Johnson’s alliance: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is looking to spend big your just released taxpayer dollars on several aid projects that will go to Israel, Ukraine and other allies. There’s just one problem: He can’t convince his Republican colleagues to get on board — a dynamic we’ve seen play out time and time again, as Republicans are divided over how much foreign aid the U.S. should dole out (with one flank right). of the party that continues to subordinate foreign aid to the security of the southern border).
Now Johnson is trying to rely on Democrats to get his bills through the House. “If Democrats were to provide those crucial votes, it would mark the second time in two years that Republican leaders had to turn to the minority party to bail them out from their recalcitrant right-wing colleagues in order to allow important legislation to be debated, and we voted,” he reports The New York Times. That’s right: bipartisanship for more spending. What could go wrong?
The new speaker of the House needs the support of the Democrats not only for the very substance of the measure but also for the procedural motion that will bring the bills to the chamber, since he does not even have the support of his own party (which has a rather large majority small).
Unlikely Friends: Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie (R) (est Just ask questions guest!) Both disapprove of Johnson and his attempts to get financing approved for Ukraine. Greene made a motion to vacate the speaker from his position in a snap vote, similar to how former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was ousted last year. Massie also suggested that Johnson should resign.
“The speaker is considering a complicated approach that would break up the Senate’s $95 billion relief package for separate votes, then stitch it back together or send the components to the Senate for final approval, and potentially to the White House for signature of the president,” reports the Associated Press. Democrats, for their part, are asking for at least $9 billion in humanitarian aid. Although the Ukrainian war effort is in desperate need of more ammunition, and the United States is already deeply involved in supporting Israel following Iranian hostilities that emerged last weekend, many conservatives (and libertarians) are opposed to the federal government continuing to shell out.
Take the public from National Public Radio: In case you’re not caught up in the media drama of the week, Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of NPR, revealed The free press and demonstrated how deep-seated biases in his workplace have caused readers to lose trust.
NPR, unsurprisingly, suspended the Berliner. “With declining ratings, uncomfortable levels of trust, and an audience that has become less diverse over time, NPR’s trajectory is not promising,” She said Berliner in a statement. “Two paths seem clear. We could continue doing what we’re doing, hoping it all works out. Or we could start over, with the fundamentals of journalism. We could face where we went wrong. News organizations don’t accept this kind of reckoning , but there’s a good reason why NPR is first: We have the say public in our name.”
He’s right. But this is also a good argument for scrapping the public part of National Public Radio: NPR isn’t needed to inform the public, it doesn’t represent much of America (as Berliner attested), and the U.S. government doesn’t really have any extra money to spend (however small) it could be an advertising item).
“It’s time for the federal government to throw NPR and PBS out of the nest,” I wrote last year. “Taxpayer dollars should never have subsidized Big Bird concerts, Tiny Desk or those insufferable purses, and they certainly shouldn’t do so now in the age of audiovisual abundance.”
Scenes from New York: Yesterday, recent migrants, mostly Africans, protested outside City Hall, demanding faster work authorization (a federal, not city issue) and the ability to stay in taxpayer-funded shelters for more than 30 days.
“When they give us the work permit, we can work and take care of ourselves,” one protester told CBS. “Everywhere you go to look for work, they ask for your work documents,” added another.
The work permit issue is, of course, a legitimate one (even if it’s not something the City can do much about). But New York City, if it continues to maintain that it has an obligation to shelter and feed anyone who requests it, will surely run into major fiscal problems and a revolt from taxpayers wondering when they agreed to this.
QUICK SHOTS
- “In [California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s] office, keeps an annotated copy of a policy blueprint, “Project 2025,” prepared by the Heritage Foundation as a possible preview of Trump’s next term,” he writes The Atlanticit’s Mark Leibovich in a sprawling profile of the aspiring presidential candidate. “‘I’m reading 100 pages of this. I’m not kidding,’ Newsom told me. He said his team is ‘Trump-proofing California,’ preparing to put in place every measure possible to counter a Republican White House hostile.”
- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued an unusually blunt statement warning against Israel’s escalation of the conflict following Saturday’s Iranian attack. Diplomats from the two nations are particularly concerned about what is happening in Jordan. “Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are linked to Jordan by family and tribal ties, see the country as central to their national security and as part of their geostrategic depth,” he reports Bloomberg. “Jordan borders northwestern Saudi Arabia, where Prince Mohammed has launched some of his most ambitious and expensive projects linked to his Vision 2030 economic diversification plan. Although both men have mended diplomatic ties with Iran, they remain extremely wary of Tehran.”
- Interest rates will likely remain higher for longer than expected.
- Sesame Street strike:
Sesame Street writers authorize strike, picket lines could begin next Wednesday pic.twitter.com/dvII8mzTMO
— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) April 16, 2024
- “For a war of such epochal importance, the scale of Western leaders’ actions to help Kiev repel Russian invaders fell far short of their towering rhetoric. This disappointment has left Ukrainians of all ranks, from soldiers digging trenches to ministers who ran away the country is tired and irritable”, he reports PoliticIt’s Jamie Dettmer.