Social Security Overpays Billions Under Leadership of Racial Equity Activist

Under the leadership of a noted racial equity activist the Social Security Administration (SSA) has mistakenly overpaid beneficiaries tens of billions of dollars, including a 65% spike in overpayments in one year. In 2023 the agency with a stated mission of ensuring equity and accessibility by addressing systemic barriers to participation and a commitment to providing services to underserved communities made a whopping $23 billion in overpayments, according to its latest Agency Financial Report. The figure is a marked increase over the already stunning $11.1 billion in overpayments that SSA erroneously made in 2022.

SSA’s dreadful habit of overpaying billions in benefits goes back years as American taxpayers get stuck with the hefty price because most of the money is never recovered. In the last few years, the agency has doled out between $6 billion and $7 billion in new overpayments annually, the new report reveals. It shows that most of the 2022 overpayments, around $6.5 billion, occurred within the Old-Age Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) programs which provide monthly benefits to qualified retired and disabled workers and their dependents and to survivors of insured workers. Eligibility and benefit amounts are determined by the worker’s contributions to Social Security. In prior years the problem was mainly in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program which helps low-income elderly and disabled adults as well as children. In 2022 SSI distributed north of $4.6 billion in overpayments.

At a congressional hearing earlier this year SSA Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi told federal lawmakers that her agency is trying to recover the money by sending out millions of “overpayment notices” to those who erroneously got extra cash. Kijakazi said 1,028,389 people got the notices in 2022 and 986,912 in fiscal 2023, which ended in September. Kijakazi is a renowned racial equity proponent with a storied career of researching—and tackling—structural racism and the racial wealth gap in both government and high-profile nonprofits. She has served as co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap at the leftist Center for American Progress and on the Washington, D.C. Equitable Recovery Advisory Group. In mid-2021 President Joe Biden named Kijakazi acting SSA Commissioner after previously appointing her to a lower-level position of deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy.

In the new agency financial report Kijakazi reveals that in 2023 she began to rebuild the SSA workforce by adding nearly 4,000 employees, yet problems persist. “We made progress toward eliminating our hearings backlog,” the commissioner writes in the report’s opening message, adding that “we ended FY 2023 with 321,819 cases pending, the lowest level since 2000.” The commissioner proceeds to highlight all the great things her agency has accomplished, including working to eliminate a backlog, reducing wait times for claims and improving organizational efficiency. “As good stewards of our programs, we strive to reduce improper payments and combat waste, fraud and abuse through our quality reviews, cost-effective program integrity work, and payment accuracy efforts.” Kijakazi ends her opening message by writing that there are “no material weaknesses in our internal controls.”

Nevertheless, buried deep in the exhaustive 216-page report the agency discloses the billions it has overpaid in the last few years despite establishing a special Improper Payment Prevention Team in 2019 tasked with developing strategies to determine the underlying cause of payment errors and developing corrective action plans. SSA issues over $1 trillion in benefit payments annually and preventing overpayments can be as simple as providing employees with a “comprehensive tool” when calculating benefits manually. In fact, SSA found that it could have avoided approximately 73,000 overpayments totaling more than $368 million in 2022 if it had furnished a “comprehensive tool” for employees to do their job correctly. “Preventing improper payments is more advantageous than recovering them after they are made because SSA does not have to expend additional resources to recover the overpayments…” the report states.

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

GOP to Biden: No Ukraine Funding until Southern Border Is Secure

As Congress kicked back into session following the Thanksgiving break, Republican lawmakers are making their position crystal clear regarding continued aid to Ukraine: if the Biden administration wants billions of additional dollars for Ukraine’s war against Russia, it must include legislation to provide solutions for the spiraling crisis at America’s southern border.

Since President Biden took office in January 2021, the explosion of illegal immigrants flooding America’s southern border has been unlike anything seen in the history of the U.S. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the total number of apprehensions of illegal border crossers from 2021 through fiscal year 2023 is a staggering 8.3 million. This does not count the number of individuals who escaped capture (gotaways) during the same time period, which is estimated at 1.7 million. Therefore, the number of illegal border crossers during Biden’s presidency so far is over 10 million, a total that is larger than the individual populations of 41 states.

Notably, this number includes 1,586 known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) that were apprehended. In fiscal year 2023, 736 KSTs were captured, the largest number ever recorded in a single year. In addition, almost 50,000 criminal noncitizens were apprehended during fiscal year 2023, the largest total in history. Alarmingly, the 1.7 million gotaways over the last three years is only an estimate, so it is unknown how many more KSTs and other criminal noncitizens managed to escape detection and enter the U.S. interior.

The rate of illegal border crossers shows no signs of slowing. On Monday, Fox News reported on trains seen in Mexico heading to the U.S. with hundreds of migrants openly riding on the top of rail cars. In addition, CBP announced they would be temporarily shutting down vehicle processing at ports of entry in Texas and Arizona in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol in taking illegal border crossers into custody. Just last week, CBP reported 15,300 illegal crossings at the Tucson Sector in Arizona, the highest ever weekly total.

The crisis has led Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), to demand that the Biden White House do something to stem the tide as a condition of continuing to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia. On Monday, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss the situation.

“[We need more than] just legislative fixes, because we have a lawless administration,” he contended. “We have a president that wants an open border. And so we do need to change the law … [such as a] Return to Mexico policy … but we absolutely must make any funding to Ukraine contingent on actually securing the border. And that means benchmarks, metrics. The metric we should use is [the] number of migrants entering America, no matter how they come in, whether they’re encountered and processed and released, or whether we detect them as gotaways. … So, no [Ukraine] funding until you actually achieve those benchmarks on a month-by-month basis.”

Johnson went on to argue that the border crisis will not be solved simply by throwing more money at the issue, which the Biden administration has argued in favor of.

“[Q]uite honestly, providing this administration more money at the border, they’re just going to speed up the processing and dispersing,” he pointed out. “That’s been their whole goal. That’s why they think their policy is [a] success. [They say] we don’t have a crisis on the border. [They]’ve just gotten really efficient at encountering, processing, dispersing more than six million illegal immigrants into this country during their administration. So no, we don’t need [to give them more] money for the border.”

As to the question of whether at least 41 GOP senators will hold the line on the southern border crisis, Johnson expressed uncertainty, while also emphasizing the severity of the border issue.

“I’ve been making the point now for literally months that we need to stop taking whatever the Democrats want and finding just enough Republicans to join them to pass their priorities,” he underscored. “That has to end … particularly when you’re looking at an open border being a clear and present danger to America. Democrats [and] the president obviously want funding for Ukraine. A lot of Republicans do. I’m certainly sympathetic with the courageous people of Ukraine. But what must come first is our own homeland, our own national security. … So you’ve got to set your priorities, and our top priority has to be to secure that border. This is the only leverage we have with a lawless administration. We must use that leverage. And so all we have to do is make sure that 41 Republicans deny cloture on any bill that doesn’t include strong metrics that require … President Biden to secure the border [and] meet those metrics before money starts flowing.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: GOP leadership needs to get serious about corrupt DOJ efforts to enact one party Democrat rule

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 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.

‘Super Expensive’: NRCC Drops Video Targeting Dems For Thanksgiving Food Price Hikes

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released a video Wednesday, first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation, seeking to hold Democrats responsible for Thanksgiving food price increases ahead of 2024.

The online advertisement, titled “Thanksgiving in Biden’s America” and launched by the House GOP’s campaign arm, depicts how some of the feast’s staples “are more expensive again this year,” arguing that “you can thank Democrats” for the price increases. Local prices for canned cranberries, canned pumpkins and russet potatoes are all up 60%, 30% and 14%, respectively, since 2022, according to the NRCC.

“It’s super expensive and I’m sharing the cost with some of my siblings,” a grocery shopper can be heard saying in the video.

“Definitely more conscious about what we purchase,” another said.

WATCH:

Inflation has spiked under the Biden administration, which has been attributed by critics to record levels of government spending approved by Democrats. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan in 2021 authorizing $1.9 trillion in new funding for COVID-19 relief, as well as the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which added $750 billion to the deficit and sought to advance the president’s green energy agenda.

“Unsatisfied with their war on Christmas, extreme Democrats launched a war on Thanksgiving. That’s why your Thanksgiving meal costs skyrocketed,” Ben Smith, NRCC rapid response director, told the DCNF in a statement.

While the average cost for a Thanksgiving table of ten has decreased by 4.5% since 2022, the price is still up by 25% at $61.17 since 2019, according to a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation released Nov. 15. Last year’s average Thanksgiving feast saw a record-high price of $64.05 compared to $48.91 from before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NRCC is seeking to expand its majority in the House by targeting 37 seats held by vulnerable Democrats, including several that will now be open in 2024 following a wave of departures in Michigan, Virginia and California.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor.

POST ON X:

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As Homeownership Costs Soar and Inflation Persists, Americans Sour on Biden’s Economy

President Joe Biden turned 81 years old on Monday, and he was greeted with the lowest approval rating ever recorded by NBC News at 40%. While a large part of the number is due to Democrats’ disapproval of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, it’s also likely a reflection of an economy that continues to struggle under the weight of persistent inflation, skyrocketing mortgage rates, a decline in full-time jobs, and ever-expanding federal debt.

The president has continued to tout “Bidenomics” in recent weeks, despite stating last week that he acknowledges there is a “disconnect between the numbers and how people feel about their place in the world right now.” Polls show that the American public is indeed not connecting with the White House’s messaging on a massive scale. A Fox News survey taken last week revealed that almost 80% of Americans rate the economy negatively.

As economists are pointing out, the raw economic numbers are a tremendous cause for concern. Joel Griffith, a research fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, joined “Washington Watch” last week to give a snapshot of where things currently stand.

“The typical family has lost more than $4,000 in real inflation, just adjusted income since President Biden took office, and that $4,000 pay cut is not even taking into account the rising home ownership costs,” he observed. “… [A]s [we]’ve seen real income decline, we’ve also seen credit card balances hit an all-time record $1 trillion. That’s about a $3,000 a family increase over the past year and a half, even as savings rates have plunged near all-time lows. Bidenomics has been a disaster for American families.”

Polls show that Americans are continuing to feel economic pain when they compare their income with prices. An Associated Press poll last month found that “three-quarters of respondents described the economy as poor,” with two-thirds saying their expenses have risen and only one quarter saying their income had also gone up. Compounding the problem is that the prices of many of the items that Americans most commonly buy have inflated substantially. Since February of 2020, the average price of a gallon of milk is up 23% ($3.93), a pound of ground beef is up 33% ($5.35), and a gallon of gas is up 53% ($3.78).

As Griffith went on to explain, one of the primary reasons for the decline in real income currently being experienced by Americans is the exploding cost of home ownership.

“If you’re looking to get a mortgage right now on a standard middle class home, that mortgage payment is costing you about $1,000 per month more than it would have cost you just a year and a half ago,” he noted. “… These are the worst economic conditions since the 1970s. … [T]hat was a time when we also had declining real income, and we also had sky high inflation. So arguably, it’s even worse now than it was then because it’s never been less affordable to buy a home. If you look to buy a home, it costs you about half of your income just to make the mortgage payments and the property taxes. It has never been this bad in terms of home ownership.”

Griffith further illustrated how reported job growth numbers are misleading. “[E]very month, the Biden administration loves to tout these jobs growth numbers. But what they fail to tell us is actually that over the last six months, we’ve actually seen a decline in full-time jobs. The only reason why we have seen the top line jobs growth numbers positive is because we’ve seen a surge in part-time jobs, meaning we have a lot more people today working double jobs just to pay the bills.”

As the national debt approaches $34 trillion, Griffith underscored how runaway federal spending is leading to unyielding inflation.

“[S]pending is out of control — it’s been out of control a long time,” he said. “The interest we’re paying right now on the federal debt is $10,000 per family per year. The amount of money that we’ve borrowed over the prior year is $25,000 per family of four. We cannot keep this up. A big part of the reason why families today are suffering from this inflation … is because for the last three years, we have spent wildly beyond our means, and we relied on our central bank to print the dollars to buy that debt.”

“We have to change this trajectory now, and I’m hopeful Congress will actually attempt to do so once they come back from Thanksgiving and Christmas break,” Griffith concluded.

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: We Need to Talk about Joe: Dems Show Growing Concern over Aged, Inept Biden

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 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.

The Biden Years At A Glance

A reader mcmast sent us an email titled Biden POTUS years at a glance. Here’s what mcmast wrote about Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.’s time in office to date.

Hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan which gave our enemies $80 billion of USA weapons and killed several American soldiers.

Highest inflation in 40 years.  Inflation increased 20% more than wages under Biden after wages increased 6% more than inflation under Trump.

Highest interest rates in a generation to fix the Biden inflation.

Employment participation rate is still less than under Trump as all jobs under Biden have been to replace jobs that were lost during COVID.

Loss of USA energy/oil independence that was gained under Trump.

Record number of regulations/laws reversed by the courts including:  DACA.  Affirmative action for college entrance.  Gun rights.  Cancelling student debt. Ignoring immigration laws.

Anti-Semitic demonstrations.  The Squad.

Record amount of illegal immigrants entering the USA.

Highest % of federal debt vs GDP in the history of the USA, including WWII.

Highest % of USA workforce employed as government employees in the history of the USA.

DoJ and FBI used as political weapons which set a precedence for future presidents.

Lies about his knowledge and participation in his son’s businesses.

Lies about his son’s laptop.

Thousands of classified documents kept in several unsecured locations for more than 20 years that he stole as a Senator and as a VP.

WOKE military and education system.

Cocaine found in the family portion of the White House.  No perpetrators identified by the FBI despite hundreds of cameras all over the White House.

What has Biden done well?

He left the Trump tax reforms in place.

He left the Trump tariffs on products from China in place.

He left the Trump USMCA in place.

He continued Trump spending on military.

If you disagree with any of these items please leave a comment below.

©2023. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Obama’s Financial Legacy – A Shift from Bank Bailouts to Bail-Ins

Bail-ins, they say, are like financial gymnastics gone wild – saving failing banks with the equivalent of a fiscal somersault.

According to Fortune magazine:

A bail-in is a form of financial relief for banks that are in danger of collapsing or going bankrupt. The relief comes from canceling some or all of the bank’s debt by reducing the value of bank shares, bonds, and uninsured deposits. (Note: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures most bank deposits up to $250,000 per individual.)

A bail-in is the opposite of a bailout. Instead of relief funds coming from outside (taxpayers), the funds come from inside (shareholders and depositors). Although bail-in relief has been implemented in Europe, it has never been used in the U.S.
Even so, bail-in relief was legalized in the U.S. with passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, following the 2007–2008 financial crisis in which banks deemed “too big to fail” were bailed out by the U.S. government. The specific section of Dodd-Frank that deals with bail-ins is Title II: Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA).

It’s the anti-bailout, where instead of Uncle Sam swooping in with taxpayers’ cash, they tap into your wallet. Picture this: the bank’s equity gets trashed, and debts? They’re tossed into the financial blender, ready to absorb losses. What’s left? If you will, a bank trying to rise from the ashes, debtholders turning into equity holders, a financial phoenix.

Depositors, brace yourselves because a bail-in isn’t just a banking term for the elite. Your deposits might get a haircut – a trim that leaves you with less green. It’s like a cash version of a bad haircut; only you pay for it. Debt into equity, they say. So, if you had a loan, part of it might morph into a share in the bank. Congratulations, you’re a shareholder now. Dividends, risks, the whole shareholder shindig – welcome to the rollercoaster.

Oh, but there’s a VIP section in the world of deposits – a priority ranking. Some deposits get a golden ticket, a front-row seat in the insolvency show. If the bank goes belly-up, these priority deposits might have a better chance of survival. It’s like a financial Hunger Games, where your deposit category decides if you’ll survive.

And then there’s the tax twist. Bail-ins come with tax consequences, a fiscal aftershock. The government’s got its magnifying glass out, looking at how it affects shareholders and creditors. It’s like a financial detective story, trying to figure out if the tax system is playing favorites or just playing fair.

Now, rewind to the U.K., where Northern Rock pulled a spectacular bail-in move. A bank turned building society turned bank again; it danced on the edge during the 2008 financial crisis. The U.K. government swooped in, not with a bailout, but a bail-in. Debts to equity, customers turned shareholders – a financial plot twist.

So, here’s the burning question: How do you dodge the financial thunderstorms of a bail-in? Step one: decode the bail-in process. Know the drill because you’ll want to know how to stay afloat when the financial flood comes. Keep an eye on your bank’s health – financial checkups are crucial. Spot red flags, like a nosedive in assets or a debt rise. It’s like monitoring your bank’s vital signs; a healthy bank keeps the financial doctor away today.

Deposit insurance is like a financial superhero cape. In the UK, the FSCS rides to the rescue, covering deposits up to £85,000. It’s like a financial safety net, ready to catch you if your bank takes a leap off the fiscal cliff. Diversify, they say. Spread your financial wings across stocks, bonds, and real estate – a financial buffet to avoid putting all your eggs in one risky basket.

Consider this: if your bank’s on shaky ground, they might offer you a golden ticket to convert your debt into equity. It’s like a backstage pass to the financial show, but beware – being a shareholder isn’t all glitz and glamor. Risks, dividends, and the financial roller coaster are part of the deal.

Stay informed, they say. Know the financial rules of the game in your country. It’s like a financial playbook; knowing the rules helps you navigate the financial field. But remember, even with all these steps, there are no guarantees. Consulting a financial wizard might be your best bet when the financial storm hits.

And now, the origin story: the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. A financial superhero born out of the 2008 financial crisis. It banned bank bailouts, opening the door to bail-ins. No more taxpayers’ cash rescues; instead, banks tap into the pockets of depositors and bondholders. It’s a financial power shift, a change in the financial rescue script. A shift from Uncle Sam’s wallet to yours because it’s survival of the financial fittest in the financial world. This monumental legislation, a brainchild of the Obama administration, marked a turning point in financial history, aiming to prevent a repeat of the financial calamities that led to the “Too Big To Fail” bailouts.

Thanks a lot, Obama.

©2023. Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

The Fed Is ‘Chasing Its Own Tail’ On Inflation, And The Housing Market Is Paying The Price, Expert Says

A guest essay published in The New York Times on Tuesday finally pointed a finger at a major culprit behind the housing crisis: The Federal Reserve.

The essay was written by Westwood Capital Investment bank’s managing partner Daniel Alpert, and detailed his take on the Fed’s “relentless attack on inflation” which he thinks is jeopardizing the market. Alpert decries the Fed’s decision to raise key federal funds policy interest rate to a level 22 times what it had been in the year and a half prior.

In normal times, this type of action would make mortgages insanely expensive for homeowners and make homes a lot cheaper, which limits spending power. But Alpert rightly notes these aren’t normal times. As mortgage rates skyrocketed from around three percent to the near eight percent it is now, it caused a catastrophe for the housing market.

Homeowners with good interest rates don’t want to move. And new buyers don’t want to get locked into an overpriced home at a high interest rate. So we have “both a mobility and an inventory crisis,” as Alpert put it.

Housing has helped ensure the cost of just about everything has increased in 2023. “It is an irony that the Fed’s effort to tamp down inflation is causing an increase in core inflation measures,” Alpert notes. “And while the Fed is chasing its own tail, other avenues for controlling inflation have weakened considerably as a result of the unique circumstances surrounding the pandemic.”

The pandemic allowed for Americans to increase their savings rates. And many businesses were locked into cheap financing. So, what happens next?

Alpert thinks the Fed should declare victory and give up on its target of two percent. But the likelihood of that is low. Instead, Alpert wants the Fed to halt and then reverse policies related to mortgage securities and Quantitative Tightening. In layman’s terms, the Fed has to reduce the cost of mortgages or we’re doomed.

AUTHOR

KAY SMYTHE

News and commentary writer.

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

Johnson Scores First Win, Dodging Shutdown and Year-End Bloat

That sound you hear in Washington, D.C. is every congressional staffer breathing a sigh of relief. For once, the Hill will be home at a reasonable time for Christmas — not staring down another government shutdown or stuffing an unread trillion-dollar omnibus down the Democrats’ chimney. In the real first hurdle of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) young tenure, the House did as he asked: they passed a budget bridge to next year that spares America a whole lot of headaches.

By a 336-95 vote, the House decided to cut Mike Johnson some slack — agreeing to his unique “laddered” approach to the continuing resolution (CR) that buys Republicans more time to live up to their fiscal promises. “We were a little bit behind the eight ball here,” Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.) admitted to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins immediately following the vote. “Your listeners will remember that we went through a long process without a speaker.” Now that the House has one, he pointed out, it will take some extra time for the chamber “to get our work done.”

With just days to go before a government shutdown, Johnson made impassioned pleas for the GOP to come together and agree to a plan that gives the House a window to debate these budgets individually. “We’re not surrendering,” Johnson argued. “We’re fighting, but you have to be wise about choosing the fights. You’ve got to fight fights that you can win — and we’re going to.” But let’s face it, he said. “It took decades to get into this mess. I’ve been at this job three weeks. … I can’t turn an aircraft carrier overnight, but this was a very important first step to get us to the next stage so that we can change how Washington works.”

Leading up to the vote, several Republicans applauded Johnson for doing his best to avoid both a government shutdown and a 2,000-page “Christmas tree omnibus.” “We set that as one of our goals at the first of the year, that we did not want that to happen again,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) told Perkins. Under this plan, the House has until January 19 and February 2 to pass two waves of appropriations bills. “I personally like that,” Carter said. “I personally like the idea of doing it as you can. You know, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right? Well, let’s take these bites as we can get them, and then we go on and we work until February 2nd on everything else and try to get it done as well.”

Not every Republican agreed, insisting that anything the House passed — including a short-term CR — should have spending cuts. According to Grothman, Johnson openly confronted those critics, asking, “How is this going to end? How are you going to wind up ahead of the game by shutting down the government? Because eventually, it’s going to reopen.” And his point, Grothman said, was that “it will reopen when the Republicans get beat up in the news media. And none of these people who are voting against Mike today, breaking from our new speaker, could give him a reason or an explanation of how this was going to end.”

Johnson deserved better from his party, Grothman believed. “I felt sorry for our speaker. Most Republicans stuck with him, but on this first test, a lot didn’t. … He should have got[ten] … every single Republican to vote for him when he called for the vote. And sadly, [93] Republicans voted against him.”

Democrats filled in the blanks, pushing the CR across the finish line. Some, like Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.), snarkily told the media, “Once again, the Republican majority needs Democratic votes to govern,” as if bipartisanship is suddenly the most shocking thing to happen to the House. And maybe it is. Apparently, Congress is so used to one party imposing its will that regular order and compromise seem foreign.

The 93 Republicans’ objections notwithstanding, Grothman insisted that “the most important thing is who wins the arguments over what’s in these bills” in the new year. “…And [with] this [laddered] CR, you’re not going to be able to [roll] every appropriation bill together [in a last-minute omnibus] and have one of these 2,000-page behemoths. You’re going to have to break out a separate vote on education, a separate vote on national defense, a separate vote on military construction and veterans affairs, general government. Hopefully we’ll get as many separate votes as possible so we know what’s in the bills, which will be really a feather in the cap of Mike Johnson. But in order to get there, we had to win today [and] give him more time to get things done. And we did that.”

To those who complain this CR doesn’t cut spending, Carter said, “I get it. But the point is, we’re not going to be able to get [the appropriations bills] done [by Friday’s deadline]. We’re not going to be able to get all 12 bills with the spending cuts done anytime soon, certainly not before January the 19th. And why not go ahead and do what we can do until then? And I know that there may be a certain amount of leverage when you have all of them together. But, you know, we’ve tried that, and it hasn’t worked,” he insisted. “I’ve always said Washington is about big ideas. This is a big idea [that’s] never been done before. We ought to try it.”

And frankly, Perkins replied, “What would be gained by shutting down the government?” The House has to work “inch by inch, mile by mile,” he said. This proposal “is a step in the right direction. It moves us toward responsible governing.”

Absolutely, Carter agreed. “Let’s take incremental wins when we can. Let’s move the ball down the field. No, it’s not a Hail Mary, no it’s not a long touchdown pass, but it is advancing the ball down the field.” As for blaming the speaker over what might have been done with the CR, Carter called that “unfair.” “Mike Johnson inherited this situation,” he insisted. “… And he’s doing the best he can with it. … Personally, I thought it was a dumb thing to do to vacate the chair and to get rid of the speaker, [Kevin] McCarthy. I thought that was a big error on our part, but it is what it is. It’s done.”

At the end of the day, Grothman believes, “Mike will pull us together. [He’s] such a sincere guy. Everybody knows he’s trying to do the best he can. And of course, right now, because we had a new Democrat sworn in [Monday], we only can afford to lose three votes. So it’s tough to have 218 of 221 stick together,” the Wisconsin congressman admitted. “But if anybody can do it, Mike can do it.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

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

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 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.

New Gov’t Data Suggests Biden Admin’s Anti-Gas Appliance Push Could Make Home Heating Way More Expensive

  • Americans using electric heating systems, favored by the Biden administration’s climate agenda, will pay significantly more to keep their homes warm this winter than Americans using natural gas, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
  • Those who use electricity to heat their homes will pay $1,063 on average this winter, while Americans using natural gas will pay an average of $601 to keep their homes warm, according to the EIA data.
  • Attempts to phase out the use of natural gas for home heating and other purposes “would raise costs to consumers, jeopardize environmental progress and deny affordable energy to underserved populations,” American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Americans who heat their homes with electricity could see costs increase this winter as the Biden administration forges ahead with its broad push to diminish the use of fossil fuels in homes and buildings, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Those who rely on electricity to heat their homes will pay an average of $1,063 this upcoming winter, approximately 77% more than Americans using natural gas, who will pay an average of $601 to keep their homes warm, according to the EIA’s projections. The Biden administration, with the encouragement of environmentalist advocacy groups, has proposed regulations and rolled out subsidy programs designed to decrease the use of oil and gas products for home heating and other purposes, citing a perceived need to decrease carbon emissions they generate.

“Natural gas has been one of the principal drivers to achieving our nation’s environmental and economic goals. From providing affordable energy to consumers to driving down emissions, the benefits this fuel has for our nation are tangible and impossible to ignore,” American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Attempts to phase out the use of natural gas for home heating and other uses “would raise costs to consumers, jeopardize environmental progress and deny affordable energy to underserved populations,” she added.

The discrepancy in prices is even more pronounced in the Northeast, where the average cost for using electricity to heat a home is expected to be $1,465, a figure that is about 92% higher than the $761 that natural gas users can expect to pay on average, according to the EIA data.

The effort to change how Americans heat their homes using government action is part of a larger push from the Biden administration to have Americans adopt an array of more efficient, and more expensive, electric appliances in order to fight climate change. As it does on the heating front, the administration uses both regulation, such as its move to phase out gas-powered generators and pool pump motors, and subsidies, like the $2,000 heat pump tax credit from the Inflation Reduction Act, to advance its agenda.

Other appliances the administration has targeted include water heaters, refrigerators and clothes washers. Concurrently, federal agencies, led by the Energy Department, are assisting municipal governments to modify their building codes in ways that limit or ban the use of fossil fuels in new buildings.

Well-funded environmentalist organizations like the Sierra Club and Rewiring America have advocated for the electrification of American homes, and a coalition of 23 state governors has teamed up with the White House to aggressively expand heat pump installations in the effort to reduce the share of Americans relying on natural gas to keep their homes at a comfortable temperature.

The push to electrify home heating and appliances despite their typically higher cost is occurring amid a backdrop of high inflation that is especially hurting the country’s working- and middle-class families.

“The political appointees in the White House, guys like John Podesta, are more interested in helping their big money backers in the green movement than they are in helping provide relief for working-class American families,” Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, told the DCNF. “Higher electricity prices don’t hurt wealthy coastal elites, but they crush the poor, seniors and those living on fixed incomes.”

The White House and the Energy Department did not respond to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Huge Swaths Of US Face Elevated Blackout Risks This Winter, Grid Watchdog Warns

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.

Illegal aliens chant ‘Biden, Biden, Biden’ as they approach U.S. border

This failure to secure our borders and safeguard our national sovereignty by ignoring our own immigration laws continues and must be stopped.

I’m overstating the obvious by saying the only way to do so is to re-elect Donald J. Trump as POTUS in 2024 as well as primary out all the establishment, elitist, do nothing RINOs still in Congress, replace them with true conservatives not beholden to big $ special interests and; obviously take back the Senate in the process.

Tall order but achievable if all registered Republicans and conservative Independents turn out to vote in 2024 and beat the inevitable steal in the process.

Wouldn’t hurt to get rid of Ronna McDaniels as leader of the RNC and her supporters who have lost most elections since 2018.


Hundreds of Illegal Aliens Chant ‘Biden! Biden! Biden!’ As They Approach the U.S. Border

Sarah Arnold, November 11, 2023

Thousands of illegal migrants are making their way to the open United States border as President Joe Biden continues to roll out the red carpet for their arrival.

The illegal aliens heading for the U.S. chanted, “Biden! Biden! Biden!” Because they know this is their opportunity to walk right into the country, no questions asked.

According to reports, the mass of illegal migrants is only 2,000 miles away from Arizona. They will arrive at the U.S. border within less than a week.

Biden has claimed he will implement “consequences for illegal entry.” However, that has yet to clearly deter migrants from entering the U.S., as numbers at the border are expected to rise again in the coming weeks.

Since Biden entered office, nearly 10 million migrants have crossed the U.S. border illegally, putting the lives of Americans at risk.

D.C. Democrats continue to neglect the nation’s border despite focusing on invasions of other countries. Biden repeatedly lies, claiming the southern border is closed, but videos and photos prove otherwise. In fact, one of the first things Biden did when he entered office was dismantle Trump-era policies that kept encounters at the border at ease.

Last week, I reported that a massive caravan carrying approximately 7,000 illegal aliens was heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border.

Since the Biden Administration took over, the president’s reckless policies have caused human trafficking to flourish and deadly drugs such as fentanyl to pour into the innocent lives of Americans as laws are being ignored.

Biden is responsible for the devastation the U.S. faces each day the border remains wide open.

“President Biden has done more to reopen the border to illegal immigrants and stimulate the human smuggling industry,” Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said.

Read full article.

©2023. Royal A. Brown III. All rights reserved.

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Fiscal Insanity by the Congress of the United States of America

The Congress of the United States has been negligent in protecting tax payer money from fraud waste and abuse for 50 plus years.

The majority of the elected career politicians in Congress are put into power by low IQ Americans who do zero research on the “R” politicians and stay misinformed by the fake news.

Our congress is filled with a lazy group of incompetent jackasses who have spent us and keep spending us into financial ruin.

Members of congress have the power of the purse.

They can stop this deficit insanity as per the U.S. Constitution.

The Congress has the power to balance the federal budget – As expressed in Article I, Section 9 of the U. S. Constitution,

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law”

These useless spineless Republican politicians could easily return our republic to fiscal sanity but we have elected a bunch of corrupt lazy useless incompetent socialists and communists with few exceptions.

The new House Speaker has also failed to fund and defund through the enactment of a “regular appropriations acts” commonly called a budget most of the federal agencies required to run the government annually.

He’s kicked the can down the road just like the Republican in Name Only, the fake conservative from Communist ran California Kevin McCarthy. He is on the Continuing Resolution stop gap insane game show.

As matter of record the uniparty Congress has enacted one or more Continuing Resolutions (CRs) in all but three of the 47 fiscal years since the start of the fiscal year was changed to October 1 beginning in Fiscal Year 1977.

Congress has the authority to write the terms of appropriations and outright deny appropriations by funding or defunding programs and activities of most federal agencies including the weaponized & corrupt FBI, DOJ, Homeland Security and the ATF on an annual basis through the enactment of the 12 regular appropriations acts.

The weak spineless Republicans control the House and still they do NOTHING to protect our Republic from the Biden Marxists whose goal in life is to collapse our free market capitalist economy and imprison their political opponents.

Wake up America and stop electing these people into office. If income taxes were totally eliminated this would not even hurt our fiscal bottom line if we would only stop wasting the tax revenue the Treasury Dept. collects from corporate taxes and other revenue streams.

Only former President Trump and Congressman Matt Gaetz R-FL seems to understand this and now they are being mercilessly attacked by the cry baby useless RINOs on a mission to spitefully block their protective measures of our Republic.

Look at the funding for the new FBI building by the incompetent Republican members of congress as an example.

©2023. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

Americans Are Increasingly Failing To Make Debt Payments As Inflation Continues To Put ‘Strain On Consumers’

Americans are increasingly falling behind on their debt payments as inflation continues to erode real incomes, threatening to cause many consumers to declare bankruptcy.

Delinquency transitions, debts that were previously being paid but no longer are despite outstanding obligations, rose rapidly in the third quarter of 2023 in all forms of debt except for student loans, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Poor U.S. economic conditions linked to rising inflation and interest rates have left Americans unable to pay for previous obligations that they once could afford, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Consumers pay for things three ways: income, savings and credit,” Michael Faulkender, chief economist and senior advisor for the Center for American Prosperity, told the DCNF. “We know that wages have not kept up with inflation over the last 2.5 years and that many households have spent all of the savings accumulated during the pandemic. Therefore, in order to maintain their spending levels, they have been adding to their credit card balances, such that aggregate balances have now eclipsed $1 trillion. Rising credit card debt in a rising interest rate environment with incomes not keeping pace will put more and more households into financial difficulty, resulting in delinquencies.”

Delinquency transitions for credit cards and auto loans saw the biggest increase among debt forms in the third quarter, rising to 8% and 7.4%, respectively, according to the New York Fed. Credit card debt increased to $1.08 trillion in the quarter, rising 4.7% from the second quarter, when it exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in U.S. history.

Real wages for average Americans have declined since President Joe Biden took office, sinking 2.1% from the first quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Americans are increasingly turning to their savings to make up the difference in lost wages, with Americans collectively holding $687.7 billion in savings as of September 2023, compared to more than $1 trillion in May and nearly $6 trillion in April 2020.

“It likely indicates that average Americans are not doing well financially,” Jai Kedia, a research fellow for the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, told the DCNF. “The quarter-by-quarter increase in delinquencies is probably a signal that the economy is not as good as people thought earlier this year — rather that the hard landing many predicted last year but never came may simply have been delayed.”

An economic soft landing refers to a slowdown in market growth that avoids a recession, as opposed to a hard landing, which would result in a recession, slowing economic growth but also ultimately bringing inflation down. Following the September Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Jerome Powell, chair of the Fed, said a soft landing was not a baseline expectation for the Fed in its fight against inflation.

“The rise in delinquencies is indicative of increasing strain on consumers,” Peter Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the DCNF. “Over the past three-and-a-half years, we’ve had widespread unemployment, an uneven recovery, and then both the highest inflation and the most aggressive rate-hiking campaign in four decades. Inflation is still substantially elevated. Unemployment is rising faster now, the economy is slowing under the strain of higher borrowing costs, and bills are going unpaid.”

Inflation peaked under Biden at 9.1% in June 2022 but has decelerated since despite remaining elevated, measuring at 3.7% in both August and September, far from the Fed’s 2% target. In response, the Fed has raised its federal funds rate to a range of 5.25% and 5.50%, the highest point in 22 years, over the course of 11 rate hikes starting in March 2022.

“People respond to incentives,” Kedia told the DCNF. “The government provided massive amounts of fiscal stimulus that was marketed as a one-time gift. People used this windfall to purchase goods and services — perhaps these included down payments on durable items that are now getting difficult to pay back loans on.”

The Biden administration has pushed a number of big government spending bills, including the American Rescue Plan signed in March 2021 that provided $1.9 trillion in stimulus checks, debt bailouts and more. The president also signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which approved $750 billion in new spending, a large amount going to climate initiatives.

“In September 2023, for the fourth month in a row, real spending outpaced real income growth,” Earle told the DCNF. “This suggests that a large and growing portion of recent US spending has been drawn from savings and financed by borrowing. Although wages and salaries increased in September 2023, disposable income declined for the third consecutive month, signaling that American consumers have been saving less to support current and future spending. Not only does this mean that they are living beyond their means, but they are tremendously vulnerable to an unanticipated economic shock.”

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

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: The US Could Have Trouble Attracting Lenders To Foot The Bill For Its Massive Debt Deluge, 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.

Biden Admin’s Regulatory Overhaul Is Poised To Burden Americans In The Name Of Fighting Climate Change

President Joe Biden’s administration finalized guidance Thursday likely to burden Americans with costlier regulations to fulfill administration priorities such as combating climate change.

Biden’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is enacting new guidance that would require regulators to consider priorities like inequality and climate change when analyzing the costs and benefits of regulation. The White House argued the guidance is necessary so that regulations are issued with up-to-date analysis and information.Critics, however, argue the new guidance would lead to costlier regulations in the name of the Biden administration’s agenda.

“Adjusting how cost-benefit analysis is conducted in a way to make it easier to issue heavy-handed and costly regulations is unwise at anytime, particularly when Americans continue to suffer under punishingly high inflation,” Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford stated, according to The New York Times.

The new regulations will in practice allow for stronger climate regulations by factoring in the projected economic costs of climate change and global warming, according to the NYT.

The regulations are based on Biden’s January 2021 “Memorandum on Modernizing Regulatory Review,” which accounts for contributions to progressive policies when considering proposed rules.

“We write to express our opposition to the proposed revisions, which are seemingly designed to fast-track progressive policies that do not have a majority of votes in Congress necessary for passage into law,” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and a coalition of Senate Republican committee ranking members wrote in a letter pushing back on the memorandum.”

The rules are also based on an April “Executive Order on Modernizing Regulatory Review,” according to the White House fact sheet on the final guidance, which the OMB pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation toward.

The order references regulatory moves that likely would lead to “adversely affect[ing] in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, territorial, or tribal governments or communities” and takes “equity” into account.

Americans may also bear the regulatory cost for other nations because “effects occurring beyond the borders of the United States can result in benefits and costs that accrue to U.S. citizens and residents,” according to the fact sheet.

The OMB’s White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) finalized the regulations.

“This updated guidance will help agencies more accurately estimate the impacts of their regulations and thereby enable them to craft better regulations which, in turn, means lower costs for consumers; cleaner food, air, and water; less fraud and exploitation; increased workplace safety; more innovation; and a stronger economy,” the White House OIRA fact sheet asserts.

The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JASON COHEN

Contributor.

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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.

Top Hunter Biden Prosecutor Confirms Key Detail Of IRS Whistleblower Testimony, Jim Jordan Says

Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, special counsel in the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation, confirmed a key allegation made by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said Tuesday.

Weiss testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and said he requested special attorney authority under section 515 in the spring of 2022, Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan told reporters. Weiss was not given the special attorney authority and did not have special attorney authority before his special counsel appointment in August, Jordan said.

“When he was specifically asked, did you ever request special attorney authority under Section 515, Mr. Weiss’s response was yes, in the spring of 2022. So that that goes to the heart of the matter,” Jordan stated.

“So to me, that’s the key takeaway. He won’t answer a lot of questions. But that’s the key takeaway, because this whole deposition was about the changing story we got from DOJ, regarding the authority that he had,” he continued.

“And that answer, I think the key is, is entirely consistent with what Mr. Shapley said after the October 7, 2022 meeting, when he said USA Weiss requested Special Counsel authority when it was sent to DC and Main DOJ denied his request and told him to follow the process.”

Shapley testified to the House Ways and Means Committee in May and recalled an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting where Weiss allegedly stated that he requested special counsel authority and got denied by the Department of Justice (DOJ) after Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves refused to cooperate on potentially charging Hunter Biden for alleged tax offenses in D.C.

Shapley’s attorneys have released handwritten notes and an email containing Shapley’s account of the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting. Weiss denied Shapley’s accusations in a July letter to Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

In his letter to Graham, Weiss said he did not request special counsel authority and alluded to internal discussions about special attorney authority, without disclosing the results of those discussions.

Special attorney authority under section 515 would have authorized Weiss’ office to level charges against Hunter Biden outside of his district without needing to collaborate with the U.S. Attorneys in those jurisdictions.

Two IRS officials testified that Weiss and Shapley developed a rift after the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting, resulting in Shapley being removed from the Hunter Biden case.

Graves testified before the Judiciary Committee in October and confirmed his decision not to cooperate with Weiss in March 2022, according to a transcript reviewed by the Daily Caller.

Likewise, Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California E. Martin Estrada confirmed he refused to cooperate with Weiss in October 2022, according to a transcript reviewed by the Daily Caller. Shapley accused both U.S. attorneys of declining to cooperate on the case when he testified to the Ways and Means Committee.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August after Hunter Biden’s guilty plea agreement collapsed in court and IRS Whistleblowers Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified publicly.

Garland testified before the Judiciary Committee in September and asserted that Weiss had “full authority” over the Hunter Biden investigation.

He said the U.S. attorneys “could refuse to partner” with Weiss on the case and insisted Weiss could have requested additional authority under section 515 and that he would have approved it.

“All he would have to do is ask me for 515 authority, and I would sign it right away,” Garland said in response to a question from Republican South Carolina Rep. Russell Fry.

Weiss said he had “ultimate authority” over the case in a June 7 letter to Rep. Jordan. He wrote another letter to Jordan in late June in which he said his charging authority was geographically limited. Garland defended the consistency of Weiss’ letters during his September testimony.

Both whistleblowers accused the DOJ of giving Hunter Biden special treatment during its investigation into his taxes and firearms possession. The Ways and Means Committee released a trove of documents in September supporting the IRS whistleblower testimony.

Hunter Biden is suing the IRS for alleged illegal disclosures by the IRS whistleblowers in their testimony and media interviews. Hunter’s defense attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, wrote a letter to Weiss in August making similar accusations against the whistleblowers.

Hunter Biden was indicted in September on three federal gun charges in connection with his October 2018 purchase of a firearm in Delaware while he battled a crack cocaine addiction. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in October and later downplayed them in a Thursday op-ed for USA Today.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Investigative reporter. James Lynch can be reached on Twitter @jameslynch32.

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

‘It Ruins Their Case’: Attorney Reveals Why New York Judge Tried To Hush Trump During Testimony

A legal spokesperson for former President Donald Trump said that the judge in Trump’s civil fraud trial was trying to hush the former president because Trump’s explanations wrecked the case against him.

Trump and attorney Alina Habba clashed with Judge Arthur F. Engoron during the former president’s testimony Monday, with the judge threatening to remove Trump from the courtroom. Engoron ruled that Trump was liable for fraud Sept. 26, and ordered that several business licenses Trump held were to be rescinded, but an appeals court ruling stayed the order Oct. 6.

“There was a fiery exchange with the judge,” Habba told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow. “Frankly, I can’t even say it was with the judge and I… I’m very polite, I’m very professional when I’m in the courtroom, but the judge did not like him finishing or explaining because it wasn’t good for his case. He is interfering. He made his decision, let’s not forget that, Larry. He made a decision on summary judgment. He found liability already.”

WATCH:

Democratic Attorney General Letitia James of New York sued Trump in September 2022, alleging he overstated the value of real estate holdings in order to obtain loans.

“We’re wasting all this time, and he won’t even let the president, who is the person they’re trying to get to, explain why he certified to certain values,” Habba said. “Why? Because the minute he starts to explain it, it ruins their case. He was worth more than his statement of financial conditions, and Miss James, her politics are not allowing to backtrack. She needs a PR team, I’m telling you.”

Real-estate experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Engoron’s ruling greatly undervalued Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by Trump, which some considered to be worth more than $250,000,000.

“We are obviously going to move to completely dismiss this case. There should be a mistrial based on some of the things you mentioned today that I can’t talk about,” Habba added later. “There should be a mistrial here. Bias in general, I’ll say. There is a judicial code of ethics. Those ethics extend to the entire courtroom and when you violate the rules of judicial ethics there need to be certain things that hold you accountable.”

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

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TUCKER 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.