Dispatches

‘SOCIAL SECURITY IS ON THE BALLOT,’ SAY ADVOCATES, AS TRUMP THREATENS CUTS. When President Biden told Congress during his State of the Union speech (3/7), “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop you … I’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their fair share,” Republican members of Congress shook their heads and Donald Trump objected on his social media site, saying “Republicans have no plan to cut Social Security, a made up story by Crooked Joe!”

Just four days later, Trump said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements—in terms of cutting—and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements,” Joan McCarter noted at Daily Kos (3/11).

“Make no mistake: Social Security is on the ballot this November,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works after Trump’s remarks on “Squawk Box.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign said his comments were about cutting “waste” in the programs, but the former president’s tried to cut Social Security in all of the budget proposals he released during his term, Julia Conley noted at Common Dreams (3/11).

“It is consistent with Trump’s past calls to privatize Social Security and raise the retirement age, as well as his slandering it as a ‘Ponzi scheme,’” said Altman. “It is also consistent with the House Republican FY2025 budget, which proposes creating a commission designed to slash Social Security and Medicare behind closed doors.”

The Republicans’ budget proposal, which the House Budget Committee advanced shortly before the State of the Union address (3/7), includes a so-called “fiscal commission” that would be empowered to fast-track Social Security and Medicare cuts.

“The contrast is clear,” said US Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). “Democrats want to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. The other party wants to end the programs as we know them.”

Before winning the 2016 election, Trump called to raise the retirement age to 70 and promised to rescind the payroll tax—the taxes working people pay to fund Social Security and Medicare. He has frequently said cutting the programs, which about 70 million people rely on for post-retirement financial security and healthcare, was necessary to maintain their long-term solvency.

Despite Republicans’ frequent claims that Americans’ earned benefit programs are “bankrupting the country,” Social Security is currently fully solvent—able to pay out full benefits to all beneficiaries—through 2034, and even if Congress took no action to expand the program, would be able to cover 80% of benefits after 2034. Medicare is currently solvent through 2028.

On social media, Biden responded to Trump’s plan for the programs with four words: “Not on my watch.”

Altman noted that Biden’s proposed budget included “a very different vision for Social Security’s future,” with the president releasing a plan (3/11) “for protecting and expanding Social Security—and paying for it by requiring millionaires and billionaires to contribute their fair share.”

Under a second Biden term, the White House said, there would be no benefit cuts to Social Security, and wealthy Americans—who currently do not pay Social Security taxes on income greater than $168,000 or capital gains—would be required to pay “their fair share” to ensure retirees can continue to benefit from the program.

The Biden budget would also extend the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund permanently “by modestly increasing the Medicare tax rate on incomes above $400,000, closing loopholes in existing Medicare taxes, and directing revenue from the Net Investment Income Tax into the HI Trust Fund as was originally intended.”

“Current law lets certain wealthy business owners avoid Medicare taxes on some of the profits they get from passthrough businesses,” said the White House. “The budget closes this loophole and raises Medicare tax rates on earned and unearned income from 3.8% to 5% for those with incomes over $400,000.”

Advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness pointed out that with Trump’s plan to extend his 2017 tax cuts—which disproportionately benefited corporations and the wealthy and made billionaires $2.2 trillion richer—$3.5 trillion would be added to federal government’s deficit.

“If anyone tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop them,” said Biden after the release of his budget proposal. “Working people built this country, and pay more into Social Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair.”

TRUMP TEAM TAKES OVER RNC, SLASHES STAFF. Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, Alex Isenstadt reported at Politico (3/11).

More than 60 RNC staffers across the political, communications and data departments are expected to be let go. They include five members of the senior staff, and some vendor contracts are expected to be cut.

The overhaul is aimed at cutting, what one of the people described as “bureaucracy” at the RNC. But the move also underscores the swiftness with which Trump’s operation is moving to take over the Republican Party’s operations after the former president all but clinched the party’s presidential nomination on Super Tuesday (3/5).

On March 8, former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley was elected the RNC’s new chair, and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected as co-chair. Trump senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita was named as the RNC’s new chief of staff.

The RNC had about $8 million at the end of December, about one-third as much as the Democratic National Committee.

Under the new structure, the Trump campaign is looking to merge its operations with the RNC, Isenstadt reported. Key departments, such as communications, data and fundraising, will effectively be one and the same.

Some Republican state party leaders were watching in horror as Trump prepared to take over of the RNC as an additional funding vehicle for Trump’s staggering legal bills, Markos “Kos” Moulitsas noted at Daily Kos (2/23). 

“He’s trying to hijack the RNC before he’s even the nominee. And it’s because he’s broke,” Katon Dawson, former chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, told NOTUS.org. “He has already spent millions worth of PAC money and he’s running out. So he needs another place to go raise money to pay his personal legal bills.”

Lara Trump didn’t help when she announced in February, with zero awareness of the organization’s purpose, that the RNC would spend “every single penny” on Trump, that it was the “number one and only” job of the committee to elect Trump, and that it was the committee’s job to pay for her father-in-law’s legal bills. However, a senior Trump campaign adviser insisted to ABC News “absolutely none” of the RNC’s funds will be used to pay Trump’s legal bills. “So who will you believe—Lara Trump, speaking the will of grifter-in-chief Donald Trump, or some lower-level apparatchik attempting damage control after Lara had just severely sabotaged the RNC’s already-hurting fundraising operation? Donald will make the ultimate decisions on where that RNC money is going, and it’s going nowhere but in his own pockets,” Kos concluded.

TRUMP’S AFFECTION FOR DICTATORS IS AT HEART OF HIS PLANS FOR AMERICA –– AND UKRAINE. Donald Trump invited Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orbán to visit Mar-a-Lago (3/8). Trump’s campaign put out images of the event, saying that Orbán and Trump talked about “a wide range of issues,” including border security, Mark Sumner noted at Daily Kos (3/11).

However, it appears the security of most importance to both Trump and Orbán concerns the border that belongs to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. As the BBC reported on Monday, Orbán explained Trump’s plan to end Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

“He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” said Orbán. “That is why the war will end.” In other words, Orbán and Trump are promising to starve Ukraine of any ability to defend itself, ensuring that a democratic nation of nearly 37 million (as of 2023) people falls to an authoritarian dictatorship.

“It is obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own feet,” Orbán said on Hungary’s M1 TV. “If the Americans don’t give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, then the war is over. And if the Americans don’t give money, the Europeans alone are unable to finance this war. And then the war is over.” For Orbán, Putin, and Trump, this is a good thing.

Trump has long bragged that he could end the Russian invasion within 24 hours. Trump said as much to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last May, then repeated the promise when speaking at a town hall last June.

Details of that plan have always been sketchy, but there has long been a suspicion that what Trump meant by “end the war” was forcing Ukraine to surrender. Now this has been confirmed by Orbán.

As the Washington Post reported, Trump bragged that Orbán is a “non-controversial” leader. Not because he has the respect and support of all parts of the Hungarian population, but because he has aggressively shattered Hungary’s democratic system and replaced it with one where he’s the unchallenged ruler.

“He’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it,” said Trump.

TO REGAIN YOUTH SUPPORT, GROUPS SAY BIDEN MUST EMBRACE ‘FINISH THE JOB’ YOUTH AGENDA. A quartet of U.S. advocacy groups unveiled the “Finish the Job” Youth Agenda, inspired by the reelection campaign of Democratic President Joe Biden—who is expected to again face former Republican President Donald Trump, Jessica Corbett reported at Common Dreams (3/7).

“In 2020, young people sent Biden to the White House. In 2024, how many young people turn out for Biden will determine if we stave off a second Trump presidency,” said Sunrise Movement political director Michele Weindling in a statement. “Right now, young people are shouting for what we need from Biden to mobilize our generation this November.”

“President Biden must do everything in his power to fight the climate crisis, to end gun violence, to not cater to the right at the cost of immigrants’ lives, and he must call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza,” she asserted.

In addition to the climate-focused Sunrise Movement, the coalition is made up of Gen-Z for Change, which works on a variety of issues; March for Our Lives, a gun violence prevention group; and United We Dream Action, a national immigrant network.

Their “bold, progressive” agenda features demands on climate change, criminal justice reform, democracy, economic justice, education, gender and LGBTQ+ equality, gun violence prevention, housing, immigration, and reproductive justice.

“Our Finish the Job Youth Agenda is a clear reiteration of the issues that matter most to young constituents and a roadmap for President Biden and his administration to follow if they want to earn our support,” said Michelle Ming, political director of United We Dream Action. “With the Youth Agenda, we’re giving Biden our winning playbook.”

Members of the organizations announced the agenda at a press conference on Capitol Hill, where they were joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Greg Casar (Texas), Ro Khanna (Calif.), and Summer Lee (Pa.).

TRUMP ENDORSES GAZA GENOCIDE: ‘FINISH THE PROBLEM.’ Shortly before winning nearly every GOP primary on Super Tuesday (3/5) and all but locking up the 2024 Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview that he wants Israel to “finish the problem” in Gaza—a clear endorsement of a military campaign that has killed more than 30,000 people in less than five months and sparked one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in recent history, Jake Johnson noted at Common Dreams (3/6).

Fox host Brian Kilmeade told Trump that voters who have marked “uncommitted” on their primary ballots to register their opposition to President Biden’s support for Israel’s war are “not gonna like you either because you are firmly in Israel’s camp.”

“Yeah,” Trump responded.

Asked whether he is “on board with the way the [Israel Defense Forces] is taking the fight to Gaza,” Trump said, “You’ve gotta finish the problem.”

“You had a horrible invasion. It took place. It would have never happened if I was president, by the way,” said Trump, who went on to claim that Hamas militants attacked Israel because they “have no respect for Biden” and because Israel “got soft.”

Trump dodged when asked whether he would support a cease-fire in Gaza.

Until “Super Tuesday,” Trump had largely been quiet about Israel’s large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip, but as president he was a staunch supporter of the Israeli government.

Trump’s administration recognized Jerus-alem as Israel’s capital, moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, and reversed longstanding US policy that deemed Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory “inconsistent with international law” — a shift the Biden administration rolled back in February.

Following Trump’s Fox interview, the former president’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News Trump “did more for Israel than any American president in history.”

As Democratic voters have used state party primaries in recent weeks to voice their objections to Biden’s unconditional support for Israel, the New York Times reported (3/1) how the Trump campaign and its allies “plan to exploit that division to their advantage” during the general election.

“One idea under discussion among Trump allies as a way to drive the Palestinian wedge deeper into the Democratic Party,” the Times reported, “is to run advertisements in heavily Muslim areas of Michigan that would thank Mr. Biden for ‘standing with Israel.’”

In a column (3/4), The Intercept’s James Risen argued that Trump and “his MAGA Republicans” would “be even worse” on Israel than the Biden administration, which has supported Israel’s Gaza assault militarily and diplomatically while also issuing mild calls for the protection of civilians, delivery of humanitarian aid, and a temporary cease-fire.

“Trump is a big fan of war crimes, especially against Muslims,” wrote Risen, The Intercept’s senior national security correspondent. “During his first term, he intervened on behalf of Special Operations Chief Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL platoon leader convicted of posing for a photo with the body of a dead Iraqi; another SEAL team member told investigators that Gallagher was ‘freaking evil,’ but Trump said at a political rally that he was one of ‘our great fighters.’ Trump also pardoned Blackwater contractors convicted of killing Iraqi civilians in a wild shooting spree in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. There is no chance that he would try to stop Israel from indiscriminately killing Palestinians.”

“Although the Biden administration has bent over backward to support Israel, the president has said repeatedly in recent weeks that an independent Palestinian state is still possible. What’s more, political unrest within the Democratic Party is starting to have an impact on Biden, forcing changes in the White House’s approach to Israel,” Risen continued. “Trump would never face such pro-Palestinian pressure from within the Republican Party. He and his MAGA cult of Christian nationalists would never force Israel to accept a cease-fire—or a Palestinian state.”

ECONOMY CREATES 275,000 JOBS IN FEBRUARY. UNEMPLOYMENT EDGES UP TO 3.9%. The economy continued to create jobs at a rapid pace in February, with employment up by 275,000. However, any concerns about an excessive pace of job growth are alleviated by the fact that the prior two months’ total was revised down by 167,000. This puts the three-month average at 265,000, Dean Baker noted at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (3/8).

The household survey showed a less encouraging picture. The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 3.9% as employment actually fell by 184,000 in the household survey, but the rate remained under 4% for the 27th month to keep the longest string of this low unemployment since the late 1960s. The gap between job growth in the establishment survey and employment growth in the household survey over the last year now stands at 1,149,000.

As noted before, other labor market data, such as weekly unemployment claims and the ADP job numbers, seem far more consistent with the establishment survey. Also, if the household survey proves to be closer to the mark, then productivity is growing far more rapidly than the data now indicate.

SENATE DEMS CALL ON SCHUMER TO REOPEN WWII-ERA COMMISSION ON ‘WAR PROFITEERING.’ Six senators this week sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for him to “reconstitute the World War II-era Truman Committee to investigate war profiteering and price gouging in the American military industrial complex,” Thor Benson reported at Common Dreams (3/7)

The senators include Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Peter Welch (D-VT). The letter states that the US will spend nearly $1 trillion on the military this year, including a small portion of which will go to funding the defense of Ukraine, and the money that goes to military contractors must be used efficiently and cost-effectively.

“Almost half that money will go to a handful of hugely profitable defense contractors. [The Department of Defense] accounts for about two-thirds of all federal contracting activity, obligating more money than all U.S. civilian agencies put together,” the letter reads. “As the Government Accountability Office has repeatedly shown, this vast contracting often takes place without adequate safeguards against waste, fraud, and abuse.”

NC REPUBLICANS NOMINATE EXTREMISTS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. North Carolina’s primary elections on March 5 highlighted the fundamental asymmetry between the two parties: Far-right extremists dominated in key Republican primaries, while mainstream Democrats advanced to face many of those same GOP hardliners. Some of the few remaining conservative Democratic lawmakers, who have often helped the GOP pass its reactionary agenda, also lost primaries to more progressive challengers, Stephen Wolf noted at Daily Kos (3/6).

The Tar Heel State’s election for governor, which is the nation’s most important gubernatorial contest in 2024, offers a stark example of that divide. Far-right Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who won the GOP nomination in a 65-19 landslide, has embraced countless conspiracy theories—including the denial of Joe Biden’s victory—and he also has a long record of shockingly offensive statements targeting Jews, Muslims, women, LGBTQ people, and the Civil Rights Movement. By contrast, state Attorney General Josh Stein, a conventional Democrat with a moderate record, won his party’s nomination 70-14.

Robinson would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, while Stein would be its first Jewish chief executive, setting up a blunt contrast: Robinson has denied the Holocaust, approvingly quoted Adolf Hitler, and espoused other antisemitic tropes. Some Republicans have worried that Robinson’s extremism could cost them the election—one well-funded GOP rival even ran ads excoriating him over his antisemitism—as could Robinson’s past advocacy for banning abortion without exception.

But Robinson was by no means the only Republican extremist to prevail on Tuesday night.

Schools superintendent Catherine Truitt lost her primary in a 52-48 upset to home-schooler Michele Morrow, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and has attacked public schools as “indoctrination centers.” Pro-MAGA attorney Luke Farley also won the GOP primary for the open Labor Commissioner’s office by a 37-28 margin against state Rep. Jon Hardister, who has more ties to the party establishment.

For lieutenant governor, Republican Hal Weatherman led Jim O’Neill 20-16, and both will advance to a May 14 runoff. Weatherman has worked as a top staffer for multiple far-right Republicans such as former Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. O’Neill has served as district attorney in blue-leaning Forsyth County since 2009 and narrowly lost the 2020 election for attorney general to Stein by a 50.1-49.9 margin, but he won reelection in 2022 as a tough on crime prosecutor whose allies ran racist ads against his Black opponent.

The state Supreme Court is another key battleground. Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, who is challenging Democratic Justice Allison Riggs, upheld a ruling last year stating that “life begins at conception”—only for his court to then withdraw its opinion amid a backlash over the implication that it would ban almost all abortions and in vitro fertilization.

Griffin won without opposition, while Riggs, a voting rights lawyer whom Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper appointed last year, won the Democratic primary 69-31 over Superior Court Judge Lora Cubbage.

A chief enabler of the GOP’s far-right legislative agenda over the past year has been state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who was elected in 2022 as a mainstream Democrat in a solidly blue seat but then switched parties in April 2023. However, that betrayal may spurred Democratic primary voters to oust her mother, Pat Cotham, a moderate member of the Mecklenburg County Commission.

Tricia Cotham also learned who her Democratic opponent will be this fall, local Jewish community leader Nicole Sidman. Republicans gerrymandered Cotham’s seat to become much more hospitable for the GOP, but it still would have supported Donald Trump by just a 50-48 margin and has been trending to the left. Consequently, the 105th District will be one of the top legislative races to watch for whether Republicans will maintain their veto-proof three-fifths supermajorities.

Of the Democrats who faced progressive primary challengers for frequently siding with Republicans, two lost: state Sen. Mke Woodard and state Rep. Michael Wray. Both Democrats have helped Republicans override Cooper’s vetoes of the GOP’s budget and bills that weakened gun-safety requirements and promoted charter schools. The two also received campaign support from a group tied to top state Republicans. Both, however, represent solidly blue districts, so their opponents should have no trouble winning in November.

From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2024

Populist.com