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☆ Why some Democrats think Biden shouldn't worry about legal challenges that would come from getting rid of the debt ceiling forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A US default could be days away, and Congress still doesn't have a debt ceiling deal. Some Democrats think Biden should use the 14th Amendment to address the crisis. On Monday evening, McCarthy and Biden met once again to attempt to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling and avoiding an unprecedented default. Experts and lawmakers have said that this clause makes a default, and therefore the debt ceiling, unconstitutional, getting rid of the issue forever. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesWhy Biden shouldn't worry about legal challengesNo president has ever invoked the 14th Amendment to address the debt ceiling.

☆ Senate Democrats are asking Biden to stop negotiating with Republicans on a debt ceiling solution and take a route that would get rid of the problem forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Senate Democrats are asking Biden to prepare to use the 14th amendment to solve the debt ceiling crisis. The 14th amendment would allow Biden to bypass Congress and declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional. On Wednesday, The Washington Post first reported that five Democratic senators have spearheaded an effort to urge Biden to invoke a clause in the 14th amendment to address the debt ceiling. Rep. Jamie Raskin, for example, told Insider in a Wednesday interview that the 14th amendment "provides the whole structure for resolving the conflict." He said that he doesn't think the 14th amendment "solves our problem now.

☆ Sheldon Whitehouse vs. the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: Senators are now trying to create an ethics code for the High Court. Images: AP Composite: Mark KellyThe Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing Tuesday on “Supreme Court ethics” was another chance for Democrats to proclaim the importance of public trust in the High Court, while simultaneously working overtime to destroy it. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse , long overdue for his fitting of a tinfoil hat, attacked Justice Clarence Thomas for hanging out with “people dedicated to turning the Court into a tool for right-wing billionaires.”Sorry, but the members of another branch of government don’t need to run their personal social calendars past Mr. Whitehouse for approval before they meet up with old friends. After weeks of spelunking into the financial disclosures of the conservative Justices, the media has emerged with only innuendo.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress that the agency may be unable to meet all of its debt obligations as soon as June 1 if the debt ceiling is not raised, putting new urgency on talks in Congress. Let's get the debt ceiling taken care of, but let's talk about how we can reduce the deficit and common sense ways," Democratic Senator Jon Tester told reporters. "If we don't get the debt ceiling, then we go into a depression." Republican Senator Mitt Romney said. We must change course, cleanly raise the debt ceiling, and avert widespread economic pain and instability while we still can."

☆ Reactions: US Treasury's new June 1 debt ceiling X-date
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

We must change course, cleanly raise the debt ceiling, and avert widespread economic pain and instability while we still can." The clock is ticking - and much faster than many suspected - so House Republicans need to drop their dangerous opposition to paying our nation’s bills." The President must negotiate on raising the debt ceiling." Let's get the debt ceiling taken care of, but let's talk about how we can reduce the deficit and common-sense ways. If we don't get the debt ceiling, then we go into it a depression."

☆ The U.S. could hit the debt ceiling by June 1, much sooner than expected, Yellen warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christina Wilkie | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday warned that the United States may run out of measures to pay its debt obligations by June 1, earlier than the government and Wall Street had been expecting. The combination of Yellen's letter and the new CBO estimate added a fresh sense of urgency to stalled negotiations between President Joe Biden and McCarthy's Republican majority in the House. "Republicans' failure to agree to cleanly raise the debt ceiling has brought the United States to the brink of economic catastrophe," said Democratic Senate Budget Committee chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I., in response to Yellen's letter. The Goldman Sachs estimate noted that so far there have been few ripples in the markets from rising debt-related risk. But this could change, analysts wrote, "once the Treasury announces a specific deadline for Congress to raise the debt limit."

☆ Premarket stocks: The earnings recession is here. There could be worse to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN —Earnings reports are coming thick and fast, showing how companies fared in the first few months of the year. But even as earnings are forecast to slump to their lowest level in three years, investors fear the worst is yet to come. This left significant gaps in the forensic search for Nazi-linked records, the Senate Committee stated. AlixPartners, according to the Senate committee, has indicated it will conduct a “supplementary review” of Credit Suisse’s connections to ratlines amongst other allegations. Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets and has spent the past few years plagued by scandals and large losses.

☆ Thomas revelation fits a broader pattern of nondisclosure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Joan Biskupic | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Washington CNN —The recent revelations of lavish gifts and travel that a Republican megadonor showered on Justice Clarence Thomas reflect a larger Supreme Court culture of nondisclosure, little explanation, and no comment. The incident reflects the broader lack of accountability at the high court regarding off-bench behavior. Justices regularly brush aside reporters’ queries for specifics on travel and gifts, book advances and other extracurricular activities. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin made another such plea to Roberts this week as he also urged the chief justice to open an investigation into Thomas’ conduct. Chief justice on the spotRoberts, who became chief justice in 2005, has continually described the high court as beyond the realm of politics and worthy of public trust.

☆ Amid bank strains, Democrats and Republicans spar over U.S. budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstWASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Budget Committee debated Democratic President Joe Biden's $6.8 trillion budget proposal on Wednesday, as new financial strains at Credit Suisse threatened to raise the stakes in a partisan standoff over spending and debt. "The president's budget proposal continues to take our nation down a path of fiscal and economic ruin," said Senator Chuck Grassley, the panel's top Republican. "President Biden is proposing levels of debt, deficits and spending previously reserved for times of world war or depression. Market turmoil exacerbated fears about the banking system days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) and New York's Signature Bank. Republicans are determined to avoid tax hikes and to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy implemented under former President Donald Trump.

☆ U.S. Senate Democrats, Republicans to battle over spending amid bank collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Biden's proposal is an early step in a negotiation over fiscal 2024 spending with Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives, who say they will refuse to raise the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to sharp spending cuts. "Republicans have pledged to use draconian cuts to pro-growth investments for everyday Americans," Whitehouse said in a statement on Tuesday. Leaders of both parties say they will not cut Social Security and Medicare which currently account for about one- third of the federal budget. Not touching those, or failing to cut defense spending, leaves little chance of addressing the government's budget deficit. Republicans are determined to avoid tax hikes and to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy implemented under former President Donald Trump.

☆ SEC Chair Gensler says 'Scope 3' emissions disclosures aren't 'well developed,' hinting they could be scaled back in climate rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 15, 2022. WASHINGTON — SEC Chair Gary Gensler hinted again Monday that the agency was considering scaling back its emissions disclosure rule. The SEC received a record 15,000 or so comments on the rule, "more than we've gotten on any other role in the history of our commission," Gensler said. Gensler has previously said the agency was considering making "adjustments" to the rule, given the volume of public comments. But a group of Democratic lawmakers are pressing Gensler not to drop Scope 3 disclosures from the final rule.

☆ Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse demands more transparency on gifts, food, lodging and entertainment that federal judges and Supreme Court justices receive
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to an agency demanding more information on ethics rules for federal judges. Unlike lower federal judges, Supreme Court justices are not bound by a code of conduct. In a new letter obtained by Insider, Whitehouse demanded answers on how the justices and all other federal judges disclose hospitality they receive, including gifts, food, lodging and entertainment. The letter is a follow-up to a lengthy back-and-forth in recent years between Whitehouse and the agency on the judges' ethics rules. The American Bar Association also urged the Supreme Court this month to adopt ethics rules similar to those followed by all other federal judges.

☆ These 26 words ‘created the internet.’ Now the Supreme Court may be coming for them
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

This week, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on two pivotal cases dealing with online speech and content moderation. A set of rulings against the tech industry could significantly narrow Section 230 and its legal protections for websites and social media companies. If that happens, the Court’s decisions could expose online platforms to an array of new lawsuits over how they present content to users. Such a result would represent the most consequential limitations ever placed on a legal shield that predates today’s biggest social media platforms and has allowed them to nip many content-related lawsuits in the bud. “The massive social media industry has grown up largely shielded from the courts and the normal development of a body of law.

The U.S. government’s system for labeling and tracking classified documents appears to be broken, with potentially serious consequences for the country’s national security, lawmakers, former officials and scholars said Tuesday. Democratic and Republican lawmakers said there was a “systemic failure” if both the Obama and Trump administrations could not keep track of classified documents after their tenures ended. I don’t know how anybody ends up with classified documents. “We clearly don’t have an effective management system to oversee where classified documents go and how they’re retrieved,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Goitein and others said the recent discoveries of classified documents present a political opportunity for the White House, and possibly Congress, to at last tackle the problem.

Republican state lawmakers and members of Congress are attempting to stifle the growth of sustainable investing and to punish corporate efforts at climate-related financial risk management. This is a closely coordinated political effort driven by a network of dark money organizations fronting for climate denial groups and fossil fuel interests. This is usually anonymous dark money, and it is often traceable back to the fossil fuel industry. They are attempting to bully financial institutions and regulators into ignoring market demand and market risk. Imagine elected officials telling investment firms they cannot offer large-cap or small-cap funds, or emerging market funds, or value funds — or, for that matter, sector funds with exposure to energy companies.

☆ It's still not clear what the Senate Ethics Committee is doing with a 2-year-old January 6 probe into Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Democrats lodged an ethics complaint against Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz nearly two years ago. No one's heard anything since from the Senate Ethics Committee, which one advocate calls a "black hole." Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island led the complaint against Cruz and Hawley. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee. Little has emerged in the last two years to suggest that Cruz and Hawley were intimately involved in the assault on the Capitol.

☆ Democratic senators won't say whether the party should support Kyrsten Sinema's re-election in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"It doesn't change my life one bit," said Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. "I don't think anybody's announcing anything," Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told reporters, saying he didn't want to get into "hypotheticals." Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the head of the DSCC for 2022, also declined to say whether the party should back Sinema. But she too declined to say whether the party should back Sinema in 2024, waving as the elevator closed. Asked by reporters on Monday what he made of Sinema's announcement, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware dramatically shrugged as he boarded an elevator.

Come next year, Democrats will have unilateral subpoena power in many committees to compel investigative targets to provide documents and testimony — without needing GOP support. “Our committees will have greater oversight ability, subpoena power. Subpoena power can deal with corporate corruption and inequities, and other problems throughout the country,” he said. “And if using subpoena power becomes necessary, then that’s something we can do.”Other Democrats floated industries that could be the targets of the party's subpoena powers. “But having subpoena power for CEOs and billionaires who think they don’t have to come to Congress to explain themselves will be very valuable.”

☆ How an arcane 96-year-old law stopped the rail strike
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The Railway Labor Act was passed in 1926 as one of the very first labor laws in the nation. Because of the law, the House was able to vote Wednesday to impose unpopular contracts on four rail unions whose members have already rejected the terms, followed by a vote by the Senate vote late Thursday that did the same. The Railway Labor Act, passed in 1926, is the reason Congress could intervene this week to block a strike by freight railroad unions. But under the Railway Labor Act, management can fall back on hopes that Congress will give them the deal it wants. When he served in the Senate, Biden voted against an earlier effort to impose a contract on the rail unions to keep them on the job.

☆ Judge to decide on Florida face-biter insanity plea
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Lea Johnston, a University of Florida law professor, said that only about 1% of felony defendants try an insanity defense because the bar to succeed is so high. About a quarter of those succeed, usually in a pretrial deal where prosecutors agree that the defendant’s mental illness meets the standard. She said for insanity defenses that reach trial, defendants who waive a jury have the most success. Judges understand the system, she said, while jurors often worry that defendants acquitted by reason of insanity will be released sooner. Austin Harrouff told McGraw he was escaping a demon he called Daniel and only has vague recollections of the slayings.

☆ EXCLUSIVE India mills renegotiate, default on sugar export deals to catch rising prices -dealers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Rajendra Jadhav | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The renegotiations and defaults by mills in India, the world's second biggest sugar exporter, could support global prices . Mills started selling sugar to trade houses in late August and signed deals to supply around 2 million tonnes of sugar for export even before New Delhi approved an export quota of 6 million tonnes earlier this month. They are threatening to default unless buyers are ready to renegotiate at higher prices," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house. The defaults by mills in Maharashtra are forcing trade houses to make purchases from mills in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, dealers said. Indian mills have so far signed contracts to export 4 million tonnes of sugar during November to February, they said.

But Pryor mocked the notion that the 60,000-member professional organization was working "in the shadows" to reshape the courts. He also took aim at liberal commentators who frequently criticize the Federalist Society. He also took issue with criticism of society's role in the judicial nomination process. Leonard Leo, a long-time conservative legal activist, while serving as a Federalist Society executive helped compile a list of potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees that Trump drew from during his tenure. "Are there members of the Federalist Society who are involved in that process?

After oil prices soared following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, European governments already have imposed windfall taxes on their oil industries. But most U.S. lawmakers show little appetite to reverse that trend after oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp <CVX.N. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Ro Khanna, both Democrats, are among legislators who have already introduced bills to tax excess oil company profits. Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin from West Virginia would likely oppose a windfall profits tax, dimming its prospects, congressional sources and research groups said. Administration officials conceded privately that it may be difficult to enact a federal windfall profits tax, and said no deadline has been set for a next step.

WASHINGTON — Which party controls Congress next year could have big implications for Twitter — and its new “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk. A Jordan spokesman had no comment about Musk and Twitter, but Republicans expect the company will be more cooperative with any future GOP investigations with Musk at the helm. But upon taking control of Twitter, Musk said he would first form a “content moderation council,” and Yoel Roth, head of Safety and Integrity at Twitter, insisted that the company’s policies on hate speech have not changed. “If Elon Musk has said now that he’s going to start a content moderation board, that was one good sign, but I continue to be concerned about that,” Klobuchar said. Other Democrats are raising national security concerns about how Musk financed the $44 billion Twitter deal.

☆ ‘The Independent’ Review: John Cena and Journalistic Integrity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

’Tis the season for election-conspiracy thrillers and campaign-finance mysteries, though the time might never be ripe enough for the likes of “The Independent,” an undercooked serving of political skulduggery that nevertheless provides a showcase for the magnetic Jodie Turner-Smith . “Your writing—it’s got punch,” says Nicholas Booker ( Brian Cox ), weathered dean of Washington political columnists. “It’s raw—but there’s something there.” He might have been reviewing “The Independent.” Instead, he’s appraising the work of Elisha “Eli” James (Ms. Turner-Smith), fledgling investigative journalist. Booker likes the cut of her jib, as he and his fellow ink-stained wretches might have said while standing around the AP teletype machine during the Nixon administration. (“The Independent” isn’t really a story about newspapers—which is fine, because its portrayal of the newspaper world is a caricature.)

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