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Speaker Drama Raises New Fears on Debt Limit

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Speaker Drama Raises New Fears on Debt Limit

WASHINGTON — Consultant Kevin McCarthy of California lastly secured the Home speakership in a dramatic middle-of-the-night vote early Saturday, however the deal he struck to win over holdout Republicans additionally raised the dangers of persistent political gridlock that would destabilize the American monetary system.

Economists, Wall Road analysts and political observers are warning that the concessions he made to fiscal conservatives might make it very troublesome for Mr. McCarthy to muster the votes to boost the debt restrict. That would forestall Congress from doing the essential duties of conserving the federal government open, paying the nation’s payments and avoiding default on America’s trillions of {dollars} in debt.

The speakership battle suggests President Biden and Congress may very well be on monitor later this 12 months for probably the most perilous debt-limit debate since 2011, when former President Barack Obama and a brand new Republican majority within the Home practically defaulted on the nation’s debt earlier than slicing an Eleventh-hour deal.

“If the whole lot we’re seeing is a symptom of a very splintered Home Republican convention that’s going to be unable to come back along with 218 votes on just about any subject, it tells you that the percentages of attending to the Eleventh hour or the final minute or no matter are very excessive,” Alec Phillips, the chief political economist for Goldman Sachs Analysis, stated in an interview Friday.

The federal authorities spends far more cash every year than it receives in revenues, producing a funds deficit that’s projected to common in extra of $1 trillion a 12 months for the following decade. These deficits will add to a nationwide debt that topped $31 trillion final 12 months.

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Federal legislation places a restrict on how a lot the federal government can borrow. But it surely doesn’t require the federal government to stability its funds. Which means lawmakers should periodically go legal guidelines to boost the borrowing restrict to keep away from a scenario by which the federal government is unable to pay all of its payments, jeopardizing funds together with army salaries, Social Safety advantages and money owed to holders of presidency bonds. Goldman Sachs researchers estimate Congress will possible want to boost the debt restrict someday round August to stave off such a state of affairs.

Elevating the restrict was as soon as routine however has turn into more and more troublesome over the previous few many years, with Republicans utilizing the cap as a cudgel to power spending reductions. Their leverage stems from the potential harm to the economic system if the restrict just isn’t elevated. Lifting the debt restrict doesn’t authorize any new spending; it simply permits the USA to finance current obligations. If that cap just isn’t lifted, the federal government can be unable to pay all of its payments, which embrace salaries for army members and Social Safety funds.

The exception to the debt-limit drama was the 4 years of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, when Republicans largely deserted their push to tie will increase within the restrict to cuts in federal spending. In 2021, Senate Republicans clashed with Mr. Biden because the deadline for elevating the restrict approached, however these lawmakers in the end helped Democrats go a legislation rising the cap.

Some Democrats pushed to keep away from this state of affairs final 12 months, when it grew to become clear that their occasion would possible lose at the least one chamber of Congress. They hoped to boost the restrict once more within the lame-duck session of Congress after the November elections that delivered Home management to Republicans, to keep away from any probability of a default earlier than the 2024 presidential election. However the effort by no means gained traction.

Consequently, the following spherical of debt-limit brinkmanship may very well be probably the most fraught on document — as evidenced by the battle over the speakership. Conservative Republicans have already made clear that they might not go a debt-limit enhance with out important spending curbs, possible together with cuts to each spending on the army and on home points not associated to nationwide protection.

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Their energy stems from the truth that Republicans maintain a extra slender majority than they did following the 2010 midterms, which empowered the conservative holdouts who opposed Mr. McCarthy. Amongst that group’s calls for have been a push for steep cuts in federal spending and a balancing of the federal funds inside a decade with out elevating taxes.

Mr. McCarthy appeared to conform to these calls for, pledging to not increase the debt restrict with out main spending reductions — together with efforts to cut back spending on so-called necessary applications, which embrace Social Safety and Medicare — in a deal that introduced many holdouts into his camp.

A speaker who violated that deal might threat being overthrown by the Republican caucus within the Home. However Mr. Biden and his occasion’s leaders within the Democratic-controlled Senate have vowed to combat these cuts — notably to social security web applications. That would imply a protracted standoff that goes on so lengthy the federal government runs out of cash to pay its payments.

Staunch funds hawks in Washington have lengthy argued that the USA must cease spending — and borrowing — a lot cash and that nation can not afford its long-term debt. They’ve pushed for quite a lot of methods to cut back the expansion in long-term spending, together with cuts to well being look after the poor and for older Individuals. And plenty of have known as for ending some tax breaks whereas guaranteeing that the wealthiest and companies pay extra.

But most of these fiscal hawks have known as the Republican spending calls for reckless and prone to produce stalemates on key fiscal points.

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“Their particular ask of balancing the funds in 10 years is simply completely unrealistic. It will take $11 trillion in financial savings,” stated Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Accountable Federal Price range in Washington, which has lengthy pushed lawmakers to cut back future deficits by way of spending cuts and tax will increase.

“I wish to save more cash than lots of people,” Ms. MacGuineas stated. “However what they’re demanding is simply not achievable.”

Hurtling towards a deadline for elevating the debt restrict would sow chaos in monetary markets, together with for shares and Treasury bonds, Mr. Phillips stated. If Congress failed to boost the debt restrict and the federal government grew to become unable to borrow more cash, Mr. Phillips stated, America would endure a sudden lower in federal spending equal to as a lot as one-tenth of all day by day financial exercise.

“This doesn’t really feel like a false alarm,” he stated.

In 2011, Republicans and Mr. Obama agreed on a deal to boost the debt restrict that additionally imposed future limits on home spending will increase. Ms. MacGuineas, Mr. Phillips and different analysts expressed skepticism that negotiations between Mr. Biden and Home Republicans would do the identical this time, partly as a result of the faction that blocked Mr. McCarthy’s ascent this week seems unwilling to compromise for considerably extra modest concessions from Democrats.

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Administration officers have given no indication that they might negotiate with Republicans over a debt-limit enhance in any respect — nor that they have been making ready for the opportunity of a Home speaker refusing to place a debt-limit enhance to a vote with out steep spending cuts.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White Home press secretary, instructed reporters in a briefing on Friday that Mr. Biden anticipated Congress to boost the debt restrict once more with no strings connected.

“We have now stated that we shouldn’t be utilizing the debt ceiling as a matter of political brinkmanship,” she stated. “We’ve been very clear. In case you take a look at what Republicans in Congress did 3 times — 3 times through the Trump administration — is that they have been capable of take care of it in a means that was accountable, proper? They voted 3 times, once more, to elevate the debt ceiling. And so Congress should as soon as once more be accountable.”

Average lawmakers have already begun floating potentialities for the way the Home may increase the restrict. One long-shot concept: a so-called discharge petition signed by a majority of the Home to power a vote on a invoice. Such a transfer would presumably rely virtually fully on Democratic votes with just a few Republicans becoming a member of in. However that end result is way from assured; it will require intensive coordination by each side and expose defecting Republicans to punishment and first challenges.

Nonetheless, Consultant Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, embraced the opportunity of such a compromise this week in an interview with CNN. “There may be quite a lot of choices to bypass management,” he stated. “There may be not a ton. However there are alternatives at our disposal.”

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Trump predicts 'jacked up' Biden at upcoming debates, blasts Bidenomics in battleground speech

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Trump predicts 'jacked up' Biden at upcoming debates, blasts Bidenomics in battleground speech

It’s been more than 50 years since a Republican won Minnesota in a presidential election, but former President Trump says he’s got “a really good shot” of breaking the losing streak this November in his 2024 rematch with President Biden.

The former president is in the historically reliable blue state Friday evening to headline the Minnesota GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan fundraising dinner. He began his speech with the usual jabs at Biden’s cognitive ability, but also referenced the recently agreed to debates between the two.

“He’s going to be so jacked up for those, you watch,” Trump joked, later saying he was going to “demand a drug test” for Biden before the debate.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN HIGH ON DOJ’S MARIJUANA SHIFT, ‘SMOKES’ TRUMP FOR INACTION DURING HIS TERM

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends the annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner hosted by the Minnesota Republican party on May 17, 2024 in St. Paul, Minnesota.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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He went on to promise a rollback of Biden’s environmental mandates relating to automakers, railed against the sour economic statistics under Biden, and vowed to fix the ongoing border crisis.

Trump also blasted Biden’s habit of repeating false stories concerning his life experiences. “He’s so full of s–t,” Trump said as the crowd laughed.

Trump lost Minnesota by just 1½ points in his 2016 presidential election victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Four years ago, he lost the state to President Biden by more than seven points in his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump promised a victory in Minnesota, saying that if he lost, “I’m never coming back.”

FIRST ON FOX: TOP JEWISH GOP GROUP STEPS UP FUNDRAISING FOR TRUMP AMID ANTI-ISRAEL COLLEGE CAMPUS PROTESTS 

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Trump Minnesota

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner hosted by the Minnesota Republican party on May 17, 2024 in St. Paul, Minnesota.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Fast-forward four years and Trump is back and once again predicting a victory.

“We think we have a really good shot at Minnesota,” Trump emphasized in an interview Wednesday with KSTP, a local TV station in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. “We have great friendships up there.”

Trump added that he’s “worked hard on Minnesota” and that “Tom Emmer is very much involved,” pointing to the House majority whip.

Emmer, who is joining Trump at the state GOP gala, is chairing the Trump campaign in Minnesota even though the former president and his allies helped sink Emmer’s bid last autumn to become House speaker.

As the Trump and Biden campaigns prepare for battle in seven crucial swing states that decided the 2020 election (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which were narrowly won by Biden, and North Carolina, which Trump carried by a razor-thin margin) and will likely once again in the 2024 rematch, both campaigns see opportunities to expand the map.

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WARNING SIGNS FOR TRUMP, BIDEN, AS THEY CAREEN TOWARD DEBATES 

Two weekends ago at a closed-door Republican National Committee retreat for top-dollar donors  at a resort in Palm Beach, Florida, senior Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita and veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio spotlighted internal surveys that suggested both “Minnesota and Virginia are clearly in play.”

“In both states, Trump finds himself in positions to flip key electoral votes in his favor,” the survey, which was shared with Fox News, emphasizes. 

Trump Minnesota

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends the annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner hosted by the Minnesota Republican party on May 17, 2024 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

And both states have sizable populations of rural white voters without college degrees who disproportionately support the former president.

Biden’s campaign disagrees that either Minnesota or Virginia are up for grabs.

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While noting they are “not taking any state or any vote for granted,” Biden campaign battleground states director Dan Kanninen told reporters last week “we don’t see polls that are six or seven months out from a general election, head-to-head numbers certainly, as any more predictive than a weather report is six or seven months out.”

Kanninen highlighted that the campaign has teams on the ground in both states engaging voters.

“We feel strongly the Biden-Harris coalition in both Minnesota and Virginia, which has been strong in the midterms and off-year elections, will continue to be strong for us in the fall of 2024,” he added.

And Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt, pointing to the president’s current fundraising dominance and ground-game advantage in the key battlegrounds, argued “Trump’s team has so little campaign or infrastructure to speak of they’re resorting to leaking memos that say ‘the polls we paid for show us winning.’” 

But Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who launched a long-shot and unsuccessful primary challenge against the president, insists “Minnesota’s in play.”

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Phillips, in an interview this week on Fox News’ “Special Edition,” argued Minnesota’s “like a lot of states that I think a lot of my fellow Democrats don’t want to confess is the reality. … I’m telling my Democratic colleagues who are supporting President Biden, myself included, that there’s a lot of work to do.”

While Trump’s campaign looks for opportunities to expand the map in Minnesota and Virginia, Biden’s campaign appears to be eyeing swing state North Carolina and Florida. 

Trump carried the Sunshine State by less than four points in 2020, but two years ago, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP Sen. Marco Rubio each won re-election by nearly 20 points.

LaCivita argued the Biden campaign was playing “a faux game” in both states but insisted Trump has a “real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota.”

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Trump’s stop in Minnesota comes a week after he held a large rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, a red bastion in an overwhelming blue state where no Republican has carried the state in a presidential election in over three decades. Trump lost the state to Biden by 16 points four years ago.

“We’re going to win New Jersey,” Trump vowed at the rally.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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Federal judge orders ICE to end 'knock and talk' arrests of immigrants in Southern California

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Federal judge orders ICE to end 'knock and talk' arrests of immigrants in Southern California

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that a tactic used by federal immigration agents in Southern California to arrest people in their homes without a judicial warrant is unconstitutional and must end.

The judgment — issued Wednesday against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — involves so-called knock and talk practices.

ICE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Advocates argued that the immigration agency rarely obtains judicial warrants and instead counts on immigrants answering their doors voluntarily. Advocates alleged agents routinely misrepresent themselves as police to gain entry so they can carry out an arrest.

Immigrant advocacy groups praised the ruling.

“It is a basic human right for immigrants to feel safe in their own homes and live without fear,” Lizbeth Abeln, interim director at the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, wrote in a news release Thursday. “This won’t undo the years of harm done by ICE, but it is a good first step towards justice.”

The order applies only to ICE’s Los Angeles field office, which includes the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. An expert witness said that available data showed ICE’s knock and talk methods accounted for at least 8% of arrests in 2022.

Four examples listed in the order — occurring between 2017 and 2020 — illustrate instances in which immigration agents entered constitutionally protected areas around a person’s home, such as their porch, patio or backyard, to make contact for an arrest.

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Advocates said the practice has continued since then in Los Angeles and across the country.

U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II rejected ICE’s argument that its agents could enter the private areas surrounding a home to knock on the door because mail carriers and delivery people routinely do so.

Immigration agents walk up to a resident’s home without consent and, when the person opens the door, the agents “generally state that they are ‘conducting an investigation,’” according to the order. ICE policies and training encourage agents to use knock and talks, calling the practice one of the four primary methods of apprehension.

“Despite often stating a different purpose for their visit, the true ‘intent’ and ‘actual purpose’ behind a ‘knock and talk’ is to make an immigration arrest,” the judge wrote.

The agents would be permitted to enter those areas if their goal was merely to ask questions, Wright wrote. But he said the Constitution prohibits them from doing so “without a judicial warrant with the intent to arrest the occupant.”

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“The more accurate title,” Wright wrote, “would be ‘knock and arrests.’”

The ruling stems from a 2020 class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of two local advocacy organizations, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, as well as one individual, Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, and the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson represented the plaintiffs.

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Video: Insults Disrupt House Oversight Committee Session

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Video: Insults Disrupt House Oversight Committee Session

“Do you know what we’re here for? You know we’re here about AG.” “I don’t think you know what you’re here for.” “Well, you’re the one talking about —” “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up —” “Ain’t nothing —” “Hold on, hold on.” [gavel pounding] “Order.” “Mr. Chairman.” “That’s beneath even you —” “Order, order. Regain order of your committee.” “I would like to move to take down Ms. Greene’s words. That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person.” “Are your feelings hurt?” “Move her words, down.” “Aww.” “Oh, oh girl, baby girl.” “Oh, really?” “Don’t even play.” “Baby girl. I don’t think —” “We are going to move and we’re going to take your words down.” “I second that motion.” “You agree to strike your words?” “Yeah.” “O.K. — Ms. Greene agrees to strike her words.” “I believe she should apologize. No, no, no.” “Hold on. Then, after Mr. Perry’s going to be recognized, then —” “I’m not apologizing.” “Well, then you’re not striking your words.” “You reserve the right to object.” “I am not apologizing.” “Just to better understand your ruling: If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleached blonde, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?” “A what now?” “Chariman, I make, I make a motion to strike those words.” “I don’t think that’s —” “I’m trying to find clarification on what —” “Chairman, motion to strike those words.” We’re not, we’re not going to do this. Look, you guys earlier, literally just —” “You just voted to do this.” “Y’all did it first.” “You just voted to do it.” “Order, order.” “I’m trying to get clarification.” “Look — calm down. Calm down.” “No, no, no, no because this is what you all do. So I’m trying to get —” “Ms. Crockett, you’re not recognized.”

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