•The House of Representatives voted 219-206 yesterday to adopt the $480-billion increase in the debt limit as passed in the Senate last week, increasing the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority to about $28.9 trillion, Roll Call says. The hike prevents defaults that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin warned would have begun next Monday, instead through early December.
•Opening arguments in a Manhattan federal court begin today for Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, accused of illegally funneling $300,000 in Russian funds to U.S. political campaigns and groups, including a political action committee controlled by Trump allies (per Politico).
•William Shatner is spending the day in space, as the actor who portrayed Capt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek takes a ride on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecraft, at age 90.
Inflation Rate Hits 5.4% for September – The Consumer Price Index was up 0.4% in September, for a 5.4% annual rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Food prices were up 0.9% overall, with a food at home inflation rate of 1.3% for the month.
Energy was up 1.3% for September, with gas and diesel at the pump up 1.2% for the month. New vehicle prices rose 1.3% reflecting in part the new 2022 model year, though the continuing computer chip shortage is contributing to a supply-demand imbalance. Used vehicle prices, a leading contributor to inflation until recently, fell 0.7%, though they are up 24.4% for the last 12 months.
Note: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin maintains the nation’s high inflation remains a temporary problem, which will be overcome once supply chain bottlenecks free up. Her guidance on inflation is a counter-argument against Republicans who say President Biden’s $3.5-trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation will simply boost sky-high inflation. With energy prices hitting record highs and with container ships clogging ports worldwide, high inflation globally could be measured in years, rather than months.
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No Apparent Movement in Budget Reconciliation Deal Among Democrats – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said that crucial decisions need to come “in the next few days” about how to cut parts of the White House’s $3.5-trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation package in order to meet deadlines, Roll Call reports. The deadlines already have slipped past September.
Much of the delay appears to be coming from the Senate side, where even Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, have different priorities. What should be cut? “That’s a negotiation,” Pelosi told reporters. “That’s not something I would be announcing here and I don’t even know what that would be.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, and a leader of the party’s progressive wing in the House, seems to be much less intransigent, and is leading the way on cutting the package by years of lifecycle rather than by specific dollar amounts on the “social infrastructure” programs. The $3.5 trillion package is designed to cover child care, family leave, climate change and other such programs for 10 fiscal years and must be cut to somewhere in the $2- to $2.3-trillion range to satisfy Manchin and Sinema.
Note: While it first seemed like progressive House Democrats were trying to maintain their high expectations by passing a sweeping package with wafer-thin majorities in both chambers, it now seems the two moderate senators are holding up negotiations.
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Michigan Protestors Call for “Forensic Audit” of 2020 Results -- Approximately 300 protestors assembled at the state capitol in Michigan yesterday calling for a “forensic audit” of the results of the 2020 presidential election, the AP reports. Donald Trump, who lost the state by 154,189 votes, had urged attendance at the protest. According to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, there have been more than 200 audits conducted, proving that the election was not fraudulent.
Note: The “forensic audit” in Arizona, which found no fraud, will cost taxpayers some $3 million to replace the vote-counting machines that were compromised by being turned over to the Cyber Ninjas. The protestors in Michigan should keep that in mind. A lot of potholes can be filled for $3 million.
And here’s a question: if they are concerned about election integrity predicated on what are admittedly close results, where were they in 2016, when Trump took Michigan by 10,704 votes?
One of the arguments that is raised about so-called election fraud is that in some states Trump was leading . . . and then he fell behind and lost.
Perhaps this will make things clearer for some people to understand why the person who is leading at the start doesn’t necessary end in front: according to the The Daytona Beach News-Journal, the driver on the pole of the Daytona 500, which has been run since 1959, has won the race just seven times.
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U.S. Border to Reopen to Canadians – The U.S. will open its northern border to fully vaccinated Canadians, and its southern border to fully vaccinated Mexicans, in November, Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced in a news release Tuesday, according to The Globe and Mail. Opening of the northern border affects land and ferry crossings and is based on recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No exact reopening date has been reported. Canada opened its border to vaccinated U.S. citizens last August. The border had been closed off due to the pandemic since March 2020.
Note: No reaction so far, from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics