U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

Facts:

The last 3 GOP Presidents saw recessions and higher deficits
The last 3 Dem Presidents saw growth and lower deficits
The deficit went up every year under Trump and down every year under Biden

Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years
https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump


March 2023 Jobs Report showed 236,000 net new jobs created. That brings us to:

33.8 million jobs = 16 years of Clinton, Obama
12.6 million jobs = 26 months of Biden
1.9 million jobs = 16 years of Bush, Bush, Trump 

So, in 16 years 3 Republicans could not even create 2 million jobs. President Biden created the same number of Republican jobs in just a few months.




Job creation per month under Biden running at 50 times the rate of the last 3 GOP Presidents.

Look at that R number - 10,000 jobs a month over 16 years. It's a stunning indictment of the modern GOP. 




Since 1989, and a new global economic age began, 48 million net new jobs have been created in America.

46 million - 96% - have been created under Democratic Presidents. Basically all of them.

So no, Republicans are not better at creating jobs or running the economy.




One party - the Democrats - has reduced the annual deficit while in the White House. While the other - the Republicans - have not since the debt repeatedly goes up on their watch.

Clinton got us to surplus. Trump had one of the worst fiscal track records of any President in our history.




The unemployment rate continues to hover at its lowest level in a peacetime American economy since WWII. It's really incredible what President Biden has done for our country.




Our recovery from COVID has been the best of any advanced economy.




During the Biden Presidency America has seen:
- the lowest poverty rate ever recorded
- the lowest uninsured rate ever recorded
- the lowest peacetime unemployment rate since WWII

No other President has had this success!


 

The American economy has added 12.6 million jobs since President Biden took office. The unemployment rate has dropped to 3.5% a near a 50-year low.

THE STRONGEST JOBS COMEBACK IN HISTORY

Here is another look at failed Republican job creation as Donald Trump was credited as the WORST jobs "president" in the modern era with negative job creation and the worst besides Herbert Hoover. Massive job loss under Trump.

Both Bushes were terrible at job creation as well. 

As you can see, the Democrats are the only party that creates jobs and has to fix the Republican economic disasters they inherit.

There is no comparison here folks, Democrats are better at running the economy and job creation.

President Biden continues to have historic job creation with nearly 13 million jobs.
   

[Rick Plant]

Both Republicans tapped to replace Liz Harris are closely aligned with her

One ran with her as a team last year, while the other is a dyed-in-the-wool election denier like Harris



The two Republicans nominated to replace expelled lawmaker Liz Harris both have strong connections to the conspiracy-pushing lawmaker.

Harris, a real estate agent, built an online fan base by pushing unfounded conspiracy theories around the 2020 election and rose to newfound fame during the partisan hand-count of the 2020 Presidential election in Maricopa County.

Last week, the GOP precinct committeemen from Harris’ District 13, which covers Chandler and Gilbert, met to nominate three candidates to fill the vacant seat she left after she was booted from the House of Representatives for a committee hearing in which government officials and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were accused of a litany of crimes.

Harris lied to the House Ethics Committee, telling members that she was unaware of Jacqueline Breger’s testimony, despite evidence showing she both knew what Breger would say and helped hide it from GOP leaders before the hearing as well as her own statements.

The nominees to replace Harris ended up being Harris herself, Steve Steele and Julie Willoughby.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors must pick among the three to select the person to fill the remainder of Harris’ term, though it’s unclear when the GOP-led board will do so. Although Harris has been nominated, there are legal questions about whether she could even be selected as a replacement.

During Harris’ tenure as a star in the world of election fraud media personalities, she would hold livestreams where she would bring on “experts” and put on the live feed cameras of the audit floor with a song dedicated to failed inventor Jovan Hutton Pulitzer on repeat for hours for audit enthusiasts to watch.

It would be on these live streams that Steele would make known his thoughts on the election and show his connections to Harris.

The canvasser

Although Steele previously refused to tell the Arizona Mirror if he was an ally of Harris’, the Mirror’s analysis finds he is close to the ex-lawmaker and shares her distrust of Arizona’s election process and has disavowed Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in 2020.

In a video Harris posted in April 2021, she praised Steele and the man who rummaged through a Dumpster for shredded ballots that were allegedly evidence of fraud, but in fact were never counted because they were ballots from dead voters that were returned unvoted by family members.

Harris, on top of being a semi-influencer for the election fraud world, is also known for a voter “canvass” effort in Maricopa County that was initially meant to be part of the Arizona Senate’s partisan “audit,” but was later scrapped due to intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Harris ultimately did the “canvass” on her own. It was riddled with flagrantly incorrect findings, and major portions of it were shot down almost as soon as it was published. Harris’s report was full of other allegations about alleged fraud or suspicious votes in the 2020 election, though none were attached to any voters’ names or addresses that could be used to verify them

Only two claims from the report included information that could be used to verify them. Both were shown to be demonstrably false within minutes of their release.

One of those claims was featured on the cover of the report: A photo of a Goodyear address that supposedly was a vacant lot from which votes were cast. However, the large lot had a house on it — the photo focused only on a vacant portion of the lot — and county property records clearly listed the owner.

“You are spouting lies from the left-stream media,” Steele told the Mirror in a phone interview when asked about the falsehoods in the canvass report. Steele said he’d stand by the report in court.

In the livestreams with Harris, Steele also called Biden “fraudulent,” claimed that the 2020 election was a “bogus election” and brought up debunked claims of ballots in suitcases in Georgia as evidence.

When asked if he still believes these statements, Steele at first told the Mirror he didn’t believe he ever said these things. But when informed that he said it on a livestream, he recanted and said “yes,” adding that the “canvass” he conducted with Harris solidified his beliefs.

Steele has also called Democrats “communists,” falsely claimed that illegal immigrants in California can vote by getting a driver’s license and that the “deep state” has infiltrated both parties to initiate a “global agenda.”

In the phone interview, Steele also confirmed that he believes in an outlandish conspiracy theory that a November 2020 fire at a Hickman’s Family Farms chicken farm was connected to the shredded ballots.

Steele went further and said that he and the man who found the shredded ballots had allegedly spoken to a firefighter who had seen evidence of burned ballots at the Hickman farm. Steele then went on to push another conspiracy theory about Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, asking the Mirror to inquire about a “bonfire” the Republican representative had allegedly had after the February testimony that Harris arranged, and which ultimately led to her ouster.

When the Mirror asked why Steele believed there was a bonfire at Toma’s residence, Steele ended the call.

Conspiracy theorists have latched onto the idea that ballots from the 2020 election were burned at the Hickman chicken farm due to it being owned by Maricopa County Chairman Clint Hickman. There is no evidence at all supporting those claims.

The anti-mandate nurse
Julie Willoughby ran as a team with Harris in 2022, and narrowly lost to Harris for the district’s second House seat. She also campaigned alongside failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and received her endorsement, as well as the backing of failed Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.

Willoughby is the chief nursing officer for Exceptional Community Hospital-Maricopa, and also ran unsuccessfully in 2018 for the legislature.

On her campaign website, Willoughby wrote that she does “not support mandates, especially for American citizens.” She added that “we are a free people and mandating requires a part, if not all, of our freedoms to be given up.”

During a short speech during Memorial Day last year alongside a plethora of other candidates, Willoughby elaborated a bit more on that stance.

“I remember when this whole COVID thing started and they were talking about two weeks to slow the curve, and I’m like, this is a take-over,” Willoughby said. “They’re not doing this for two weeks, it’s going to be way longer than two weeks.”

Willoughby also added she had friends who “lost their jobs” for not getting the vaccine.

“There was a complete overtake of our rights and our freedoms, and it all needs to be restored,” Willoughby said before adding that she was “excited” to be running with Harris.

Willoughby did not respond to a request for comment on if she still believes that COVID was a “take over.”

https://www.azmirror.com/2023/04/24/both-republicans-tapped-to-replace-liz-harris-are-closely-aligned-with-her/

[Rick Plant]

President Biden @POTUS

Every veteran deserves a good, safe home in this country they fought to defend.
 
MAGA Republicans in Congress are proposing we eliminate funding for Housing Choice Vouchers for as many as 50,000 veterans, putting them at greater risk of homelessness.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1650556458675712002

[Rick Plant]

FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Cap on the Cost of Insulin Could Benefit Millions of Americans in All 50 States

As part of President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, nearly four million seniors on Medicare with diabetes started to see their insulin costs capped at $35 per month this past January, saving some seniors hundreds of dollars for a month’s supply. But in his State of the Union, President Biden made clear that this life-saving benefit should apply to everyone, not just Medicare beneficiaries. This week, Eli Lilly, the largest manufacturer of insulin in the United States is lowering their prices and meeting that call.

Eli Lilly announced they are lowering the cost of insulin by 70% and capping what patients pay out-of-pocket for insulin at $35. This action, driven by the momentum from the Inflation Reduction Act, could benefit millions of Americans with diabetes in all fifty states and U.S. territories. The President continues to call on Congress to finish the job and cap costs at $35 for all Americans.

The below data breaks down how many adults are living with diabetes in each state, highlighting the cumulative number of adults that could experience lower insulin costs from the Inflation Reduction Act’s insulin cost cap for seniors, and industry’s follow-on actions. And, data shows that these cost-saving measures will disproportionately impact communities of color, as Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native adults have higher rates of diabetes in the United States than white Americans.

Additional information on how many seniors in each state are already benefiting from the President’s historic actions is available here from the Department of Health and Human Services.


Percentage of Adults Aged 18 Years or Older with Diagnosed Diabetes, by Racial or Ethnic Group, United States, 2018-2019




Estimated Number of Adults 18 and Older with Diagnosed Diabetes by State



*The estimates are developed from a base that incorporates the 2020 Census, Vintage 2020 estimates, and (for the U.S. only) 2020 Demographic Analysis estimates. The estimates add births to, subtract deaths from, and add net migration to the April 1, 2020 estimates base. For population estimates methodology statements, see https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/technical-documentation/methodology.html. See Geographic Terms and Definitions at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/guidance-geographies/terms-and-definitions.html for a list of the states that are included in each region. All geographic boundaries for the 2022 population estimates series are as of January 1, 2022.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/02/fact-sheet-president-bidens-cap-on-the-cost-of-insulin-could-benefit-millions-of-americans-in-all-50-states/



Biden budget would cap monthly insulin prices at $35 for people with private insurance

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal would expand the $35 cap on monthly insulin prices to people who have private insurance.

The Inflation Reduction Act already implemented this cap for people on Medicare.

About 40% of people with diabetes have private insurance while 5% are not insured, according to the American Diabetes Association.



President Joe Biden’s federal budget proposal would cap insulin prices at $35 per month for people with private insurance plans.

The Inflation Reduction Act capped monthly insulin costs at that price for seniors in January, but left out everyone who wasn’t on Medicare. Biden called on Congress in his State of the Union speech to finish the job and cap insulin at $35 a month for everybody.

The price cap in the budget wouldn’t cover people who are uninsured. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters Thursday that the president believes nobody in the U.S. should pay more than $35 a month for insulin.

Becerra said one of the fastest ways to reduce insulin costs for the uninsured would be for the 10 remaining states that haven’t expanded Medicaid to do so. Medicaid is the public health insurance program for lower-income individuals.

Drugmaker Eli Lilly got ahead of a potential federal mandate, announcing earlier this month that it would cap insulin at $35 per month for people with private insurance at certain retail pharmacies. But CEO David Ricks, in a statement, said 7 out of 10 Americans do not use Lilly’s insulin. He called on federal policymakers and employers to help make the costs of the injections more affordable.

Biden praised Lilly’s decision and called on other manufacturers to follow suit. He also reiterated his call for Congress to lower insulin prices for everyone else.

About 40% of people with diabetes have private insurance while 5% are not insured, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Some Republicans in Congress oppose the move to cap insulin prices. Rep. Cathy Rodgers, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the Biden administration’s efforts to lower insulin prices as “socialist” and a “federal mandate” that is bad for market competition.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/09/biden-budget-would-cap-monthly-insulin-prices-at-35-for-people-with-private-insurance-.html



Biden budget would cut deficit by $3 trillion over next decade with 25% minimum tax on richest Americans

Biden’s budget would also raise more revenue by increasing taxes on oil and gas companies, hiking the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

The president’s spending priorities include increasing funding for early childhood education and child care, expanding the $35 cap on insulin prices to all Americans and expanding free community college.

The budget also boosts military spending to more than $835 billion, making it among the largest peacetime expenditures in U.S. history.

Biden still faces the unresolved standoff with Republicans over whether to lift the debt ceiling.




President Joe Biden released his budget on Thursday, vowing to cut $3 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade, in part, by levying a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans.

Biden’s budget would also raise more revenue by increasing taxes on oil and gas companies, hiking the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% imposed under former President Donald Trump but below the pre-2017 35% tax, and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

With Biden likely to run for reelection in 2024, his budget is also a preview into his platform as a candidate and campaign pitch in the year ahead. Facing a Republican-controlled House, it’s unlikely many of the proposals will be passed in their current form. The president submits his budget to Congress outlining the administration’s priorities for the upcoming year, but ultimately Congress decides where the funds are allocated.

Fair share

White House Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young told reporters the administration is able to cut deficit spending “by asking the wealthy and big corporations to begin to pay their fair share and by cutting wasteful spending on Big Pharma, Big Oil and other special interests.”

“It does this in part by reforming our tax code to reward work, not wealth, including by ensuring that no billionaire pays a lower tax rate than a teacher or firefighter and by quadrupling the tax rate on corporate stock buybacks,” Young said. “That’s a very clear contrast with congressional Republicans.”

The Stock Buybacks Tax builds upon a measure Biden signed into law last year reducing the differential treatment in the code between buybacks and dividends. The goal is to encourage business to invest in growth rather than spending on stock buybacks. Under the budget proposal, the tax would quadruple from 1% to 4%. A Data for Progress poll from February found 58% of Americans support increasing the stock-buyback tax.

Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget gets some help from the slowing Covid-19 pandemic, which the White House noted needs less emergency aid as the outbreak enters a new phase thanks to widespread vaccinations. The president’s spending priorities include increasing funding for early childhood education and child care, expanding the $35 cap on insulin prices to all Americans and expanding free community college. These proposals are all part of his push to give American families “a little more breathing room.” The 2024 fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2024.

Social programs

Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, explained how the administration believes the social programs outlined in the White House budget will actually boost the economy.

“Policies such as paid leave and child care will bring more workers into the labor force and improve productivity,” Rouse said. “Investments in early education, mental health and community college not only expand our economy’s productive capacity but pay dividends for generations to come.”

In addition to social spending, the budget includes robust defense funding. At more than $835 billion, the defense budget would be among the largest peacetime expenditures in U.S. history.

For weeks the president has urged House Republicans to present their own budget proposals instead of just criticizing his plan. House Republicans have promised to propose a balanced budget and have scoffed when the White House pointed to GOP proposals to make cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare. House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told CNN on Wednesday the Republican budget should be ready by the second week in May.

‘Fight it out’

Speaking in Philadelphia, Pa. on Thursday, Biden said he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who the president noted is “a very conservative guy” with “a very conservative group” of lawmakers, agreed early on to meet after they both introduce their budgets.

“We’ll sit down and we’ll go line by line, and we’ll go through it and see what we can agree on, what we disagree on, and then fight it out in the Congress,” Biden recounted telling McCarthy. “I’m ready to meet with the Speaker anytime, tomorrow if he has his budget. Lay it down, show me what you want to do, I’ll show what I want to do. We can see what we can agree on, see what we don’t agree on and we vote on it.”

The White House, in its budget proposal, includes an entire section dedicated to shoring up Social Security and Medicare, funded by the minimum 25% wealth tax on households with a net worth of $100 million or more. The proposed budget would extend “the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by at least 25 years” without removing benefits or raising costs. It also provides a $1.4 billion increase in funding for Social Security to improve services.

Debt ceiling debate

“Benefit cuts are not on the table,” Young said.

Looming over the budget release is the unresolved standoff over whether to lift the debt ceiling. The White House has maintained it will not negotiate over the debt limit, arguing Congress should act to raise it as it has done numerous times over past decades. House Republicans, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have tried to tie the debt ceiling to future spending, saying they will not budge without promises to cut expenses. The debt ceiling, however, pertains to existing spending. To date, House Republicans have been murky on what expenses they would like to see cut.

“MAGA Republicans in Congress have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — we’re not going to let them folks,” Biden said. “My budget makes robust investments on military defense, let’s see what the MAGA Republicans propose and let’s be clear where I stand: I will not allow cuts to the needs of the intelligence community or military that help keep us safe.”

‘Back to work’

Rouse touted the administration’s economic track record, noting that unemployment has fallen somewhat inexplicably under Biden’s watch — even as the pace of inflation has slowed. She said most economists couldn’t have predicted the jobs market would rebound as strongly as it has since he took office.

“I think if you told most conventional macroeconomists last June that we were about to get seven straight months of declining annual CPI inflation, they would have told us that the unemployment rate would rise over that time, but instead the unemployment rate in January was 3.4%, or 0.2 percentage points lower than it was,” Rouse said, noting that February’s unemployment rate will be released Friday. “The economy looks healthier today than it did in other ways, too.”

Rouse expanded on that, in an attempt to ease recession concerns by pointing to economic gains already seen under the administration’s watch.

“The strength of our recovery has put us on solid ground to weather economic shocks,” Rouse said. “Americans are back to work and the economy is stronger than anyone, including the federal government and private forecasters, imagined it would be when President Biden took office.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/09/biden-budget-would-cut-deficit-by-3-trillion-over-next-decade-with-25percent-minimum-tax-on-richest-americans.html

[Rick Plant]

GOP bill could put more than 10 million at risk of losing Medicaid: analysis



The House GOP leadership's newly released debt ceiling legislation would have potentially devastating impacts on Medicaid recipients across the United States, putting more than 10 million low-income people at risk of losing health coverage under the program.

That's according to a detailed analysis of the bill published Monday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), which noted that the Republican legislation "would take Medicaid health coverage away from adults aged 19-55 who do not have children in their household and who aren't able to document that they are working or to secure an exemption."

"This builds on a failed policy that Arkansas temporarily applied, which resulted in large numbers of people losing coverage and no impact [on] employment outcomes," CBPP warned. "Like the Arkansas policy, the McCarthy proposal would require monthly verification of employment and require many people to navigate a complicated system and provide proof that may be difficult to get to secure an exemption."

"More than 10 million people in Medicaid expansion states would be at significant risk of having their health coverage taken away because they would be subject to the new requirements and could not be excluded automatically based on existing data readily available to states," the think tank continued. "When people lose Medicaid, they lose access to preventive and acute care as well as medications and other therapies for managing chronic conditions, such as diabetes or depression. Losing access to healthcare can lead to serious health consequences and financial strain, making it harder for people to engage in the workforce successfully."

The bill, touted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a floor speech last week, would also impose even more strict work requirements on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients—the majority of whom already work.

"Under the bill, people unable to document employment could lose both SNAP and Medicaid," CBPP observed.

CBPP has previously estimated that SNAP work requirements floated by Republicans would strip federal food benefits from more than 10 million people, including millions of children.

These policies would make deep cuts in a host of national priorities; leave more people hungry, homeless, and without health coverage; and make it easier for wealthy people to cheat on their taxes.

A fact sheet that the Republican leadership released alongside the new legislation estimates that the proposed work requirements would save the federal government up to $120 billion over the next decade.

But the document doesn't mention that the bill's repeal of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding would cost the federal government around $114 billion in revenue over 10 years, almost completely offsetting any potential savings from the punitive work requirements.

The bill would also slash federal spending across the board by reverting it to fiscal year 2022 levels and capping spending growth at 1% per year for the next decade. In exchange, the measure would only lift the debt ceiling through March 31, 2024 at the latest.

"Cutting a broad swath of public services—from schools, childcare, and public health to environmental protection and college aid—and making it harder for people to afford the basics while permitting more tax cheating and cutting taxes for the wealthy is failed trickle-down economics at its worst," CBPP argued. "This agenda would narrow opportunity, deepen inequality, and increase hardship."

Growing warnings about the ramifications of the GOP-backed work requirements come as some far-right House Republicans—led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)—are complaining that the new rules in the Republican bill aren't strict enough, potentially complicating party leaders' efforts to hold a vote this week.

NBC News reported Monday that Gaetz has "demanded 'more rigor' on work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and other safety net programs before he'll get on board."

"Specifically, he wants recipients to work 30 hours per week, up from 20 hours in the McCarthy plan," the outlet noted.

Congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden have voiced opposition to the Republican bill, characterizing it as an attack on the vulnerable and a gift to rich tax dodgers.

"Most Medicaid recipients already work," Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) tweeted Sunday. "The GOP's proposed work requirements are unnecessary and cruel, and would take away health insurance from millions of people."

https://www.rawstory.com/save-medicaid/

[Rick Plant]

Watchdog group accuses House Republicans of violating campaign finance law



The left-leaning advocacy group End Citizens United says three freshman House Republicans have violated federal campaign finance law, the Washington Examiner reported.

Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Nick LaLota, and Marc Molinaro, all from New York, are being accused of having unlawfully transferred $4,000 combined between their state and federal committees.

"The law is intended to prevent corruption and undue influence over our leaders," Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, said in a statement. "These aren’t one-off mistakes; they appear to be calculated moves."

The Examiner's report stated that in March 2022, LaLota's federal committee received $1,000 from the Suffolk County Republican Committee, earmarked "from [a] verified source,." D’Esposito's federal committee raised $1,000 in March 2022 from Citizens for D’Esposito, and Molinaro's federal committee received $2,000 in total from his state committee in 2021 and 2022, according to End Citizens United.

The FEC stipulates that a candidate's nonfederal committee is "prohibited" from transferring "funds or assets" to his or her federal election committee. The agency also says direct contributions constitute a "transfer" -- regulations that End Citizens United say the lawmakers violated.

It its complaint, End Citizens United says D’Esposito's state campaign illegally used funds on print and advertising, rent, cellphones, volunteer expenses, and mail services in Washington, D.C.

"Additionally, the state committee spent over $97,000 in connection with a golf fundraiser reported to have a speaker advocating for Mr. D’Esposito's election to U.S. Congress," the complaint read. "Despite spending thousands of dollars on these expenses from his state committee, Mr. D’Esposito was neither campaigning for, nor was he seeking ballot access for, any New York state or local office in the 2022 election cycle."

"Thus, there is no logical reason that his state committee needed to make payments for a campaign office, print and online advertising, cell phones, printing, fundraising, or volunteer services. Rather it seems more likely that Mr. D’Esposito made these payments in connection with his federal campaign — his only active campaign at the time," the complaint read.

Read More Here: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/house-republicans-violated-campaign-finance-law-pac-alleges


DeSantis' educational board nominees have deep ties to dark money



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has placed an emphasis on structuring school boards by nominating far-right activists who align with his controversial initiative to reform education.

Now, a new report is offering insight into the types of nominees he's selected and how they are connected to Republican dark money. In a report published by Truthout, Alyssa Bowen and Caitlin Mahoney began with an overview of all that has transpired in recent months.

"DeSantis has appointed far-right activists with ties to dark money groups to fill the state’s Board of Education, which wields significant power over the state’s K-12 schools, including the power to dictate educational standards," Bowen and Mahoney wrote.

"These appointments, however, have garnered less media attention than DeSantis’s takeover of Florida’s New College, which included appointing Christopher Rufo, the architect of the recent manufactured outrage over supposed 'critical race theory' in public schools and an

According to Bowen and Mahoney, the nominees have been linked to dark money groups like Moms For Liberty (MFL), “Judicial Crisis Network” (JCN), The Catholic Association (TCA), and a number of others.

The writers went on to express concern about how these types of nominees and heir extremist views could ultimately impact schools and education across the state of Florida. They note that the type of money they have access to puts them in a better position to push their agenda.

"Such extremism by members of a board that determines what is taught in K-12 schools statewide should be disqualifying in itself," they wrote. "The dark money ties of these far-right actors, who have the power to push the fringe positions of their donors to public school children across the state, should also raise eyebrows."

"The close ties between such groups and politicians like DeSantis allow super-wealthy donors with extreme views to be hidden from the public while having disproportionate influence and the power to peddle unpopular and harmful policies that suit the views of rich extremists," they added.

But despite DeSantis' efforts to forward his agenda, the writers emphasized that poll projections suggest voters are not in alignment with this push.

"While DeSantis may want to export his 'culture war' attacks in a bid to 'Make America Florida,' voters don’t appear to be falling for the coordinated right-wing attacks on reproductive rights or our local schools, at least according to the most recent election results," they wrote.

AFP



GOP's 'anti-woke' panic is turning off voters: strategist



Panic-inducing cultural crusades that include banning books involving sexual orientation from classrooms and cracking down on drag performances, are missing their mark, according to a strategist writing for The Bulwark Tuesday.

The problem is that swing voters are simply not tuned into this Republican cause — and are even actively turned off by it, wrote Rich Thau, the president of the research firm Engagious.

"We talked to seven Republicans, four Democrats, and three Independents across two sessions on April 11," he wrote. "The short answer is: The war on woke still isn’t resonating."
These voters, wrote Thau, often didn't have a definition of "woke," and when they did, it was unfavorable to the GOP. One voter identified as "Scott," for example, defined "woke" as "a term that was initiated by right-wing media to try to stop the progressive movement under the age of 30" and "a scare tactic."

When asked about specific policies, these swing voters' positions were more complicated but by no means highly favorable to the GOP. They were open to restricting "classroom instruction" on sexuality for young children and limiting transgender athletes from competing in their gender category — two issues the GOP has pursued — but were not on board with other GOP "anti-woke" policies like banning books, opposing "critical race theory," and cracking down on cities that "defund the police."

"And the vast majority of them saw it as negative if a candidate endorses all five policies, with some calling it pandering" and saying politicians should "focus on things that actually matter."

This tracks with polls broadly showing that most voters actually see "wokeness" as positive and don't support Republicans attacking businesses that celebrate diversity.

"The anti-woke platform may play well with Republican base voters," concluded Thau. "But come the general election in 2024, it’s hard to see combating wokeness driving vote choice."

Read More Here: https://www.thebulwark.com/swing-voters-still-not-into-the-anti-woke-stuff/

[Rick Plant]

Biden campaign announcement takes aim at Marjorie Taylor Greene



President Joe Biden took a swipe at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a video announcing his intention to run for re-election in 2024.

The right-wing lawmaker is shown about 36 seconds into the three-minute video wearing a white fur coat and shouting "liar" at the president during his State of the Union address earlier this year, as Biden pointed out Republican efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare, reported Newsweek.

"You know, around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take down those bedrock freedoms," Biden says in a narration. "Cutting Social Security that you paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy, dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books and telling people who they can love, all while making it more difficult for people to vote."

The video also shows images from the Jan. 6 insurrection during this portion, along with photos of MAGA Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Donald Trump patting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the back.


Watch the announcement below: