This article is from September 12, 2019. However it is a reminder of several factors of our justice system. First the hysteria around cannabis needs to be addressed at the federal level. I don’t know if it is older people not able to process that reefer madness was a complete lie made up to scare people / kids off using the devil’s weed. The other thing I noticed was that the sentence was way over the top. Why? Racism clearly. She is Native American in a state known for being very racist against the first people. The third thing I noticed was the lack of rehabilitation the state had just looking for her to be returned to prison. The lack of support for a former inmate, the stigma of the conviction in the population, and the crazy need for the state to keep applying more pressure to get money / harass a former inmate until they break and are returned to prison. Please notice the difference in treatment a poor woman got in the legal system vs what wealthy tRump got. Hugs
Sitting in her jail cell this week, Patricia Spottedcrow couldn’t imagine where she was going to get the money she needed for her release.
In 2010, the young Oklahoma mother, who had been caught selling $31 worth of marijuana to a police informant after financial troubles caused her to lose her home, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. It was her first-ever offense, and the lengthy sentence drew national attention, sparking a movement that led to her early release.
But once she was home free, Spottedcrow still owed thousands in court fees that she struggled to pay, since her felony conviction made it difficult to find a job. Notices about overdue payments piled up, with late fees accumulating on top of the original fines. On Monday, the 34-year-old was arrested on a bench warrant that required her to stay in jail until she could come up with $1,139.90 in overdue fees, which she didn’t have. Nearly a decade after her initial arrest, she was still ensnarled in the criminal justice system, and had no idea when she would see her kids again.
“I had no idea how I was going to pay this off,” Spottedcrow told KFOR on Wednesday, after strangers raised the money for her release. “I knew I was going to be sitting here for a while.”
In 2011, Spottedcrow became an unwitting poster child for criminal justice reform when the Tulsa World featured her in a series about women incarcerated in Oklahoma. Then 25, she had just entered prison for the first time, and didn’t expect to be reunited with her young children until they were teenagers.
At the time of her arrest, Spottedcrow was unemployed and without a permanent home, the paper reported. She was staying at her mother’s house in the small town of Kingfisher, Okla., when a police informant showed up and bought an $11 bag of marijuana. Two weeks later, he returned to buy another $20 worth of the drug from Spottedcrow. Both mother and daughter were charged with distribution of a controlled substance, and, because Spottedcrow’s children were at home when the transaction took place, possession of a dangerous substance in the presence of a minor.
“I was home on vacation and it was just there, and I thought we could get some extra money,” Spottedcrow told the paper. “I’ve lost everything because of it.”
The two women both were offered plea deals that would have netted them only two years in prison, the World reported, but Spottedcrow didn’t want her 50-year-old mother, who has health issues, incarcerated. Because neither had a prior criminal record and they had sold only a small amount of pot, they took their chances and pleaded guilty without negotiating a sentencing agreement, assuming they would be granted probation.
Instead, the judge sentenced Spottedcrow to 10 years in prison for the distribution charge, plus another two years for possession. Her mother received a 30-year suspended sentence so that she could take care of the children. Kingfisher County Associate District Judge Susie Pritchett, who retired not long afterward, told the World she thought the sentence was lenient. The mother-daughter pair had been behind “an extensive operation,” she claimed, adding, “It was a way of life for them.”
Spottedcrow said that wasn’t true. “I’ve never been in trouble, and this is a real eye-opener,” she told the paper at the start of her prison stint. “My lifestyle is not like this. I’m not coming back. I’m going to get out of here, be with my kids and live my life.”
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After the World’s story published in 2011, supporters rallied around Spottedcrow’s cause, urging officials to reconsider her punishment. At the time, Oklahoma had the highest per capita rate of female incarceration in the country, a title it continues to hold today. Advocates contended that lengthy sentences like hers were part of the problem, and questioned whether racial bias could have played a role — Spottedcrow is part Native American and part African American.
That same year, a different judge reviewed Spottedcrow’s sentence and agreed to shave off four years. Then, in 2012, then-Gov. Mary Fallin (R) approved her parole. Spottedcrow got home in time to surprise her kids when they stepped off the school bus. The American Civil Liberties Union described her release as a “bittersweet victory,” noting that serving only two years of a 12-year sentence was highly unusual, but the penalty that she received for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense wasn’t out of the ordinary for Oklahoma.
It also wasn’t the end of her troubles. In 2017, five years after Spottedcrow was released from prison, Ginnie Graham, a columnist for the World, checked in to see how she was doing. The picture that she painted was dispiriting: Spottedcrow’s growing family was living in a motel off the interstate because having a felony drug conviction on her record made it virtually impossible for her to find housing, and she hadn’t been able to find work, either.
“I’ve never had Section 8 or HUD, but I need it now,” she said. “I even called my (Cheyenne and Arapahoe) tribe to help, and they didn’t. I called the shelters, and they don’t take large families.”
That same year, at a forum on criminal justice reform, Spottedcrow explained that she couldn’t go back to working in nursing homes like she had done before her arrest because of her felony conviction. And in a small town like Kingfisher, every other potential employer already knew about her legal woes.
“I can’t even go in and act like I feel good about getting this job, because they already know who I am,” she said. “So it’s been really hard.”
While Spottedcrow struggled to care for her six children, the Kingfisher County Court Clerk’s Office mailed out more than a dozen notices saying she had fallen behind on her payments. Each letter meant that the court had tacked on another $10 fine, and that another $80 would be added on top of that if the office didn’t get the money within 10 days. When Spottedcrow first reported to prison, she owed $2,740 in fines. After her release, she made payments at least every other month, according to the World. But it barely made an impact on her ballooning debt: When she was arrested this week, she owed $3,569.76.
“We ask folks for years and years to continue to not have any interaction with law enforcement, to pay these fines and fees, and to pay for this supervision,” Nicole McAfee, director of policy and advocacy for the ACLU of Oklahoma, told KFOR. “In a way, we just oftentimes set folks up for failure.”
Spottedcrow’s arrest on Monday brought renewed attention to her nearly decade-old court case. KFOR morning news anchor Ali Meyer, who detailed the saga in a widely shared Twitter thread, noted that cannabis has been a booming industry in Oklahoma ever since the state legalized medical marijuana in 2018, and left it up to doctors to determine who qualified.
On Tuesday afternoon, Meyer posted the number for the Kingfisher County Court Clerk’s Office, which would allow anyone to make payments on Spottedcrow’s behalf. By Wednesday, seven anonymous supporters had covered not just the $1,139.90 that she needed to get out of jail, but her entire $3,569.76 outstanding balance, the station reported.
She’s out! Patricia Spottedcrow walked out of the Oklahoma Co. Jail today with no court fines hanging over her head. Guys, this is the face of a fresh start. To the generous, compassionate donors.. she says, “Thank you for everything!” pic.twitter.com/qaqlMHRtA2
Well well well. Now that he got his party / his guy elected, he admits it was all just a game that was not possible. He is trying to shove some of the years of slime off himself and crawl to the side of good. Too late Newt. You choose your path, stay in your pen or your own fellows will turn on you and destroy you themselves. Hugs
Newt Gingrich during the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 17 July 2024. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Newt Gingrich, the former US House speaker and presidential hopeful, said a section of his own Republican party was “rabid” over immigration and predicted Donald Trump’s suggestion that he could deport documented people as well as millions of undocumented people will not come to pass.
“I’d be very surprised if you see any significant effort to change the game for people who are here legally,” Gingrich said, weeks before Trump’s return to the White House. “I just think there’s a very small faction of the party that’s rabid about this.”
He also warned that public support for mass deportations would “collapse” if stories began to come out “about mothers or babies or children being deported”.
The president-elect may not welcome Gingrich’s intervention. After all, Trump won last year’s election promising mass deportations involving the armed forces and detention camps. He has chosen ultra-hardliners including Tom Homan and Stephen Miller and has suggested his administration will attempt to remove children and documented people, telling NBC: “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
Also at issue is the fate of millions of so-called Dreamers, undocumented people who were children when they were brought to the US, and Trump’s vow to remove birthright citizenship, a right protected by the 14th amendment but which Trump says he will strike down by executive order.
Amid widespread predictions of chaos and protest, Gingrich said he was “passionately in favor of trying to help find a path to create legality for the Dreamers”, a position that may put him less at odds with Trump, given Trump’s suggestion he might accept a deal on the matter.
Gingrich continued: “It’s nonsense to say somebody who came here when they were two, only speaks English, graduated as a high school valedictorian and is currently a nurse or a doctor should be deported. We’re going to deport them and they don’t speak the language of whatever country their parents came from, and they’ve earned the right to be Americans?
“ … I think [the Trump administration has to] to realize that there are gradations here that we’re dealing with, and try to think through, how do you both meet the long-term identity and national security interests of the country and meet the human concerns. And I think it’s a real challenge.”
Now 81, Gingrich was a Georgia representative from 1979 to 1999, the last four years as House speaker. In 2012, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination. A prolific author, he remains close to Trump, to whom he offered advice during the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Gingrich spoke to the Guardian to mark the release of Journey to America with Newt and Callista Gingrich, a PBS documentary made with his wife about immigrants who have made major contributions to US public life.
“We are a nation of law despite some of the things that have been said [by Trump and his allies],” he said. “And I think that if you have legal standing in the American system, it’s very difficult to deport you. On the other hand, if you have no legal standing, it’s pretty easy to deport you, right? And I’m for doing the easy first. That’s why we should give [Dreamers] legal status, as a practical matter.”
Along those lines, Gingrich has put out a seven-step immigration plan, perhaps for Trump to consider.
Gingrich offered another warning: “Lincoln once said that with popular sentiment, anything is possible; without popular sentiment, nothing is possible. Well, you get very many human stories about mothers or babies or children being deported, then support for the deportation program will collapse.”
It’s weird we’re talking about our nation taking possession of Greenland. It’s even weirder we’re talking about taking it by force. It’s not a joke. Donald Trump is serious. He even sent Donald Trump Jr. there to make a point about taking the territory, unless he hoped Jr. wouldn’t come back. Unfortunately for our nation, he did.
Remember during the campaign when Trump promised “no more wars?” Now, he’s talking about starting three of them. He wants to take Greenland, which is a territory of Denmark.
Today, Sniffy Jr. shared a poll on X/Twitter showing that a high majority of Greenlanders wanted independence. What dumbass Jr. didn’t share is that the poll was conducted in 2019. I’m sure the numbers are close to that today, but if you want to cite a poll for your argument, you need one a little more recent than seven years ago. He also didn’t share that the question was “Can you envision Greenland being independent from Denmark?”. The poll, conducted by the University of Copenhagen, didn’t even ask if they wanted independence, just if they could see it in the future. It should also be noted that the poll didn’t ask if they wanted to become a territory of the United States.
If we’re going to use old polls, one from 2017 showed that 78 percent of Greenlanders oppose independence if it means a lower standard of living. Hey, Greenlanders, look at the standard of living in Puerto Rico.
Denmark is a member of NATO. The treaty is a commitment that every NATO nation will come to the defense of any other member who is attacked. It’s why Putin invaded Ukraine after Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in 2020. Putin believed Trump would destroy NATO. When Trump was ousted, Putin felt NATO was here for good and invaded Ukraine before Ukraine could apply for membership in NATO. That’s why it pisses me off when MAGAts say Putin never invaded while Trump was president. They ignore that Putin couldn’t as it would have been counterproductive to Trump’s attempt to destroy NATO. After Putin did invade Ukraine, two more nations joined the alliance, Finland and Sweden, the latter taking a neutral stance on all wars since 1814.
If Trump invades Greenland, every nation in NATO will be bound to defend Denmark’s territory, even Sweden….hell, even Canada. Trump would start a war with 31 nations, our own allies, by attacking Greenland. Has anyone told Trump this? Trump’s desire to steal Greenland is a new level of stupid that should be named after him. We could call it “Trump Stupid.”
Examples of Trump Stupid would be peeing on a car battery, having unprotected sex with one of Trump’s ex-girlfriends, giving Mike Tyson a wedgie, allowing your daughter to date Matt Gaetz, appointing RFK Jr. as director of Health and Human Services, staring into an eclipse, stating publicly that what you and your daughter have in common is sex, or voting for Donald Trump. Note that nearly half our nation is Trump Stupid enough to vote for Trump twice.
Trump is willing to start a war with 31 nations for a piece of property that has fewer people than Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Trump is also looking at Canada becoming our 51st state. Canada is a nation of 33 million people which would make it our second-largest state (replacing Texas and eliminating them from bragging about how big they are, ignoring Alaska since it became a state in 1959) and would add around 50 new seats to the House of Representatives. This would give the Democratic Party control of Congress. Please don’t tell Trump that.
Good luck in making Canadians proud U.S. citizens. There are Quebecers who don’t even like being Canadians. Calling a Quebecer an American is akin to calling a Scot British. I learned about that one for myself.
Trump wants to take back the Panama Canal which is owned by Panama. We returned it to them and there’s a treaty for that. As we learned during the first Trump regime, he doesn’t care about treaties. Panama is not going to return the canal to us, so Trump is talking about taking it by force, making him the second Republican president (sic) to invade that country
Trump is also talking about invading Mexico to destroy drug cartels. That would violate Mexico’s sovereignty. An invasion of Mexico would be like an invasion of Afghanistan in that we’d be there for two decades at minimum. It would be a huge mess for us to clean up, even decades after Trump is gone. Get that smile off your face.
Trump wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America is just him being belligerent. If he wanted it to be representative of the two continents (in case you’re a Republican, North America and South America), he’d propose calling it the Gulf of The Americas.
The Gulf has carried the name Gulf of Mexico since 1607, which is older than the United States. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said North America should be renamed “América Mexicana,” or “Mexican America,” because a founding document dating from 1814 that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way. Someone tell Trump. I think “Mexican America” has a nice ring to it.
What happens if the United States changes the name of the Gulf through legislation? Only the United States would recognize it and turn into a situation like the Sea of Japan. It’s referred to as the “Sea of Japan” in Japan and the West while it’s referred to as the “Whale Sea” in China. Russia calls it the “Japanese Sea,” South Korea calls it the “East Sea,” and North Korea named it the “East Sea of Korea.” There’s a lot of contention over this as the Koreas claim the name “Sea of Japan” didn’t become accepted internationally until they were under occupation by Japan.
We can change the name of the Gulf of Mexico or any other geographic location we want, but other nations are not required to follow our lead.
If Mexico changes the name of the Gulf to the Gulf of Tiny-Finger Fuhrer, we don’t have to play along but I might anyway.
Fun fact: The Greenland shark can live up to 250-500 years. They don’t become sexually mature until they’re around 150 and their gestation lasts from eight to 18 years. My question is, What do they do with themselves for those first 150 years?
Creative note: I wrote this cartoon yesterday, and then I wrote the polar bear cartoon. I decided to go with the Polar Bear first because I had to finish up the cartoon for the FXBG Advance, and the bear cartoon would be quicker to draw. Drawing all the lettering and spending five hours on this cartoon was the better choice for today’s work assignment.
I love this. The right wing media and republicans constantly lie about things with confidence expecting their viewers to never look up the truth about a situation. This page by Gov. Newsom is simple and easy to read. It totally destroys the lies pushed by right wing media and the maga cult. Hugs.
FACT: The number of CalFIRE personnel has nearly doubled since 2019 (from 5,829 to 10,741)
FACT: CalFIRE’s budget has nearly doubled since 2019 ($2 Billion to $3.8 Billion)
LIE – These Wildfires are Caused by California’s Mismanagement of Forest Lands
FACT: The budget for managing the forest (AKA “raking the forest”) is now TEN TIMES larger than it was when Governor Newsom took office. It was a $200 million annual budget in 2018. The state has now invested $2 billion, in addition to the $200 million annually.
FACT: California dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland and forest resilience, as well as adding unprecedented resources to support wildfire response. California officials treated more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023, and prescribed fires more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.
LIE – Governor Newsom is working with developers to change zoning in burned areas to allow “mass apartments”
LIE – California’s smelt fish policy led to the Southern California wildfires
This is an outlandish connection to make. The policy is not about water availability in Southern California.
Broadly, there is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot.
Orange County Water District, which supplies groundwater to the north half of the county, has enough supply to carry its 2.5 million customers through the worst of any potential droughts for 3 to 5 years.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California also has an abundance, with a record 3.8 million acre-feet of water in storage. That’s enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.
LIE – California Ran Out of Water and Reservoirs Are Empty
FACT: Wildland firefighters don’t use hydrants — they use water tenders. And that is what has been used to ensure continued water access. Three million gallons of water were stored in three large tanks for fire hydrants in the area before the Palisades fire, but the supply was exhausted because of the extraordinary nature of this hurricane-force firestorm.
FACT: The Governor has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir. While urban water systems are built for structure fires and fire suppression, not hurricane-force firestorms, it is important to understand what happened so we can be better prepared in the future.
FACT: There is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot.
Orange County Water District, which supplies groundwater to the north half of the county, has enough supply to carry its 2.5 million customers through the worst of any potential droughts for3 to 5 years.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — which serves 19 million people mostly with imported water — also has an abundance, “with a record 3.8 million acre-feet of water in storage,” (1 million acres of land with water that is 3.8 feet deep) according to Interim General Manager Deven Upadhyay, who issued a statement last week. That’s enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.
FACT: Reservoirs are full and water is available.
LIE: 60 fire trucks from the state of Oregon are being held up in Sacramento to for “emissions testing”
FACT: out-of-state fire trucks take part in. 15 minute safety & equipment inspection to ensure no issues with the vehicle. At the time of the original post, the Oregon firefighting teams were already in the Los Angeles area battling the blazes.
LIE: Firefighters are using women’s purses to fight fires.
FACT: The LAFD uses canvas bags to fight small trash fires because they are more efficient to put out the fires as opposed to a long hose.
LIE: The Hollywood sign is/was on fire.
FACT: It was not on fire.
California is using every available resource to fight the unprecedented wildfires impacting Southern California.
10,170 emergency personnel deployed
3,780 CalFire
2638 OES
1445 Caltrans
871 CDCR
836 CHP
855+ Guard (400 MP in LA County now)
1,059+ Fire Engines
143 water tenders (tanker trucks)
116 Dozers
52 Helicopters
9 Air Tankers
Latest Containment Update (Sun. January 12th at 8:09am PT)
Please visit CA.Gov/LAFires if you are looking for resources and real-time information on the fires happening right now.
I post this to again affirm that not all Christian denominations / churches are bigoted racist jerks using their holy book to bash others they don’t like. There are many good supportive Christians in the world as there are members of other faiths along with people of no faith. We should call out the bigots who use their religion to control others rather than as a guide for how they live their lives. But remember we must not blame all religious people / people of faith for the actions of those who are abusive of others. I am a live and let live person. I don’t want to control the lives of other people. I can barely handle being an adult in my own life, I don’t need the job of telling everyone else how to live. The caveat I will add to the live and let live way of life, it assumes others do not want to cause harm to others. Society has a responsibility to protect and care for each other and protect those who need such from those who do not respect the personhood of others. Hugs
Beth Bloom (L) and Pat Uleskey (R), among the couples getting married Saturday in downtown Rochester.
Love and resilience were on full display this past weekend at the inaugural Big Gay Wedding Day, held at Rochester’s First Universalist Church.
Organized by local Unitarian Universalist congregations, including First Unitarian Church of Rochester, First Universalist Church of Rochester and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canandaigua, the free event offered LGBTQ+ couples the opportunity to marry in a safe and affirming environment.
The event came at a time of growing concern over potential shifts in federal policies that some worry could threaten marriage equality and other LGBTQ+ protections under the incoming administration. Advocacy groups have voiced fears that hard-won rights for queer and trans individuals may be at risk.
Stephanie Ballard-Foster
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WXXI News
Caliana (L) and Angelas Rolon Torres (R) who were among the couples getting married Saturday in downtown Rochester.
Rev. Lane-Mairead Campbell, Minister of the First Universalist Church of Rochester and one of the event’s organizers, said the importance of providing certainty and support for LGBTQ+ couples in the face of these challenges cannot be overstated.
“We’re seeing anti-transgender legislation being upheld and passed like across our country, and so this is a way that we could provide some certainty for our community and be able to provide some space to be able to get married legally, safely, quickly, inexpensively,” said Campbell.
Local vendors were on hand to donate flowers, cakes and professional photography services to create a celebratory atmosphere. After the ceremonies, couples and their supporters gathered for a reception.
Rev. Shari Halliday-Quan, Lead Minister at the First Unitarian Church and an event organizer, said her own experience demonstrates why events like this are important. In 2012, same-sex marriage was illegal in New York, so she and her now-wife planned to marry in Massachusetts, where their Unitarian Universalist congregation welcomed same-sex weddings. By the time they wed, New York had legalized same-sex marriage, allowing them to marry at home.
Stephanie Ballard-Foster
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WXXI News
A wedding cake at an event in downtown Rochester on Saturday, titled, ‘Big Gay Wedding.’ Local vendors donated flowers, cakes, and professional photography for the event which was organized by LGBTQ+ advocates.
Even though more than a decade has passed, Halliday-Quan said the need to create safe and affirming spaces for queer couples remains pressing.
“It matters deeply,” she said. “I think today, that right now, we’re helping couples secure rights that they’re worried will be taken away. We all hope that that won’t be the case. But what I want folks to know, and what I think today really celebrates and uplifts, is that queer and trans people have a place in our community, that you are loved and worthy.”
Among the couples married during the event were Caliana and Angeles Rolon Torres, who first discovered the opportunity while scrolling through Instagram. The couple, grateful for the chance to marry without financial barriers, said the event was especially meaningful after facing financial struggles.
“It means the world in that regard,” said Caliana. “The fact that we can do something like this, and there’s any organization doing something like this that enables people to get married, not only for free, but also before people are worried about it and things like that, is incredible. Like, outside of the marriage itself, the fact that this is happening is an amazing concept.”
Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York in 2011, more than 25,000 same-sex couples in the state have tied the knot. Nationally, there are an estimated 711,000 married same-sex couples in the United States.
This is more than the general republican wish to hurt poor people to help the wealthy. This is about the tRump tax cut give aways to the very wealthy in the US costing the add of 8 trillion to the national debt. The republicans wrote the bill so the minor cuts to the lower income’s taxes sunset with in a couple years, but the wealthy people got to keep theirs for ten years. Now they are due to sunset and the government will receive a huge influx of revenue again to pay the bills of running a country, paying for the world’s largest bloated military, and to help the poorest people in the country survive with some dignity. But tRump and the republicans are determined to make those cuts permanent and never ending while constantly pushing for more cuts to their taxes. Their goal is to push the entire cost of running the government on to those least able to pay for it, the lower incomes while the upper incomes pay little to nothing. Then using the complaints of the people that their taxes are too high they will cut social services and the social safety nets for the poorest among us including the elderly and disabled. Plus they will stop funding road repairs and other infrastructure projects and when people complain will privatize the roads, selling sections to companies who will be able to charge tolls of any amount they wish to make profit off the public needing to get somewhere. How we stop them I don’t know. Idiots worried about the price of eggs bought every lie tRump made about how he was going to magically bring all the prices down to 2020 levels … when the stores were empty and we had no toilet paper. Now he admits that he can not and will not be lowering prices, and the cult is not getting upset about being lied to by the leader of their cult. Hugs
lawmakers estimating Trump’s domestic policy agenda — including tax cuts and border security proposals — costing as much as $10 trillion over the coming decade.
House Republicans are passing around a “menu” of more than $5 trillion in cuts they could use to bankroll President-elect Donald Trump’s top priorities this year, including tax cuts and border security.
The early list of potential spending offsets obtained by POLITICO includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and “reimagining” the Affordable Care Act.
Five people familiar with the document said those provisions are options to finance Republicans’ massive party-line reconciliation bill or other spending reform efforts, including those being spearheaded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The people, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations, said that the list originated from the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). Republicans involved in the reconciliation plans have been generally targeting the listed programs for several months, but internal GOP fights over trillions of dollars in potential cuts are just beginning.
The overall savings add up to as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years, though the list is highly ambitious and unlikely to all become law given narrow margins for Republicans in the House and Senate.
Cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the country’s largest anti-hunger program would spark massive opposition from Democrats and would also face some GOP resistance. House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford any Republican defections if he wants to pass a package on party lines.
Even proposed cuts to green energy tax credits, worth as much as $500 billion, could be tricky — as the document notes, they depend “on political viability.” Already 18 House Republicans — 14 of whom won reelection in November — warned Johnson against prematurely repealing some of the IRA’s energy tax credits, which are funding multiple manufacturing projects in GOP districts.
A House GOP source said that the “document is not intended to serve as a proposal, but instead as a menu of potential spending reductions for members to consider.”
Johnson and GOP leaders are hunting for trillions of dollars in cuts, with lawmakers estimating Trump’s domestic policy agenda — including tax cuts and border security proposals — costing as much as $10 trillion over the coming decade.
Johnson, with scores of House Republicans this week to chart the way forward, and groups of GOP members are set to meet with Trump in Florida this weekend.
In addition to Medicaid and ACA cuts, the document floats clawing back bipartisan infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act funding.
One senior GOP lawmaker, asked if there were any particularly controversial spending offsets dividing Republicans, replied: “They all feel pretty controversial.”
Johnson agreed to make $2.5 trillion in spending cuts through the budget reconciliation process as part of last year’s government funding negotiations. Asked in a brief interview Wednesday evening if he was targeting $5 trillion in spending offsets, he replied, “Not sure yet.”
The policy menu suggests Republicans could capture major savings from Medicaid — up to an estimated $2.3 trillion. The list includes so-called per-capita caps on Medicaid for states, meaning the program would be paid for based on population instead of being an open-ended entitlement, and would institute work requirements in the program.
The list also includes a policy to equalize payments in Medicaid for able-bodied adults with those of traditional Medicaid enrollment — those with disabilities or low-income children, which would save up to $690 billion.
It would “recapture” $46 billion in savings from Affordable Care Act health insurance plan subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, setting up a major policy battle. It would also limit eligibility for plans based on citizenship status.
Also on the chopping block are President Joe Biden’s climate policies, which are estimated to yield as much as $468 billion. That includes Trump’s repeated promise to repeal Biden’s “EV mandate,” as well as discontinuing “Green New Deal” provisions from the bipartisan infrastructure law and green energy grants from the IRA.
The green energy cuts could be particularly tricky from a political perspective. GOP lawmakers have long backed some technologies supported under the climate law, including supporting hydrogen, biofuels and carbon capture.
After Greenland, Canada. Then we liberate Great Britain, like Elon Cunt suggested. We may as well annex Phony Stark’s homeland, as well. Then why don’t we add Central and South America? That’ll stop immigration. We should also stop the Woke Mind Virus in English speaking Australia, too.
After handing Europe to Putin the final step is renaming our country Oceania.
‘Concerns About A Stronger-Than-Expected Economy’ Is A Real CNN Thing We Just Read by Rebecca Schoenkopf
Oh no everybody’s got jobs. This is terrible news for stonks! Read on Substack
Now that Yr Wonkette is doing thinky pieces instead of trying to keep up with every last bit of news, we won’t feel obligated to bring you every monthly jobs report, but golly, this story from CNN sure is a ride. Looka this headline: “Stocks tumble following blowout jobs report.”
Hey, Bobby.
We are informed that US stocks “plunged” Friday in response to a much better-than-expected jobs report for December, showing that the economy added 256,000 jobs, way more than the 153,000 jobs that Wall Street economists predicted. Investors were reportedly worried that meant that the Federal Reserve will be too nervous about possible inflation to make more interest rate cuts anytime soon:
The Dow dropped by 697 points, closing at 41,938, while the S&P 500 fell by 1.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was lower by 1.6%.
The three indices all finished the week in the red as Friday’s selloff erased the week’s previous gains.
That’s one way to report the strong job growth, which was accompanied by a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1 percent.
Or the numbers could also be reported with headlines like these, from ABC News and NBC News, respectively:
You know, just in case you needed a reminder that the stock market is not the economy, the stock market is not the economy, and did we also mention that the stock market is not the economy?
Traders now expect just a 2.7% chance the Fed will cut rates at its policy meeting later this month, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller companies, fell 2.2%, highlighting concerns about the impact of “higher for longer” interest rates.
And yes, it’s quite true that higher interest rates can be a drag on the economy, which is how the Fed deploys them, sometimes too aggressively, to keep inflation in check.
The story also noted that returns on 10-year Treasury notes,
spiked to 4.76% and the yield on the 30-year US treasury rose to 4.95%.
Rising yields signal concern about a stronger-than-expected economy, resurgent inflation and potentially fewer rate cuts in 2025 than anticipated.
Let’s just repeat that: “concern about a stronger-than-expected economy.” In other words, the strong economy that Joe Biden is handing off to Donald Trump as he leaves office is primarily a concern for big investors, not necessarily the rest of us proles out there.
The contrast in perceptions was evident even in the video attached to the CNN stocks story, which focuses more on the jobs numbers than on stocks. Reporter Matt Eagan was almost giddy, saying, “This is really good news for Main Street, right? It shows that workers are still very much in demand.” Eventually he did get to the response on Wall Street, but before that, Egan pointed out that yet again, workers’ buying power increased because wage growth outpaced inflation, yay.
Unemployment rate at 4.1%, widely considered to be “full employment.” Wages have risen 3.9% over the past 12 months, outpacing the inflation rate 2.8% during this period.
Rosenberg also helpfully reminds us that net job creation under Biden — 16.6 million jobs — is far greater than under the last three Republican presidents (Trump and both Bushes) combined, a piddling 1.9 million. Yes, yes, that includes the pandemic shock for Trump and the recovery of those jobs under both Trump and Biden — some nine million of ‘em lost and regained all told; roughly half of the bounceback occurred under Trump in the second half of 2020. But the pandemic job losses were all restored by June 2022, far earlier than most economists predicted, meaning that Biden’s economy has added around 6.8 million jobs since regaining the pandemic losses.
On the whole, the economy in 2024 added 2.2 million jobs, returning to something like the pre-pandemic job growth rate, and — we’re gonna say it again — reaching a “soft landing” from the high inflation that hit every industrialized country in the world following the pandemic and its disruption of supply chains. Joe Biden also pulled off something rarely seen in US history: Job gains in every single month of his presidency.
So congratulations, Mr. Trump. After cleaning up the mess made by the 2008 economic crash, Barack Obama handed you an economy that kept growing until the pandemic hit. Now Joe Biden, after getting things on track in the wake of the pandemic, will leave behind what just might be the best economy any incoming president has inherited.
Beth Bloom (L) and Pat Uleskey (R), among the couples getting married Saturday in downtown Rochester.Stephanie Ballard-Foster/WXXI News
Stephanie Ballard-Foster/WXXI News
Stephanie Ballard-Foster/WXXI News
