#Rep. Brendan Boyle

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republicans on the House Budget Committee offered a preview Wednesday of the programs they're looking to cut or overhaul as part of any agreement to lift the debt ceiling, a target list that includes food aid for low-income families, climate justice and electric vehicle funding, student debt relief, and Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The proposed cuts were outlined in a press release issued by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chair of the House Budget Committee.

In total, Arrington put forth roughly $780 billion in proposed spending cuts, nearly half of which would come from reversing President Joe Biden's student debt cancellation—a plan that is currently blocked pending a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Notably absent from the House GOP's outline was any mention of the U.S. military budget, which currently represents more than half of the federal government's discretionary spending and is a hotbed of the kind of waste and fraud that Republicans claim to oppose.

At $858 billion, the fiscal year 2023 military budget alone is larger than the $780 billion in cuts Arrington has floated.

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement to Bloomberg that the GOP's proposed spending cuts are a needless attack on the vulnerable.

Experts have repeatedly warned that more stringent income verification and work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, for instance, would result in food aid cuts for many needy families.

"Why is it that whenever tough choices are required, Republicans want working families and children to make the sacrifice?" Boyle asked. "Why not keep our children fed and families healthy, and instead work with Democrats to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes?"

Arrington's recommendations come as the GOP is facing growing backlash over its efforts to use the debt ceiling—and the looming possibility of a U.S. default—as leverage to pursue steep spending cuts, something the party has done to disastrous effect in the past.

Advocacy groups and analysts were quick to assail Arrington's proposals.

The Debt Collective, an organization that supports student debt cancellation, wrote on Twitter that "it doesn't 'cost' $379 billion to cancel $379 billion of student debt."

"It's pure fiction to think that killing cancellation will mean the [Department of Education] will collect $379 billion," the group added. "Even the Federal Reserve knows there will be record defaults."

Krutika Amin, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation, noted that the GOP proposal to cap Affordable Care Act subsidies at 400% of the federal poverty line "would mean middle-income people pay more for coverage."

"A 60-year-old making $55,000 in 2023 pays 8.5% of their income on a silver plan," Amin observed. "Without subsidies, they would pay over 20% of their income on average."

[theculturedmarxist]

A few minutes earlier, Walz had been onstage in Washington at a Center for American Progress event, chiding a crowd of engaged but worried Democrats, “Everybody who says, ‘I wish he was younger.’ I wish I was skinnier! [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis wishes he was more likable! It’s not going to happen. … There’s a responsibility for us not to buy into that.”

STOP EXPECTING THINGS OF US!

Or as Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle told CNN more bluntly, “People should shut the hell up.”

STOP DEMANDING WE DO ANY BETTER!

“I deal in the real world,” said the Philadelphia-area Democrat, who has been proudly supporting Biden for years. “He is going to be the nominee, regardless of whether people think they can construct on paper a more attractive nominee or not.”

IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!

“Every time Democrats go on TV and say, ‘The president’s done a great job, but he’s 80 years old,’ all they’re doing is feeding this appetite out there by some for a third-party run,” said Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City-area Democrat. “And that could be the worst thing that happens in a century.”

WE LIVE IN THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS DON'T LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES AND RUIN EVERYTHING NOW!

“Joe Biden is on the freedom, democracy and opportunity agenda that beat MAGA Republicans in 2020, in 2022, and will win again in 2024,” Ben Wikler, the Democratic party chair in the top battleground state of Wisconsin, told CNN. “Every hour that someone spends fantasizing about some other ticket is an hour they could have spent calling voters or raising money to help reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

WE'RE GREAT! WE'RE DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB!! OUR POSITION IS COMPLETELY UNASSAILABLE AND WE'RE DEFINITELY GOING TO WIN EVEN THOUGH WE INSPIRE NO CONFIDENCE IN OURSELVES OR OUR SUPPORTERS.

“All these pundits will talk about polling, polling, polling — OK, fine, let’s talk about that,” Harris said, drawing an enthusiastic standing ovation during the DNC meeting in St. Louis. “What we did on the climate crisis: I think 80% popularity. Lowering the cost of prescription drugs to $35 a month, I think everyone loves that. $2,000 a year for seniors for prescription medication, hallelujah. Fighting for relief of student loan debt. 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. Popular, popular, popular.”

Delusional, delusional, delusional.

“That which doesn’t kill him,” the congressman said hopefully, “makes him stronger.”

lol, lmao

[bllsbailey]

Secret Service Chief Noted a 'Zero Fail Mission.' After Trump Rally, She's Facing Calls to Resign

Exclusive | Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle landed job after push by Jill Biden's office

When Kimberly Cheatle led the Secret Service's operations to safeguard the American president and other dignitaries, she said she would talk to agents in training about the “awesome responsibility” of their job.

“This agency and the Secret Service has a zero fail mission,” Cheatle, who is now director of the agency, said in 2021 during a Secret Service podcast called “Standing Post." “They have to come in every day prepared and ready with their game face on.”

Now, the Secret Service and its director are under intense scrutiny over that “zero fail” mission following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania that wounded his ear. Lawmakers and others across the political spectrum are questioning how a gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded.

Cheatle, who will testify before lawmakers Monday after congressional committees and the Biden administration launched a series of investigations, told ABC News that the shooting was “unacceptable.” When asked who bears the most responsibility, she said ultimately it is the Secret Service that protects the former president.

“The buck stops with me," Cheatle said. “I am the director of the Secret Service.” She said she has no plans to resign, and so far she has the administration’s backing.

Democratic President Joe Biden appointed Cheatle in August 2022 to take over an agency with a history of scandals, and she worked to bolster diverse hiring, especially of women in the male-dominated service. The second woman to lead the Secret Service, Cheatle worked her way up for 27 years before leaving in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo. Biden brought her back.

Now, she faces her most serious challenge: figuring out what went wrong with the agency's core responsibility to protect presidents and whether she can maintain the support — or the job itself — to make changes.

Details are still unfolding about signs of trouble the day of the assassination attempt, including the steps taken by the Secret Service and local authorities to secure a building that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed within an estimated 147 yards (135 meters) of where Trump was speaking. A ex-fire chief at the rally, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were wounded.

The Biden administration has directed an independent review of security at the rally. The Homeland Security Department's inspector general has opened three investigations and congressional committees have launched others as calls mount for Cheatle to resign. Two Republican senators demanding answers followed her as she walked through the Republican National Convention this past week.

“The nation deserves answers and accountability,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., posted on the social media platform X. "New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on X that Biden should fire Cheatle immediately, noting Comperatore's death and saying that “we ... were millimeters away from losing President Trump. It is inexcusable.” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a statement Saturday that ”the evidence coming to light has shown unacceptable operational failures" and he would have no confidence in Cheatle's leadership if she were to stay in the job.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee subpoenaed Cheatle to appear Monday, and she is expected to be there.

After the shooting, Cheatle and the female Secret Service agents who protected Trump have faced scathing criticism and questions about whether Cheatle lowered hiring standards. Supporters are adamant that has not happened.

“It is disrespectful to the women of the Secret Service of the Department of Homeland Security and to women law enforcement officers around the nation to imply that their gender disqualifies them from service to the nation and their communities,” said Kristie Canegallo, Homeland Security's acting deputy secretary.

Like many law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service has been wrestling with how to attract and retain agents and officers.

Women account for about 24% of the agency’s staff, according to the agency’s website. In a May 2023 interview with CBS News, Cheatle said she was conscious of the “need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women.”

Two years ago, Cheatle took over the agency of 7,800 special agents, uniformed officers and other staffers whose main purpose is protecting presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents and others. In announcing her appointment, Biden said Cheatle had served on his vice presidential detail and called her a “distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills” who had his "complete trust.”

Cheatle took the reins from James M. Murray as multiple congressional committees and an internal watchdog investigated missing text messages from when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Secret Service says they were purged during a technology transition.

Going back further, there have been other problems at the Secret Service, including a prostitution scandal before President Barack Obama's trip to Colombia in 2012 and a man who jumped over the White House fence in 2014 and made it into the building.

The Homeland Security Department did not make Cheatle available for an interview, but Canegallo defended her work. Canegallo said Cheatle advocated for a law passed this year that authorized overtime pay for Secret Service agents and successfully oversaw nine high-profile events such as political conventions. The agency under her watch protected Biden during his trip to Ukraine without problems, Canegallo said.

During the podcast, Cheatle talked about how much planning goes into events that the Secret Service oversees — from bad weather and COVID-19 to threats of violence.

“It’s our job to kind of sit back and ‘What if?’ every potential threat and scenario,” she said.

Cheatle applied for the Secret Service while she was still in college. She was told to wait until she had graduated and said in the podcast that it ultimately took a little over two years to get hired: “I was pretty persistent.”

After training, she was assigned to the Detroit office where she spent a little over four years. Cheatle transferred to Washington where she served on the Treasury secretary's detail and protected Vice President Dick Cheney, including on 9/11.

Other positions during her time with the agency include special agent in charge of the Atlanta field office and special agent in charge of the agency’s training facility in Maryland. She became the first woman to be named assistant director of protective operations, the division that provides protection to the president and other dignitaries where she oversaw a $133.5 million budget.

[saydams]

The proposed legislation also includes measures to prevent the wealthy from dodging the tax, including $100 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to boost auditing efforts as well as stronger anti-tax evasion rules regarding trusts. It would also deal with capital flight by introducing a 40% "exit tax" on people worth more than $50 million if they choose to give up their U.S. citizenship to avoid taxation. Warren’s bill has the support of five Democratic senators, 27 Democratic House members, and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sponsors in the House are Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and  Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania.

[the-sayuri-rin]

House Republicans unveiled a budget blueprint on Tuesday that proposes trillions of dollars in federal spending reductions over the next decade, specifically targeting Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance for steep cuts.

House Budget Committee Republicans' new resolution also calls for the establishment of a "bipartisan debt commission" to examine and propose changes to "the drivers of U.S. debt... such as Social Security and Medicare." (Social Security does not, in fact, contribute to long-term federal deficits.)

"MAGA Republicans are driving our nation towards a costly government shutdown because they want to make cruel cuts to everything from healthcare to education, and this MAGA Budget doubles down on their extreme cuts," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in response to the new proposal.

[alaturkanews]

House Budget Committee's Rep. Brendan Boyle on "The Takeout" | May 28, 2023

House Budget Committee’s Rep. Brendan Boyle on “The Takeout” | May 28, 2023

[mariacallous]

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently warned Congress that the United States could default on its debt as early as June 1. As the deadline approaches, Congress’s inability to reach a compromise over raising the debt ceiling threatens to catapult the United States—and the world—into an unprecedented financial catastrophe. A default could trigger a falling dollar and a flight away from U.S. securities, and sound the death knell for the “full faith and credit” that undermines U.S. financial hegemony.

When the debt ceiling was created in 1917, it was meant to give the U.S. Treasury more flexibility to borrow money, not to put a limit on it. In practice, the debt limit allows the government to finance existing commitments made in the past. Put plainly, it allows the government to pay its bills.

This is hardly the first time the government has quibbled over the debt ceiling: It has been raised 78 times since 1960, and the majority of those instances occurred under Republican presidents. In 2011, the United States came as close as it ever has to breaching the ceiling. While it didn’t default, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating for the first time in history due to intense political gridlock and government instability.

Since then, the debt ceiling has become not just partisan, but perilous, said Laura Blessing, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. “We are in an environment where lawmakers are willing to play some very dangerous brinkmanship games with it from 2011 on out,” she said.

Many Democratic lawmakers are frustrated by what they see as GOP tactics that could imperil the U.S. economy and global standing.

“Getting even to this point sends the wrong signal to our allies and adversaries alike around the world,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, ranking member of the House Budget Committee. “It shows a level of dysfunction that then hurts our credibility on the global stage. And if we were to actually go over the cliff and default, it would hurt our global standing substantially.”

The United States reached its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling in January, and the Treasury Department has scrambled to keep up payments since then. In the meantime, efforts to reach an agreement and avoid a default have been ineffective despite the looming crisis. The Republican-led House of Representatives has offered to raise the debt ceiling if only the Biden administration will scrap most of its signature programs; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy introduced the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would suspend the debt limit through March 31 of next year, or until the debt increases by $1.5 trillion. The act would slash several of Biden’s key policies, including student loan forgiveness and the Inflation Reduction Act. The House narrowly passed the bill, but it is essentially dead on arrival in the Democratic-held Senate.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to hold more negotiations with congressional leaders this week, but expectations are low regarding the outcome of the summit.

Republicans had no trouble raising the debt ceiling three times under former President Donald Trump. But with Biden in the White House, fiscal priorities have suddenly changed. “They’re trying to hold the debt hostage to get us to agree to some draconian cuts, magnificently difficult and damaging cuts,” Biden said at the White House last Friday.

A McCarthy spokesperson declined to address specific questions, but said the blame for the looming U.S. default lay with Biden and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“[Biden’s] inaction has brought us dangerously close to bumbling into the first default in our nation’s history,” the spokesperson said. “Now, the burden is on President Biden and Senator Schumer to negotiate.”

While the political contention mirrors that of 2011, this has the potential to be the most dangerous episode to date, Blessing said. Economic uncertainty and a polarized government have set the stage for extreme brinkmanship. Misinformation in the House is also playing a role in dampening the urgency for a fix.

“There are legitimately Republican members who think that we have gone through a default before, because they are conflating and confusing a government shutdown with what would be the first default in our nation’s history, and would be a shocking event that would plunge the U.S. and the global economy into a deep recession,” Boyle said.

A government shutdown occurs when Congress cannot pass, or the president does not sign, legislation funding the operation of government agencies. A debt default means the government is unable to pay its bills on time, and the U.S. Treasury will have to prioritize which bills to pay with the money available to it until Congress revises the limit. Military paychecks, Social Security recipients, and bond holders could all potentially be affected. Defaulting would be considered a worst-case scenario. Even if the debt ceiling is breached for a short period, experts say the damage would be massive.

Moody’s Analytics predicts that a default could quickly result in a drop in real GDP, nearly 1 million lost jobs, and an increase in the unemployment rate to nearly 5 percent from its current level of 3.4 percent. These figures would only worsen the longer the debt ceiling remains breached, with unemployment figures reaching more than 7 million in the case of a prolonged default.

The scale of the spillover effects on the global scale are nearly impossible to measure because nothing like this has ever happened. Because U.S. Treasury securities are considered the ultimate safe asset, the systemic shock of a default would far surpass the financial crisis of 2008, said Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“Just to imagine the worst case scenario, if the U.S. Treasury did default on some or all of its obligations—its Treasury bills and bonds—that would be a global catastrophe that we have never seen,” Gagnon said.

The “full faith and credit” of the U.S. Treasury is a crucial piece of the international financial framework. Since U.S. government debt is gold-plated and as good as money, said Cristian deRitis, the deputy chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, a loss of faith in those contracts would disrupt trade and a host of global financial markets, including plummeting stock prices and downgraded corporate bonds.

“Obviously, U.S. residents would be most directly impacted by the effects and job losses,” deRitis said. “But globally, there would be ripple effects, as foreign bond holders would not be getting paid, and because U.S. Treasury debt is the basis for so many other contracts.”

A default could also have serious national security implications that would cast further doubt on U.S. leadership and reliability among even its closest allies.

“Our economic security is our national security,” said Rep. Andy Kim, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “It’s such a critical part of where our global strength comes from. Our capacity to be the strongest country in the world is derived not just from guns, bombs, and military equipment—it’s very much based off of our ability to be the strongest economy in the world.”

For lawmakers in other countries that have had doubts about U.S. stability, government efficiency, and the state of its democracy following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, a debt default would only heighten their concerns,  Boyle said.

“A first-ever default in American history would be, to them, taken as further evidence that the U.S. is just too unstable,” he said. “And it would call into question, unfortunately, in their minds, whether or not we would be able in the future to meet some of the commitments we made.”

Adversaries, though, would cheer, he said. “There’s no exaggeration to say the best thing we could do for Beijing, and the best thing we could do for Putin, is to default,” he said. “They would love that more than almost anything.”

With whispers of de-dollarization already in the air, a default would be a “self-imposed black eye” to the dollar dominance that the United States has enjoyed as the world’s reserve currency for the past 75 years, said Jonathan Kirshner, professor of political science and international studies at Boston College. A default would make borrowing more expensive and increase the cost of taking out mortgages and other loans for Americans.

“We can definitely observe a desire among actors internationally to live in a world in which there are a more diverse set of options for international money,” Kirshner said. “I think I can say with confidence that the U.S. defaulting on its debt obligations can, but only increase that desire among other actors.”

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."The debt limit bill announced by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday includes a long list of proposals, including:

budget caps

work requirements for programs like Medicaid and food stamps

an end to popular Biden administration actions on student loans

measures to roll back parts of Democrats’ signature economic bill

At the very end of the bill, Republicans outline a plan to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or through the end of March 2024, whichever comes first.

The proposals face long odds of getting past the Democratic-led Senate, but they serve as a legislative marker for where Republicans stand as they try to push President Biden to the negotiating table.

Democrats are already assailing the proposal.

“This reckless bill does not give that assurance. It either puts defense or Veterans funding on the chopping block or cuts other critical government programs by more than 22 percent—a cut far lower than the 2022 level,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said in a statement. “As hard as they might try, Republicans cannot have it both ways.”

“This proposal is not about fiscal responsibility or protecting the full faith and credit of the United States — it’s a legislative Frankenstein of dangerous MAGA demands meant to help the Speaker placate his most extreme members,” House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (R-Pa.) said. 

Republicans are expected to tee up a vote on the measure later next week in what is likely to be one of the party’s greatest tests of unity in the current Congress. 

In the hours since its release, House Republicans have praised the measure, but some have also held their opinions as they pore through the legislation. Still, there is optimism in the conference it will fetch the necessary support for passage next week. 

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), chair of the Main Street Caucus, told The Hill on Wednesday that he has “every confidence Kevin McCarthy is gonna get 218 votes by next week.”

[conniejoworld]

🤮🤮🤮

[truck-fump]

Trump's Ugly New Boast About Dictators Backfires Spectacularly

New Post has been published on https://truckfump.life/2023/03/30/donald-trump-dictators_n_64250792e4b0b2ba231ff516/

Trump's Ugly New Boast About Dictators Backfires Spectacularly

“Tells you all you need to know,” Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle responded on Twitter.

[aunti-christ-ine]

Yes, this is a proposed Act of Congress.

In case you missed it back then ... 

[peaceowatermeln]

Rep. Brendan Boyle coming through right now!!

[9jabreed]

Now that Democrats control the White House and Congress, President Biden and other party leaders are pushing to spend bi

Now that Democrats control the White House and Congress, President Biden and other party leaders are pushing to spend bi

Now that Democrats control the White House and Congress, President Biden and other party leaders are pushing to spend big to revive the economy and address income inequality. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Brendan Boyle proposed making the ultra-wealthy pay for it. About 100,000 American families would be subject to the Ultra-Millionaire Tax, which would raise around $3…

[alaturkanews]

House Budget Committee's Rep. Brendan Boyle on "The Takeout" | May 28, 2023

House Budget Committee’s Rep. Brendan Boyle on “The Takeout” | May 28, 2023