A good day!

March 10, 2023

          Thursday was a good day for all Americans. President Biden proposed a budget to reduce the deficit, protect Medicare and Social Security, and move toward a more equitable tax system. A Trump lawyer (Jenna Ellis) admitted that she promoted ten falsehoods relating to the 2020 election and was censured by the Colorado Supreme Court for her misrepresentations. Democrats used the House GOP’s “Weaponization Committee” hearing to remind Americans that Trump ordered the DOJ to persecute his enemies and regularly demanded that Twitter take down tweets that offended his tender sensibilities.  

          But it was not all good news. After the Biden administration fined a cleaning services company for employing children under 16 to work with toxic chemicals, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation that removed the work-permit requirement for children under 16.

          Oh, and the Manhattan District Attorney extended an invitation to Trump to testify before a grand jury investigating his campaign’s payment of “hush money” to a woman with whom he had an affair. The invitation suggests that the grand jury is nearing the issuance of an indictment against Trump.

Biden issues a bold budget, daring Republicans to counter.

          President Biden released his proposed 2023-24 budget on Thursday. It will not be enacted as proposed but served as a strong statement of Biden’s spending and revenue priorities. In broad strokes, the budget served as a challenge to Republicans, who have yet to make specific budget proposals to back their tough talk. Biden’s budget proposes the following:

Protecting Medicare and Social Security benefits through expansion of payroll taxes and savings on medications through direct negotiations with pharma companies.

Reducing deficit spending by $3 trillion over 20 years.

Increasing the defense budget by 3.2%.

Increasing revenues (by raising taxes) by the following means:

• Increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%;

• Increasing the tax on stock buybacks to 4% from 1%;

• Eliminating the tax treatment of “carried interest” that allows private equity and hedge fund executives to pay lower tax rates than many of their salaried employees;

• Increasing Medicare payroll taxes by 1.5% for income in excess of $400,000.

          There is much more. For details, see NYTimes, Takeaways From Biden’s Budget: The President Embraces His Priorities.  

          Biden’s budget ratchets the pressure on Republicans, who have committed to major spending cuts without reducing Medicare or Social Security. The GOP is reportedly currently focusing on cuts to social welfare programs for food and housing.

Biden has put the GOP in a box, as explained in Vox, The real message of Biden’s budget. The thesis of the Vox article is, “The president is picking a fight with Republicans on their own turf — fiscal responsibility and defense spending.”

          Vox continues:

This year, as Democrats no longer have control of Congress, the resulting budget document reflects both political pragmatism and political ambition. It also gives the clearest glimpse yet into how the White House plans to position itself in the upcoming fights around the debt ceiling and the 2024 reelection campaign. Biden is embracing the rhetoric of fiscal responsibility and national security, domains that have historically been Republicans’ turf. But he is doing so while rejecting any calls to roll back the welfare state. Instead, the budget lays the groundwork to expand it.

          Biden has firmly volleyed the ball into the GOP’s court. The budget fight will be messy and painful. But whatever the outcome, Biden has skillfully set the terms of the debate in a framework that will be difficult for the GOP to navigate. See Talking Points Memo, House Dems Dare GOP To Show Their Hand On Budget Cuts.

          Indeed, given the deep divisions in the GOP caucus in the House, there is a risk that McCarthy will never produce a proposed budget. As White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded when asked about that possibility, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Sadly, the GOP dysfunction may become a circus of monkeys that vexes Americans who want and expect the party in control of the House to produce a budget—as directed by the Constitution. Stay tuned! In the meantime, Biden has played his hand expertly.

Colorado Supreme Court disciplines Trump attorney Jenna Ellis.

          Trump attorney Jenna Ellis became a highly visible proponent of the Big Lie in the aftermath of Trump's loss in 2020. She would say the following to anyone who would listen:

• “The election was stolen and we can prove that.”

• “Trump won by a landslide,”

• “The outcome of the election is fraudulent.”

• “500,000 votes in Arizona were cast illegally.”

          The Colorado Supreme Court began an ethics investigation under the auspices of the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge Byron M. Large. The complaint was filed by States United Democracy Center. See press release here: “States United Democracy Center Applauds Colorado’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel for Holding Trump Attorney Jenna Ellis Accountable.”

          On Thursday, Judge Large issued an opinion that publicly censured Jenna Ellis. See Order dated March 8, 2023, Opinion Approving Stipulation To Discipline.

          Pursuant to the stipulated disciplinary order, Ellis admitted to making ten misrepresentations about the legitimacy of the election.

          The order censured Ellis for “undermining the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public [and acting with] a selfish motive and engag[ing] in a pattern of misconduct.”

          The public censure of Jenna Ellis is another victory in the effort to punish the pack of liars, uh, I mean “lawyers,” who intentionally promoted falsehoods in service of Trump's Big Lie. Other lawyers who have been punished or are the subject of disciplinary investigations include Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Stefan Passantino, Paul MacNeal Davis, Boris Epshteyn, and Joseph diGenova. In addition, four attorneys have been hit with ethics complaints for claiming to be electors when they were not (William Carver, Daryl Moody, Andrew Hitt, and Jim Troupis).

          Groups like Lawyers Defending American Democracy and States United Democracy Center are leading the way in the effort to hold lawyers accountable for assisting Trump in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. For Americans frustrated with the slow pace of the DOJ’s efforts, LDAD and States United provide hope that the rule of law will ultimately be vindicated.

Weaponization Committee second hearing backfires on GOP (again).

          After Jim Jordan’s first hearing of his Weaponization Committee was declared “dud on arrival,” Jordan pivoted to a hearing regarding “government censorship” on Twitter. But the hearing was a rehash of testimony by two journalists who were spoon-fed the “Twitter files” by Elon Musk. Those journalists then posted interminable tweets that summarized the evidence selected for them by Musk. Journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger were roundly mocked for abandoning all objectivity in serving as Musk’s messenger boys. Their findings were a “nothingburger” despite Musk’s best efforts to stack the deck. See, e.g., HuffPo, Even Right-Wingers Think Elon Musk's Hunter Biden Reveal Is A Nothingburger.

          So, the “Twitter file exposé” was a flop when first published and did not age well in its reunion tour before the Weaponization Committee. The hearings were contentious because (a) Jim Jordan can’t speak without shouting, and (b) Democrats Dan Goldman, Stacey Plaskett, and Eric Swalwell pounded the false narrative peddled by Jordan. If you want to see a sampling of the testimony, I recommend a six-minute video by Joy Reid interviewing Dan Goldman. See YouTube, Weaponizing of government hearings have accomplished ‘absolutely nothing’ Rep. Daniel Goldman says.

          At one point, Goldman noted that the Committee was fabricating evidence of censorship on Twitter while ignoring the fact that Trump's DOJ caused Michael Cohen to be put into solitary confinement for publishing a book about Donald Trump. Goldman said,

[W]e are not talking about Donald Trump jailing his former counsel to prohibit him from publishing a book that the president didn't like. . . . The former president literally jailed his enemy and we're here talking about Twitter! Twitter! And even with Twitter, you cannot find actual evidence of any direct government censorship of any lawful speech.

          Ouch! Not to be outdone, Eric Swalwell challenged Jordan’s complaints about witnesses complying with subpoenas issued by the Weaponization Committee. See HuffPo, Rep. Eric Swalwell Expertly Calls Out Rep. Jim Jordan’s Jan. 6 Hypocrisy.

          Swalwell said,

I think that it is quite rich that we are talking about subpoena compliance under a chairman of the full committee who was absolutely out of subpoena compliance in the last Congress. [Jordan] himself did not comply with the Jan. 6 committee’s request. [Jordan] was asked over and over, ‘You were a witness to a crime ― you were a witness to the greatest crime ever committed, with the most criminals indicted in America. Will you help your country, will you comply with that subpoena?’

“No compliance. Crickets. Absolute defiance of the subpoena.

          You get the picture. Democrats are pushing back hard in the Weaponization Committee hearings. Although Fox News isn’t playing the snippets of Democratic victories in the hearings, the right-wing media is watching with growing disappointment. Democrats should be proud of the tenacity and skill of the committee members who are fighting the good fight in the hearings.

Republican governor is not interested in protecting children.

          An animating principle of the GOP political orthodoxy is that Republicans must “protect the children” from the harsh realities of the world, including dangers like “books,” “history,” and “diversity.” Republicans seem uninterested in real dangers to children, like child labor and under-age marriage.

          Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill that eliminated the requirement of a work permit for children under 16 years of age. Sanders took that action after an Arkansas cleaning service company was fined $1.2 million by the Biden administration for employing children under 16 to handle toxic chemicals. See CBS News, Arkansas Gov. Huckabee Sanders signs bill rolling back child labor protections.

Manhattan District Attorney invites Trump to testify before grand jury.

          The NYTimes reported that the Manhattan District Attorney has invited Trump to testify before a grand jury investigating the payment of hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels. See NYTimes, Prosecutors Signal Criminal Charges for Trump Are Likely - The New York Times.

          As explained by the Times, the invitation to testify next week strongly suggests that charges are imminent for Trump:

The prosecutors offered Mr. Trump the chance to testify next week before the grand jury that has been hearing evidence in the potential case, the people said. Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close; it would be unusual for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, to notify a potential defendant without ultimately seeking charges against him.

          Trump's attorney Michael Cohen was convicted of paying Stormy Daniels hush money in order to influence the 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen admitted when he pleaded guilty that Trump ordered him to make the payments. As described in Cohen’s sentencing memorandum, he admitted to the following facts:

With respect to both payments, Cohen acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. Cohen coordinated his actions with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments. In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1. As a result of Cohen’s actions, neither woman spoke to the press prior to the election.

          The person identified as “Individual 1” in the sentencing memorandum above is Donald Trump (as the government later conceded). According to the Times, Cohen is scheduled to testify before the Manhattan grand jury next week and presumably testify that Trump told him to make the illegal payments.

          All of this suggests that Trump will be indicted by a New York state grand jury in the next month, perhaps sooner. Of course, holding Trump to account for any of his crimes is a step forward. But for the sake of democracy and the Constitution, special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must indict Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Only then will the rule of law be vindicated—as it must be.

Concluding Thoughts.

          We are on the precipice of an unparalleled moment in our nation’s history—a presumptive nominee for a major party running for the presidency while under indictment. We should not deceive ourselves about the difficulty of enduring that scenario. It will be tough, it may be frightening, and it may shake our faith in the future of our nation if Trump wins the nomination or the election.

          But a different scenario would be even tougher and more frightening—the failure to indict a former president who attempted a coup and incited an insurrection. The path forward to defending the rule of law has always been clear and inevitable. The fact that the moment may soon be upon us should not be cause for fear or doubt. Instead, we should move forward confident in the knowledge that attempting to vindicate justice can only strengthen our democracy, regardless of the ultimate outcome.

          I will be in touch tomorrow with a short newsletter to kick off the weekend. Stay strong!

          Talk to you tomorrow!