Progress in Washington, The US Economy Is Strong, Biden Defends Democracy, Trump's "Insane" Economic Plans

Early Voting Has Begun in FL HD-35, Tom Suozzi Joins Us on Jan 24th

Happy Monday all. A few things today:

Joe Biden Is A Good President - On Friday, we got another really good jobs report, and the President gave his first big campaign speech of 2024, a spirited and powerful defense of our democracy. Together, these two events confirm our basic understanding of the 2024 election right now:

Joe Biden is a good President. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong, and winning elections across the US. And they are stuck with Trump, who is far more degraded, extreme and dangerous - and further away from the electorate - than he was in 2020 when he lost by 4 and a half points. Taking all this together it’s clear, as we enter 2024, in every way possible, that I would much rather be us than them.

For more on 2024, catch this new Deep State Radio pod where I join David Rothkopf, Tara McGowan and Tom Bonier; my MSNBC op-ed and Morning Joe appearance; and an analysis where I argue while our coalition is wandering a bit right now, our numbers with Hispanics and younger Americans are likely far better than some recent polls have shown.

For Today, Optimism in Washington - From Politico this morning:

Congressional leaders have clinched a deal on overall budget totals that could pave the way for a broader government funding compromise in the coming weeks — further enraging Speaker Mike Johnson’s right flank.

The long-stalled agreement, announced Sunday afternoon, establishes funding limits for the military and domestic programs for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, allowing House and Senate appropriators to begin hashing out their differences between a dozen annual spending bills. A partial government shutdown looms 12 days away….

….Lawmakers will have to work incredibly fast — federal cash for the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Veterans Affairs and more expires on Jan. 19. Funding for the rest of the government, including the biggest domestic programs and the Pentagon, runs out on Feb. 2. A shutdown remains very possible, with a host of thorny policy issues for congressional leaders to work through in extremely limited time, including conservative demands to attach GOP border reforms to spending legislation and Republican ultimatums holding up Biden’s separate request for more than $100 billion to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan….

….The deal on a government funding framework, a critical first step quietly negotiated by Schumer and Johnson’s staffs, comes after House conservatives spent the better part of last year trying to undo the budget totals established by last summer’s bipartisan debt ceiling accord.

Conservatives have fought for months to deeply slash spending beyond the bipartisan funding levels Biden and McCarthy negotiated, even ousting McCarthy from the speakership in part for cutting that deal with Democrats. Their efforts, however, have so far fallen short.

Indeed, the arrival of a new speaker has yielded a funding agreement that many Democrats would argue is actually a far better outcome for domestic programs than the cuts that could be triggered by last summer’s bipartisan debt law.

Tom Keen Gets Endorsed By The Orlando Sentinel - Our first big 2024 test is next Tuesday in FL HD-35. Early vote has begun, and Tom Keen, our candidate, got a big endorsement yesterday from the Orlando Sentinel. Here’s how to help:

Donate - Learn More - Phone Bank - Text Bank - Phone Bank w/Maxwell Frost

From the Orlando Sentinel endorsement, Tom Keen Has Shown He Is Ready To Represent:

Over the past few months, voters in Florida’s House District 35 have gotten to know Tom Keen. And they are seeing plenty to like, starting with the fact that he respects them and supports their priorities.

This Navy veteran is down-to-earth and steadfast in his moderate-Democratic, thoroughly sensible values. He has his eye on Florida’s real needs: Promoting better jobs that pay livable wages. Creating affordable-housing solutions that put Florida residents’ needs first. Promoting high-quality education and better access to health care. Fixing the mess made of the property insurance market. Stopping the slaughter that has led to thousands of Florida residents dying of gunshot wounds and COVID-19.

Meanwhile Keen’s GOP opponent — Osceola School Board Member Erika Booth — must have  left District 35 voters wondering if they ever knew her at all. She certainly hasn’t given them much to go on. Instead, her campaign has focused on national issues and partisan slogans, while her mostly anonymous supporters fling as much deceptive mud on Keen as they can.

In this race, which people all over the state are watching as a potential bellwether for 2024, there’s an easy call. Voters can trust Keen to put their needs ahead of jingoistic partisan antics.

Tom Suozzi Joins Hopium on Wed, Jan 24th at 8pm EST - Register now for an event we are hosting for our next Congressman from NY-3. Election Day is Feb 13th, and here’s how you can help:

Donate - Learn More - Get Updates - Canvass/Make Calls - Write Postcards

Let’s start 2024 strong by winning this two important elections! Please take an action today, and thanks to all of you have already donated or volunteered.

Trump’s “Insane” Economic Plans - So far we know that a President Trump would mean more dead kids in schools, a planet that warms faster, the striping of tens of millions of health insurance and chaos in American health care, further loss of fundamental rights and freedoms, mass deportations, a weakening/end of the Western alliance; and now today we learn from the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein that Trump’s emerging economic agenda would re-ignite inflation and undermine the global economic system America has imagined and built:

Donald Trump is vowing sweeping changes to the nation’s economy that threaten to reignite inflation — even as the former president blames President Biden for higher prices and says he’ll bring the problem under control.

With a substantial lead in the 2024 GOP presidential primary days before the Iowa caucuses, Trump has proposed imposing unprecedented new tariffs on trillions of dollars worth of imports and deporting undocumented workers on a vast scale. Both campaign pledges risk exacerbating the price spikes that have subsided over the last year, according to liberal and conservative economists alike, in addition to some estimates cited by the former president’s own advisers. If he’s elected, Trump could implement these policies at least in part without needing Congress to act.

Trump’s enormously disruptive policy proposals come as he appears likely to jettison the more cautious and establishment-friendly economic advisers that restrained his most nationalist and confrontational impulses during his first term. These advisers — such as former treasury secretary Steven T. Mnuchin — now find themselves either at war with Trump or receding from his inner circle, potentially empowering more fringe voices….

….Trump’s exact intentions on the economy remain hard to predict, in part because his trade proposals as stated would likely prove so unwieldy and painful for U.S. consumers that even some of the former president’s allies say they are unlikely to ever fully go into effect. But they fit a broader pattern of Trump seeking to harness sweeping new executive powers to pursue what critics have termed an “authoritarian” agenda — even as attacking Biden over inflation remains one of his central campaign messages.

If elected, Trump would inherit an economy that has proved surprisingly strong but still remains vulnerable to new shocks. Although voters give the former president higher marks for his economic stewardship than they do Biden, many analysts fear that Trump’s approach — intensifying the impulsive and chaotic management of his first term — could further unsettle an economy still finding its footing after the disruptions of the pandemic.

“The problem is what he’s proposing is so far outside historic experience there’s not even a decent set of estimates about it,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank. “I saw some clip where Trump was attacking Biden about inflation, and it’s like, ‘You’re going to massively restrict the supply of workers and do a 10 percent across the board tariff?’ On the economics, that’s completely insane.”

Yes, the likely Republican nominee is a sex offender, fraudster, betrayer of the country, in the pocket of foreign governments, ally of the genocidal Putin, Nazi sympathizer and a madman.

Why we need to keep working hard all - Simon