Washington, D.C
For a mass demonstration in Washington D.C. to protest bipartisan congressional invitation for Israeli war criminal Netanyahu
On Saturday, Israeli forces carried out one of the most horrific acts of mass murder of the entire genocide. At least 274 people were killed in the assault on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The death toll includes at least 64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people. Another 680 people were wounded.
Israeli troops, disguised as aid workers, opened fire and carried out a series of raids throughout the camp. The massacre was carried out ostensibly as a “hostage rescue” operation. For every hostage rescued, however, 68 people were horrifically slaughtered, including, notably, three Israeli hostages and one US citizen.
The massacre took place just days after the leaders of both houses of Congress set a date, July 24, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress in Washington D.C. It is akin to inviting Hitler to speak during World War II, at the height of the Holocaust.
The World Socialist Web Site calls on workers and youth to respond with a mass demonstration in Washington D.C., timed to coincide with Netanyahu’s appearance. The purpose of this demonstration, however, is not simply to protest Netanyahu but the role of American imperialism and the entire political establishment in directing, financing, arming and politically justifying the genocide.
The invitation of Netanyahu, signed by the “bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate,” is a political provocation against mass opposition to the genocide in Gaza, in the US and throughout the world. It is a declaration of political and moral solidarity with a murderer who has been accused by the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of war crimes.
At the same time, the invitation exposes the real relationship between the American government and the Israeli regime. Netanyahu is asked to give what amounts to a progress report. “We invite you to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combating terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region,” it states.
The Israeli regime is not “combatting terror.” It is massacring an entire people, and it is doing so as an instrument of US and European imperialism.
Indeed, Saturday’s massacre took place with the direct involvement of US forces. The New York Times confirmed that US military personnel deployed on the ground in Israel provided “intelligence and other support” for the assault, while Palestinian sources claimed that the aid vehicle in which Israeli forces were hiding was unloaded from the US-made “humanitarian” pier that had been put in place the day before.
When asked, “Does the U.S. support Israel doing more operations like this in the very same way, even if this number of civilians were killed?” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan declared, “We will continue to work with Israel to do that.”
In inviting Netanyahu, the American political establishment is making clear that there are no “red lines” to the number of Palestinians the Israeli regime is allowed to murder. The death toll is now approaching 50,000. Hundreds of thousands could be killed, including through mass starvation, and it will not impact the support of the United States.
The WSWS calls on workers in all factories and other workplaces to organize delegations to participate in the demonstration. We also call on students and youth to travel to D.C. to protest on July 24
The purpose of this demonstration is not to persuade the war criminals to change their minds. They will not. It is to set in motion a powerful anti-war movement on the basis of a genuine strategy against imperialist war.
This strategy must be based on the following principles:
First, the Gaza genocide is inseparably linked to the global eruption of US-led world imperialism, a critical part of an escalating US war against Russia and China.
The invitation to Netanyahu takes place amid a major escalation of the war in Ukraine, in which the NATO powers are entering into the war as direct participants. Last week, Biden announced that he had authorized Ukraine to carry out strikes inside Russia using NATO weapons, and French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that he is working to form a coalition of countries that would send troops to Ukraine.
The same governments backing the genocide in Gaza are arming the proxy regime in Ukraine. And as the US and its allies have overseen the arrest of thousands of people protesting the genocide, the Ukraininan government, staffed with outright fascists, have arrested Bogdan Syrotiuk, a socialist opponent of the war and the capitalist regimes in both Ukraine and Russia.
Second, a movement against war must be based in the working class.
It is the working class that will fight and die in war, and it is the working class that will be forced to pay for it. The same capitalist crisis that produces war also produces the basis for ending war, in the form of growing struggles against inequality, poverty and the attack on wages, jobs, healthcare, education and all the social rights of the working class.
Third, the movement against war must be completely independent of and hostile to all political parties and organizations of the capitalist class.
The Biden administration and the Democrats have been directly involved from the beginning. Last week, Biden’s Republican opponent in the 2024 elections, Donald Trump, declared, “Israel has to finish the job.” The Democrats and the Republicans have joined hands in arming the genocide and slandering opposition to it as “antisemitic.”
As they escalate war abroad, the ruling elites are turning ever more openly to fascistic and dictatorial forms of rule at home. This is directed at all opposition in the working class to the policies of the corporate and financial oligarchy.
Fourth, a movement against the genocide and against war must be international, uniting workers in every country and on every continent on the basis of their common class interests.
The escalating global war, like World War I and World War II, arises out of the contradictions of the world capitalist system. A new global conflagration can only be averted through the mobilization of the global working class, which produces all of society’s wealth and therefore has the social and economic power to oppose the conspiracies of the capitalist ruling elites.
Fifth, the fight against war must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of war.
In defense of their interests and the capitalist profit system, the corporate and financial oligarchy is driving mankind toward an abyss. The permanent war of the ruling class must be answered with the perspective of permanent revolution by the working class, the strategic goal of which is the abolition of the nation-state system and the establishment of a world socialist federation.
Washington, D.C
The director of the Congressional Budget Office—known for its gloomy national debt data—is very optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely | Fortune
Dr Phillip Swagel is an optimist, both by nature and when he looks at the U.S. economy.
This fact is perhaps at odds with what one might assume: Swagel is the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan agency that offers independent budgetary and economic analysis to Congress.
Very often—an inevitable occupational hazard—the subject of national debt and the interest the U.S. Treasury pays to maintain is its central focus. The numbers are eye-watering: Public debt stands at more than $39 trillion. The interest expense on that borrowing now exceeds $1 trillion a year. Indeed, the latest budget update from the CBO highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out nearly $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026. This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.
The CBO’s figures are routinely cited by policymakers, think tanks, and lobbyists as alarming evidence that the U.S. needs to find a more sustainable fiscal path or risk dire straits.
Swagel doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the U.S. will face a crisis of its own making. His justification is simple: He was at the Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis, and joined the CBO months before the COVID pandemic began. He has watched as the U.S. economy, seemingly against all odds, has clawed its way out of economic crises before.
That’s not to say Swagel isn’t a staunch advocate of setting the U.S. on a more sustainable fiscal path—rather, he trusts the people in power to do so when the time comes.
Why the optimism?
Among those concerned about national debt are notable names: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also worried about federal spending and has endorsed a plan floated by Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett that would render members of Congress ineligible for reelection if they allow deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.
On the other hand, optimistic economists suggest that, despite the value of the debt, it’s not actually an issue: the bond market is holding steady, indicating a reliable market of buyers. Likewise, the U.S.’s own central bank buys huge swaths of the debt, meaning, in the simplest of layman’s terms, the economy can essentially print its own money. There are holes in this argument, not least the fact that Fed chairman nominee Kevin Warsh has suggested he would like to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet and may therefore be less inclined to finance borrowing.
Swagel’s positive outlook doesn’t rely on the argument that a crisis hasn’t happened yet, so therefore it never will: “[My optimism] is rooted in my experience,” Swagel tells Fortune in an exclusive interview in Washington D.C. “First being at Treasury during the financial crisis and seeing very difficult times and the country coming together with an effective response—not saying it’s perfect, lots of controversy—but it was effective.”
“The second thing is policymakers are smart, they’re thoughtful. Interacting with members of Congress makes me optimistic. I know you read about all the squabbles … I’m completely aware of this, but the policymakers that are thinking about these things are thoughtful and effective. Not necessarily always effective at passing legislation, but that’s part of our political system, it was set up to make it difficult ot pass legislation.”
Decisions on the horizon
Swagel’s optimism that Congress will be pushed into action will be tested sooner rather than later, likely at some point in the next six years, he told Fortune. This is partly due to the fact that, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) both Social Security and Medicare will become insolvent within that time period.
“Making progress to address the fiscal trajectory would be a positive for the U.S. economy,” Swagel said. “Credible steps would lead to lower interest rates that would make the subsequent adjustment easier, there is a reward to virtue. It’s a positive thing, we can’t go on [with] the scolding narrative. My sense is that members of Congress understand the fiscal situation, it’s not that everyone single one has looked at our one-pager of numbers and understands the debt to the third decimal point, but they understand something needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t have to be done immediately, but at some point reasonably soon.”
Swagel is of the opinion that bond investors haven’t increased risk premiums not because they’re not worried about a fiscal crisis, but because they have priced in preventative action from Congress—in his mind “a vote of confidence that my optimism is not misplaced.”
“As a country, we face up to these problems. It’s not happening now, I’m not sure it’s going to happen in the rest of this year or even the next year, or the next two years. But we will face up to it, and the market in some sense expects us to, because otherwise interest rates would be higher,” he explained.
The Cheesecake Factory
The role of the CBO, to some extent, is to provide policymakers with their options if and when they do choose to take action on federal deficits. It’s a menu not unlike the Cheesecake Factory, Swagel says: Large, inclusive of a range of modifications and options, and delivered without judgement.
“Right now it’s maybe a pick three, and you’re looking at a six or seven course menu,” joked Caleb Quakenbush, director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, in an interview with Fortune. “The longer you delay, the more you’re gonna have to add to your tab, and those options become more expensive.”
Indeed, economists and analysts aren’t necessarily worried about the absolute level of government debt, rather the debt-to-GDP ratio. Depending on whom you ask, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at around 122% of GDP at present. This measure demonstrates an economy’s spending versus its growth, and the risk associated with lending to a nation that isn’t growing fast enough to handle its spending. To rebalance that ratio, an economy could either cut spending or increase growth—the latter being by far the less painful option.
The growth option is becoming less feasible, Michael Peterson, CEO of fiscal think tank the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “I think it requires government action because we’ve waited so long. We’ve added so many trillions, and the current deficit is so big at 6% that the level of growth you would need really exceeds what is feasible.
“Growth needs to be a part of it, but it’s sort of a vicious cycle. The longer we delay, the more debt we have, the slower growth is going to be. The more we get this under control, I think the greater optimism there is, interest rates go down, more growth comes from that. It’s sort of a virtuous or vicious cycle depending on your policy response.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
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