Johnson's alliance: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) is attempting to spend lots of your freshly forked over taxpayer dollars on several aid bills which will go toward Israel, Ukraine, and other allies. Just one problem: He cannot convince his Republican colleagues to get on board—a dynamic we've seen repeated over and over again, as Republicans are split on how much foreign aid the U.S. ought to be doling out (with a right-wing flank of the party continuing to make foreign aid contingent on securing the southern border).
Now Johnson is attempting to rely on Democrats to get his bills through the House. "If Democrats were to provide those crucial votes, it would mark the second time in two years that Republican leaders have had to turn to the minority party to rescue them from their own recalcitrant right-wing colleagues in order to allow major legislation to be debated and voted on," reports The New York Times. That's right: bipartisanship for more spending. What could possibly go wrong?
The newly minted House speaker needs Democrats' support not only for the actual substance of the measure but also for the procedural motion that will bring the bills to the floor, as he doesn't even have that support from his own party (which has a quite slim majority).
Unlikely pals: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R) (esteemed Just Asking Questions guest!) both disapprove of Johnson and his attempts to get Ukraine funding passed. Greene introduced a motion to vacate the speaker from his position in a snap vote, akin to how former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) was ousted last year. Massie, too, suggested Johnson should resign.
"The speaker is considering a complicated approach that would break apart the Senate's $95 billion aid package for separate votes, and then either stitch it back together or send the components to the Senate for final passage, and potentially onto the White House for the president's signature," reports the Associated Press. Democrats, for their part, are calling for at least $9 billion in humanitarian aid. Though the Ukrainian war effort desperately needs more munitions, and the U.S. is already deeply embroiled in supporting Israel following Iranian hostilities that surfaced this past weekend, many conservatives (and libertarians) are opposed to the federal government continuing to shell out.
Take the public out of National Public Radio: In case you're not plugged into the media drama of the week, Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of NPR, spilled to The Free Press and made the case for how deeply ingrained bias at his workplace has lost readers' trust.
NPR, unsurprisingly, suspended Berliner. "With declining ratings, sorry levels of trust, and an audience that has become less diverse over time, the trajectory for NPR is not promising," said Berliner in a statement. "Two paths seem clear. We can keep doing what we're doing, hoping it will all work out. Or we could start over, with the basic building blocks of journalism. We could face up to where we've gone wrong. News organizations don't go in for that kind of reckoning. But there's a good reason for NPR to be the first: we're the ones with the word public in our name."
He's right. But that's also a good argument for scrapping the public part of National Public Radio: NPR isn't needed to inform the public, they don't represent much of America (as Berliner has attested to), and the U.S. government really just doesn't have extra money to spend (however small of a line item it may be).
"It's time for the federal government to kick NPR and PBS out of the nest," I wrote last year. "Your taxpayer dollars should never have been subsidizing Big Bird, Tiny Desk concerts, or those insufferable tote bags in the first place, and they certainly shouldn't now in the era of audiovisual abundance."
Scenes from New York: Yesterday, recent migrants—mostly African—protested at City Hall, seeking speedier work authorization (a federal issue, not a city one) and the ability to stay in taxpayer-funded shelters for longer than 30 days.
"When they give us work permits, we can work and take care of ourselves," one protester told CBS. "Anywhere you go to find a job, they ask for working papers," added another.
The work authorization issue is, of course, legitimate (though not something City Hall can do much about). But New York City, if it continues to claim it has an obligation to shelter and feed anyone who asks for it, will surely run into major fiscal issues and a revolt of the taxpayers who wonder when they consented to this.
QUICK HITS
- "In [California Gov. Gavin Newsom's] office, he keeps a marked-up copy of a policy blueprint, 'Project 2025,' prepared by the Heritage Foundation as a possible preview of a next Trump term," writes The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich in a sprawling profile of the someday presidential hopeful. "'I'm going through 100 pages of this. I'm not screwing around,' Newsom told me. He said his team is 'Trump-proofing California,' preparing to enact whatever measures they can to thwart a hostile Republican White House."
- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued an unusually blunt statement warning against Israel escalating the conflict following Iran's Saturday attack. Diplomats from the two nations are especially worried about what's happening in Jordan. "Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who are bound to Jordan by familial and tribal ties, see the country as pivotal to their own national security and part of their geo-strategic depth," reports Bloomberg. "Jordan borders on northwest Saudi Arabia, where Prince Mohammed has launched some of his most ambitious and costly projects linked to his Vision 2030 economic diversification plan. While both have mended diplomatic ties with Iran, they remain extremely wary of Tehran."
- Interest rates will probably be higher for longer than expected.
- Sesame Street strike:
Sesame Street writers authorize strike, picketing could begin next Wednesday pic.twitter.com/dvII8mzTMO
— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) April 16, 2024
- "For a war of such era-defining importance, the scale of Western leaders' actions to help Kyiv repel Russia's invaders has fallen far short of their soaring rhetoric. That disappointment has left Ukrainians of all ranks—from the soldiers digging trenches to ministers running the country—weary and irritable," reports Politico's Jamie Dettmer.
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