It’s a relatively slow news week with Congress not in session.
Meanwhile, somewhere, the debt ceiling looms ...
The Bulwark:
There's Nothing "Conservative" About Reneging On the Debt
Plus: The latest lies of George Santos, or whoever he is
“Brinksmanship” seems like a euphemism for this fiscal game of chicken.
A hypothetical proposal that protects Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits and the military would still leave out huge swaths of critical federal expenditures on things such as Medicaid, food safety inspections, border control and air traffic control, to name just a handful of thousands of programs. Democrats are also likely to accuse Republicans of prioritizing payments to U.S. bondholders — which include Chinese banks — over American citizens.
“Any plan to pay bondholders but not fund school lunches or the FAA or food safety or XYZ is just target practice for us,” a senior Democratic aide said…
In other words, the GOP’s Rube Goldberg plan is a non-starter. So what happens when the newly puissant Freedom Caucus takes the economy hostage, and the country teeters toward an actual default?
There’s no secret, no mystery here.
The New York Times:
Statehouse Democrats Embrace an Unfamiliar Reality: Full Power
After taking control of four state governments in the midterms, including in politically mixed Michigan, Democrats have a long-sought chance to govern.
Within hours of being sworn in, Democrats in the Legislature announced plans to codify L.G.B.T.Q. rights, repeal an abortion ban that is unenforceable but still on the books, and get rid of a so-called right-to-work law loathed by labor unions.
The new Democratic power in Michigan comes as the party will also take charge in Maryland, Massachusetts and Minnesota, restoring Democrats’ control of statehouses to a level not seen since 2009, during the first months of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Democrats will have a so-called trifecta — control of the governorship and both legislative chambers — in 17 states, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures and Ballotpedia. That is still fewer than the 22 states where Republicans have full control, but it is a major comeback from a lost decade for state-level Democrats, who were bludgeoned in the 2010 and 2014 midterms and, as recently as 2017, had sole control at only six capitols. Slightly more people will now live in states with full Democratic control than in those with full Republican control.
“Nah, Roe won’t make a difference if we lose it, no one cares … oh, wait.” ~multiple Republican operatives.
Jennifer Rubin/The Washington Post:
No, Democrats shouldn’t want to be as ruthless as Republicans
Democratic activists often complain that their side is not as ruthless and partisan as Republicans — as though this is some sort of handicap in politics. President Biden on Sunday showed why this view is misguided.
The president, speaking from the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, offered a moving tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that demonstrated the power of going high when your opponents go low.
“We have to choose a community over chaos,” Biden exhorted the congregation. “Are we the people who are going to choose love over hate?”
Norm Ornstein/The Hill:
Congress should be able to function in a crisis; Republicans just made that more difficult
What happens if Congress is unable to function? We got a small glimpse during the four days of gridlock as a divided Republican House majority dithered over their choice of Speaker — meaning no ability to act in case of a crisis, to hold hearings or pass legislation. For those of us who are veterans in the efforts to protect the continuity of our governing institutions, it was a familiar dilemma.
The New York Times:
As Debt Limit Threat Looms, Wall Street and Washington Have Only Rough Plans
A default would most likely rattle markets and carry big risks, no matter how the Federal Reserve and Treasury try to curb the fallout.
With days to go before the United States bumps up against a technical limit on how much debt it can issue, Wall Street analysts and political prognosticators are warning that a perennial source of partisan brinkmanship could finally tip into outright catastrophe in 2023.
Big investors and bank economists are using financial models to predict when the United States, which borrows money to pay its existing bills, will run out of cash. They are assessing what it could mean if the government is unable to pay some of its bondholders and the country defaults on its debt. And they are gaming out how to both minimize risks and make the most of any opportunities to profit that might be hiding in the chaos.
Houston Chronicle:
Peter Hotez on new COVID XBB1.5 variant: 'People are saying this will be mild. It's not mild'
Q: Having had higher numbers of those dying, I think there’s a sense this is a return to normal.
A: I think people are saying this will be mild. It’s not mild. Do the math: With 400 or 500 deaths a day, that’s getting up to 150,000 to 200,000 a year, which is four- or five-times higher than the worst flu season. That’s not good. Even without 2,000 to 3,000 deaths a day, we’re still seeing a lot of hospitalizations, a lot of long COVID. The bottom line is that if you haven’t gotten your bivalent booster, there’s time, but you’ve got to get it soon or you’re at risk for hospitalization. With the new XBB1.5 subvariant, the goalposts have moved. That’s the reality of it.
Before you just had to be vaccinated, but that won’t cut it anymore. The antibodies to the original lineage don’t seem to offer much cross-protection against this new subvariant. If you get a breakthrough infection, there will be some help because you get some epitope broadening, as it’s called. This is a long way of saying, "Get your bivalent booster." That’s what is most important. The early data from November, pre-XBB1.5 from the CDC shows that people who get the bivalent booster have 18.6 times reduction of risk of being hospitalized. It’s not quite as good as that for XBB1.5, but it should have benefits there, too.
POLITICO:
Matt Schlapp sued by former Herschel Walker aide over sexual assault allegations
The conservative operative denies the charges and hints at a countersuit
The lawsuit follows claims earlier this month by the former Walker campaign staffer, who said Schlapp sexually assaulted him in Georgia in October while Schlapp was visiting the state to stump for the Republican Senate candidate.
The male staffer said Schlapp, without consent, “groped” and “fondled” his groin while the staffer was driving Schlapp back to his hotel Oct. 19. POLITICO previously confirmed the existence of the allegations, which were first reported on Jan. 6 by the Daily Beast. In the lawsuit, Schlapp is said to have placed his hand on the staffer’s leg before he “began aggressively fondling Mr. Doe’s genital area in a sustained fashion” while the staffer was “frozen with fear and panic.” Schlapp then reportedly invited the staffer up to his hotel room, which the man declined.