The US is going to send Ukraine Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the first time in a new weapons package worth nearly $3 billion, US officials told The Associated Press late this week.
The $2.85 billion aid package was formally announced on Friday, and marks the single largest arms package for Ukraine the US has pledged at one time. The package will include 50 Bradleys, which are designed to transport infantry troops with armored protection that are equipped with a 25 mm gun.
The White House confirmed the US will be providing Ukraine with Bradleys in a statement on a phone call between President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The statement said that Berlin will be supplying Kyiv with a similar piece of equipment, the German-made Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
The announcement came the day after France said it would be giving Ukraine AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles, which are similar to the Bradleys but have a bigger gun and are considered “light tanks.” A French official said it was the “first time that Western-made armored vehicles are being delivered in support of the Ukrainian army.”
While providing Ukraine with Western-made armored vehicles is a significant escalation in aid, it falls short of the heavier tanks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been seeking, such as US-made Abrams and German-made Leopards.
Zelensky was denied Abrams when he visited Washington DC, and a US official told The Washington Post the Biden administration is still ruling it out.
Zelensky described the new package as a “Christmas Present” in a Friday tweet…
The US officials speaking to AP said the $2.85 billion weapons package will also include HUMVEES, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and a large number of missiles and other ammunition. The weapons will be paid for by funds already authorized by Congress to spend on the war, which at this point totals about $112 billion.
The International Space Station (ISS) has proven to be a great example of human technological achievement and has existed as a platform for global connection, diplomacy, peace and cooperation. It has played a valuable and noble role in supporting the peaceful scientific endeavors of multiple nations and communities for over two decades. But, as it continues into its final decade of life – NASA announced in January of 2022 that it plans to “de-orbit” the ISS in 2031 – it is definitely starting to show its limitations. All good things must come to an end, and in this regard, the ISS is no different than any other good thing.
More broadly, these limitations, and the looming expiration of the ISS generally, reinforce the need for continuing the important pursuit of American independence in space. Certainly, the ISS has supported numerous international missions over the past twenty years, where astronauts from all backgrounds have worked together to advance human activity in space.
That said, American access to the ISS has faced several complications over the years, a lesson that we should strive to heed moving forward. A few examples make the point. When the U.S. space shuttle program ended, America had to depend on the Russian Soyuz to travel to and return from the station – a situation that may have worked when relations between the U.S. and Russian Federation were amiable, but now problematic in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine. In fact, early in the war on Ukraine, Russian authorities threateningly hinted that they could leave an American stranded on the ISS.
And as contemptible as Russia’s pressures have been, other incidents remind of the need to keep pressing toward the goal of independence in space. Most recently in December, a major coolant leak occurred on the Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS, a challenge that, while not immediately life-threatening to personnel onboard, poses new problems for return flights to Earth. The Soyuz spacecraft is on station standing by as a “lifeboat” in the event of an emergency where ISS inhabitants need to evacuate.
The cause of the leak remains unknown and investigations have yet to determine the origin of the malfunction. Thankfully, news reports on the leak and subsequent actions have indicated that both U.S. and Russia have been coordinating closely throughout the ordeal. However, the entire leak episode is another problematic example of American astronauts operating at the mercy of a foreign power’s capability, reliability and technology. It is all the more reason for why America can’t pull its foot off the gas in re-building our human spaceflight program, enhancing our space access platforms and capabilities, and ensuring that our own backup systems and assets are ready for any number of plausible contingency operations or needs.
It is a testament to the shared values, mission focus and professionalism of the world’s astronaut corps that even in the most trying of political times, those in the universe above can work together and not let events on Earth get in the way of work on the ISS. Unfortunately, what happens in orbit is often determined by events on the global surface, and with that sobering thought in mind, anyone on the ISS could be impacted by events far outside of their control. With the war in Ukraine continuing to grind away, and relations between Russia and the West strained by the day, these types of incidents should serve as both a blinking warning light and a motivating incentive for us to keep our eye on the ball with our own civil space program. The last thing we would ever want is Americans left stranded.
In times of strife, confusion, economic uncertainty and seemingly endless competing national priorities, the temptation to scale back our efforts in space can be alluring. We’ve seen the space program slashed before, most recently during the “great recession” of 2009-2011, when competing needs crowded out the argument to maintain a robust presence above the atmosphere. But the imperative for a committed and appropriately capitalized American space program now is strong and we need to stick to our goals. The world has changed, the competition is fierce, the technology is rapidly advancing, and our adversaries are working feverishly to establish their own space programs – often for purposes that run counter to the peaceful space ambitions of the past.
As we begin the New Year, our policies and budgets should continue to support the programs, capabilities and technological development that will allow us to keep moving toward our goals beyond Earth. At the same time, this recent leak aboard the Soyuz and wider related concerns about the reliability and dependability of Russia should only reinforce the need to swiftly establish and secure American independence in space.
White House Delays Refill Of Strategic Oil Reserve, Balks At “Too Expensive” Offers
The Biden administration had no problems aggressively draining the SPR by 1mmb/d at market prices in the immediate aftermath of the Ukraine war, in hopes of lowering the price of gasoline ahead of November’s elections and avoiding an inflationary midterm rout. However, when it comes to refilling the SPR, now that US emergency inventories are down to the lowest level since November 1983 and not too far from an all time low which threatens the structural integrity of the salt caverns the oil is deposited in…
… the White House has “unexpectedly” gotten cold feet.
One month after the White House said it will start refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and made an initial order of 3mm barrels of sour crude (a tiny fraction of the 200 million released in 2022), in what it said was a clear message to oil companies that they can freely invest capital in boosting output cause, well, Biden’s got their backs, overnight we learned that there was a rather sizable caveat in the White House’s brilliant plan.
According to Bloomberg, the Biden administration has delayed the replenishment of the nation’s emergency oil reserve after deciding the offers it received were either too expensive or didn’t meet the required specifications. Citing “people familiar” the report adds that “the Department of Energy rejected the several offers it got for a potential purchase in February.” In other words, absent a brutal US or global recession which drags oil far lower – courtesy of the Fed which is doing Biden’s bidding of containing inflation by crushing the US economy with the highest interest rates in a generation – the SPR won’t get any more oil.
While the DOE will put off the purchase it had originally planned for next month, the proposed program, which used a new approach that accepts fixed-price offers, will continue, one of the people said. Of course, it will “continue” only as long as oil is below a certain White House mandated threshold, anything above that – as we now can see – means no refills. As a reminder, last year there were reports that the Biden administration had planned to start buying crude when it dropped around $70 a barrel; and while oil fell during the fourth quarter and US benchmark prices fell close to those levels last month, they have since rebounded, with the SPR refill price serving as a market support level.
“DOE has put forth a long term plan to transition from release to replenishment, and we’re committed to doing so in a manner that provides a fair deal for taxpayers,” the department said in a statement Friday.
“DOE will only select bids that meet the required crude specifications and that are at a price that is a good deal for taxpayers,” it said. “Following review of the initial submission, DOE will not be making any award selections for the February delivery window.”
What this means is that, as we noted yesterday, either the White House – in all its infinite wisdom – will start having to chase the price of oil even higher in hopes of catching up to the offer now that it has set a firm floor for oil prices thereby shooting itself in the foot…
The Department of Energy rejected the several offers it got for a potential SPR purchase in February: BBG
… or the SPR will not see even one more drop of new oil, and the 372 million barrels currently there, just under 20 days of dometic consumption, will be the total SPR inventory at the time when China inevitably invades Taiwan – a far bigger emergency than a democrat loss in the elections. At that point only that legendary energy guru, Hunter Biden, who was paid so handsomely for his energy insight by Ukraine’s energy giant Burisma…
A West Virginia law that prohibits people from participating on single-sex sports teams that don’t match their biological sex is constitutional, a judge ruled on Jan. 5.
West Virginia House Bill 3293 (pdf), or the Save Women’s Sports Bill, was passed by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Jim Justice in 2021. The bill states that there are “inherent differences between biological males and biological females” and that “biological males would displace females to a substantial extent if permitted to compete on teams designated for biological females, as recognized in Clark v. Ariz. Interscholastic Ass’n (9th Cir. 1982).”
The bill says that a person born male cannot participate in female sports, and vice versa.
A biological male child with the initials B.P.J., who was 11 at the time, filed a lawsuit after the law’s passage. B.P.J. identifies as female and wanted to participate in female sports at a middle school, but administrators cited the new law in blocking the youth from doing so.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in West Virginia, claimed that biological male children who identify as female are being discriminated against “on the basis of sex and transgender status” in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, including the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says that no state may deny a person within its jurisdiction “equal protection of the laws.”
U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, a Clinton appointee, disagreed, ruling Thursday that “acting to prevent transgender girls, along with all other biological males, from playing on girls’ teams is not unconstitutional if the classification is substantially related to an important government interest.”
Goodwin later noted that males are generally better at sports due to “inherent physical differences between the sexes” related in part to males having higher levels of testosterone beginning with puberty, which B.P.J.’s filings recognized.
“This is not an overbroad generalization, but rather a general principle that realistically reflects the average physical differences between the sexes,” the judge wrote in his 23-page ruling, which threw out the case. “Given B.P.J.’s concession that circulating testosterone in males creates a biological difference in athletic performance, I do not see how I could find that the state’s classification based on biological sex is not substantially related to its interest in providing equal athletic opportunities for females.”
B.P.J. started taking puberty blockers, a drug that halts puberty, once signs of male puberty began showing. But not all transgender girls have taken the blockers, the judge said.
“The fact is … that a transgender girl is biologically male and, barring medical intervention, would undergo male puberty like other biological males. And biological males generally outperform females athletically. The state is permitted to legislate sports rules on this basis because sex, and the physical characteristics that flow from it, are substantially related to athletic performance and fairness in sports,” Goodwin said.
The judge opined that the state could adopt a “more inclusive policy” that would let transgender children play on a team different from their biological sex but said it fell outside the judiciary to impose such a requirement.
The law also does not violate Title IX because it still lets B.P.J. and other children play on teams matching their biological sex, the judge said.
Western Media Blames Putin For Quick Collapse Of His Own Christmas Ceasefire
Putin’s short-lived Christmas ceasefire has already come and gone, perhaps lasting but a few hours on Friday. On Saturday, Christmas day for Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox, widespread shelling along the line of contact has reportedly resumed.
“Artillery exchanges pounded war-scarred cities in eastern Ukraine on Friday despite Russian leader Vladimir Putin unilaterally ordering his forces to pause attacks for 36 hours for the Orthodox Christmas,” AFP reports.
Some eyewitnesses are saying there was sporadic shelling from the very start of what was supposed to be a pause in fighting: “But AFP journalists heard both outgoing and incoming shelling in the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after the time when the Russian ceasefire was supposed to have begun.”
In particular Kreminna and other places in hotspots across Donetsk and Luhansk have witnessed exchanges of fire, also with Al Jazeera, Sky News, Reuters and other international outlets that have been closely following Ukraine battlefield developments reporting the same.
Ukrainian authorities in Kherson have reported multiple civilians wounded and an emergency worker killed, while Bakhmut and nearby Krasna have reported casualties. Fighting has resumed in Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia, reports Sky News.
Major Western media outlets on Saturday are uniform in blaming Putin for his forces breaking the ordered unilateral ceasefire. But importantly, it should be noted that these same outlets typically have relied almost entirely on the perspective and claims of Ukrainian officials and military commanders.
From the start of when the Christmas ceasefire was announced on Thursday, it was treated with widespread skepticism by Ukraine’s Western allies. Kiev authorities rejected it as a “cynical ploy” and a “trap” in order for Russian forces to regroup and buy more time against the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine vowed to not observe it from the very start, which makes current claims that it is Russia breaking the ceasefire suspect at best.
Unlike previously when he attended large cathedral services, Putin observed Christmas services alone this year in the presence of Russian Orthodox clergy…
1. Putin is still a great master of signs and symbols. And yesterday’s visit to the Christmas service in the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral is yet another proof of this.
This temple is the home church of all the great princes, kings who lived in the Kremlin and one of the pic.twitter.com/ic3sK3nEPX
The Biden administration and Pentagon also suggested it was fake and a ruse. But it remains for multiple hours on Friday there were no major battlefield incidents or large-scale strikes, despite claims of sporadic shelling.
It seems the ceasefire attempt was treated as essentially ‘dead on arrival’ by the West simply because it was Putin proposing it. And yet, the very same countries have urged for Russia to silence its weapons and halt the advance of its forces from the beginning. One thing this holiday ceasefire attempt did highlight is that the possibility for a more permanent peace now seems more distant than ever. It demonstrated also that given the opportunity, the West didn’t treat the idea of a pause in fighting seriously at all; it wasn’t even so much as considered an ‘opening’ for dialogue.
Kentucky has joined a growing list of conservative states that have begun to boycott banks they charge are discriminating against the fossil fuel industry.
In compliance with a Kentucky law passed in March, State Treasurer Allison Ball yesterday released a list of banks that “are engaged in energy company boycotts.” This list included Wall Street giants BlackRock, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and six other smaller banks.
“Energy is important in Kentucky,” Ball told The Epoch Times. “It’s important to the nation, but in Kentucky in particular, about 7.8 percent of our labor force is from the energy sector. We have a lot at stake just because it’s a part of our economy.”
Kentucky’s action to protect its fossil fuel industry follows similar measures by West Virginia and Texas last year. Kentucky is the seventh-largest state in coal production and 71 percent of its electricity depends on coal-fired plants. Kentucky is also responsible for 1.6 percent of America’s oil refining capacity and 2 percent of its natural gas storage. More than half of Kentucky households rely on electricity to heat their homes.
“From an ideological perspective, those industries have been have been targeted for the last few years by the ESG movement,” Ball said. “So our state legislature in Kentucky passed last year a bill that said, ‘If you are boycotting the fossil fuel industry, then we don’t want to do business with you as a state.’ We don’t want to use taxpayer dollars to support an ideology that’s actually targeting and harming our signature industries.”
According to the Kentucky law, known as SB205, the banks on the boycott list have 60 days to dispute the charge and 90 days to “cease engaging in energy company boycotts in order to avoid becoming subject to divestment by state governmental entities.”
Derek Kreifels, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, lauded Treasurer Ball’s action, stating: “She and other state financial officers across the country are leading the movement to ensure that money earned by hardworking American families is used in accordance with their values, not weaponized against them.”
Kreifels told The Epoch Times that he expects more states will follow the lead of Kentucky, Texas, and West Virginia in 2023.
“ESG is front and center in this next legislative session,” he said. Issues of concern could range from fossil fuels to firearms, to plains states like Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa working to protect their farming industries that feed the nation.
“We see the harm that ESG is doing, and we applaud any state official who’s willing to stand up to this scam that is being pushed across America from the White House to Wall Street,” he said.
Many of the financial institutions on Kentucky’s boycott list have signed pledges to reduce carbon emissions across their lending and investment portfolios as members of international clubs like Climate Action 100+, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), and the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM). While firms who have joined these groups insist that they remain active investors in fossil fuel companies and do not discriminate against them, investment firm Vanguard is one of the few financial firms to withdraw its membership in these clubs.
“It’s remarkable to me that any of these institutions say that they’re not engaging in boycotts, because they have statements that say that they are, and some of them very explicitly,” Ball said. “Blackrock has been very explicit in wanting to cease business with coal companies.”
At a December hearing before the Texas state senate, representatives from State Street and BlackRock testified that they only join these clubs to discuss climate issues with other members, rather than to force an agenda on companies whose shares they own. Despite the pledge of members of Climate Action 100+ and NZAM to “reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner across all assets under management,” many banks and asset managers insist they are doing no such thing in practice.
BlackRock recently received a three-year exemption from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to buy up to 20 percent of U.S. public utilities. Vanguard is currently seeking similar approval.
As the largest asset managers in the world, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street typically do not divest from fossil fuel companies, but rather buy and hold their shares and work with management regarding the changes they want to see. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, issues an annual letter to CEOs that details what he considers the most important topics for them to focus on in the coming year, which often includes “sustainability” issues.
“We engage with companies in our portfolios; we do not divest,” State Street Global Advisors’ Chief Investment Officer Lori Heinel stated at the Texas hearing. But Heinel added: “We do not discriminate against companies in any sector, including energy companies … That means we do not tell those energy companies to shift their strategy or to drill more wells.”
Mother Of Ashli Babbitt Arrested For “Jaywalking” Near Capitol While Protesting
Capitol police have arrested Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, for allegedly “jaywalking” while protesting during the anniversary of her daughter’s death.
Ashli Babbitt, the January 6th protester and military veteran who was famously shot and killed by police while unarmed, was the only fatality of the event that did not involve natural causes.
Witnesses noted that sidewalks near the Capitol Building were blocked as protesters sought to move closer, which forced them to shift onto the side of the street in order to navigate around.
Police immediately ordered Witthoeft and others to cross to the opposite side of the road away from the building.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Thursday to stop the Biden administration from ignoring a federal immigration law that prevents illegal immigrants from residing in the United States if they’re likely to rely on taxpayer-funded programs.
“I’ve sued [President Joe] Biden over a dozen times to secure our southern border,” Paxton said on Twitter. “Now, just as 2023 is starting, I’m bringing another lawsuit—the first of its kind in the nation on Biden’s disastrous new public-charge rule. I’ll keep suing [and] winning until he [and] his lawless Dems follow the law.”
Paxton accused the Biden administration of furthering an open borders policy by enacting the new rule, which “effectively nullifies federal law excluding aliens likely to become public charges,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (pdf).
That rule has been in place since 1882 and was reaffirmed by Congress in 1996 under the bipartisan Welfare Reform Act. By not enforcing the law, the Biden administration has opened the door to illegal aliens who’ll be dependent on welfare, the lawsuit alleges.
Paxton’s lawsuit argues that the December 2022 rule was enacted in violation of federal law and is arbitrary and capricious.
“The Biden Administration is committed to opening the borders to aliens who lack the ability to take care of themselves. Texans should not have to pay for these costly immigrants, nor should any other American,” Paxton said in a statement. “I will continue to defend the rule of law and fight to ensure that the massive costs of illegal immigration don’t further burden taxpayers.”
Paxton’s office said the new rule prohibits the consideration of statutorily required factors in determining whether an alien is likely to become a “public charge.” The term public charge first appeared in statute in the Immigration Act of 1882, where Congress barred the admission of “any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.”
Self-sufficiency has been considered a basic principle of U.S. immigration law since the country’s earliest immigration statutes. It is U.S. immigration policy that aliens within the country’s borders shouldn’t depend on public resources to meet their needs but rather rely on their individual capabilities and the resources of their families, sponsors, and private organizations. Further, the availability of public benefits shouldn’t be an incentive for immigration to the United States.
As assurance that they won’t become a drain on taxpayers, aliens usually offer U.S. authorities documentation that their family will financially support them. However, Biden’s rule prevents a comprehensive probe of the truth of this material, according to Paxton’s office.
Paxton is also leading a 14-state coalition that filed a cert-stage brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2022 after the Biden administration tried to covertly abolish the public charge rule. That petition was filed after the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against a Texas-led coalition.
“With America in the midst of a recession and families across the country already facing record-high inflation, it’s completely reprehensible to expect taxpayers to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars to sponsor more and more illegal aliens,” Paxton said at the time.
Paxton argues in his lawsuit that the Biden administration’s rule change is intended to ensure that “virtually no alien is ever found to be a public charge.”
While the 1996 reform was designed “to increase the bite of the public charge determination,” the 2022 rule change “illegally narrows the meaning of ‘public charge’ to oblivion, disregarding of the term’s historical meaning and violating the statute,” according to the lawsuit.
Paxton’s lawsuit argues that the 2022 rule change ignores congressional mandates by only considering cash, but not in-kind, government benefits when assessing whether an individual is likely to become a public charge.
Here Are The Concessions McCarthy Had To Make For Speakership
After four grueling days and 15 votes, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is finally Speaker of the House – but not without having made a pile of concessions to a group of hard-line Republicans who think he’ll be too accommodating to uniparty interests.
The last vote came after a dramatic scene, where during the 14th vote Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threw a wrench in the gears – voting ‘present,’ which left McCarthy just one vote short of victory.
McCarthy – who clearly thought he had a deal, stormed up to Gaetz and exchanged words, during which a visibly angry Rep. Mike Rodgers bolted towards Gaetz and had to be muzzled and restrained.
Kevin McCarthy approaches Gaetz and Boebert because he needed 216 votes to win. pic.twitter.com/o6VBsbwVVV
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) January 7, 2023
During the final, 15th ballot, enough holdouts voted ‘present’ to bring the total required number of votes low enough for McCarthy to finally win around midnight.
Here’s what McCarthy had to give up for the votes, according to The Epoch Times‘ Roger L. Simon, who interviewed first-year Congressman Andrew Ogles (R-TN), who has yet to be sworn in;
I spoke with Ogles by phone the night of Jan. 6, 2023, before the roll call vote during which, it was said, two of the remaining rejectionists who couldn’t accept McCarthy personally would absent themselves so that the magic number would be lowered and the new Speaker could go over the top.
Apropos, Ogles informed me that what many had guessed was true. His absence from voting in a previous round was also planned. He waited to see that all was going according to plan before stepping forward to flip his vote to McCarthy after the initial round.
For Ogles, the basis of all the negotiations was to establish the rules of the game in Congress that had been altered over the years beyond recognition. As he pointed out, the rules of a game almost always determine the winner.
He shared with me a list of some of what has been roughly negotiated to date. The devil, as always, is in the details.
As has been reported, it will only take a single congressperson, acting in what is known as a Jeffersonian Motion,to move to remove the Speaker if he or she goes back on their word or policy agenda.
A “Church” style committee will be convened to look into the weaponization of the FBI and other government organizations (presumably the CIA, the subject of the original Church Committee) against the American people.
Term limits will be put up for a vote.
Bills presented to Congress will be single subject, not omnibus with all the attendant earmarks, and there will be a 72-hour minimum period to read them.
The Texas Border Plan will be put before Congress. From The Hill: “The four-pronged plan aims to ‘Complete Physical Border Infrastructure,’ ‘Fix Border Enforcement Policies,’ ‘Enforce our Laws in the Interior’ and ‘Target Cartels & Criminal Organizations.’”
COVID mandates will be ended as will all funding for them, including so-called “emergency funding.”
Budget bills would stop the endless increases in the debt ceiling and hold the Senate accountable for the same.
* * *
In response to the outcome, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), one of the holdouts, said in a statement that the anti-McCarthy Reps. “changed the way the government will be funded,” and “changed the way committees will be formed.”
“We secured votes on term limits, the fair tax, the Texas Border Plan, and so much more.“
Bobert goes on to slam President Biden for calling the speakership process ’embarrassing for Republicans.
“How sad is it that us governing as the founders intended looks embarrassing to Democrats?” Bobert asked, adding “I’ll tell you what’s embarrassing. 40-year high inflation is embarrassing. 5 million illegals crossing our southern border is embarrassing/ Surrendering to ISIS and fleeing Afghanistan is embarrassing. Having a president that cant’ finish his sentences is embarrassing.”
“It’s safe to say that we believe there ought to be specific, concrete limits on spending attached to a debt ceiling increase,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) on Thursday.
“There will be no clean debt ceiling increase, that’s for sure,” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), another anti-McCarthy lawmaker who was convinced to switch his vote due to the concessions.
No word from Ogles on committee assignments or agreements, however there are discussions on positions for members of the Freedom Caucus.
Also no word on whether the House will hold a different kind of Jan. 6 investigation, unless it’s going to be part of the new “Church” committee.
Meanwhile, The Hill notes that chairmanships on subcommittees are still going to need to be earned.
Another major concern for centrist Republicans throughout the week’s marathon negotiations was the conservatives’ push to win more subcommittee gavels for themselves — an idea that infuriated those already in line for those seats.
Bacon had called it “a non-starter,” particularly among the more moderate Republicans who have worked their way up the ladder into those seats.
“If you’re talking about chairmanships and things like that, they’re gonna have to still earn it,” Bacon said. “I call it affirmative action for [the] smallest of the caucuses to put them in leadership roles when they’ve not earned it. We believe in a merit-based system on the GOP side.”
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), who has served in the House since 2013, also highlighted the “seniority process” for chairmanships.
“Everybody has to work their way through the seniority process and earn positions on both committees and gavels and things of that nature,” she said. –The Hill
“These concessions have been agreed to by our conference, and ultimately I believe it’s going to lead to a more people-driven legislative process,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). “It’s about restoring more power and decision making to the members.”
Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland says McCarthy gave up too much.
“I think he gave away much more than I wish he’d given,” he said, adding “I think it does give to a small, willful faction of his caucus, a negative faction of his caucus, a faction of his caucus that has been almost uniformly obstructionist, more authority than they ought to have.”
How bad do things have to get before people start realizing that we are in the midst of a full-blown economic crisis?
The “experts” on television are endlessly debating about whether or not we are going to have a “recession” this year, and meanwhile economic activity is imploding all around us. The number of homes being sold in this country each month has already fallen by a third. The number of job cuts in November was 417 percent higher than it was during the same month a year earlier, and at this point even Amazon is laying off thousands of workers. The Federal Reserve has declared war on inflation, but prices continue to spiral out of control. In fact, vegetables are 80 percent more expensive now than they were 12 months ago. Meanwhile, the financial markets continue to plunge. A third of the value of the Nasdaq has already been wiped out, and more than two-thirds of the value of all cryptocurrencies is already gone.
After everything that has already transpired, everyone should be able to clearly understand what is happening.
So many people have been waiting for an economic nightmare to come, but the truth is that it is already here.
The following are 11 signs that the economic “tipping point” that everyone has been waiting for has now arrived…
The S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell at the fastest rate since May 2020 in December, a continuing sign that the manufacturing sector is on the decline, S&P Global reported Tuesday.
The U.S. Manufacturing PMI posted a 46.2 in December, down from 47.7 in November and solidly below 50, which signals that the sector is contracting, according to S&P Global. Production levels contracted in back-to-back months, with new sales plummeting at the end of December at the fastest pace since 2007, as companies cited weakening demand amid “economic uncertainty” and inflation weighing on customers.
#3 We just witnessed the largest one day drop in the Baltic Dry Index since 1984…
The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index crashed on Tuesday in the worst decline on record, sinking on prospects of a global recession.
Baltic Dry Good Index is a measure of global shipping and economic health. The overall index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax, and supramax shipping vessels carrying dry bulk commodities, plunged 17.5% to $1,250, the most significant daily decline since 1984.
#4 Thanks to rapidly falling imports, we just witnessed the largest monthly decline in the trade deficit since the last financial crisis…
According to the BEA, the November trade deficit narrowed to $61.5b from $77.8b in prior month, coming in below the median estimate of $63.0BN (and just barely missing the top end of the range of $61.3BN to $80.5BN from 42 economists).
Remarkably, the 20% one-month decline in the deficit was the single biggest drop in the US trade deficit on a percentage basis going back to the global financial crisis!
#5 In 2022, U.S. auto sales were the lowest that we have seen for a full year in more than a decade…
Industrywide, U.S. auto sales totaled 13.7 million vehicles in 2022, the lowest figure since 2011 and an 8% decrease from the prior year, according to the research firm Wards Intelligence. Sales had topped 17 million vehicles for five straight years before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, unleashing supply-chain problems that have bogged down deliveries ever since.
#6 The average rate on a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage is more than twice as high as it was this time last year…
Mortgage rates inched up again last week, after a slight increase the week before interrupted six straight weeks of falling rates.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.48% in the week ending January 5, up from 6.42% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago, the 30-year fixed rate was 3.22%.
#7 According to CNN, sales of apartments in Manhattan were 28.5 percent lower in the fourth quarter of 2022 than they were in the fourth quarter of 2021…
Higher rates and still-high housing prices cooled demand at the end of last year, causing sales to tumble. Sales dropped 28.5% in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.
Bed Bath & Beyond warned Thursday it’s running out of cash and is considering bankruptcy.
The retailer, citing worse-than-expected sales, issued a “going concern” warning that in the upcoming months it likely will not have the cash to cover expenses, such as lease agreements or payments to suppliers. Bed Bath said it is exploring financial options, such as restructuring, seeking additional capital or selling assets, in addition to a potential bankruptcy.
Amazon.com Inc. is laying off more than 18,000 employees — the biggest reduction in its history — in the latest sign that a tech-industry slump is deepening.
