Inflation Under Biden Hiked The Massive National Debt In A New Way In 2023, Experts Say

/in , , , , , , , , /by

Interest rate hikes to combat sky-high inflation under President Joe Biden have led the Federal Reserve to run over a hundred billion dollar deficit, adding to the national debt, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Federal Reserve in past years has operated a net surplus, remitting those excess earnings to the Treasury to pay off the national debt, according to a press release from the Fed. In 2023, following an inflation-driven increase to the federal funds rate, the interest rate that the central bank has to pay to commercial banks that are holding excess cash overnight, the Fed began losing money, which the Treasury has to issue debt to pay, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

“The Fed’s losses do contribute to the deficit,” George Selgin, director emeritus of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, told the DCNF. “Normally, the Fed saves the government money by sending most of the interest it earns on its securities back to the U.S. Treasury. But because the Fed now pays interest on banks’ reserves, when the rate it pays goes up, its remittances to the Treasury go down, and lately the rate it pays has risen so much that this past year alone it owed banks more than $100 billion more than it earned. Until it makes up for this loss and also for losses from the previous few years, which could take a long time, it won’t be sending anything to the Treasury.”

The Fed was able to remit around $79 billion to the Treasury in 2022 before having to take out $16.6 billion in debt by the end of the year as rising interest rates took hold, later losing $114.3 billion in 2023, according to the Fed press release. The Treasury received $109 billion, $86 billion, $54.9 billion and $62.1 billion from the Fed in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

The rates that the Federal Reserve pays on the overnight reserve balances held by commercial banks have risen in accordance with hikes in the federal funds rate, which the Fed has put in a range of 5.25% and 5.50%, the highest rate in 22 years, in response to high inflation that peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 under Biden. Inflation has since moderated to 3.4% as of December — still not at the Fed’s 2% target, but enough to prompt a median of Fed governors to predict three rate cuts before the end of 2024.

“The Fed’s rate hikes are supposed to counter inflation by raising the cost of borrowing, which is supposed in turn to cause people to borrow and spend less,” Selgin told the DCNF. “But the same hikes add to the government’s deficit, by reducing the Fed’s Treasury remittances, but mainly by raising the interest the Treasury has to pay on its shorter-term obligations. So unless the government cuts spending, the rate hikes can fail to counter inflation, and might even aggravate it, and the public bears the double burden of higher rates and high, if not higher inflation.”

Many economists point to high-spending policies for a portion of the inflation that has plagued Americans under Biden. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, authorizing $1.9 trillion and $750 billion in new spending, respectively.

The U.S. national debt exceeded $34 trillion for the first time in the country’s history on Dec. 29, 2023, with around $27 trillion being held by the public and the other more than $7 trillion being intergovernmentally held. For Fiscal Year 2023, the federal government ran a budget deficit of around $2 trillion when the president’s failed student loan forgiveness plan is properly accounted for, compared to $1 trillion in the previous fiscal year.

“The reason it has losses is that the Fed printed money to buy federal debt,” Richard Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. “Then, when it stopped printing money to buy more debt, new federal deficits fell onto the private money markets. This triggered crowding out and the ensuing interest rate surges we’ve seen. Then the interest rate spike reduced the market value of the existing debt that the Fed is holding — that’s what the losses are.”

Net interest payments on the national debt have also increased rapidly as rates have risen, with any new Treasury debt issued having to be at a much higher interest rate, costing more to maintain and hold. In the first quarter of 2021, when Biden first took office, interest payments totaled around $535 billion, which has grown to more than $980 billion as of the third quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

“I’d say that the losses are indicative of the inflationary money printing used to cover Biden’s spending and just one more example of where the government is using inflation and interest rate manipulation to cheat bondholders and steal from hard-working Americans,” Stern told the DCNF.

The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the DCNF.

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Dem Demands On Automakers Could Backfire On Their Own Climate Agenda And Americans’ Wallets, Experts Say

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

New Labor Edict From Biden Regime Declares War On Independent Workers

/in , , , , , , , /by

Biden declares war on the so-called gig economy and countless companies that use freelancers. “(Biden) Admin proving it’s an equal-opportunity jobs killer.”

The labor market is cooling while more Americans are using side hustles like driving for Uber to cope with rising prices.

Yet now the Biden Administration is declaring war on the so-called gig economy and countless companies that utilize freelancers. (WSJ)

Biden’s Independent-Contracting Rule Destroys Worker Independence

By F. VINCENT VERNUCCIO

A recent regulatory change by the Biden administration is so poorly designed, there’s no telling exactly how many workers will be hurt.

But now, as many as 73 million Americans who are independent contractors could lose that freedom. So may every American who might have pursued this path in the future.

On January 10, President Biden’s Labor Department issued a new rule that will gut independent contracting nationwide. While the department and much of the media are framing the rule as a win for workers, it’s anything but.

The Biden administration, which claims the rule will make it easier for workers to get employment benefits, overtime pay, and minimum wage, is really looking out for the interests of labor unions, which have struggled to organize independent contractors and find it much easier to go after traditional employees. There’s nothing pro-worker about stifling workers in favor of special interests.

[ … ]

Over the past four years, I’ve spoken with workers around the country who depend on independent contracting. Shelby Givan told me she became a freelance online educator so she could continue teaching while caring for her infant son. Karen Anderson built a 25-year career as a writer, editor, and photographer, taking jobs she liked instead of working for a firm. Kim Kavin did the same thing, choosing independent writing after a ten-year career in the struggling yet demanding news-and-magazine business.

From actors and designers to truckers and construction workers, I’ve heard the same thing over and over. Independent contracting gives workers…

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED VIDEO: “Bidenomics” Exposed In Hilarious Viral Video

POSTS ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FAA’s Diversity Push Focusing on Hiring People With ‘Severe Intellectual’ and ‘Psychiatric’ Disabilities

/in , , , , , , , /by

This is so dangerous and deadly. America’s elite have lost their minds. 

FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities

By Emma Colton, Fox News, Jan. 14, 2024

The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which claims “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.”

The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.

The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is a government agency charged with regulating civil aviation and employs roughly 45,000 people.

All eyes have been on the FAA and airline industry in recent days, after a plug door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5.

The FAA grounded all 737 MAX 9 planes after the incident, and is carrying out an “extensive inspection” and maintenance work.

The FAA added it would increase its oversight of Boeing following the incident, including auditing Boeing’s 737 Max 9 jetliner production line and companies that supply parts to the airline manufacturer.

Following the incident, social media commenters and public figures have charged that airlines and airline manufacturers’ emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives has made flying less safe.

“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?,” tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X last week. “That is actually happening.”

“The DEI Rot In The Airline Industry Is Way Worse Than You Think,” Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh wrote in an op-ed last week.

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLES:

CCP-Tied Parent Of US Battery Maker Participated In Programs That Acquire Tech For China’s Military

Top Trans Pediatric Doctors Admit In Unearthed Video That Puberty Blockers Aren’t As ‘Reversible’ As Advertised

POST ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Airlines Prioritize Wokeness Over Safety: But at What Cost?

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

My dad is a certified physician assistant. As such, he often shares spontaneous medical advice with me (although part of that is just because he’s my dad and cares about my wellbeing.) For instance, some advice he’s given me that he would give to anyone is if you or someone you know needs surgery or a medical procedure, be sure to ask the doctor in charge two questions: “How many times have you performed this operation? And when was the last time you did it?”

According to my dad, these questions are crucial to ask because you want to make sure you can fully trust the person who’s handling your safety and survival. And that can be said about nearly anything, right? The fear of flying, for instance, is extremely common. But I’m sure more people will come to feel the same as the pilots and airlines responsible for passenger safety and survival are increasingly untrustworthy.

Last week, an Alaska Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing after loose parts caused a portion of the plane’s body to blow off less than 20 minutes after takeoff. Passengers on that flight were terrified, and many thought they were “going to die.” Thankfully, there were no casualties, and even the boy closest to the danger was left relatively unharmed. Some, perhaps, consider it a miracle.

But here’s the reality: “To an incredibly dangerous extent,” wrote Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, “The airline industry is in the process of actively making itself less competent and reliable.” But why? It’s simple. The airline industry is prioritizing wokeness — in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — over safety and qualified personnel.

If your grandfather needed heart surgery, you want to know, as much as humanly possible, that you can trust the cardiothoracic surgeon holding the life of your loved one in their hands. Yes, tragedies do still occur sometimes, but the difference is taking every precaution you can up to that point. This same concept should apply to the pilots flying hundreds of people across oceans and continents. Pilots are very much responsible for the lives of those on board. And yet, airlines such as United and Alaska have decided their priorities must be fixated on skin color.

United, Alaska, and other airlines aren’t focused on hiring qualified individuals — those who not only received their pilot license, but truly earned it. Instead, these airlines only seem to care about what their employees look like. Or as Walsh put it, “[I]n their various public statements and press releases, United Airlines has made it very clear that they’re mainly interested in hiring pilots on the basis of skin color and gender, rather than competence.”

I find it hard to fathom that a staple in the industry, Boeing, cares more about scoring perfectly on tests that evaluate LGBT policies than whether their aircrafts are equipped to take off without crashing. Which, by the way, Boeing did score perfectly on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2023 Corporate Equality Index. Oh, and so did American, Southwest, Alaska, and some 545 other businesses. And while not everyone scored perfectly on their radical gender and sexuality quiz, most airlines at least share the same DEI goals. But at what cost?

The trend seems to be that any time woke principles are prioritized, people get hurt — physically or mentally. The transgender movement is a perfect example. Minors are told they’re born in the wrong body, and that the puberty they’re experiencing is actually a sign to defy basic biology. So, they proceed with the hormone blockers and the “gender-affirming care.” So-called medical professionals sign off on double mastectomies and testosterone for healthy teenage girls. And in the end, they suffer the consequences of constant pain, rashes, and infections for the rest of their lives.

Too often, it’s permanent, life-changing damage. It’s heartbreaking. And that’s the reality of prioritizing wokeness: It destroys lives. And the companies like Boeing thatemphasizing wokeness over safety will perhaps, sooner or later, be responsible for ending lives. That is, if they continue to hire pilots who don’t know how to fly and engineers who don’t know how to build.

Paul Fitzpatrick, president of 1792 Exchange, shared with The Washington Stand, “It’s time to free Boeing from their captivity to political activist groups so they can get back to building safe and innovative aircraft. Distractions are many at Boeing when they are pleasing and funding divisive and extreme ideologies.”

He continued, “To score 100% on Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, Boeing allowed a political stakeholder to dictate policies on personnel, marketing, operations, and lobbying. Whether it is that issue set, divisive DEI policies, or climate extremism, Boeing should reject stakeholder capitalism and return their financial and mental focus to hiring the most qualified talent to produce the safest airplanes possible.”

To Boeing and all other companies who have misplaced priorities, Fitzpatrick reiterated, “[T]heir duty [is] to shareholders and customers. They must get back to business.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

POST ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

KEVIN MOONEY: Biden Admin’s New Climate Rules Could Mean Big Payday For His Buddies, Burden For American Businesses

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

In a setback for former government officials and attorneys poised to cash in on proposed climate disclosure rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission continued to kick the ball down the road last year.

Many of the objections raised in public comments revolve around so-called Scope 3 emissions that are not directly produced by companies and instead result from what occurs “upstream” and “downstream” of a company’s activities. That’s a problem because if the SEC rule is finalized the commission would effectively extend its jurisdiction to include private companies that transact business with public firms registered with the SEC.

There’s a strong case to be made that under this scenario the commission would be overstepping its authority, which would help to explain why the SEC has continuously slow-walked its proposal.

But there’s additional intrigue involving a somewhat unheralded “carbon accounting” firm equipped with specialized software known as Persefoni that could also gum up the works. The for-profit outfit founded in 2020 has managed to recruit several high-ranking SEC officials who all had a hand in crafting the climate rules first introduced in March 2022.

These include Allison Herren Lee, a former acting chair of the SEC, Kristina Wyatt, who served as the SEC’s senior counsel for climate and environmental, social, and corporate government (ESG), and Emily Pierce who served as the SEC’s assistant director in the Office of International Affairs.

The SEC estimates that it will cost anywhere from $460,000 to $640,000 for companies to comply with the new rules during the first year they are in operation. Given the complexity involved in tracking Scope 3 emissions, it’s not too difficult to imagine how Persefoni stands to benefit financially from software and accounting services specifically tailored for this purpose.

In fact, that appears to have been the plan right from the get-go. Influence Watch describes how the accounting firm and environmental activists joined forces to have substantial input on the disclosure rules. Moreover, Persefoni is prominently mentioned throughout the SEC proposal. But it’s not just carbon accountants who stand to benefit at the expense of companies that fall within the purview of the SEC.

Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, a Washington-based nonprofit, sees a potential “big payday for law firms” attached to the SEC’s supply chain reporting mandates.

“This is all about expanding the size and scope of government,” he said in an interview. “Lawyers can get involved with a class action lawsuit and they’ll say this particular company didn’t properly report their emissions. You can expect the lawyers to take a huge chunk from these suits. This gets into very gray areas about how a company can be expected to account for every single item along the supply chain.”

Kish continued:

“You’ll have lawyers intervening supposedly to protect the public interest, but they’ll be raking in all kinds of cash. The process doesn’t stop here since the law firms will then dump campaign contributions into the coffers of the people pushing these policies.”

The SEC’s actions can be viewed as just one small part of President Biden’s “whole-of-government effort” to push climate initiatives at the expense of taxpayers and energy producers.

Companies in the energy-intensive states, such as Pennsylvania, will likely feel a greater financial burden, explained Gordon Tomb, a senior fellow with Commonwealth Foundation, a free market think tank headquartered in Harrisburg, explained. (RELATED: DAVID BLACKMON: Left-Wing Billionaires Have A New Plan Up Their Sleeves In War On Fossil Fuels)

“Pennsylvania is the second largest net supplier of energy to other states and the largest exporter of electricity to other states,” Tomb said. “As such, private companies supporting enterprises that emit carbon dioxide in the production of energy number at least in the hundreds and their employees in the many thousands. Imposing costs artificially constructed to advance a quasi-religious climate ideology and create ways for the politically connected to make money without producing a benefit is viciously economically destructive.”

Ultimately, it’s up to Congress to reign in overreaching executive agencies. Last June, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, (R-K.Y.) and Senate Banking Committee ranking member Tim Scott (R-S.C.) sent a joint letter to the SEC seeking information and documentation providing insight into the commission’s relationship with Persefoni and environmental activist groups. That’s an encouraging sign, but hardly sufficient for the potential victims of burdensome new regulations.

AUTHOR

KEVIN MOONEY

Kevin Mooney is the Senior Investigative Reporter at the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank, and writes for several national publications. Twitter: @KevinMooneyDC.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

RELATED ARTICLE:

FRANK LASEE: Biden’s Energy Policy Is Tailor-Made To Crush The Middle Class

GROVER NORQUIST: Biden Enables Freeloading On American Innovation

POSTS ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Name the Enemy: Globalists. What do they want? Everything

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

I think I am beginning to dislike the word “Sustainable” . I think it is the most overused words in the past 3 years. Everything we touch or do, all products, actions must be sustainable. Yet does anyone know what Sustainable ,means`. according to the dictionary sustainable means: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. According to Gro Harlem Bruntland, author of Our Common Future, Globalist friend of Globalist Hillary Clinton, “Sustainable Developments means development of society that meets the needs of the present society without compromising the needs of future society to meet their own needs.”

In simple terms Sustainable means CONTROL! 

In this controlled society there will be no growth, no innovation, no creation. You will do nothing without Government approval.

All activity will be regulated by a consensus of unelected Globalists who think they have the right to control you. They use the Precautionary Principal determining the worst case scenario on the computer and regulate as if it were true. They never take into consideration the genius of man in solving problems because they do not want problems solved. They lie and get the low information populace to believe they are taking action without scientific certainty to save future generations from scarcity of resources often screaming that without these restrictions, the planet will be destroyed by climate change. They restrict, catch shares, oil, water, coal, food, mobility Globalists lie so you will believe they must

NATIONALIZE EVERYTHING for the common good. In reality they are just a bunch of grifters determined to steal everything we own. We will own nothing and they will be happy.  

As Globalists must change mindset of Americans into do more for less. They intend to accomplish this through the Implementation and monitoring using  TECHNOLOGY by Digitalizing ID, Money, Surveillance Cameras, Vaccine Passports, Smart Meters while forcing people to live in SMART 15 minute cities.

Everything must be watched, shared, monitored for usage. You will be monitored for your consumption patterns and if you use too much you will be shut off. Smart Meters, Smart Grids, Red light Cameras, Social Credits, Vaccine Passport and Digital money will keep you in line with their program. S=Surveillance, M=Monitoring, A= Analysis, R=Reporting, T=Technology

” For the Globalists, the point isn’t to improve the world, the point is to control it, and control you. ” Mark Keenan. Read and share Mark’s article: Decoding the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s): Indoctrinating Your Children into the New Fake Sustainable World. Order.. https://www.globalresearch.ca/decoding-un-sustainable-development-goals-indoctrinating-children-new-fake-sustainable-world-order/5843937?doing_wp_cron=1705028520.7377040386199951171875

This will never happen in America you say. Sorry wrong answer. It is already here. By lying and paying off elected officials, Globalist were able to get businesses to be their enforcer. They called fascism Public Private Partnerships (P3s).  Gov Rick Scott brought P3s to Florida. How did that work?

The Globalists wanted to redistribute the wealth of the middle class to themselves and their friends.  So they began to outlaw products that were perfectly fine but they didn’t control and were not making money from.  All of a sudden the inexpensive incandescent made in America light bulb was not sustainable. It had to be replaced by the CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) Never mind that the CFL was filled with mercury and harmful to the environment if broken and were 3 times as expensive. But they were made in China in companies owned by Globalists.

Globalists hate competition so only favored companies who followed Globalist regulations would get government contracts. PPPs began replacing small family owned American companies. Covid  insured that many small companies went under while regulations are finishing the rest. Today it is almost impossible for a small business to make money. That is the idea.

None for thee and all for me should be the motto of the Globalists. Nothing is more in your face than the lies about beef. In Ireland ranchers were told to kill 1/3 of their herd because cows expel methane gas and that is harming the planet. All over the globe the cry is save the planet, kill the cows. What will happen if this is ever done?  People will starve which is the idea.  Less People, Less Problems. So what will the Globalists eat?  Will they eat bugs?  Don’t count on it. Today we learned that Mark Zuckerberg is raising a herd of “high quality beef” on his ranch in Hawaii. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-embarking-most-delicious-112603039.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall

For a clear understanding of how you are being fleeced you this is a MUST SEE documentary The Great Taking  https://rumble.com/v3yptkd-the-great-taking-documentary.html   You must prepare.

All is not grim if we act. Globalists can not handle the truth. The world is waking up and all over populists are winning elections. Will it be easy? NO. It took Globalists a long time to get this much control. They will not go away without a fight. But the truth will win.

How do you spot a Globalist? They are in both parties. Its very easy. Just ask your candidate what MAGA means.  Ask them what kind of government does America have? If they say a democracy, say next. If they say a Republic ask them what is the difference between a democracy and a republic. There is only one way to save America that is – with hard work. Are you up to it? Did you share? Contact your legislator? Did you get 5?

Did you comment to the SEC about the NAC?

Did you Call your legislator Send them an email, tweet, phone call. Tell them Close the Border or Close the government

See MTG Hearing on the Covid Vaccine, then call your legislator and tell them NO to the WHO.

©2024. All rights reserved.

TAKE ACTION

Florida: Stop Article V a.k.a. Con-Con CON: ACT NOW: Con-Con resolutions HCR 693 and HCR 703 have passed to next committee 1/11. Tell your legislator NO to Con-Con CON

Education Bills Florida Citizens Alliance

Bills: https://goflca.org/agenda/2024-bill-assessment/

Florida legislature is trying to cut the HOPE scholarship giving a scholarship for students to get out of Public School if bullied. Sign the petition.https://flcactioncenter.org/petition/please-don-t-lose-hope

Defend Florida, https://defendflorida.org/

These Election Integrity Bills need sponsors :  HB135 – Voter Registration Applications

HB 671 Ballot Boxes

HB 359 – Voting Systems

SB 190 – Ballot Boxes

©2024. Karen Schoen. All rights reserved.

POST ON X:

 

Second-Largest Foreign Owner Of U.S. Land Is A Chinese Communist Party Member

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

The second-largest foreign landowner in the U.S. is a Chinese billionaire who it has been determined is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports.

Chen Tianqiao, the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns approximately 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. Chen also has extensive ties to the Chinese government, ranging from CCP membership to executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations, according to a DCNF review of Chinese-language media reports.

In 2015, Chen acquired 198,000 acres in Oregon, according to Land Report. The $85 million purchase made the Chinese national the 82nd-largest property owner in the U.S. and the second-largest foreign U.S. land owner, Bloomberg reported, second only to a Canadian family who owns over 1 million acres of Maine.

Oregon’s Bull Springs Skyline Forest accounts for approximately 33,000 of Chen’s acreage, according to Land Report. The forest is located west of Bend, Oregon, and is home to springs, creeks, timberland and wildlife, according to the Bull Springs Skyline Forest website.

Oregon Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer said she was “deeply concerned that individuals tied to the Chinese Communist Party are buying up timberland, which is one of our most precious and finite resources.”

“Foreign ownership of United States lands is a serious problem that has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers and foresters across the country,” Chavez-DeRemer told the DCNF.

Chen also owns several urban properties in the U.S., including the Vanderbilt Mansion in Manhattan, the Seeley Mudd Estate near Los Angeles and a 150,000 square-foot research facility at Caltech called the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience — each worth tens of millions of dollars, according to Land Report.

Chinese ownership of U.S. land, in particular agricultural land, has come under increased scrutiny from GOP governors, who see it as a potential national security threat. Several states, including Florida, have taken legislative and executive action to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland, the most recent being Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s January 2024 executive order banning such purchases near military installations.

“One of the Chinese Communist Party’s goals is to undermine and weaken America,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told the DCNF. “This includes instances where our greatest adversary continues to buy land — whether its farmland or near our installations.”

‘Despise All Our Enemies’

Born in 1973, Chen served as a student cadre from an early age, state-run media outlet China News Service reported.

“In 1990, Chen enrolled in Fudan University to major in economics, the following year he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and, in 1993, he won the title of ‘Shanghai Municipal Outstanding Model Cadre Student,’” according to a DCNF translation of an archived 2005 press release from Chen’s alma mater, Fudan University in Shanghai.

Chen was just 18 when he joined the Communist Party, according to a 2007 article from Communist Youth Daily, the official newspaper for the Communist Youth League.

Since joining the Party, Chinese media outlets and business filings have repeatedly identified Chen as a CCP member.

A 2016 Sohu.com article identified Chen and several other Chinese CEOs as CCP members. Likewise, Chen’s profile on the Chinese financial portal Sina, which was last updated in November 2023, identifies him as a CCP member.

The state-run Beijing Review describes Chen as an admirer of Mao Zedong, first chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Several Chinese-language outlets have also reported that Chen’s corporate office prominently displays Mao’s written works.

Chen even has a favorite Mao Zedong quote, according to state-run media outlet China News Service: “Strategically we should despise all our enemies, but tactically we should take them all seriously.”

Mao delivered the remarks in a speech denouncing American imperialism during a visit to Moscow in November 1957, according to the University of Dayton Review.

Above and beyond his CCP membership, Chinese government records show that Chen served as a representative to the 11th and 12th councils of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which ran between 2008 and 2018.

The CPPCC is a Chinese government agency where “all the relevant united front actors inside and outside the party come together: party elders, intelligence officers, diplomats, propagandists, military officers and political commissars, united front workers, academics and businesspeople,” former CIA officer Peter Mattis testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019.

“CPPCC delegates attend a high-profile annual meeting to receive direction from the CCP regarding the ways its policies should be characterized to both domestic and foreign audiences,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “Delegates to the CPPCC serve as proxies for CCP interests by virtue of their participation in this forum, and they frequently act as interlocutors with foreign government officials, businesses, and academic institutions.”

Chinese media reports include photos of Chen attending CPPCC meetings while wearing the government agency’s distinctive red, clip-on delegate’s badge.

‘Growing Cause For Concern’

Chen has also held executive positions with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), including with the group’s Shanghai branch, according to the Chinese-language news outlet Sohu.com.

ACFIC describes itself as an organization “led by the Communist Party of China” that “contributes greatly to the Party’s united front and economy related work as well as the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

John Dotson, deputy director of Global Taiwan Institute, told the DCNF that ACFIC is subordinate to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which is a CCP agency whose operations are a “blend of engagement, influence activities and intelligence operations,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

“In regards to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, it’s definitely a subordinate agency of the UFWD — that’s not even a matter for analysis or interpretation,” Dotson told the DCNF. “In public Chinese sources, ACFIC is openly listed as a subordinate branch of the UFWD.”

ACFIC could not be reached for comment.

“The increase in PRC-affiliated U.S. land purchases in recent years is a growing cause for concern,” a House Select Committee on the CCP aide told the DCNF. “We can start with adding a presumption of denial for entities affiliated with the PRC when it comes to land acquisitions near national security sites such as military bases that the CCP could use for intelligence collection or worse.”

Chen and Shanda Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip.

RELATED ARTICLES:

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmaker Urges Biden Admin To Investigate CCP-Tied Firm Building Near Sensitive U.S. Military Sites

Liberal Foundations Poured Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Into Influential Environmental Org Tied To Chinese Government

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Inflation Soars As High Prices Continue To Squeeze Americans

/in , , , , , , , , /by

Inflation rose year-over-year in December, even as the Federal Reserve projects interest rate cuts by the end of the year, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods, increased 3.4% on an annual basis in December and 0.3% month-over-month, compared to 3.1% year-over-year in November and above expectations of 3.2%, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 3.9% year-over-year in October, compared to 4.0% in November.

Inflation rose year-over-year in December, even as the Federal Reserve projects interest rate cuts by the end of the year, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods, increased 3.4% on an annual basis in December and 0.3% month-over-month, compared to 3.1% year-over-year in November and above expectations of 3.2%, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 3.9% year-over-year in October, compared to 4.0% in November.

“It was unseasonably warm in December, which boosted gasoline prices enough to send the monthly headline number up a bit,” Peter Earle, economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Disinflation is continuing, but the last percent or two down to the Fed’s target range are going to be tougher to nail down.”

Shelter contributed the most to the monthly gain, with prices rising by 0.5% for the month and 6.2% for the year, according to the BLS. Prices for energy rose 0.4% for the month, reversing the trend of declining energy prices that stands at -2% for the year.

Prices for motor vehicle insurance continued to trend up, rising 1.5% in the month following an increase of 1% in November, according to the BLS. The index for food also had a similar increase in November of 0.2%, totaling 2.7% year-over-year.

“It was unseasonably warm in December, which boosted gasoline prices enough to send the monthly headline number up a bit,” Peter Earle, economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Disinflation is continuing, but the last percent or two down to the Fed’s target range are going to be tougher to nail down.”

Shelter contributed the most to the monthly gain, with prices rising by 0.5% for the month and 6.2% for the year, according to the BLS. Prices for energy rose 0.4% for the month, reversing the trend of declining energy prices that stands at -2% for the year.

Prices for motor vehicle insurance continued to trend up, rising 1.5% in the month following an increase of 1% in November, according to the BLS. The index for food also had a similar increase in November of 0.2%, totaling 2.7% year-over-year.

The current rate of inflation stands in contrast to the Fed’s target rate of 2%, which it aims to achieve through its use of its federal funds rate, which it has set in a range of 5.25% and 5.50%, the highest point in 22 years, in response to soaring inflation under President Joe Biden, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. In their last Federal Open Market Committee meeting, a median of Fed governors estimated that the federal funds rate would be around 4.6% by the end of the year, indicating around three rate cuts.

The CPI report comes less than a week after the BLS announced that the economy added 216,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in December, despite revising the number of jobs down in October and November by a collective 71,000. In total, the number of jobs was revised down by 749,000 in 2023, around one-quarter of those initially announced.

“Right now, the Fed is projecting three rate cuts in 2024, while futures are suggesting five or six,” Earle told the DCNF. “I think that as long as the general price level keeps falling, the Fed will stick to its 75 [basis point] cutting plan. But if we get clearer signs of a slowdown in the late spring and early summer, we may indeed see four or five cuts this year.”

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Banks Making Easy Money Off Crisis Gov’t Program Designed To Bail Them Out

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

America’s CEOs Are More Scared Of Country’s Huge Debt Than Anything Else

/in , , , , , , , , /by

U.S. CEOs believe the country’s national debt and deficit are the greatest geopolitical risks to business operations in 2024, according to a survey from the research group organization The Conference Board.

The U.S. national debt was put ahead of other top risks for CEOs, including the potential for an increase in cyberattacks, war in the Middle East, higher energy prices and risks associated with decoupling from China, according to The Conference Board. The U.S. national debt exceeded $34 trillion for the first time in the country’s history on Dec. 29, 2023, following huge government deficits and spending under the Biden administration.

“For U.S. CEOs, the biggest risk is right at home — the mushrooming US national debt and deficit,” The Conference Board said in its report. “The US fiscal outlook continues to deteriorate, with the deficit for FY2023 topping estimates at $1.7 trillion. The increasing practice of issuing U.S. Treasury securities to finance deficit and debt places tremendous strain on the financial system, potentially raising business borrowing costs and limiting access to capital.”

American CEOs are also particularly concerned about an economic downturn/recession, noting that it and inflation are the external factors that are most likely to have the greatest impact on their organizations in 2024, according to The Conference Board. Financial institutions and analysts are mixed with their predictions of the economy in 2024, with banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase forecasting a risk of a recession while Deutsche Bank and Société Générale both predicting a recession.

Global political instability, higher borrowing costs and labor shortages are also among the top five most concerning external factors for U.S. CEOs, which all fuel inflation, according to The Conference Board. Inflation remains elevated, rising 3.1% year-over-year in November, far above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, after decelerating from its peak under Biden of 9.1% in June 2022.

The national debt has ballooned under Biden following a number of costly initiatives pushed by the president. In March 2021, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, which authorized $1.9 trillion in new spending, and in August 2022, the president signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which approved $750 billion in spending.

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Part-Time Jobs Are Booming Under Biden As Americans Look To Make Ends Meet

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘True’ Unemployment Rate Is Double What The Gov’t Is Telling Us, Economists Say

/in , , , , , , , /by

A large section of Americans left the workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic and have not returned, and if the workforce returned to its previous size, the unemployment rate would be nearly double, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The official unemployment rate in December was 3.7%, accounting for around 6,268,000 Americans without jobs who were still looking for work, with 100,540,000 jobless people being counted as not in the labor force and therefore not being counted as unemployed despite not having a job, according to data from the BLS. In comparison, the number of people counted as not in the labor force in February 2020 was only 95 million, with around 5 million people permanently leaving the workforce following the COVID-19 pandemic, which, when added to those counted as unemployed, yields an unemployment rate of around 6.7%.

“These more accurate estimates of the true unemployment rate signal weakness in the overall economy and the labor market specifically,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They are consistent with a mild recession. The number of people on disability has exploded for three years now with a spike of millions of people. That indicates a very large portion of these unemployed workers who are missing from the labor force have simply shifted from unemployment to welfare.”

The official unemployment rate has been historically low over the past few years, dropping below 4% during the Trump administration for the first time since 2000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). The rate briefly spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic before descending back below 4% around the start of 2022.

Labor force participation has also taken a hit following the COVID-19 pandemic, with 63.3% of Americans employed or looking for employment in February 2020, compared to 62.5% of Americans in December 2023, according to FRED. Labor force participation has declined steadily from its peak in 2000 of over 67%, stabilizing and slightly rising during the Trump administration before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If somebody leaves the workforce, then they are not considered unemployed,” Michael Faulkender, chief economist and senior adviser for the Center for American Prosperity, told the DCNF. “There were about 700,000 people last month, according to the survey they put out last Friday, that left the workforce. Yes, so to the extent that people are not working and they’re not looking for work, the unemployment rate doesn’t grab that.”

There were 167,451,000 Americans counted in the labor force in December, less than the 168,127,000 that were counted in November, according to the BLS. The difference equates to 676,000 fewer people in the workforce in the month.

The government also heavily overreported the number of jobs in 2023 in its monthly jobs reports, later revising the numbers down. In total, the number of jobs the country had in 2023 was 749,000 lower than what was initially given.

“The expansion of many welfare programs besides disability under the Biden administration means additional people can live off the dole instead of going back to work,” Antoni told the DCNF. “That expansion has been in terms of both who is eligible and also the gratuitousness of the benefits for which people are eligible.”

The BLS directed the DCNF to the methodology used to calculate the number of people not in the workforce, which includes “retired people, students, those taking care of children or other family members, and others who are neither working nor seeking work.”

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Biden Admin Releases New Labor Rule Cracking Down On Independent Contractors

Study Shows Some Good and Bad News Out of an Increasingly Divided United States

RELATED VIDEO: Forging the Patriot Economy with guest Dinesh D’Souza

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

JOBS REPORT: IRS is the #2 Hirer in the Country, Government and Nationalized Healthcare Added the Most Jobs

/in , , , , , , , /by

Private sector is in trouble.

Manufacturing shed the most jobs.

Despite government media lauding the jobs report, 683,000 fewer Americans were working last month and four to five million have simply disappeared from the workforce. – opted out.

Job Gains Picked Up in December, Capping Year of Healthy Hiring

Unemployment held at 3.7% last month and hiring was revised lower in prior months

By Amara Omeokwe, WSJ, Jan. 5, 2024:

Employers in the leisure and hospitality industry continue to play catch-up from disruptions during the pandemic.

Employers hired at a solid pace in December, capping a year of steady gains for a job market that continues to defy expectations and remains a bright spot in a gradually cooling economy.

The U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday. That was larger than November’s gain of 173,000, and better than forecasters were expecting. Hiring was revised down in both October and November. For all of 2023, employers added 2.7 million jobs, a slowdown from 2022, but a better gain than in the years preceding the pandemic.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED VIDEO: Biden wants to make America as dystopian as California

POST ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Left-Wing Attempt To Tie Trump To Foreign Influence Money Doesn’t Add Up, Records Show

/in , , , , /by

House Oversight Committee Democrats released a report Thursday attempting to connect former President Donald Trump to a pay-for-play foreign influence scheme, but the evidence fell far short of a smoking gun.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, released a report revealing that Trump’s business entities raked in at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments and their subsidiaries during the first two years of his presidency, including from China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Malaysia. A majority of that money, however, came from one business that began renting office space from Trump Tower in 2008 and concluded its partnership in 2019, during his administration, the report shows.

“The difference between Trump’s foreign income and Biden’s foreign income is that Trump had legitimate goods and services to sell and was tough on China while the Bidens did not have any legitimate business and Joe has been weak on China,” Seamus Bruner, director of research at the Government Accountability Institute, told the Daily Caller in a statement.

Of the $7.8 million Trump’s businesses made from foreign governments during the two years in question, $5.5 million that was paid to Trump-owned properties was from the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises, the records show. Of that, the committee estimates that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a Chinese state-owned business, paid Trump-owned properties $5.3 million between February 2017 and October 2019.

The Chinese company had entered a contract with Trump Tower for commercial office space in 2008, the report shows. The contract was concluded on Oct. 31, 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began and with nearly a year-and-a-half still remaining in Trump’s first term in office.

Throughout his presidency, Trump made being harsh on China a key part of his foreign policy and took steps to do that by instituting unprecedented tariffs, including an additional 15% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods. The tariff was originally set at 10% and compelled China to increase American imports.

Additionally, nine of the countries cited in the report paid less than $10,000 to Trump businesses, according to the report. Cyprus, one of the countries listed, paid just $590.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, India and Malaysia each spent more than $200,000 at Trump’s businesses, the report shows, but a spokesperson for the Trump Organization noted to NPR that all profits from foreign governments were given away.

Profits for Trump’s businesses from foreign governments “were donated in full to the United States Treasury for patronage at our properties while President Trump was in office,” Kimberly Benza told NPR. Benza made note of a $450,000 donation Trump made.

Raskin accused House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of colluding with Trump’s attorneys to try to block the committee from gaining additional records about the former president’s foreign payments.

“While the figures and constitutional violations in this report are shocking, we still don’t know the extent of the foreign payments that Donald Trump received —or even the total number of countries that paid him and his businesses while he was President—because Committee Chairman James Comer and House Republicans buried any further evidence of the Trump family’s staggering corruption,” Raskin said in a statement.

The House Democrats’ report comes as Republicans move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family’s foreign business dealings. From 2014-2019, Biden’s family and its business associates collected more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan, according to a September memo from House Republicans. The figure is nearly 15 million more than Trump is reported to have received by House Democrats.

“It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Trump. Former President Trump has legitimate businesses but the Bidens do not. The Bidens and their associates made over $24 million by cashing in on the Biden name in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania. No goods or services were provided other than access to Joe Biden and the Biden network,” Comer told the Daily Caller.

Biden’s son Hunter played a large role in obtaining the funds. Throughout the Trump presidency, after his father left office, Hunter Biden made numerous business deals with foreign entities. CEFC, a Chinese firm, sent a business associate of Hunter’s $3 million through its State Energy HK account, bank records previously released by the Oversight Committee show.

Hunter Biden’s federal tax indictment in California clarified that he received about $1 million of the funds sent to the State Energy HK account. He made additional income in 2017 and 2018 from Hudson West III, a business entity he formed with CEFC associates. Hunter Biden’s relationship began in 2015 when his father was still vice president, his California indictment shows.

In November, Comer detailed through a series of bank records how the funds from China made it through multiple Biden family accounts, ending in a $40,000 check to Joe Biden in September 2017.

“Democrats like Jamie Raskin are trying to deflect from the fact that the Biden family bagged at least $30 million from foreign individuals linked to the highest levels of the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus—perhaps the greatest presidential scandal in American history,” Bruner told the Daily Caller.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

IRS Whistleblowers Unable To ‘Verify’ Loans White House Claims Joe Biden Sent To Family Members, Testimony Shows

TSA director arrested by US Customs and Border Protection

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Qantas Crew Members Don Palestinian Pins While Serving Passengers

/in , , , , , , /by

A man who took the photos of the Australian airline workers described feeling “intimidated” by the display of activism.

Qantas Airways Limited, the leading airline in Australia, has received a rebuke from a national Jewish organization for a decision by staffers to display Palestinian flag pins on a Dec. 20 flight from Melbourne to Hobart.

A man, who is not Jewish, took photos of the staffers during the flight’s food service and told Sky News that he felt “intimidated” by the display.

“If employees are found to be using their roles for political activism while passengers are essentially captive in the air, they should be dismissed,” said Robert Gregory, CEO of the Australian Jewish Association.

A spokesperson for Qantas stated that  crew members cannot “wear any badges unless they are part of the approved uniform policy” and that “every customer should feel safe and respected when flying on a Qantas Aircraft.”

Qantas will be “counseling” the crew members regarding their on-the-job advocacy against Israel.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

Qantas crew members don Palestinian pins while serving passengers

Fury after Qantas cabin crew wear Palestinian flag pin on domestic flight

EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column is republished with permission. ©All right reserved.

The 4 Biggest Storms Looming in Congress’s Return

/in , , , , , , , , , , /by

If there’s one thing this Congress has going for it, it’s that they can’t possibly match the futility of 2023. (Or can they?) After one of the most dramatic — but unproductive — years ever, members are returning to Washington next week with a much longer to-do list and an even more unforgiving calendar to accomplish it. Thanks to the deep hole members dug with the drama over the speakership, there’s a lot of ground to make up in actual legislating in this young year. And unfortunately for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the second half of this term promises plenty of fireworks right off the bat.

1. Stopping a Government Shutdown

It wouldn’t be January (or February, March, April…) if the threat of a government shutdown wasn’t hanging over both parties’ heads. While Johnson did his best to buy Congress more time, passing a clever two-tiered bridge to 2024 in November, the clock has already started ticking on the first of those “laddered” deadlines: January 19. That’s when government funding is set to expire for a handful of agencies, including Agriculture, Rural Development, and the Food and Drug Administration; Energy and Water Development; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

Republicans will have their hands full getting everyone on board with a slew of targeted spending cuts in those areas, especially when there are plenty of non-fiscal issues — like abortion — complicating matters. In the Agriculture debate alone, the GOP’s cracks started showing back in September, when a band of pro-choice Republicans sank the bill over commonsense protections on chemical abortion. If even a handful defect now, it’ll spell disaster for Johnson’s already fragile coalition.

As the Heritage Foundation’s Connor Semelsberger laments, nothing about the GOP’s proposals are controversial. “The language in question would simply undo Biden’s actions to remove existing health and safety protocols that ensure every woman who is prescribed chemical abortion pills receives them in person from a medical professional rather than through the mail or from a pharmacy.” Ironically, he went on, “these health and safety protocols that Republicans are seeking to reinstate in this bill are the ones first established in 2016 under the Obama-Biden administration.”

As if Johnson doesn’t have enough to contend with in his caucus, this bloc of rebel Republicans seems intent on fighting every appropriations bill that tries to roll back the Biden administration’s unconstitutional overreach on abortion.

Negotiations get even stickier for hardline conservatives, who are determined to slash the government’s budgets, regardless of their razor-thin majority. Republicans like Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), one of the drivers of the HUD and Transportation budget, hinted at the heavy lift ahead. “It’s going to be very difficult to get all of the appropriations bills we have to get done in time if we don’t have the [top-line] number, and we don’t have the number right now. So, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions in early January.”

While the House has done some legwork, passing seven of the 12 appropriations bills, the two chambers have radically different ideas of what the proposals should look like — and hashing through those differences will take more time than Congress currently has. That leaves Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and the leadership of both parties with a few options: a) They can let portions of the government shut down while they take the necessary time to debate the bills; b) they can pass a dreaded omnibus package that crams all of the remaining budgets into one (an idea Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., called “unacceptable”); c) Johnson moves forward with a longer continuing resolution, giving Congress a longer runway to finish the job (something he’s already panned in the press); or d) both chambers buckle down and do their jobs before the January 19 and February 2 targets.

With just eight legislative days until the first buzzer, everyone can agree: the path forward on appropriations is murkier than ever.

2. Ukraine and Israeli Aid Meet the Border Crisis

Without a government shutdown to contend with, the battle over Ukraine funding managed to suck up most of the Hill’s holiday air. In a rare show of unity, Republicans stuck to their guns on this one, refusing to give in to President Biden’s demand for billions more dollars in aid until he agrees to close the southern border. Ultimately, the two sides left town without a resolution, kicking the can into 2024.

Since then, U.S. officials have announced a record 300,000 migrant crossings in December — obliterating the previous highwater mark from September. December’s tally brings the total for the first quarter of FY2024 to over 785,000, an eye-popping number that’s sent local officials in Texas and Arizona scrambling. As Fox News’s Bill Melugin pointed out, that’s “a population size bigger than Seattle in just three months.”

As Americans become increasingly angry about the situation, even Democrats are starting to break with the president. Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was openly critical, urging the White House to get off its hands and do something. “Honestly, it’s astonishing,” he said. “And this isn’t a Fox News kind of statistic. This is the government’s. … I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border. It’s a reasonable conversation, and Democrats should engage.”

With public opinion on their side, Republicans enter 2024 with a stronger hand to make the necessary reforms. As recently as Friday, Senate negotiators were talking through more options, as Biden repeated his call for more help in Volodymyr Zelensky’s fight against Russia.

Mired in this back-and-forth is any financial assistance for Israel, which has yet to receive U.S. aid since the October 7 attacks. The House passed a standalone bill to funnel $14 billion dollars to our Middle East ally — only to meet a brick wall in the Democratically-controlled Senate.

While Biden has hinted at his willingness to “compromise,” Johnson has pushed for him to prove his sincerity through executive actions that would stop the lax asylum policy and start rebuilding the wall. Meanwhile, senators are returning to D.C. more convinced than ever that Ukraine comes second to our own national security problems.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made it clear that Biden needs to “accept the idea that we’re full.” “Take the tools we’re willing to give you to stop the inflow” of migrants on the U.S.-southern border, including deportations, and “you’ll turn things around pretty quickly” and “we’ll get money for Ukraine,” he insisted on “Face the Nation” Sunday. As much as he and other leaders want to help Ukraine, the reality, Graham argued, is that our border “is not broken, it is in chaos.”

3. Joe Biden Impeachment Inquiry

Before heading home for Christmas, House Republicans were on the same page about one thing: a formal impeachment inquiry into the current president. In a shift from earlier in the year, every GOP member, including the chamber’s moderates, voted to approve the move to intensify the investigation into Joe Biden’s influence peddling. “The White House is seeking to block key testimony from current and former White House staff,” Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) argued. “It is also withholding thousands of records from Joe Biden’s time as Vice President. President Biden must be held accountable for his lies, corruption, and obstruction. We have a duty to provide the accountability and transparency that Americans demand and deserve.”

As evidence continues to mount that then-Vice President Biden not only knew about his son Hunter’s business dealings but was actively involved in them, the National Archives prepared to release 62,000 pages of damning documents to Comer that included “emails by Joe Biden under secret aliases and records tied to his son …”

In a lawyerly op-ed for USA Today, Speaker Johnson insisted the charges against Biden “must be addressed.” Unlike the Democrats’ witch hunt against Donald Trump, the speaker made it clear that House Republicans “will not prejudge this investigation; we will depose witnesses, gather evidence, establish a thorough record and present Articles of Impeachment only if the evidentiary record dictates such action.”

The American people “have a right to know whether the president — through his family — traded official acts for foreign dollars, whether the president is compromised, and whether Joe Biden abused his power as president to impede or obstruct the investigation into Hunter Biden,” Johnson continued. “As we have done all along, House Republicans will continue to follow the facts where they lead.”

4. The Ever-Shrinking GOP Majority

If people thought Kevin McCarthy walked a tightrope as speaker, it’s nothing compared to the threadbare majority his successor faces. With the early departure of McCarthy and the expulsion of New York’s George Santos, the House GOP enters 2024 a hair’s breadth away from the minority. With those losses — and no guarantee that either special election will yield a Republican replacement — Johnson now has just 220 members to his credit, a wafer-thin three-vote majority.

For a party already battered by 2023 infighting, holding everyone together on key votes was already a herculean task. “Hopefully no one dies,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green half-joked on Twitter. But she isn’t wrong. If even a few members peel off of any given bill, Johnson will need Democrats to make up the difference — hardly a recipe for conservative success.

“It’s going to be very difficult for any speaker to satisfy everybody in Congress,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) warned. “It might make it more difficult on Speaker Johnson, trying to maintain his majority.”

That task got even harder with Rep. Bill Johnson’s (R-Ohio) official resignation Tuesday. His departure date, January 21, will bring Speaker Johnson’s working majority to just two.

And the implications for November shouldn’t be lost on Republicans, experts warn. As FRC Action’s Matt Carpenter told The Washington Stand, “The nation is heading into what promises to be a bruising election cycle, and candidates will be looking for every advantage they can to win their elections. The biggest advantage is incumbency. Some estimates show incumbents have a 94% re-election rate, so retirements mean open seats in 2024, and open seats are how congressional majorities are won or lost. A candidate can raise vast sums of money, knock on every door in the district, and make all the promises in the world,” Carpenter explained, and “they still have an uphill climb against an incumbent. The current House majority is built on a historically slim margin, so every retirement makes the job of Republicans to retain the speaker’s gavel that much harder.”

“This place is a pressure cooker,” Johnson admitted at a press conference before the end of last year. But based on what’s facing House Republicans, he hasn’t seen anything yet.

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: Migrant Madness in the Second City | How Asylum Seekers Ruined A Chicago Neighborhood

POST ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Elon Musk And His Businesses Faced Multi-Agency Crackdown From Biden Admin In 2023

/in , , , , , , , /by

In the first full year of Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter — now X, President Joe Biden’s administration repeatedly targeted the billionaire and his companies, taking regulatory action against them throughout 2023.

Several agencies under the Biden administration launched investigations and instituted other consequential reviews into Musk’s businesses. Entities including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action against them in 2023 as Musk ran X.

“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries … is worthy of being looked at, whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that,” Biden said in November 2022 shortly after Musk purchased Twitter. “I’m suggesting that [it’s] … worth being looked at … that’s all I’ll say.”

Musk and his companies have since been in the administration’s crosshairs.

“I don’t think the whole administration has it out for me,” Musk stated in September on the All-In Podcast. “But I think there’s probably aspects of the administration … or aspects of interests aligned with President Biden who probably do not wish good things for me.”

Most recently, the FCC decided to rescind a $885 million award to Musk’s SpaceX for its Starlink to provide fast broadband internet service to over 640,000 homes and businesses in rural areas in December. This was an example of the Biden administration’s “regulatory harassment” of Musk, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr alleged in a statement dissenting from the decision.

“Doesn’t make sense,” Musk posted in response to the rejection. “Starlink is the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale!”

The FCC reached its decision because Starlink failed to show it could meet the requirements to provide the services with funds from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, it asserted. However, Carr says this is a standard that has never been used before.

“[The FCC’s decision] is belied by the fact that the U.S. government is entering into multimillion dollar contracts with Elon Musk, with Starlink, for high-speed connectivity when it matters the most — for military operations and otherwise — so it simply isn’t credible for the FCC to be claiming that they have concerns about this technology when other components of the federal government are leaning in so heavily,” Carr told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview.

Moreover, the DOJ filed a complaint against SpaceX  in August for alleged discrimination based on its hiring policies, according to court documents. The DOJ accused SpaceX of discrimination against individuals seeking asylum and refugees by not hiring them.

“US law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are considered advanced weapons technology,” Musk posted on June 20. However, this is not true, according to the complaint.

The FAA blocked SpaceX from launching its Starship rocket until it completed 63 corrective actions following it bursting into flames in April, according to the agency on Sept. 8.

“Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval,” Musk had posted on Sept. 5. He also posted a checklist of SpaceX’s progress in completing the corrective actions on Sept. 10.

The Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS), which is under the Department of the Interior, also held up the Starship launch, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 18. It had not started its official review of the April explosion at that point, which was necessary for the FAA to finalize its approval.

FWS found some charred crabs and quail eggs shortly after the April launch, according to Bloomberg.

“Once the Service reviews FAA’s final biological assessment and deems it complete, consultation will be re-initiated and we will have 135 days to issue a final biological assessment,” FWS public affairs specialist Aubry Buzek told Bloomberg. “At any time FAA and the Service can agree to extend that time if for some reason we need to gather further information or new information is presented.”

The FAA eventually approved Starship to launch on Nov. 17 and it launched the following day, according to Reuters.

When Musk received pushback in November for replying to an alleged antisemitic post about Western Jews advocating for “dialectical hatred against whites” by stating, “You have said the actual truth,” the White House joined in on the criticism.

“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates stated.

Furthermore, the DOJ and SEC are investigating Musk’s electric car company Tesla’s alleged allocation of funds toward a covert project, rumored to be the construction of a glass house for Musk, The Wall Street Journal reported in August.

“I’m not building a house of any kind, let alone a glass one!” Musk posted on X.

“[Musk] became a critic of the [Biden] administration and exposed the censorship regime,” Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie stated in September. “The DOJ has opened not one but two investigations of Elon Musk … To the American public, these look like mafia tactics.”

The EEOC sued Tesla for alleged racism in September, according to a lawsuit announced by the federal agency. Black staff allegedly dealt with many instances of racist abuse and derogatory slurs at the company’s manufacturing facilities in Fremont, California, from at least 2015 until 2023.

“Black employees at Tesla’s Fremont, California manufacturing facilities have routinely endured racial abuse, pervasive stereotyping, and hostility as well as epithets such as variations of the N-word, ‘monkey,’ ‘boy,’ and ‘black b*tch,’” according to the EEOC. “Slurs were used casually and openly in high-traffic areas and at worker hubs. Black employees regularly encountered graffiti, including variations of the N-word, swastikas, threats, and nooses, on desks and other equipment, in bathroom stalls, within elevators, and even on new vehicles rolling off the production line.”

The SEC sued Musk in October to compel him to testify in the commission’s investigation into him for his purchase of Twitter in late 2022, according to Reuters. The commission is looking into whether his public statements and filings pertaining to the purchase were deceptive.

Despite Musk’s claims to the contrary, the SEC denies this is harassment in court documents.

The FTC has investigated X’s alleged lack of adherence to a 2022 administrative order pertaining to privacy, and depositions “revealed a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring X Corp.’s compliance,” according to a September DOJ filing.

The FTC has also issued over 350 requests for information from X since Musk took over, including the company’s collaborative work with journalists, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio asserted in July. Musk enabled journalists to publish  internal documents from X which preceded his takeover, called the “Twitter Files,” revealing that Biden campaign staff flagged content related to his son Hunter for the platform to suppress in December 2022.

“You’ve asked for every single communication relating to Elon Musk, not communications that he just sent to someone or communications he received, but any time he’s mentioned,” Jordan said. “More than harassment, that seems like almost an obsession.”

The White House, X, Tesla, SpaceX, FCC, DOJ, FAA and FWC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

The FTC, SEC and EEOC declined to comment.

AUTHOR

JASON COHEN

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Org That Defunds Conservatives Tries To

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.