Update no.1116

 Update from the Sunland

No.1116

29.5.23 – 4.6.23

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

 

To all,

 

This is a minimal minimalist edition. Enjoy what there is of it.

 

The follow-up news items:

-- The debt limit debacle [424, 494, 499, 501, 503, 577, 585, 611, 634, 725, 819, 1028, 1038, 1098] has occupied the Press and talking heads since the 118^th Congress was sworn into office. Speaker McCarthy defied the so-called Freedom Caucus and passed H.R.3746 to suspend the national debt limit until January 2025. The Extreme Right is not happy, and the Progressive Left is not pleased either, which suggests the bill was probably a reasonable compromise . . . other than the worthless debt limit is retained. I agree with President Biden. The national debt limit is about paying the nation’s debts, i.e., paying for what Congress has already allocated and funded (spent). The annual budget resolution is the proper mechanism for debating appropriation legislation. The Republicans typically do not abide normal or traditional processes; they want what they want and screw everything and everyone else. Regardless of the inappropriateness of Republican conduct and the ridiculousness of the national debt limit, Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 [PL 118-xxx; H.R.3746; Senate: 63-36-0-1(0); House: 314-117-0-4(0); 137 Stat. xxx] on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis in both chambers. Of intriguing interest in this episode. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of both political parties. 
House: Republicans – 149-71-0-2; Democrats – 165-46-0-2; and Independents – 0-0-0-0.
Senate: Republicans – 17-31-0-1; Democrats – 44-4-0-2; and Independents – 2-1-0-0

On Saturday, President Biden signed the bill into law with two days whew-space to spare.

There should be no doubt whatsoever, no matter what your political persuasion, that §1 [40 Stat. 288] of the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 [PL 65-I-043; 40 Stat. 288; 31 USC §3101; 24.9.1917] must be repealed. That provision of that law has not served its intended purpose for decades. One political party has decided to use the law as a cudgel to extract spending cuts from the favorite programs of the other guys. The law is used to extort spending cuts from the other guys, while they spend without restriction or restraint . . . well because their spending is noble and righteous. The other guys’ spending is frivolous. The law was not intended for extortion. §1 [40 Stat. 288] and must be repealed as soon as possible. We must be done with this political extortion once and for all time.

 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 339,000 in May. They also revised the March and April employment upward in both months. The unemployment rate ticked up by 0.3. to 3.7% as more Americans returned to the job market. The U.S. inflation rate is currently 4.93%, half of what it was last year. The U.S. economy is doing much better than expected. So, when U.S. Senator Joni Kay Ernst, née Culver, of Iowa publicly states that President Joe Biden is destroying America, she needs to explain what exactly the basis of her complaint is. Virtually every metric of economic health is positive and trending more positive. When fBICP adherents say such baseless misstatements, they lose whatever credibility they might have once had. I understand the fBICP wanting to convince us that everything President Biden is doing is bad, but doing so makes them appear like parochial tribal hacks rather than intelligent representatives of We, the People. They will reap what they sow.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1115:

Comment to the Blog:

“I hope you recover your balance quickly—or already have.

“Tim Scott is black. The Republican base won’t vote for him.

“We’ll see what happens to DeSantis.

“It doesn’t bother Chump if veterans and those of us dependent on Social Security don’t get paid or if the economy crashes.

“I share your loathing of those claiming the conservative label nowadays.”

My response to the Blog:

Thank you for your words. I am back to 100% . . . at least for a nearly 75-year-old man. I am still in the process of catching up from the lost days.

Perhaps. I do not care about his skin pigmentation. His politics are too far to the right for me. He has to say what he did to make it through the fBICP primaries, but those words will haunt him for the general election . . . if he gets that far. He will not be a popular candidate for the white supremacists within the fBICP.

Yes, we will see how this works out. I will not be involved with their rigamarole. They will select who they wish. I will say, Tiny is not campaigning with the vigor he did in 2016. I am left with the impression that he is not serious about re-election. I suspect his campaign is far more about trying to balk the judicial process in his myriad criminal and civil cases.

Spot on, correct! He cares about no one, not even his children. He only cares about himself. But that is not new; he has been that way since Ivanka distanced herself from the fiasco that is her father.

There are more than a few of us, but we must all vote. That list of grievances will continue to grow. Any one of those items is unacceptable to me.

 

My very best wishes to all.  Take care of yourselves and each other.

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)