Tea Party Patriots Action Weekly Report from Washington 04/20/20

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CALENDAR:

The House and Senate are scheduled to be in recess until May 4. Given that the District of Columbia is under a shutdown order until May 15, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that May 4 date slip. Except that maybe, MAYBE, the House will have to come back briefly this week to pass another coronavirus response package.

 

CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE:

On the legislative front, Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – acting in concert with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – last week blocked a bill offered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would have added another $251 billion to the funds in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of money last Thursday. Democrats refused to let the funding bill pass with a Unanimous Consent agreement because they wanted to add more money for hospitals and for state and local governments whose treasuries are being socked by the double whammy of less revenue coming in because of less economic activity, while their spending on social programs goes up.

Over the course of the last several days, Republicans have indicated they may be willing to add money to the bill for hospitals, but they’re still holding firm against adding more money for state and local governments. As of Sunday morning, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, and House Speaker Pelosi all said they were very, very close to a deal – so close to a deal that they set out a timeline, indicating passage through the Senate on Monday and passage through the House on Tuesday.

The deal-in-the-making would add another $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, along with $50 billion more for emergency disaster loans for small businesses in another loan program. In addition, there could be as much as $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for more testing for COVID-19. But as of Sunday morning, at least, the deal does NOT include an additional $150 billion for state and local governments beyond what they already had allocated in the third coronavirus response bill.

Since yesterday, we’ve had more news on this front. The latest indications are that the SBA PPP program would receive $310 billion, the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program would receive $60 billion, hospital funding would receive $75 billion, and coronavirus testing would receive an additional $25 billion. There will be no additional funding for state and local governments in this bill – that will be held over for the next big coronavirus funding bill, which won’t be too far away.

The money for state and local governments is very important to both sides. Keep in mind, 43 of the state governments are operating under state constitutions that require them to run balanced budgets. They simply do not legally have the option that the federal government does, to spend money they have to borrow. So when they get hit with the double whammy I described above – shrinking tax revenues, combined with soaring social welfare spending – they are really screwed.

Democrats want to use federal taxpayer dollars to bail out state and local governments, many of which are run by Democrat governors and Democrat mayors. That is, national Democrats in the Congress want to dun the taxpayers of Utah and Alabama to pay for the consequences of decisions made by Democrat governors in New York, and Illinois, and California.

Republicans in Congress, on the other hand, understand that sending federal money to the state and local government would do nothing but prolong the shutdowns. They know that if they can keep from funding the state and local governments, the state and local governments will be under pressure to reopen their economies, just to get money flowing back into the state treasuries.

Republicans seem to have been successful in this round. But the Democrats will come back soon, demanding money for the state and local governments. In fact, there’s already a bipartisan bill – offered by New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez and Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy – to send another $500 billion to the state governments. So we’ve still got a fight on our hands.

Meanwhile, President Trump, it seems to me, has made the calculation that he’s got his base behind him – from an electoral standpoint, at least, I think he believes that anyone who’s pushing to reopen the economy now is going to be with him in the fall, no matter what he does between now and then, because they will believe he would be the better man to have in the Oval Office to lead us out of this depression. That’s the only conclusion I can come to, based on his somewhat erratic behavior earlier in the week – Monday, he declared that as president, he had total authority over the decision whether or not to reopen the economy, but by Thursday, he was effectively ceding control and authority to the state governments. And we know that the state governments – many of which are led by Democrats – are in no rush to reopen their states.

Meanwhile, grassroots demand to reopen is bubbling up from below. Over the course of the last week, we’ve seen demonstrations at state capitals in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina, with tens of thousands of protesters demanding that their governors reopen their states for business. On Friday – less than 24 hours after saying he was happy to let the governors take the lead on reopening their states – President Trump was tweeting in support of the end-the-shutdown protesters.

 

RUSSIA COLLUSION:

More on the Russian collusion front. You’ll recall that last year, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report on the FBI’s activities in seeking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance warrant against a U.S. citizen, Carter Page, who had been a volunteer for the 2016 Trump for President campaign. That 400-odd page document revealed that Horowitz had found no fewer than 17 major errors or omissions across the four different warrants the FBI sought.

As definitive as the Horowitz report was, it was not totally definitive for the public, because there were classified footnotes included – included, but redacted, so we in the public could not read them. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican from Iowa who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson, the Republican from Wisconsin who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, pushed the DOJ to declassify the footnotes, and a week ago Friday, they were released.

The declassified notes reveal that the FBI itself believed that Steele was part of a larger Russian intelligence disinformation campaign, and that his so-called report – upon which the FBI relied for much of the documentation behind its applications for FISA warrants against Carter Page – was compromised by Russian efforts to poison the well.

 

Wrote The Wall Street Journal:

But the footnotes reveal the FBI was further warned that the investigator’s network had been infiltrated by Russian intelligence. The FBI received a report in 2017 outlining an “inaccuracy” in the dossier about the activities of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. “The [REDACTED] stated that it did not have high confidence in this subset of Steele’s reporting and assessed that the referenced subset was a part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate U.S. foreign relations.”

The footnote also says a report in 2017 told the FBI that claims involving Trump activities during a 2013 trip to Moscow were false and the result of Russian intelligence “‘infiltrat[ing] a source into the network’ of a [REDACTED] who compiled a dossier of information on Trump’s activities.” A separate footnote noted the FBI ignored a warning that a Steele contact was “rumored to be a former KGB/SVR officer,” while another footnote showed the FBI closed its eyes to Mr. Steele’s “frequent contacts” with Russian oligarchs.

There are still portions of the footnotes that remain classified. Grassley and Johnson are seeking further declassifications, so we can all see what the full Horowitz report had to say.

 

2020 DEMOCRATS:

Since we last talked, Vermont Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders decided to end his second bid for the Democratic nomination for president, and then shocked the political world by following that up with an endorsement of the Democratic frontrunner, Joe Biden.

Sanders’ endorsement was quickly followed by an endorsement from former President Barack Obama. And that endorsement was followed by an endorsement from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson – chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security – maintains that later this summer, he will release his committee’s report on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine, serving on the board of the nation’s largest natural gas company while his father was vice president and overseeing U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

 

SUGGESTED READING:

 

JENNY BETH MARTIN/TEA PARTY PATRIOTS:

 

USA Today: Jenny Beth Martin: The President Was Right To Fire Atkinson

 

WaPo: Conservative Groups Mobilize To Push Trump To Reopen Economy Amid Pandemic

 

Business Insider: Coronavirus: Conservative Coalition To Lobby Trump To Open The Economy

 

Politico: Trump Allies Press Administration To Unleash Lawsuits Against Lockdowns

 

Guardian: Thousands of Americans Backed by Rightwing Donors Gear Up for Protests

 

VF: Trump Supporters Are Staging Armed Protests To Stock It to Coronavirus

 

NYT: ‘You Have To Disobey’: Protesters Gather To Defy Stay-At-Home Orders

 

CHINA:

 

Politico: Republicans Whack China Over Coronavirus As Trump Plays Nice

 

CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE:

 

Politico: $350B Wasn’t Enough, Congress Says, Racing To Send Billions More To Small Businesses

 

Hill: Pelosi, McConnell Clash Over Next Coronavirus Bill

 

WSJ: Jobless Claim Surge Shows Virus Extending Its Grip

 

Hill: Mnuchin Says He Thinks US Businesses Could Reopen In May

 

Hill: Senate Blocks Dueling Coronavirus Relief Plans

 

NRO: Senate Dems Stall Trump’s $250 Billion Small Business Relief Package, Demand Targeting For Minority Owned Businesses

 

CNN: Kentucky Republican Again Threatens To Block Quick Passage

 

Politico: McConnell Boxes In Democrats On Latest Coronavirus Relief

 

Politico: Recovery Law Allows Fed To Rope Off Public As It Spends Billions

 

Politico: Pelosi Warns Trump Not To Reopen Country Too Soon

 

WaPo: Trump Administration Pushing To Reopen Much Of US Next Month

 

NRO: Coronavirus Pandemic: Projection Models Proving Unreliable

 

Hill: Trump Officials Lay Groundwork For May Opening

 

NYT: Trump Lashes Out At Fauci Amid Criticism Of Slow Virus Response

 

NYT: He Could Have Seen What Was Coming- Behind Trump’s Failure On The Virus

 

WSJ: Trump Retweets Call For Dr. Fauci To Be Fired Over Coronavirus Comments

 

USA Today: Coronavirus: Multiple States See Protests Over Stay-At-Home Rules

 

NRO: Coronavirus: Testing Will Reveal Much About Virus & Lockdowns

 

WSJ: Business Leaders Urge Trump To Dramatically Increase Virus Testing

 

WSJ: More ‘Stimulus’ Would Crush The Economy

 

Politico: Trump Promised A Big Announcement. Then He Read Off A List Of Names

 

Star Tribune: Republicans Decry Michigan Governor’s Latest Stay-At-Home Order

 

Politico: How Trump’s Reopening Plans Could Collide With Reality

 

Politico: ‘Should Have Happened Yesterday’ :Republicans Press Trump To Restart Economy

 

NYT: Coronavirus Restrictions Are Eased In Europe

 

Politico: Democrats And Republicans Play Chicken As Coronavirus Urgency Grows

 

NYT: Trump Leaps To Call Shots On Reopening Nation, Setting Up  Standoff With Governors

 

Politico: The Shutdown Backlash Is Coming Soon – With A Vengeance

 

WaPo: Trump Attempt To Enlist Businesses In Reopening Push Gets Off To A Rocky Start

 

NYT: Trump’s ‘Opening Our Country Council’ Runs Into Its Own Opening Problems

 

Politico: Economic Rescue Package To Boost Deficit By $1.8T, CBO Predicts

 

Politico: What’s In Trump’s Three-Phase Reopening Plan

 

Politico: Trump Tosses Coronavirus Shutdowns Back To The States

 

WaPo: Trump’s Guidelines For Reopening States Amid Coronavirus Pandemic Will Leave Decisions To Governors

 

WSJ: Trump’s Guidelines To Reopen Economy Put Onus On States

 

WSJ: Moving The Shutdown Goal Posts

 

Axios: Trump Calls On Governors With ‘Beautifully Low’ Coronavirus Numbers To Reopen On May 1

 

WSJ: New Guidelines To Put Onus On Governors For Reopening Economy

 

NYT: Republicans Fret as Mnuchin Bargains with Democrats To Break Funding Impasse

 

Hill: Lawmakers Express Optimism About Fourth Coronavirus Relief Package

 

Hill: Treasury Secretary, Democrats Leaders ‘Hopeful’ for Agreement on Coronavirus Package

 

Hill: Pelosi: Lawmakers ‘Very Close’ on Bipartisan Agreement for Additional PPP Funding

 

Politico: Congress, Trump Administration Close to Deal on New Aid Package

 

Bloomberg: Senators Propose $500 Billion State and Local Government Rescue

 

 

CORONAVIRUS SECOND THOUGHTS:

 

WSJ: ‘Let Our People Go’

 

WSJ:  How We Get Our Lives Back

 

WSJ: Pols Face A Coronavirus Test

 

WSJ: Trump’s Wasted Briefings

 

Politico: The Briefings Aren’t Working: Trump’s Approval Rating Takes A Dip

 

NRO: The Experts Lied To Us About Masks

 

WSJ: Lockdowns Won’t Stop The Spread

 

WSJ: Coronavirus Will Forever Alter The World Order

 

WSJ: Enlightenment Promoted Individual Liberty

 

Fox News: Coronavirus Stay-At-Home Orders Stir Protests Nationwide Amid Fears Of Economic Collapse

 

NRO: Trump’s Coronavirus Response- President Can’t Force States To Reopen

 

WSJ: Reopening The Economy, At Last

 

WSJ: We Need Politicians In A Pandemic

 

WSJ: Presidential Power Is Limited But Vast

 

WSJ: Bring Back Laissez-Faire Capitalism

 

WSJ: The Lucky Stay-At-Home 37%

 

NRO: Coronavirus & US Government Overreach- Authoritarianism Is Getting Out Of Hand

 

Breitbart: Study: Coronavirus Fatality Rate Lower Than Expected, Close To Flu’s 0.1%

 

WSJ: What Would We Do Without Experts?

 

Hospital: Opening Up America Again

 

Hill: Trump Appears To Back Those Protesting Social Distancing Measures

 

Reason: COVID-19 Lethality Not Much Different Than Flu, Says New Study

 

WSJ: Michigan’s Draconian Lockdown Provokes a Backlash

 

Reuters: Cut Salaries, Taxes To Reopen US Economy Says Laffer, Conservative Fave

 

TT: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Announces Team To Restart the Economy, Loosens Some Restrictions

 

DS: Coronavirus Authoritarianism Is Getting Out of Hand

 

DC: Either We Heal as a Country or We Are Going To Crumble

 

RUSSIA COLLUSION:

 

Bloomberg: The FBI Can’t Be Trusted With The Surveillance Of Americans

 

WaPo: ‘One Of The Greatest Travesties In American History’ Barr Drops All Pretense About Ongoing Probe Of Russian Investigation

 

Hill: AG Barr Just Signaled Things Are About To Get Ugly For The Russia Collusion Team

 

Fox News: FBI Had Information Steele Dossier Was Part Of ‘Russian Disinformation Campaign’ Declassified Footnotes Show

 

WSJ: Steele Dossier Disinformation Update

 

PERSONNEL:

 

Bloomberg: Trump’s New Chief Of Staff Rattles White House In Crisis Mode

 

NYT: Who Is Kayleigh McEnany? President Trump’s New Press Secretary

 

Politico: Trump Threatens To Adjourn Congress To Push Through Nominees

 

NYT: For Mark Meadows, Transition From Trump Confidant To Chief Of Staff Is A Hard One

 

2020 DEMOCRATS:

 

Hill: Sanders Drops Out Of Presidential Race

 

Hill: Sanders Exit Leaves Deep Disappointment On Left

 

WSJ: Bernie Campaigns On

 

NRO: Bernie Sanders’s Joe Biden Endorsement: ‘We Need You In The White House’

 

NYT: Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden

 

DC: Hunter Biden Still Listed As Board Member Of Chinese Company He Pledged To Resign From In October

 

Politico: Ron Johnson Eyes Summer Release For Hunter Biden Report

 

MISCELLANEOUS:

 

WaPo: Eyeing House Majority, Top Republican Super PAC Books $43 Million In Fall Ads

 

DS: Trump’s Attack on VOA Over COVID-19 Shows Need for New Agency Chief

 

WT: May: Obama Holdovers Run US Global Media, and They’re Not Giving It Up

 

Hill: Cheney, Turner Request Return of Donations To Massie’s Primary Opponent After Racist Tweets Surface