Congress, House Republicans have no chance of getting such controversial legislation as rescinding IRS funding (see right column) through the Democratic-majority Senate and back to President Biden’s desk. But the 221 Republican members of the House can deny an increase in the federal debt ceiling necessary to pay for an already-passed budget and potentially shut the government down. After House Republicans voted to approve Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) rules package Monday, ex-President Trump called on them to "play tough" on the debt ceiling, stoking "fears of a chaotic Congress," according to The Guardian.

That’s the sort of disruption House Democrats, as expressed by minority whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, fear of the concessions Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made to secure the votes to become speaker.

“Kevin McCarthy hasn’t held the speaker’s gavel for a whole week,” Clark said, “and already he’s handed over the keys to MAGA extremists and special interests for the next two years.” 

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Feinstein Gets a Push – Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) turns 90 this coming June, and already she is the oldest member of Congress. Feinstein has filed paperwork for re-election for 2024, though she has not declared her candidacy for a sixth full term (she won a special election in 1992).

But on Monday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) announced Monday she is running for U.S. Senate in 2024. California’s other U.S. senator, fellow Democrat Alex Padilla, won re-election in 2022 (California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to replace Kamala Harris when she became vice president in 2021) and therefore is not up for re-election until 2028. 

--TL

Enter your Comments below or in the right column, as appropriate for your leanings, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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