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How the US-Philippines military pact could counter China's rising threat

The U.S. announcement on Wednesday that it will expand its military presence in the Philippines to four new bases and bolster five existing ones is a major advancement in the Defense Department’s goal to counter a rising threat from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

A boost of American military troops and resources in the Philippines would come amid a rapid Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea. The expanded U.S. presence could serve as a deterrence against Beijing’s threats to Taiwan.

It’s not clear exactly where the new bases will be.

The U.S. has sought access to camps in the northern and western parts of the Philippines, including those in the northern tip of Luzon that would lie just across a sea border from Taiwan.

Jeffrey Hornung, a senior political scientist who specializes in U.S. foreign and defense policies in the Indo-Pacific region, said the expansion sends a strong signal to China and would be important strategically, especially if the bases are in the northern Luzon region.

“The U.S. realizes it’s the away team, and China’s the home team, and that for any conflict regarding Taiwan, it’s going to be extremely difficult to engage in that conflict,” Hornung said. “They’re trying to make up for those those inadequacies.”

Still, Hornung offered some caution.

If a war between the U.S. and China were to break out, it does not mean the Philippines has signed on to support the conflict. The state of politics in the Philippines will be a factor; the previous Philippine administration was more receptive to China.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ahead of the announcement, along with the nation’s foreign affairs secretary and national defense leader.

Austin said at a press conference in Manila, the Philippine’s capitol, that the expanded military presence is a “big deal” and a sign of the the two nation’s ironclad partnership.

“The United States and the Philippines are more than just allies,” Austin said. “We’re family.”

The Philippines, a former U.S. territory, has been an ally of Washington for more than seven decades and is a vital partner in the Indo-Pacific.

It formerly hosted the largest military bases outside of the U.S. mainland, but those were shut down in the 1990s after the country’s lawmakers rejected an extension.

Under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2014, American troops can station at agreed-upon locations on a rotational basis, meaning they cannot station there permanently.

U.S. military personnel have conducted military drills in the Philippines while also providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support.

Wednesday’s announcement brings the total number of U.S. military bases in the Philippines to nine. The five existing bases will also see new investments and the completion of additional projects.

The Defense Department additionally said it would restart joint maritime patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The announcements drew a fiery response from Beijing, which has long protested against the U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the U.S. has “adhered to a Cold War zero-sum mentality” through a regional military expansion.

“This is an act that escalates tensions in the region and endangers regional peace and stability,” Mao told reporters at a press conference.

Tensions between the U.S. and China over a potential Chinese blockade or military action against Taiwan have sharply escalated in recent years.

In August, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) traveled to Taiwan in a show of support, prompting unprecedented Chinese military drills over the nation.

The U.S. recognizes that Taiwan is formally a part of China but commits to informal relations with the country, which has self-ruled since 1949.

Under the threat of China’s Indo-Pacific expansion and possible military action against Taiwan, neighboring Japan recently committed to doubling its defense budget and is also partnering more closely with the U.S. in the region, with the allies recently announcing a revamped Marine unit equipped with advanced weaponry in the Okinawa islands.

A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report released Wednesday described the Philippines is an “attractive staging point for U.S. intervention” against any Chinese incursion of Taiwan, also stressing that Japan is a crucial ally in the event of a conflict.

“There is no viable strategy for countering China’s illegal behavior in the East and South China Seas without robust cooperation with Tokyo and Manila,” the authors wrote. “Both governments are also crucial in thinking through responses to potential Taiwan contingencies.”

An expanded military presence also helps the Philippines, which has fallen behind in modernizing its military forces.

Along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, the Philippines is locked in territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea, where China is building up artificial military bases and is accused of overfishing in other nations’ waters.

Marcos on Thursday said the Indo-Pacific has “become a terribly complicated situation.”

“It is something we can only navigate with the help of our partners and our allies,” the Philippine president said, according to a release from the Pentagon.

The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea but has deployed military vessels to promote freedom of navigation. Vice President Kamala Harris also visited the Philippines in November, calling attention to China’s overfishing and territorial encroachments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump trashes 'ambitious' potential 2024 rivals in sprawling interview

Former President Trump on Thursday took swipes at a slew of possible 2024 GOP rivals, calling his former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley “overly ambitious” and accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin of being ungrateful.

Trump spoke for a half hour with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, addressing some of his potential challengers for the Republican presidential nomination and refusing to commit to endorsing the party’s eventual nominee.

The former president told Hewitt he believes Haley, DeSantis, Youngkin and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should not run against him because of Trump’s previous relationships with them, though Trump acknowledged that would probably not stop them.

“Yeah, I would say that, but I know how life works. And I know how politics works,” Trump said. “And politics is a microcosm, but even more vicious, of life.” 

“So you know, I’ve helped all those people. I took Mike out of nothing … I believe he always said he’d never run against the president,” Trump added. “And you know, time goes by and then they want to run, because they’re ambitious people. But you know, they’re polling very poorly.”

Pompeo has not said whether he is running for president in 2024, though he recently released a memoir and has been visiting early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Trump was similarly critical of Haley, who is expected to announce on Feb. 15 that she is running for president. Trump said he spoke on the phone recently with Haley about her plans.

“She said, ‘I’ll never run against my president. He’s a great president. He’s been our greatest president. I’ll never run. I’ll never run,’ ” Trump told Hewitt. “But Nikki suffers from something that’s a very tough thing to suffer from. She’s overly ambitious.”

Trump chastised Youngkin, the Virginia governor, for not publicly giving him more credit for helping him get elected in 2021. 

Trump said Youngkin reached out to Trump privately to offer his appreciation after Trump did a tele-rally in the closing days of the campaign, but the former president bemoaned that Youngkin was not appreciative enough in public.

Trump was similarly critical of DeSantis, the Florida governor who is seen as the former president’s chief rival in a possible 2024 primary match-up.

“Ron DeSantis got elected because of me. You remember he had nothing. He was dead. He was leaving the race. He came over and he begged me, begged me for an endorsement,” Trump said, even claiming that DeSantis was crying at the time.

The former president has in recent days ramped up his attacks on DeSantis, accusing the governor of rewriting history over how he responded to the coronavirus pandemic and calling him a “RINO globalist.”

Most polls have shown Trump and DeSantis comfortably ahead of the rest of the field in a hypothetical GOP primary. DeSantis has pulled ahead of Trump in some polls, including one released last week polling GOP primary voters in New Hampshire.

But Trump is currently the only declared candidate in the field, and his dedicated base of voters gives him a steady floor of support in a primary, particularly if several candidates splinter the rest of the electorate.

Trump has held few events since announcing his candidacy in November, appearing last weekend in New Hampshire and South Carolina for his first campaign speeches outside of Florida.

The former president told Hewitt that his children would not be part of his campaign this time around after his son-in-law Jared Kushner played a key role in 2016 and 2020.

“So the answer is Jared won’t be involved, and I don’t want them,” Trump said. “I want them to go out and have a nice life.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Ukraine warns Russia massing 500,000 troops on border for offensive

Ukraine is warning that Moscow is regrouping hundred of thousands of troops on the border for a massive new offensive, just weeks before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday gave a stark message to the West when he forecast that the Kremlin was building up its forces to take “revenge.”  

“Now Russia is concentrating its forces. We all know that. It is preparing to try to take revenge, not only against Ukraine, but against a free Europe and the free world,” Zelensky said at a press conference alongside European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, as reported by Agence France-Presse. 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told French media on Wednesday that Russia had 500,000 troops ready for an attack to come in weeks. That number is far higher than the 300,000 newly enlisted soldiers Russian President Vladimir Putin called up this past autumn. 

“Officially, they announced 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more,” Reznikov said. 

And senior Ukrainian defense ministry official Yuriy Sak told NBC News Thursday that officials are worried Moscow’s military is preparing for a soon-to-come assault aimed at turning the war in the Kremlin’s favor.  

“We should understand that the threat of a new and another offensive will remain until we defeat Russia,” Sak said.  

Western and Ukrainian officials have long warned that Russia is planning a renewed spring offensive after a series of embarrassing defeats in summer and fall and a near stalemate over the winter. 

But the warnings are picking up ahead of the war’s one-year anniversary on Feb. 24. 

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, tweeted Thursday he had spoken with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley about a new Kremlin offensive. 

Russian forces, which have made significant advances around the eastern city of Bakhmut over the past two weeks — their biggest gain in the war since summer — are looking to finally take the city and push past the incremental gains into bigger battlefield wins.  

Moscow is hoping the hundreds of thousands of reservists and new conscripts it called up in the fall will allow it to reconstitute military units depleted last year. 

Driving the timeline forward is a small gap between newly pledged Western battle vehicles and tanks and when Ukraine will actually take possession of the weapons, experts predict 

Both the U.S. and Germany last month agreed to send tanks to Kyiv’s forces, including 31 M1 Abrams tanks from Washington.  

Zelensky in his nightly video address warned that Ukrainian defense officials will have to make some difficult choices as the battle over Bakhmut continues to grind, saying the situation “has become tougher” in the region. 

“The enemy is trying to achieve at least something now to show that Russia has some chances on the anniversary of the invasion,” he said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Democratic leader bashes GOP's 'political revenge' Omar vote

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) lashed out at GOP leaders on Thursday over their decision to boot Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, accusing the Republicans of adopting a double standard by ignoring antisemitism in their own ranks. 

Jeffries pointed to comments from several House Republicans that compared President Biden to Hitler; questioned the loyalty of an American-based Israeli lobbying group; and joked about the recent attack on the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“It’s a double, triple, quadruple-and-beyond standard when you think about all of the [GOP] members — these are just three — who have engaged in highly offensive, at times antisemitic, behavior, rhetoric [and] hate,” Jeffries said during a press briefing in the Capitol. 

Omar, a Somali refugee and one of just three Muslims of Congress, had come under fire several years ago for a series of comments deemed antisemitic by members of both parties, and Republicans wasted no time using their new majority to push a resolution kicking her off of the Foreign Affairs panel. 

The vote, which took place Thursday afternoon, passed along strict partisan lines, 218 to 211. Republican Rep. David Joyce (Ohio), voted present. 

“I’m not saying she can’t have committees,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday evening. “But to sit on Foreign Affairs, I worry about … what the rest of the world looks at, every single word that is said there.”

The most prominent of Omar’s controversies occurred in 2019, just weeks after she first arrived on Capitol Hill, when she tweeted that lawmaker support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins, baby” — a remark that sparked charges of antisemitism from Jewish advocates and widespread condemnation on Capitol Hill.

Jeffries made no attempt to whitewash Omar’s comments, saying “she has used antisemitic tropes.” 

“Rep. Omar certainly has made mistakes,” he said. 

But he also emphasized how Democrats, including Omar, responded to the Benjamins’ episode four years ago, contrasting it with the inaction from McCarthy and other GOP leaders to similarly offensive remarks from Republican members. 

On Feb. 10, Omar issued the objectionable tweet. On Feb. 11, House Democratic leaders — from then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on down — issued a statement condemning her remarks as “deeply offensive” and calling on Omar “to immediately apologize.” 

Hours later, Omar did just that, issuing a statement saying she never intended to offend “my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole.” 

“This is why I unequivocally apologize,” she said. 

On March 7, the House approved a resolution to condemn all forms of antisemitism, though it did not mention Omar by name. The vote was 407 to 23, with Omar voting in favor of the measure. The 23 “no” votes all came from Republicans. 

“There has been accountability; Ilhan Omar has apologized; she has indicated that she’ll learn from her mistakes,” Jeffries said. “So this is not about accountability, it’s about political revenge.”

In contrast, Jeffries pointed to remarks from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in September of 2021 after Washington’s largest pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), condemned his opposition to a resolution condemning an attack on Israel.  

“How is THIS not foreign interference in our elections?” Massie, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker who votes against virtually all measures dabbling in foreign affairs, tweeted at the time. 

Jeffries wondered why GOP leaders didn’t race to punish Massie, the way they’re now punishing Omar. 

“That’s not an antisemitic trope? That’s not playing into dangerous stereotypes about the Jewish community here in America, suggesting that they have dual loyalty? AIPAC is engaging in foreign interference?” Jeffries said. “AIPAC is an American-based organization.” 

“To this day not a single House Republican leader has said a word — a word — about Thomas Massie,” he added. “But he’s been rewarded with a seat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee.” 

Jeffries also highlighted another tweet from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), which depicted Biden as Hitler, and a third from freshman Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), which mocked October’s violent attack on Paul Pelosi, 82, who was hit on the head with a hammer.

“Speaker McCarthy knows I strongly disagree with him, and them, on this issue,” Jeffries said. “And this type of poisonous, toxic double standard is going to complicate the relationship moving forward between House Democrats and House Republicans.”

McCarthy had been vowing to remove Democrats from committees since 2021, when Pelosi brought votes to strip Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from their committee seats. Greene had promoted the assassination of prominent Democrats, including Pelosi, on social media, while Gosar had posted an anime video depicting the beheading of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Neither lawmaker was disciplined by McCarthy. 

Jeffries, echoing the argument of other Democrats, said there’s a distinction to be made between the removal of lawmakers like Greene and Gosar, who promoted violence, and the ousting of lawmakers like Omar, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who were punished for policy differences. 

“The line should be drawn when there are members of Congress who are actively threatening violence against colleagues … Violence that we should actually take seriously in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 violent insurrection,” Jeffries said.  

Jeffries declined to say if Democrats will carve out a special position for Omar within the caucus after she is removed from the Foreign Affairs panel. 

“She will continue to productively serve,” he said. “But we’ll cross that bridge, in terms of precision, when we get to it.”

Source: TEST FEED1

House Republicans vote to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs panel

House Republicans voted on Thursday to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, notching a win for Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has long vowed to oust the Minnesota Democrat from the panel.

The chamber approved the resolution in a party-line 218-211-1 vote. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) voted present.

The resolution — sponsored by freshman Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), who is Jewish — lists a number of remarks Omar has made in the past Republicans say are antisemitic. It argues that the congresswoman “disqualified herself” from serving on the Foreign Affairs panel, which “is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national importance and national security.”

Omar — a Somali refugee and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress — delivered an impassioned defense of herself during debate on the House floor Thursday.

“This debate today, it’s about who gets to be an American? What opinions do we get to have, do we have to have to be counted as American?” she asked. “That is what this debate is about, Madam Speaker. There is this idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant. Or if you are from a certain part of the world, of a certain skin tone or a Muslim.”

“Well, I am Muslim. I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy?” she added.

The resolution hit the floor on Thursday after more than a week of closed-door haggling during which McCarthy faced steep odds in his quest to oust Omar from the committee.

Three Republicans — Reps. Nancy Mace (S.C.), Victoria Spartz (Ind.) and Ken Buck (Colo.) — initially came out against the resolution removing Omar from the Foreign Affairs panel, signaling that they would vote “no” when the measure hit the floor. If all Democrats oppose the resolution, Republicans can only afford to lose four members.

But after private negotiations with McCarthy this week all three flipped, throwing their support behind the resolution.

Mace was the last holdout to shift her stance. Emerging from a meeting in McCarthy’s office roughly an hour before the vote, she officially announced that she would support the measure. She told reporters that McCarthy offered her a “commitment” that there would be a fix to rules that would refer members to the House Ethics Committee before a resolution is drawn up to strip them of their committee assignments.

Buck revealed on Wednesday that he would support the resolution after initially coming out against. He said he decided to back the measure after a phone call with McCarthy, during which the Speaker suggested that he was willing to reform the process for kicking members off committees.

And on Tuesday, Spartz said she would vote for the measure after McCarthy agreed to “add due process language” to the resolution. The text of the resolution, released later that day, included a clause that says “any Member reserves the right to bring a case before the Committee on Ethics as grounds for an appeal to the Speaker of the House for reconsideration of any committee removal decision.”

Some Democrats, however, said the language does not create a formal process because the clause is in the “whereas” section and not the “resolved” section.

McCarthy has vowed to oust Omar from the panel since 2021 as a rebuke for what he says are antisemitic comments, some of which she apologized for. Many Democrats, however, viewed the effort as political retribution after the Democratic-led House in 2021 voted to strip GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) of their committee assignments for promoting violence against liberals.

“There has been accountability; Ilhan Omar has apologized; she has indicated that she’ll learn from her mistakes. So this is not about accountability, it’s about political revenge,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said during a press conference ahead of the vote.

The remarks by Omar listed in the resolution span from 2019 through 2021. Her most prominent comment that drew criticism came in February 2019, when the congresswoman on Twitter suggested that AIPAC, a pro-Israeli lobbying group, was paying American politicians to support Israel.

Omar issued a statement apologizing for the remark, and the House passed a resolution condemning antisemitism and other forms of hate shortly after — though the measure did not mention Omar. The vote was 407-23, with all opposition coming from Republicans.

She also came under fire in June 2021 after equating the U.S. and Israel to the Taliban and Hamas terrorist group while discussing war crimes. Omar later said the comment was “not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel,” but the remark nonetheless prompted a rare joint statement from Democratic leadership condemning “false equivalencies.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Huckabee Sanders to deliver Republican response to Biden's State of the Union

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to deliver the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Thursday.

McConnell and McCarthy in their statement lauded Sanders, who will give her remarks from Little Rock as the nation’s youngest governor and a champion of conservative principles.

“While President Biden keeps repeating old mistakes and failing Americans, a rising generation of Republican Governors are fighting for families, advancing new solutions, and winning,” McConnell said.

McCarthy praised the former Trump White House press secretary for pushing the “conservative agenda outside of Washington” and pressed that “everyone, including President Biden, should listen carefully” to her speech next week.

Sanders said she’s planning to “contrast the GOP’s optimistic vision for the future against the failures of President Biden and the Democrats” in her remarks. 

“We are ready to begin a new chapter in the story of America – to be written by a new generation of leaders ready to defend our freedom against the radical left and expand access to quality education, jobs, and opportunity for all,” Sanders said. 

The party that’s not in control of the White House selects a speaker, often a rising star within the party, each year to give an on-air rebuttal after the president’s much-anticipated speech to a joint session of Congress. 

Last year, McConnell and then-House Minority Leader McCarthy selected Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to deliver the GOP’s response to Biden’s 2022 State of the Union, citing the governor’s action on top GOP culture war issues after Reynolds banned teaching critical race theory in Iowa schools.

Reynolds was the first woman elected to the Iowa governor’s mansion — and Sanders is the first woman to serve in the top office in Arkansas.

Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the only Black GOP senator, delivered the party’s response to Biden’s address the previous year.

Sanders’ remarks this year will be aired on national television after Biden’s speech, which is set to start around 9 p.m. EST this coming Tuesday night.

Updated: 12:44 p.m.

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Scott: 'I don’t think it made any sense' for McConnell to boot me from Commerce

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has challenged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership and strategy on multiple fronts, told CNN in an interview that he doesn’t think McConnell kicking him off the powerful Commerce Committee “made any sense.”

But Scott said he’s undeterred by the setback, which some Senate conservatives think is payback after the Florida senator challenged McConnell for the Senate Republican leader’s job in a bruising race last year. 

“I’m going to keep doing my job,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “I put out a plan. He completely opposed me putting out a plan.”

Scott angered some Republicans when he unveiled a 12-point plan as a campaign year agenda. He then challenged McConnell for the leader’s job after the midterm election because he and other Senate conservatives felt McConnell didn’t do enough to lay out the Senate Republican governing agenda before Election Day.  

“I opposed him because I believe we have to have ideas — fight over ideas — and so he took Mike Lee and I off the committee,” he said.  

McConnell also removed Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who nominated Scott to replace McConnell as leader, from the Commerce Committee.   

Scott cited his résumé as former chief executive of Columbia/HCA, one of the nation’s largest health care companies, and his two terms as governor of Florida, the nation’s third-biggest state economy, as why he should serve on the panel. 

He said he can still work on issues under its jurisdiction through Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who serves as the panel’s ranking Republican. 

“I’ll still do my job. Ted Cruz is the ranking member, I’ve got a relationship with him. But I don’t know why, I don’t think it made any sense,” he said.  

“I’m responsible for the third-biggest state in the country, I probably ran the biggest company in my prior career of anybody who’s in the Senate right now or before. I bring a lot to the table but that’s a decision he made,” he said of McConnell’s decision to pull him off Commerce to make room for freshmen Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).  

One Republican senator told The Hill that Scott irked McConnell by launching a nationwide television ad this month that highlighted his attempt to oust McConnell as leader and urged Republicans to stop “doing the same old thing.”   

Scott in the seven-figure ad buy said he knew that challenging McConnell “was going to be hard” but argued “we gotta start somewhere” because Republicans have just become “a speed bump” in Democrats’ “road to woke socialism.”  

A Republican aide familiar with the allocation of committee assignments pointed out that Scott already sits on two of his top-choice committees, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.  

McConnell wanted to make room on Commerce for the new freshmen Republican senators and had to contend with Republicans’ loss of a seat on the panel because their conference shrunk to 49 seats after the November election.  

Yet, McConnell left Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) on Commerce, even though she had less seniority than Scott, and she already sits on two other “A-list” committees, the Banking and Environment and Public Works panels.  

Asked by CNN’s Collins whether he should have expected some kind of punishment “because you did go up against him in that bruising battle for the leadership position,” Scott said “our job is to represent the people of the country.” 

“This is not about winners and losers, it’s not about partisan stuff, this is about who are the best people to solve the problems of this country,” he said. “I’m going to keep fighting … I don’t know why he did it, but that’s life.”  

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump taunts Haley about past statements on challenging him

Former President Trump on Wednesday taunted Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations, about an anticipated announcement that she will be launching a 2024 White House bid.

The former South Carolina governor is expected to announce that she will be running for president later this month, becoming the second Republican to officially wade into the GOP primary and the first to challenge Trump. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he took one of his first jabs at her since the reporting of her anticipated 2024 White House campaign.

“Nikki has to follow her heart, not her honor. She should definitely run!” he wrote, including an older clip of Haley saying that she would support Trump if he ran in 2024 and would not jump into the race if the former president did so.

The development comes as Trump has started ramping up his rhetoric toward Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — another widely floated potential presidential candidate. Trump told The Associated Press in a recent interview that if the Florida governor ran “it would be a great act of disloyalty” and claimed over the weekend that DeSantis was “trying to rewrite history” over how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asked about the former president’s criticism of him during a Tuesday news conference, DeSantis hit back, saying, “If you take a crisis situation like COVID, the good thing about it is when you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions. You got to steer that ship and the good thing is, is that the people are able to render a judgment on that, whether they reelect you or not.”

“And I’m happy to say in my case, not only did we win reelection, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida,” he added.

The Hill has reached out to a Haley spokesperson for comment.

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The Hill's Morning Report — Biden, McCarthy talk debt divisions without breakthrough

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

President Biden says it shouldn’t happen. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) says no one wants it to happen. And the Federal Reserve chairman said on Wednesday that it’s up to Congress to prevent U.S. default by voting to let the Treasury Department borrow to pay the country’s bills.

After spending an hour together in the Oval Office during a much-anticipated tête-à-tête about the debt limit and other topics, Biden and McCarthy agreed they see the problem differently.

“I don’t want to put any words in his mouth,” McCarthy told reporters while standing in the White House driveway on a cold day after a meeting he sought, The Hill’s Brett Samuels reported.

“I thought it was a very good discussion and we walked out saying we would continue the discussion,” McCarthy said. “I think there is an opportunity here to come to an agreement on both sides. … My role right now is to make sure we have a sensible, responsible ability to raise the debt ceiling but not continue this runaway spending.”

Biden told the Speaker that he would not negotiate on the limit, but is open to a “separate discussion with congressional leaders about how to reduce the deficit and control the national debt while continuing to grow the economy,” according to a White House summary of the meeting.

McCarthy would not make any explicit commitments that the U.S. would not default, which the president wants. But the Speaker spoke positively.

The New York Times: Biden, McCarthy discuss debt limit as financial crisis looms.

“There is nothing in there with me walking away that does not believe that at the end of the day we can come to an agreement,” McCarthy said.

What that agreement will be is still months away, according to veterans of previous debt ceiling battles. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who helped broker last-minute compromises during past budget impasses and the 2011 debt ceiling battle (Vox) — called for good-faith negotiations on Wednesday while accusing Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of hypocrisy when it comes to the statutory cap on borrowing, which Treasury reached last month (The Hill).

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell put the responsibility on Congress to lift the borrowing limit. “There is only one way forward here and that is for Congress to raise the debt ceiling,” he said Wednesday during a press conference to announce another interest rate hike. “Any deviations from that path would be highly risky and no one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy” (The Wall Street Journal).

Anxieties that the United States might default because of the partisan impasse over accumulated debt and federal spending have revived talk that the Treasury could prioritize debt payments to prevent disaster. Treasury officials and the administration have rejected that possibility.

“I believe that Congress will wind up acting as it must in the end to raise the debt ceiling,” Powell said, eager to discourage the idea that the central bank would resolve political stalemate. “I believe it will happen” (Yahoo Finance).

McCarthy says the Pentagon’s budget is on the table as Republicans seek to negotiate savings over a 10-year budget window. His caucus has not identified where members envision cuts but have said Social Security and Medicare will not be touched. McCarthy has agreed with conservative lawmakers to cap all new discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels, which would amount to a $75 billion cut in the defense budget. The Speaker has disputed that specific figure, reports The Hill’s Brad Dress.

▪ The Hill: In a dramatic move served cold, McConnell removed GOP Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.) and Mike Lee (Utah) from the powerful Senate Commerce Committee. The pair had attempted to oust him as GOP leader.

▪ The New York Times: Meet the women on the House and Senate Appropriations committees who want to avoid a spending train wreck.

▪ The Hill: Republicans on Wednesday advanced a resolution to the House floor that would oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on past comments critical of Israel, for which she apologized. 

Truth & consequences? Another day, another headline about Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). FBI agents are investigating the congressman’s role in an alleged GoFundMe scheme involving a disabled U.S. Navy veteran’s dying service dog, Politico reported on Wednesday. Two agents contacted former service member Richard Osthoff on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.

New York Democrat Robert Zimmerman lost to Santos by more than 7 percentage points in November before the world caught wind of Santos’s lies and résumé inventions. “We’re going to get him out of office,” Zimmerman assured a woman during a recent League of Women Voters luncheon. “As you should!” she replied (The Washington Post).

The investigators: The Hill’s Emily Brooks and Rebecca Beitsch report on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a pugnacious former wrestling coach, defender of former President Trump and now a McCarthy ally who vows to wield GOP subpoena power against the White House and Biden. Jordan chaired his panel’s first hearing on Wednesday, focused on the administration’s immigration and border policies (The Hill). The House investigative fireworks will continue on that subject next week.  

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: The FBI found no classified documents on Wednesday at the president’s house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., according to Biden’s personal lawyer.

▪ Axios: Biden today expanded federal workers’ potential access to paid and unpaid family and medical leave benefits, including during employees’ initial year of federal employment and for reasons related to personal “safety.” Family and medical leave was among themes in the president’s State of the Union address last year and is a topic of pending legislation (Ms. magazine).

▪ The Hill: An amendment that would have allowed guns in the House Natural Resources Committee room failed on a party-line vote on Wednesday after lawmakers debated that question. 

▪ Time: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is using assistive technology in the Capitol as part of his stroke recovery.  

▪ Axios: Biden’s electric vehicle surprise: New federal tax credits designed to be an incentive for carmakers to scale up domestic battery manufacturing are popular (and more expensive for the government than initially projected). 

▪ The Hill: House Democrats named the members of the select committees on Intelligence, China, COVID-19 and the “weaponization” of government.

▪ Politico: McCarthy’s detractors landed on these House committees.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ ECONOMY

Some who listened to Powell’s news conference at the Fed on Wednesday said they were puzzled. “Certainty is just not appropriate here,” he told reporters. The dovish takeaway among market investors, despite cautious Fed language, was a sunny-side-up bet that the central bank is nearing the end of rate hikes to tame inflation. 

The Federal Open Market Committee announced a quarter-point rate hike, moderated from six consecutive larger rate increases in an effort to bring down inflation. It’s the smallest rate hike since March, which will lift the federal funds rate to a range of 4.5 to 4.75 percent as the central bank pushes toward a projected target rate of 5.1 percent (The Hill).

Powell cautioned that while it is “good” that “deflationary” conditions are evident in some economic sectors, price stability has not been attained and “the job is not fully done.” His upshot: “Given our outlook, I don’t see us cutting rates this year, if our outlook comes true.”

“The Committee anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over time,” the FOMC said in its statement.

“[Powell] did go back and forth giving you both sides of the argument,” said former Goldman Sachs Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn, a former economic adviser in the Trump White House. “The only thing he kept hanging his hat on was the labor market. At this point it feels like we are just labor dependent” (CNBC).

▪ The Hill: Five things from the Fed rate hike that raised eyebrows.

▪ CBS News: Stocks rise after Fed acknowledges “disinflationary process has started.” 

▪ The Hill: The Fed can’t fix inflation alone. Here’s why. 

▪ The Hill: Here’s how Fed rate hikes are hurting tech firms.

▪ Politico: Biden is leaning toward Fed Vice Chairwoman Lael Brainard as National Economic Council director and longtime adviser and labor economist Jared Bernstein to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. 

➤ POLITICS

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) record on the COVID-19 pandemic is about to come under increased scrutiny, especially if he runs for president. Former President Trump accused DeSantis over the weekend of trying to “rewrite history” on his pandemic record. In recent weeks, DeSantis has tried to portray himself as someone who resisted COVID-19 restrictions to the maximum extent, but Trump asserted that “Florida was closed for a long period of time.” The Hill’s Niall Stanage has put together a timeline of what DeSantis actually did and said about COVID-19.

Vox: Remember the Stormy Daniels “hush money” case against Trump? It’s back.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) announced this month that he turned down a Ford electric vehicle battery plant in the state, writes The Hill’s Zack Budryk. While Youngkin cited concerns over connections with the Chinese government, environmentalists and Democrats in the state are accusing the governor of picking fights on environmental issues as a prelude to a possible 2024 White House run. 

Meanwhile, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) told Fox News on Tuesday that he was giving the 2024 presidential election “very serious consideration.”

The New York Times: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to join the 2024 race this month, but other GOP contenders are taking a wait-and-see approach. Some anti-Trump Republicans worry that too much dithering could be costly.

“I don’t think he [Trump] is going to be the nominee,” Hogan said. “But, you know, look, I’m not one of the folks that focused my time just attacking the president. I just was one of the few Republicans that was willing to stand up and say when I disagreed.”

▪ The Hill: GOP moves to stop unelectable Senate candidates.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) raises $600, with less than $10K in funds amid Senate 2024 speculation.

A new internal report prepared by the Republican National Committee proposes creating a permanent infrastructure in every state to ramp up “election integrity” activities in response to the GOP’s disproven claims of ranks of widespread fraud and abuse of the electoral process, The Washington Post reports. The report proposes a new party organization involving state-level “election integrity officers” and intensive new training models for poll workers and observers — based on unsubstantiated claims that Democrats have implemented election procedures that allow for rigged votes.

Meanwhile hundreds of local election officials across the country are about to confront a political challenge that will put their management skills and their campaign chops to the test — administering the 2024 presidential vote while running for reelection themselves. The large slate of below-the-radar campaigns will test how much money and attention will be available for these critical roles in a presidential election year.

“The concerns about being primaried is absolutely on the mind of very dedicated and very middle-of-the-road, nonpartisan-functioning” election officials in Florida, Mark Earley, the election supervisor in blue-leaning Leon County, Fla., told Politico.

▪ The Kansas City Star: How did someone steal $700,000 from Sen. Jerry Moran’s (R-Kan.) campaign in the midst of an election? 

▪ The New Yorker: What Ron Klain learned in the White House. Biden’s departing chief of staff is a case study in the slow accumulation of expertise.

▪ CNN: “Go on offense”: Inside Democrats’ strategy to try to undercut GOP investigations and protect Biden.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

A private memo on Friday from an Air Force general telling his charges to prepare for war with China in just two years stoked worst-case fears for rising global tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea, writes The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell. The forecast from Air Mobility Command head Gen. Mike Minihan set off debate among U.S. lawmakers and current and former defense officials. But foreign policy experts said they see little evidence that China is poised to engage in a fight over Taiwan in that timeframe. 

“I will say that most of my colleagues who are in the China circle do not believe that a Chinese attack on Taiwan is likely in the next five years,” Yun Sun, director of the Stimson Center’s China program, told The Hill. 

▪ The Hill: All eyes on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming China trip.

▪ The New York Times: U.S. to boost military role in the Philippines as fears over Taiwan grow.

▪ Reuters: “Nobody wants to come this way”: Some Afghans risk an 11-country trek to seek haven in the U.S.

▪ The New Republic: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says not to get “hung up” on peace.

▪ Bloomberg News: Israeli jets bomb Hamas targets in Gaza Strip amid rising strife.

As Western allies rush heavier weapons to help Ukraine reclaim occupied territory, Moscow’s forces are intensifying assaults along the eastern front in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described as the opening moves of a new Russian offensive. Both sides have been readying for heavier ground combat for months, and Moscow is expected to press on with its goal of capturing the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as Kyiv aims to expel Russian troops completely (The New York Times).

“Russia really wants some kind of big revanche,” Zelensky said this week. “I think it has started.”

▪ The Hill: Netanyahu says he’d consider mediating Ukraine-Russia peace if asked.

▪ The Washington Post: In visit to wartime Kyiv, the EU sells an “European dream” that remains distant.

OPINION

■ It’s past time to reduce over-classification, by former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3Dw64K4

■ Florida’s treatment of Black history calls for an African-centered response, by Roger House, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3HPEc6w

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene at 9:30 a.m. 

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to begin consideration of the nomination of Joseph Falk to be a member of the board of directors of the United States Institute of Peace.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 7 a.m. Biden and Vice President Harris will attend the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill at 8 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., the president will eat lunch with King Abdullah II of Jordan and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Hussein. Biden and Harris will deliver remarks at 2:15 p.m. in the East Room to mark the 30th Anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act. At 4:30 p.m., they will meet with Congressional Black Caucus members in the Oval Office.

The secretary of state will meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at 9:40 a.m.At 11 a.m., the secretary will address the Thursday Luncheon Group’s 50th anniversary celebration at the State Department.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will speak at 9 a.m. ET during a newsmaker online conversation with Punchbowl News. Information is HERE. 

Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on filings for unemployment benefits in the week ending Jan. 28.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 12:45 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ STATE WATCH

In New Jersey, a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a state law signed in June that allowed lawsuits against gun manufacturers for creating a “public nuisance” with the sale and marketing of firearms. The law also allows liability for gun industry members who fail to “establish, implement, and enforce reasonable controls” on those products (The Hill).

In Florida, a state judge on Wednesday ordered the Agency for Health Care Administration to produce by Feb. 14 documents related to its determination that gender-affirming health care cannot be covered under Medicaid because treatments are “experimental and investigational” (The Hill). 

California water agencies on Tuesday issued a separate, alternate proposal for dividing usage of the Colorado River, two days after six other states in the basin issued a joint proposal (The Hill). 

Politico: The Biden administration is caught between California and its neighbors in Colorado River fight.

The vice president on Wednesday spoke briefly at the Memphis, Tenn., funeral for Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died three days after being beaten by Memphis police officers in January. With the families of other victims of police violence in attendance, Harris and several other speakers called for passage of a police reform bill that cleared the House in 2021 and stalled in the Senate..

“This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety. … When we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form,” Harris said of the police violence in Memphis before Nichols’s death. “Tyre Nichols should have been safe.”

Nichols’ beating was captured on videos that were released publicly last week, sparking protests. Biden said in a statement that the footage left him “outraged and deeply pained” (The New York Times and Politico).

▪ ABC24: Nichols’s family speaks at his funeral in Memphis.

▪ NPR: Four of the five officers charged in Nichols’s death had prior violations at work.

▪ The New York Times: Memphis gathers in grief at Nichols’s funeral.

▪ The Hill: Jon Stewart blasts media for playing Nichols video “like wallpaper.”

In a new survey, two-fifths of millennials say their parents still pay one or more of their monthly bills, writes The Hill’s Daniel de Visé. The most common parental subsidy is the largest one: 41 percent of millennials say a parent or parents pay their rent or mortgage. Smaller shares receive parental help with their auto insurance and car payments, utility bills and streaming services. This is partly about adult children living at home and partly a sign of the high cost of living for America’s younger adults. 

USA Today: About 18 million college students received a financial boost from the COVID-19 rescue law.

🎩 At Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. — where Groundhog Day with “Phil” continues a 137-year tradition featuring critters that belong in the squirrel family — the furry rodent makes his prediction at approximately 6:30 a.m. Tune in HERE, and read CNN’s roundup of the bizarre history of Groundhog Day.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH

The practice of telehealth may be in legal limbo. A federal emergency declaration in January 2020 waived the requirement for healthcare providers to meet patients in person before prescribing tightly regulated drugs known as controlled substances, ranging from opioids to benzodiazepines. Psychiatrist Adam Pruett, who is based in Vermont, built a nationwide telehealth practice prescribing ketamine as a mental health treatment, but once the pandemic emergency declaration expires, Pruett’s practice could be in a legal gray zone (The Washington Post).

“My office is going to plan to operate as normal and follow the law, whatever that may be,” Pruett told the Post.

As global demand for COVID-19 vaccines dries up, Gavi, the international immunization organization that bought the shots on behalf of the vaccination program Covax, has been urgently negotiating to try to get out of its deals with pharmaceutical companies for shots it no longer needs. But drug companies have so far declined to refund $1.4 billion in advance payments for now-canceled doses (The New York Times).

▪ The Atlantic: Pandemic-era outdoor dining is doomed.

▪ The Washington Post: Ultra-processed foods may increase ovarian, other cancer risks, study says.

▪ The New York Times: To prevent cancer, more women should consider removing their fallopian tubes, experts say.

▪ NPR: Nursing home owners drained cash while residents deteriorated, state filings suggest.

▪ Vox: Insulin is way too expensive. California has a solution: Make its own.

▪ Nexstar: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns consumers not to use EzriCare Artificial Tears while it investigates dozens of reported U.S. eye infections.

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,108,512. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 3,756 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! As February starts, we’re looking for expert puzzlers who recognize endings in this week’s headlines.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

What did the Biden administration say will conclude in May?  

1. Debt limit
2. Pandemic public health emergency
3. Suspense about the president’s reelection plans
4. White House use of Twitter

Who on Wednesday announced, “I’m retiring for good”?

1. Charlie Crist
2. Clint Eastwood
3. Tom Brady
4. Judy Woodruff

Which 50-year-old workhorse recently ended life as No. 1,574?

1. Boeing 747
2. Sesame Street
3. Dodge Durango Hellcat
4. Susan B. Anthony dollar

Which daytime TV celebrity this week announced a spring finale after a 21-year run?

1. Ellen DeGeneres
2. Al Roker
3. Dr. Phil
4. Judge Judy

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

Eyeing defense spending cuts, House GOP targets military ‘wokeness’

Top House Republicans say the Pentagon’s budget will be on the table as Republicans seek to negotiate spending cuts in exchange for raising the federal debt ceiling — and have placed a bullseye on “wokeness” in the military.

Exactly what that means remains somewhat unclear, but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and others in his caucus have pointed to programs including efforts to diversify the military, identify alternative fuels and other environmental initiatives. 

“We’re going to cut money that’s being spent on wokeism, we’re going to cut legacy programs, we’re going to cut a lot of waste,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Hill on Wednesday. 

When asked specifically what programs they will push to cut, Rogers said to stay tuned to subcommittee hearings.

In his bid to become Speaker, McCarthy agreed with conservative lawmakers to cap all new discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels, which would amount to a $75 billion cut in the defense budget from the $857 billion passed in the last National Defense Authorization Act.

While eliminating “woke” programs appears to have broad support within the House GOP, there appears to be some opposition to topline cuts to defense spending. 

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement he supported defunding programs like diversity and inclusion training but wanted to increase spending for the Navy.

“I won’t vote for a bill that cuts defense spending, and I think most of the conference agrees with me,” Banks said.

McCarthy argued earlier this month that freezing spending at ‘22 levels wasn’t technically a “cut,” but still pointed to areas that could be eliminated. 

“Does defense getting more than $800 billion, are there areas that I think they could be more efficient in? Yeah,” he said told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“Eliminate all the money spent on ‘wokeism.’ Eliminate all the money that they’re trying to find different fuels and they’re worried about the environment to go through.”

Members of the House Armed Services Committee have made similar calls, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) in a Fox Business appearance on Monday, and Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.).

Scott told The Hill that if Congress needs to make cuts in the defense budget, “let’s start with the woke ideology and finish with the bureaucracy.”

“The recruiting and retention in the military is at an all-time low, and the DoD needs to quit focusing on the woke ideology and focus on the mission of supporting our warfighters,” Scott said in a statement.

The Defense Department has an office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that could be a target along with its programs and long-term strategies. 

In 2011, the Pentagon released a five-year diversity and inclusion strategy that included formally lifting a combat exclusion for women, making diversity expansion an institutional priority and creating a chief diversity officer position. It still has several more goals to meet on the diversity front, according to an inspector general report released last year.

Republicans have previously sought to defund those practices. A bill introduced last year by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, proposed cutting resources for diversity training. 

In a statement at the time, Wicker expressed concern that nearly six million hours have been spent on diversity training since President Biden took office.

On the energy front, the Defense Department has a goal to transition the Pentagon’s non-combat vehicle fleet to renewable energy sources by 2035 and to develop electric combat vehicles by 2050. The Biden administration has also been working to support more clean energy projects at military installations.

Justin Logan, the director of defense and foreign policy at the conservative Cato Institute, said much of the GOP’s talk around slashing “woke” programs is more about scoring political points than enacting real budget change.

“Republicans calling the defense budget woke may be effective politically, it may bring around Republicans who say, ‘I know I’m against wokeness and if the Pentagon is woke I’m against the Pentagon,’’’ Logan said. “But as an [actual] approach, you might imagine that leaves a lot to be desired.

“The fundamental program that the Pentagon faces,” Logan continued, “is they have extremely ambitious goals for the United States and pursuing those goals is extremely expensive.” 

The potential defense cuts are part of the broader Republican refusal to lift the federal government’s debt ceiling without a deal on spending cuts in the next fiscal year. The debt ceiling is at risk of defaulting in June, which could have huge ramifications for the economy.

McCarthy met with Biden for the first time on Wednesday, with the administration’s new budget proposal likely to be unveiled next month. Biden has called on McCarthy to release specifics regarding his demands for spending cuts. 

In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, McCarthy said he was “hopeful” that talks with Biden could result in a compromise.

“I want to make sure we’re protected in our defense spending, but I want to make sure it’s effective and efficient,” he said. “I want to look at every single dollar we’re spending, no matter where it’s being spent. I want to eliminate waste wherever it is.”

Phyllis Bennis, the program director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, said it would be easier for Republicans and Democrats to negotiate on topline spending cuts than to pick apart individual programs.

“Numbers are the easiest way to compromise,” Bennis said. “If you want 10 percent and I want zero, it’s easy to compromise at 5 percent. That’s not hard.”

But Democrats have said McCarthy’s push for a spending agreement while holding the debt ceiling over their heads is a non-starter.

“Deal with spending when you’re spending,” Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Hill.

“There is a place, obviously, to talk about making cuts in defense, but it’s not in the White House when you’re talking about the debt ceiling.”

Keating said cutting diversity programs would be “insignificant” in terms of reducing spending and also weaken the military’s forces.

“They did not come out of thin air,” the congressman said of the diversity programs. “They come from listening to our military.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, said he has long supported cutting the defense budget because the U.S. is “on track to spend a trillion dollars a year on defense.”

But, he added, not with the debt ceiling as the basis.

“The reputation of the United States is on the line here. Of course we should pay our debts. This is debt that has been accrued by Republicans too,” he said in a statement. “If Republicans want to then have a conversation about spending going forward, I am happy to engage.”

Source: TEST FEED1