America's Talking - Episode 43: Biden administration will fight to keep mask mandate for planes, trains and airports.

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Fed report: Inflation passed on to consumers, will continue for months. Biden administration will fight to keep mask mandate for planes, trains and airports. States launch 'border strike force' to challenge Biden on lack of enforcement Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Casey, I just found out this morning that the America and Focus podcast is a bit of a hit in Denmark. Dan, we're international. I've Google translated a phrase for our hefty Danish audience. Talks called DuHav. Welcome to America and Focus. I'm Cole McNeely, General Manager of America's Talking Network. America and Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. You can listen to America and Focus and all of our podcast at AmericasTalking.com. That's America's Talking.com. Now here's your host, Dan McAulb.

Thank you, Cole, and welcome to the America in Focus podcast, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAleb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. America in Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. You can find all of the Center Square's great podcasts at Americastalking.com. Joining me today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. We are recording this on Friday, April 22nd. Casey, I just found out this morning that the America and Focus podcast is a bit of a hit in Denmark. Do you speak Danish?

Dan, we're international. I do, you know, as you probably know, I am fluent in Danish as well as several European languages, of course. And for that reason, I've Google translated a phrase for our hefty Danish audience. And here it is. This is how you say thank you in Danish. Talkscal Duhoff? Okay.

So you notice that intonation. That is classic southeastern Sweden. So, you know, a lot of our listeners that's going to be over their head. But yeah,

that's classic southeastern Danish. So. I don't know. I think you need to work on that. When we take our show on the road, go out to all our fans. Let's go on tour, Dan.

The good thing is, when we fly over to Denmark, we won't have to wear masks on airplanes. Wow, wow. See that segue? That is in the biz what we call a segue. That's pretty good.

Tell us about that. A Florida judge earlier this week said the transportation mask mandate that's been in place since the beginning of the pandemic is not legal. The CDC did not have the authority to continuously authorize it. And the Biden administration is appealing. Tell us more. Yeah, so these mask mandates have been really crumbling around the country, even in the strictest states, places like where you live, Dan, in Illinois, other strict states like California and New York, they've really relented on their mask mandates. There's been a lot of science recently kind of questioning the efficacy of mask, particularly cloth masks, and whether they really do much to help.

There's also, just to mean, you know, people become less afraid of COVID. but it's been a while. There's been more widespread vaccination and boosters at this point. And so I think the general sentiment is that people want to move on. But one mandate that has hung clinging by its fingernails has been the federal transit mandate on planes, trains, airports, that kind of thing. So that had been issued by the CDC. And so that had remained in place. It was expired to or it was set to expire.

And then the Biden administration extended it. And so it's become kind of this point of controversy, especially because the CDC saw fit to lift Title 42, which is a Trump-era immigration policy that in the name of COVID expedited the expulsion of illegal immigrants. So it gave border agents the power to really quickly get illegal immigrants out of the country because they might have COVID, right? And so CDC said that, you know, that we no longer needed that, but we still needed masks on planes, which upset a lot of people.

But, you know, we can get more into the legal challenge. But basically a judge overturned this. And now the Biden administration at first said they weren't going to, they didn't really do anything. They didn't say either way. It seemed like they weren't going to challenge it. They got blowback from their own party. And so they suddenly announced actually they are going to challenge the judge's ruling.

for many Americans, that's going to be disappointing that the Biden administration is challenging it. Did you see all the videos? This happened. I think it was on Monday, right? And folks that were in the air when pilots announced the news, there were celebrations, it seemed like, across the country. Do you see any of those videos? I saw those videos. I, you know, I spend most of the workday school. scrolling Twitter as you know as as I'm sure I know you do as well. No. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no I yeah,

I've definitely seen all these videos, you know, Twitter has become even more in the spotlight. You must be on less stuff. But it's actually it's kind of a little microcosm where people are unfiltered. You don't get the media filter on all the news and everything that we saw. Uh, you know, we didn't see a lot of videos of angry passengers like we're leaving our masks on. Fight COVID. Fight COVID chance. You know, you didn't see. see that kind of stuff. You saw relieved people, you know, pilots celebrating stewardesses, you know, flat attendants celebrating, passengers singing, you know, just general feeling is relief. I don't know if you followed the Babylon B, but it's a Christian satire site. And they ran a headline

that said, you know, Americans relieve, they don't longer have to pretend to eat for five hours on place. I think we are all in that. I definitely did that. I definitely did that one flying, you know. Yeah. Just have one little bag of peanuts and stretch it out for an hour. So I didn't have to put my mask back on. Right. And of course there are some who are disappointed or even upset about the news.

It's COVID has further divided the country over things like mask mandates and vaccine mandates. But we'll be following the appeal when it goes before an appellate court. And we'll see what happens there. But for the time being, You can fly and ride on a train and be in an airport mask-free. Let's move on, Casey. You mentioned Title 42 and immigration earlier. A lot of news on the border front, including a coalition of U.S. states

who have formed what they're calling a strike force to fight back against the surge and illegal immigration under the Biden administration. What's going on there? Yeah, the strike force is a really interesting development. You're seeing a lot of unity among states, among governors who are fed up with the, you know, the Biden administration's lack of enforcement and immigration law. Now to, in defense of the Biden administration, this is something that, you know, Democrat administrations have kind of been doing. They did it all during, you know, the Obama administration, which is, hey, actually, we just don't have to enforce the law. You know, Congress passes the law, but it's the executive branches within their power to actually enforce the law or to, you know, choose not to or to just purposely do such a poor job that it's not really doing much to address the problem.

And so there's kind of, I think, a moral disagreement on, you know, how many illegal immigrants should be allowed to come into the country or if at all they should be and if they should be deported when they get here. So that's kind of the point of division. But these governors, many of whom are taking the brunt of these migrants into their, you know, into their states. And these are Republican governors, correct? Yes, although I believe, yeah, I believe there's one Democrat, but I can check on that. But there's 26 in all. And Larry Hogan, yeah, Larry Hogan's one. So, not that he's a Democrat, but it's just like it's all the way up in the East Coast.

It's up, you know, South Dakota governor, Kristynoem. Just want to point out, this is like not just border states or something. It's 26. It's around the country. It is, you know, a pretty Republican-led effort. But what we're seeing is that they're coming together and saying, you know, you have to actually enforce the law. A lot of them have sent National Guard to the border to help do this. I really think that this could be the beginning of a more concerted effort.

I don't know what that's going to mean. But if you have this many states and they want to start actually defying what is now kind of a weak Biden administration, they could actually really make some progress. It's not, the problem is the money, but, you know, Biden or Greg Abbott even said, you know, he was going to pay for the wall himself. Texas. Yeah, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was going to pay for the border wall himself. So I think in a way, this has been an issue for a long time. Trump really revived it and made it, I think, more, you know, politically necessary to talk about. I think a lot of Republicans would rather avoid it, but they're kind of being forced to address it. So this is going to be really interesting to watch, especially because the polling has shown that Americans are really worried about this. And so news of this strike force, the coalition of 26 states, comes just about a month before Title 42 is to end. And there's a huge concern that, first tell us a little bit about Title 42, but there's a huge concern that there's already been a surge in illegal immigration in this country. But there's a huge concern that once Title 42 ends, that there's going to be a surge on top of the surge. But explain what Title 42 is.

Yeah, they're almost certainly will be. And Title 42 is that Trump era policy that allowed border agents to, you know, in the name of COVID, expedite the removal of illegal immigrants. And so, you know, Biden removing that, you know, in a few weeks is really a bit stirred up a lot of this attention on the border. And you're right that, you know, illegal immigration has absolutely soared since Biden took office. I mean, we're talking like in the millions of people now that are being encountered at the border. And that doesn't count those who are just getting by undetected. And there's really no way to know how many people are getting by detected. So we're talking millions of people.

I mean, I think populations of large cities that you're familiar with, like more than all those people coming in over the span of a few months. And so it really is enough to cause all kinds of economic changes, demographic changes, just neighborhood changes. price of change is like, you know, when you're having hundreds of thousands of people pouring across, it can really affect a lot of things. And so when Title 43 is set to lift in a few weeks, so Border Patrol has admitted that this is going to lead to an increase in illegal immigrants. It seems that a lot of them have kind of been waiting. This is given some more teeth to Border Patrol than they have had in the past. And so the estimate I've seen is that there could be another million people surge across once Title 42 is lifted, because

they're kind of been waiting in a holding pattern because of it. You know, a lot of what incentivizes people to come illegally is the way our system is set up is that you can get caught. It's like caught and released into the country. And then so. But, yeah,

and you have to, right, you have to promise to come back to your court date, but the vast majority do not come back. I mean, we're not talking like 50, 50. We're talking like somewhere around 90% that don't come back.

And so, under title 42 you actually get removed but uh you know without that it's more of hey okay we'll release you into texas come back your court date in a few weeks and you know they can be i would say halfway to mexico but that's not quite the right it's kind of the opposite so uh they could be in new york state they can be in northern california they could be in ohio i mean there's no way of knowing where they could be there's no way of tracking them down florida giovara yeah exactly and they know that so so And I think the Democratic Party knows that too. And it's kind of a system set up to for it.

It's fulfilling the purpose, I think, for which Democrats want it to do because they want more immigration. They've encouraged it. They say, you know, that this is a fundamental good. But, you know, I do want to pour it out before we move on that, you know, the polling is shown that Americans are increasingly worried about this. And probably the increased numbers and data is behind some of that. But the recent Gallup poll found that 60% of surveyed Americans are worried about illegal immigration. So 60% is enough to really be, you know, beyond, it's not just a Republican issue. This is, that means you're getting a lot of independence and some Democrats.

If you can get anything to 60% concern. And so 41% of those are worried a great deal. And then there's, you know, there's another 19% who are the equivalent of, you know, like, somewhat worried. Only 23% are not worried at all. So, you know, this is on the minds of almost 80% of Americans. that only only 23% say they're not worried at all. So like I said, this is on their minds. And this is going to be, I think, a political nail in the coffin for Democrats that they don't get it under control.

Because right now, they're already with the backs against the wall because they are the incumbent administration during a midterm, which makes them a target. But in the way they have the economic problems with inflation out of control, they have this immigration issue. And they've kind of become the party of pro-masking people and pro very stringent COVID measures, even though those have fallen out of favor. So I think that unless something changes, we're going to see big changes in D.C. come November. And just to point out to most Democrats have been with Biden on his immigration policies, but not all Texas is in time. Congressional delegation, of course Texas has the largest border with Mexico. Texas' entire congressional delegation, including Democrats, have expressed concerns with President Biden over his mostly open border policies.

One more bit of news on the immigration front before we move on, the attorneys general of Texas and Missouri are going to be in your neighborhood next week, Casey, on Tuesday. on Tuesday they're going to participate in arguments over their lawsuit filed against the Biden administration's repeal of the Trump era remain in Mexico policy. The remain in Mexico policy was put in place by President Trump. And what it essentially does, similar to Title 42, but not COVID-related, is to send illegal immigrants who are making asylum claims back to Mexico. while they worked their way through the court system on their claims in the U.S. But President Biden on day one ended the remain in Mexico policy, Missouri, and Texas filed against that.

Two lower courts ruled in their favor, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take it up. So you'll be covering that on Tuesday. Yeah, yeah, I will. And so something to look out for at thecentersquare.com for sure. And on next week's podcast, you might hear something about it. one thing I want to add about this is when Biden came into office pretty early on he changed the rules for immigration customs and enforcement so ICE agents he changed the rules for who ice agents could deport basically catch and set up for deportation because you might think well you

know if people are released into the country why doesn't you know I know about ice they knock on doors and drag people out and it's so sad but Biden changed the rules explicitly where ICE agents are only prioritizing those with violent criminal records or those who have like, you know, serious criminal records. So the system is, is that Biden is trying to set up quite literally, you can come into the country. You know, you receive kind of some kind of court processing and you're given a court date and you're released into the U.S. But they know you're almost certainly not going to come to that court date. And they also know that they've instructed the people, the people who are in charge of catching those people and putting them out, they've explicitly told them to not go after people unless they have, you know, a serious criminal record. So there is a clear pathway into the U.S., like legally, not even just like a clear legal pathway. If you're not a violent criminal to immigrate to the U.S. and just come right in and you have real no, you can really have no fear of being caught or, you know, deported at all. Right. So I'm looking forward to your coverage of, of that.

next Tuesday. And we don't expect a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. It's just arguments, but they generally rule in late May and into June on all the cases that go before. So that'll be another story to follow at the center square.com. Why don't we move on, Casey? Report just out yesterday about inflation. What is this beige book? The beige book. Yeah, we don't have to. spend a ton of time on this, but I know that it would not be a Center Square podcast with you and I if we weren't hitting on inflation. Part of that is just it's become the story of the year. I think it's going to be a defining story of the Biden presidency.

I think in a few years, you know, when 2024 rolls around, people are going to be talking about the inflation presidency. And this is going to be a defining thing that Biden had to, you know, that Biden has to deal with if he even hopes to run for re-election, which I guess is a real question. But the Bayesian book is that the Federal Reserve releases this report. I believe it's eight times a year. And many people not, I mean, I know this. But the Federal Reserve has like 12 districts around the country. Your country's broken into like, there are 12 districts around the country. And to get the pulse on the economy, they interview a lot of banks, a lot of business people,

a lot of economic interests. They interview like economists, market experts, all kind of sources. And they put together this Bayer. page book. Now, in some ways, it's a little technical, but I do think it's interesting because anything that you see here is something that the Biden administration is admitting is a problem. Now, the beige book is a little bit removed from the Biden administration, but this still is part of the Biden administration. And I think it would be naive to think that there's no political influence on it. And what they admitted is that everyone that they're talking to, I'll read this quote,

inflationary pressures remained strong since the last report, with firms continuing to pass swiftly rising input costs through to consumers. That's you, listeners, consumers. Contacts across districts, particularly those in manufacturing, noted steep increases in raw materials, transportation, and labor costs. And it says later on that they expect inflation to continue for months. And so it's kind of just a no end insight. What stuck out to me most is one that they don't, They weren't able to say it'll probably be over by now. You may remember when the Biden administration was saying this was just transitory. They don't really say that anymore.

They just say it's getting, it's still here. They're not willing to venture a guest on when it will end. And the other thing they said is that it is being passed on to consumers. And so that's why we will cover it, that we want to cover what the average taxpayer is paying more for gas, for anything, for anything they see at the store. And it's impacting their daily life. And so essentially bottom line is these rising prices that consumers have been seeing at the grocery store, at the gas pump, the hardware store, wherever, they're only going to get worse before they level out. Yeah. I mean, there are some factors. I think it's very likely they'll get worse. You know, we see the inflation numbers continue to rise every month. And so in that sense, they will get worse. I mean, what happens in Ukraine is a factor. Ukraine is not the main factor in inflation and what we're seeing, but it is an aggravating factor.

And so if the problems persist in Ukraine, that's going to affect food prices and fuel. That's the biggest thing that Ukraine, you know, Ukraine affects a lot of things. But Ukraine produces a lot of food and everything with Russia, you know, they produce a lot of oil. So those are the two things to watch when it comes to the overseas conflict. All right. Let's move on. More good news or not for Americans. this week was a tax day was on Monday of this week.

We talked last week. Casey, you had said you'd already filed your taxes, but a lot of Americans who usually receive large tax refunds from the federal government. They're not seeing as large of an increase this year and or they're having to actually pay more back to the federal government. What's going on here? Yes, I got my tax.

tax refund, thankfully. I'm very grateful. I guess I can buy my Swedish plane tickets now for our tour there. But we could do a live podcast, Dan, from the capital of Sweden in front of a large crowd. Just, you know, I'm brainstorming here. But Sweden or Denmark? Did I say, do I need to give you a geography class, Casey? Wait, are we globally popular in Sweden or Denmark? Did I get it wrong? You got it wrong. It's Denmark. We just talked about it 20 minutes ago. Oh, man.

Yeah, wow. See, Dan, when you're, I'm so in the news, that can't be concerned with these other tertiary topics. I'm just an expert in the day. Yeah. Yeah. So, tax day. Tax day is great. You know, if you were listening, if you've been a longtime listener to the Center Square podcast here with me and Dan, you've remembered us talking a lot last year about the child tax credit, which was a Biden provision that basically,

it did two things. It took the child tax credit and made it bigger. It expanded it to $3,600. And then it allowed parents, well, it kind of depends, not quite that simple, but it expanded the tax credit. And then it made it where people would automatically receive that tax credit on a monthly basis, just auto-deposited into their bank account by the IRS. And so, you know, this came as a little surprise to a lot of people. And I really think we were ahead on a lot of the reporting here, you know, June came around of last year and suddenly people just started getting money in their bank accounts. And you were talking several hundred dollars, depending on how many children you had. If you had several children, you could be getting somewhere around like $1,000 just suddenly

direct deposit. And you didn't have to opt into it. You didn't have to apply. You didn't have to apply. It just started showing up. So a lot of people were really happy about this, you know. But, and it went from June through December. They really couldn't get the funding to re-up it.

So now become tag. day though a lot of people are finding that that money wasn't just free money it was just their tax refund ahead of time it was an advance on on the the tax credit that they usually file when they file their federal income tax right yeah they got an advance on their allowance basically the way to think about it they got an advance on their tax their tax refund last year so a lot of people are being surprised to find out that their tax refund is smaller than they expected um as small and if you were right up on the wire you you you actually could owe money and have to pay back that money that the government gave you.

So I don't know what the moral story here is, but no such thing is a free lunch, Dan, I don't know. But a lot of Americans, you know, we've been covering that story. And it's an interesting development to think, you know, actually you have to pay back part of your government hand out, basically. Right. Yeah, as I like to tell our journalists at the centersquare.com, there's no such thing as free money when it comes to the, when it comes to the government. it somebody's paying for something and now many Americans are finding there that those monthly tax child tax credits that they were celebrated at the time well it wasn't free money it was part of the child tax credit that usually leads to larger income tax returns come April right yeah I just

looked up how to say no such thing is a free lunch in Danish and I don't think I can blunder my way through that it is beyond me no I can give a That's right, huh? No, I think so. Well, we've got a few months, Casey. You start brushing up on your Danish before we hit the road. But that is all the time we have this week. For our listeners, you can find all of the Center Squares podcast at AmericasTalking.com.

Take a look. Please subscribe. There is no cost. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKeelib. This has been the America in Focus podcast. We'll talk to you next week.