More good news for Joe Biden . . . and the American people

June 13, 2024

President Biden spent much of the day in transit to Brindisi, Italy, for the G-7 meeting in the southern Italian region of Puglia. The G-7 members are the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Japan, although the host country has invited “guests” that include Jordan, Ukraine, India, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania.

Topics on the agenda include climate change, the war in Gaza, Russia’s war on Ukraine, migration, artificial intelligence, and economic development in Africa and Southeast Asia. The members hope to authorize a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as collateral. And the US hopes to include a statement warning against “overcapacity” in China.  

Much of the G-7 meeting will not meet the major media’s filter for “newsworthiness” because it involves the thoughtful consideration of future threats and opportunities, accompanied by long-term planning. But you should know President Biden is doing the unheralded, hard work of building international consensus among leading industrialized nations.

Meanwhile, convicted criminal Donald Trump will “return to the scene of the crime” where he incited our nation’s first insurrection intended to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. He will meet with his co-conspirators, members of the Sedition Caucus—a.k.a. congressional Republicans. See AP News, Trump to meet with House and Senate Republicans near Capitol.

The convicted felon will plot the continuation of a tax cut that benefits the wealthy and corporations at the expense of consumers. See CNN, GOP plots big push to extend tax cuts if Republicans sweep in November. But tax cuts spur deficit spending, which Republicans claim drives up inflation! Read on!

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Inflation was flat in May, up 3.4% from a year ago

The nation received a positive report on inflation on Wednesday. Inflation was flat—0%---in May, although it was up 3.4% from last year. 3.4% inflation is still inflicting pain on many Americans, but it compares positively to the 9% inflation rate in May 2022. See CNBC, CPI report June 2024: Consumer prices unchanged in May.

President Biden is doing his best to mitigate the effects of inflation He is supporting increases in wages for workers, loan forgiveness for student borrowers, tax credits for families with children, and protecting Social Security and Medicare for retirees. Trump, on the other hand has proposed a platform that will supercharge inflation. See The Atlantic, Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation.

Per The Atlantic, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said the following:

There has never been a presidential platform so self-evidently inflationary as the one put forward by President Trump. I have little doubt that with the Trump program, we will see a substantial acceleration in inflation, unless somehow we get a major recession first.

And, of course, if Trump is reelected and extends his tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, the cuts will spur deficit spending. Although the relationship between deficit spending and inflation is complex, most Republicans claim that deficit spending causes inflation. See NYTimes, Republicans Say Spending Is Fueling Inflation. The Fed Chair Disagrees.

If voters are concerned about inflation, they should support Joe Biden rather than convicted criminal Donald Trump, whose first act will be a gift to billionaires and corporations at the expense of Americans who work for a living.

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Republicans block bill requiring Supreme Court adopt enforceable ethics code

Despite multiple ethical scandals plaguing the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans voted down a Democratic bill to impose a binding code of ethics on the Supreme Court. See The Hill, Republicans block bill requiring Supreme Court to adopt enforceable ethics code. Although Republicans took to the Senate floor to condemn the bill, they had difficulty explaining why imposing a binding code of ethics was a bad thing.

A major attack by Republicans was that a binding ethics code would undermine the independence of the Supreme Court. But the proposed bill would put the onus on the Supreme Court to develop and implement the binding code of ethics. In other words, Republicans are simply trying to avoid any restraint on the reactionary majority—which seems hellbent on implementing an extremist MAGA agenda.

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Senate Republicans oppose bill designed to protect in vitro fertilization

Majority leader Chuck Schumer will bring a bill to the Senate floor this week that will protect IVF from state laws restricting or prohibiting the procedure. Republicans—who claim to be pro-life—are struggling to articulate a comprehensible ground for opposing the bill. The best they can do is that the bill (a) is not necessary and (b) is anti-religious. See Talking Points Memo, GOP Sens Scramble To Find Reason To Oppose IVF Bill, Warning Of An ‘Anti-Religious Agenda’.

The notion that the bill is “not necessary” has already been disproven by the action of the Kansas Supreme Court, which declared in March that IVF procedures violated the state’s abortion ban.

In fact, Senate Republicans did not want to approve the bill because they fully intend to outlaw IVF procedures that frequently create a surplus of fertilized eggs. Indeed, on Wednesday, one of the nation’s largest Protestant denominations (Southern Baptist) voted to require members to avoid IVF. See The Guardian, Largest Protestant US group condemns IVF in win for anti-abortion movement | US news | The Guardian

Democrats MUST help young couples engaged in family planning, women of childbearing age, and all sexually active men to understand that Republicans will deprive them of all reproductive liberty choices, including IVF, abortion, and contraception. Any claim to the contrary was laid to rest in today’s Senate vote against protections for IVF—a procedure that is lifeline to couples struggling with conception.

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House Republicans issue a contempt citation against Merrick Garland

The Republican caucus in the House has accomplished nothing in the 118th Congress—which will come to an ignominious end on January 3, 2025. Indeed, they have accomplished less than nothing; they have wasted precious taxpayer dollars and scarce legislative resources on the politics of revenge. Even there, they have been miserable failures.

But on Wednesday, they finally managed to scrape together the votes to issue a contempt citation against Merrick Garland. They citation will now go to the DOJ—headed by Garland—for consideration of whether to enforce the contempt order. Under DOJ precedent, the citation should be rejected by the DOJ. See The Hill, DOJ memo says Garland cannot be prosecuted for contempt over Biden-Hur audio.

The contempt citation is the equivalent of a Soviet-era show trial—all pomp and no substance. Merrick Garland and the DOJ have already provided the House Oversight Committee with the requested material—the transcript of Joe Biden’s interview by special counsel Robert Hur. But Republicans want the audiotape of the interview—a tape that would be used only for political purposes after being deceptively edited.

House Republicans have accomplished so little that they have been reduced to acting as a political hit squad for a convicted criminal. Every Republican who voted in favor of the contempt citation deserves to be remembered as a pathetic, frightened, faithless servant of the Constitution.

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Concluding Thoughts

I am feeling a bit under the weather, so I am cutting the newsletter short. We need to be ready for big stories on Thursday and Friday emanating from the Supreme Court. Thursday and Friday will be “opinion days.” We may see opinions relating to presidential immunity, gun safety, and availability of mifepristone. The fatally compromised Justices Alito and Thomas will vote on the immunity case despite their obvious conflicts, which give rise to the appearance of impropriety.

I received a handful of email from readers who viewed reports on MSNBC about a coordinated effort by local Sinclair Broadcasting affiliates to amplify a WSJ hit-piece on Joe Biden’s age. Should we be worried? Yes and no. Having Sinclair push out a false narrative about Joe Biden is not helpful. But that is why Joe Biden is running a campaign. It is incumbent on Joe and his campaign staff to rebut those unfair allegations.

The most recent and relevant evidence we have is Joe Biden’s performance at the State of the Union address and convicted criminal Trump's rant about electric boats and hungry sharks. Republicans were so taken aback by Biden’s performance at the State of the Union they claimed he must have been on performance-enhancing drugs.

That’s the problem with creating a patently false and easily disprovable narrative about Joe Biden’s mental acuity. When Biden beats Trump in their third debate, Republicans will need to create a new conspiracy theory. Perhaps Joe Biden was an artificial intelligence hologram? Or Trump's diet Coke was spiked with Splenda?

But for most of Sinclair’s viewers, seeing Joe Biden kick Donald Trump's ********* will not change their minds. In 2020, 80 million voters did not show up to the polls in the most consequential election of their lifetimes (up to that point). Rather than worrying about voters who are already in thrall to a convicted criminal, let’s focus on getting voters to the polls who would support Biden but face obstacles to voting such as registration, voter ID, and time constraints. That is fertile ground and holds the key to success for Democrats in the 2024 elections.

Talk to you tomorrow!