Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says it’s the Democrats’ responsibility to avoid a debt default that could harm the economy. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
“Early last year, one of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s longest rivals offered a lesson about why the Kentucky Republican is unfazed by his critics whenever he digs in on a political strategy.
‘The people in Kentucky who know him understand that he can’t be shamed into changing,’ Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who has worked with and clashed with McConnell for more than 50 years, said in an interview.
That was January 2020, and the context focused on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to hold articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his actions toward Ukraine to try to pressure McConnell into agreeing to hold an expansive Senate trial that would include witnesses.
Now, almost two years later, Democrats have set up a similar type of strategy that, if successful, will force Republicans to accept their fair share of the national debt that now tops $28 trillion. If this strategy fails, the federal government could run out of funding authority and enter another congressionally forced shutdown — the fourth in less than a decade — and create a debt crisis that could rattle global financial markets.
Why does the debt ceiling exist?
McConnell has declared that Senate Republicans will not vote to increase the Treasury’s authority to continue borrowing, which is the same as voting to allow a default. As he has done before, McConnell has essentially created a new rule out of whole cloth to justify his actions.
‘Let me make it perfectly clear. The country must never default. The debt ceiling will need to be raised. But who does that depends on who the American people elect,’ McConnell told Punchbowl News on Tuesday, acknowledging he will vote for a policy outcome he says he doesn’t want to occur.
Because Democrats control the White House and both branches of Congress, his argument goes, they alone are responsible for safeguarding the government’s creditworthiness and preventing a potential economic calamity.
No such rule exists, nor has it ever.
In fact, almost every time the debt ceiling has been lifted, it has been done in bipartisan fashion under the regular Senate order that requires at least 60 votes to end debate on the legislation.
In today’s 50-50 Senate, that means at least 10 Republicans have to join Democrats to approve a new debt limit or, as has been done in recent years, suspend that law for a few years.
Instead, McConnell says he is vehemently opposed to the more than $6 trillion proposed agenda President Biden has pushed on Capitol Hill and is now urging Democrats to use a parliamentary budget move to deal with the debt issue on their own.
The goal is purely political.
McConnell says he doesn’t want to breach the debt limit. He just wants to keep GOP hands clean of all this new spending in advance of the 2022 midterm elections.
Senate Republicans are almost completely united behind McConnell, with 46 Republicans signing a letter saying they will oppose the Democratic plan to pass a new suspension of the debt limit tagged on to a bill to keep federal agencies functioning past the Sept. 30 deadline. Even the four Republicans who did not sign the letter have not indicated whether they will back the plan.” Read more at Washington Post
“WASHINGTON — Fewer than 100 right-wing demonstrators, sharply outnumbered by an overwhelming police presence and even by reporters, gathered at the foot of the Capitol on Saturday to denounce what they called the mistreatment of ‘political prisoners’ who had stormed the building Jan. 6.
The peaceful gathering was the first significant right-wing protest since the Jan. 6 riot, and though even the organizers lamented the sparse turnout, the scene showed how the Capitol assault continues to reverberate eight months later.
Where only movable metal barriers stood between a mob and the Capitol on Jan. 6, layers of newly erected fence and dump trucks lined end to end guarded the building. Mounted police, absent eight months ago, now stood at the ready. Riot shields were stacked at Capitol entrances, and law enforcement from the capital region, including the Virginia State Police and the police departments for Fairfax County in Virginia and Prince George’s County in Maryland, arrived with armored cars. One hundred National Guard troops from the District of Columbia were also on alert.
The few scuffles on the outskirts of the rally were quickly squelched. The Capitol Police said on Twitter that they had arrested a few people at the event, including a man who had a gun and was charged with unlawful activities.
Rally organizers blamed the poor attendance on the show of force.
‘Shame on the people and the system who put fear in the hearts of American citizens not to come out,’ Cara Castronuova, a founder of Citizens Against Political Persecution and a self-described celebrity fitness professional, told the crowd.
There had been early indications that the event would be a shadow of the Jan. 6 protest, which was well organized by a variety of groups, featured an array of far-right personalities and included an appearance by President Donald Trump. This time, one of the groups behind the Jan. 6 event, the Proud Boys, had warned people away, and neither Trump nor any sitting members of Congress chose to attend.
The event Saturday was used as a platform for men who hope to be the next generation of Republican politicians. They included Joe Kent, a former member of the Special Forces who is challenging Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., in part because she voted to impeach Trump. Another speaker, Mike Collins, is a small-business owner in Georgia seeking to replace Rep. Jody Hice, a pro-Trump politician who is forgoing reelection to challenge Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state who refused Trump’s entreaties to tamper with the state’s vote count.
‘We have political prisoners here,’ Collins said. ‘The facts are clear: We’ve got nonviolent misdemeanor offenders that are currently being held with no bond, no access to lawyers, and sometimes in solitary confinement.’
Kent took up the same theme: ‘It’s banana republic stuff when political prisoners are arrested and denied due process,’ he told the crowd, comparing the treatment of Jan. 6 rioters to what he had seen the U.S. military do in Iraq. He added, ‘This is a slippery slope and we are on it right now.’
The narrative spun from the podium was largely untrue or exaggerated. About 15% of those arrested so far in connection with the Jan. 6 riot have been denied bail and remain in pretrial custody — much lower than the overall federal pretrial detention rate of 75%. Moreover, all of those being detained on charges related to Jan. 6 are facing serious charges like assault or obstruction of Congress; none have been accused of only misdemeanors.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Nearly 30 more Americans were evacuated from Afghanistan via a charter flight, the State Department announced Saturday.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Saturday that a Qatar Airways charter flight departed Kabul on Friday with 28 U.S. citizens and seven lawful permanent residents.
The announcement comes as the U.S. seeks to evacuate approximately 100 remaining American citizens who stayed in Afghanistan following the U.S.’s full withdrawal of troops on Aug. 31.” Read more at The Hill
“The confusion over Covid-19 booster shots got a little muddier.
A key advisory panel to the F.D.A. on Friday rejected recommending boosters to all recipients of Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose Covid vaccine, but it urged offering them to those 65 and older or people at ‘high risk’ for severe disease. American health experts largely agreed with the decision, but some questioned why the age cutoff wasn’t lowered to 60.
Depending on how high risk is defined, tens of millions of Americans could end up being eligible for the booster. Committee members specified that health care workers, emergency responders and others at risk of infection should also be eligible. Dr. Peter Marks, who oversees the F.D.A.’s vaccine division, said teachers would be included in that group.
Committee members said the data from Pfizer and elsewhere showed that two shots still protected against severe disease. The F.D.A. has the final word on vaccine approvals, and the agency typically follows the committee’s recommendation. That decision is expected this week.
An advisory committee of the C.D.C. is scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss booster shots before it issues recommendations on who exactly should receive them. There is no clear timeline for when booster shots for the other two vaccines approved in the U.S., Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, may be considered.” Read more at New York Times
Thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, are gathered near the Acuña — Del Rio International Bridge.Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times
“The U.S. will begin swiftly deporting Haitians who have gathered in the thousands at the southern border in the past week after illegally entering the country.
More than 14,000 Haitians have crossed the ankle-deep river between Mexico and Del Rio, Texas, and are camping out under a bridge, awaiting processing.
The Biden administration has three flights planned for Sunday, and more could be scheduled for the coming days. The move is meant to relieve the overflow in Del Rio and deter more Haitians from trying to come to the U.S., a strategy that has drawn criticism from human rights groups and some Democratic lawmakers.” Read more at New York Times
“President Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan could result in a presidency-defining victory if it passes. It also risks sinking under its own weight.
Over the next six weeks, Democrats will try to wrangle a bill through Congress that addresses the economy, education, immigration, climate and more. But its breadth — as if President Franklin D. Roosevelt had stuffed his entire New Deal into one piece of legislation — has opened divisions among Democrats.” Read more at New York Times
“Relations between France and the U.S. have sunk to their lowest level in decades.
The U.S. and Australia went to extraordinary lengths to keep Paris in the dark as they secretly negotiated a plan to build nuclear submarines, scuttling a defense contract worth at least $60 billion. President Emmanuel Macron of France was so enraged that he recalled the country’s ambassadors to both nations.
Australia approached the new administration soon after President Biden’s inauguration. The conventionally powered French subs, the Australians feared, would be obsolete by the time they were delivered. The Biden administration, bent on containing China, saw the deal as a way to cement ties with a Pacific ally.
But the unlikely winner is Britain, who played an early role in brokering the alliance. For its prime minister, Boris Johnson, who will meet this coming week with Biden at the White House and speak at the U.N., it is his first tangible victory in a campaign to make post-Brexit Britain a player on the global stage.” Read more at New York Times
“In Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s public apology for a drone strike that killed an aid worker and nine others brought little solace to the family members left behind.” Read more at New York Times
“Meet the newest unconventional weapon against future wildfires: goats.
Lani Malmberg travels around the West with a few hundred goats, which eat the tall brush and grasses that power wildfires and restore fire-ravaged lands to greener pastures. After the goats digest the brush, their waste returns organic matter to the soil, increasing its potential to hold water — a 1 percent increase in organic matter can hold an additional 16,500 gallons of water per acre, Malmberg said.
In other extreme weather news, three weeks after Hurricane Ida blasted through Louisiana, at least 38,000 customers are still without power outside New Orleans. The state’s grid failed because it wasn’t built to withstand major storms, experts said.
The U.N. warned that the global average temperature will rise 2.7 degrees Celsius by century’s end, even if all countries meet their promised emissions cuts.” Read more at New York Times
“When the Biden administration announced an upcoming mandate that employees be vaccinated or tested regularly at companies with 100 or more employees, there was no explanation for why 100 was the magic number — or how and when the mandate will be enforced.” Read more at New York Times
“If you’re already hungry for the seasonal transition, these are the 26 fall recipes our Food staff can’t wait to make. For a new back-pocket dish, here are 14 classic recipes you should know by heart.” Read more at New York Times
“Doctor and hospital visits for gunshot wounds rose sharply last year, Axios Future author Bryan Walsh writes from electronic health records.
Why it matters: The findings bolster preliminary data showing a surge in gun violence across the country.
What's happening: There are three big factors, with the weight for each in dispute — there are lots of politics around it.
Some expertspoint to the pandemic's unique social and economic pressures and disruptions.
The initial surge coincided with last summer's protests over police violence. Many in law enforcement point to changes in policing following the protests, including a pullback amid declining trust. This created an environment where shooters could feel more emboldened.
Gun sales have increased throughout the pandemic. Firearms background checks spiked in spring 2020 and haven't come down.
The findings: Firearms injuries that resulted in a documented health care visit began spiking in late spring 2020, according to data compiled by the Epic Health Research Network. They peaked in October.
After dipping last fall and early winter, firearm injury rates surged again in the spring, with June 2021 levels 64% higher than in 2019.
People of color were particularly vulnerable — firearm injury visits increased by 76% for Hispanic patients and 89% for Black patients, while rising 40% for whites.” Read more at Axios
“She's spent more than a year spreading misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and the vaccines meant to end it, but Dr. Simone Gold has faced no disciplinary action from her professional peers. She doesn't even have an official complaint against her. And she's not the only doctor doing this.” Read more at NPR
Photo: Sotheby's via Reuters
“A first-edition print of the Constitution will be auctioned by Sotheby's in mid-November, with value estimated at $15-$20 million.
Selby Kiffer, Sotheby senior specialist for books and manuscripts, said the printing was ‘done probably on the evening of the 16th of September, 1787, only for the use of the delegates to the Continental Convention and for the use of the Congress of the United States.’
Copies from that first printing, bearing no signatures and believed to have originally numbered about 500, were furnished to delegates of the Constitutional Convention, Reuters reports.
Two surviving copies are housed at the Library of Congress.
Sotheby's said the Constitution's first printing is considerably rarer than the first edition of the 1776 Declaration of Independence,
This copy of the Constitution last sold for $165,000 in 1988, to the late S. Howard Goldman, a New York real estate developer and private collector.
His wife, Dorothy Tapper Goldman, is selling it, with proceeds to a foundation in her name to further public understanding of democracy.” Read more at Axios
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“This art installation on 20 acres of the National Mall includes 660,000+ white plastic flags, commemorating Americans who have died of COVID.
‘In America: Remember’ — by artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, a South Dakota native — will be on the Mall through Oct. 3.” Read more at Axios
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Flags will be added each day.
Leonello Calvetti/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images
“A new company aims to bring back woolly mammoths using recovered DNA. They already have $15 million in funding and hope the species can help us combat climate change. But other scientists say it's a bad idea.” Read more at NPR