America's Talking - Episode 53: Manchin, Sinema defy Biden on removing filibuster for abortion law as Republicans rally opposition

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Join The Center Square's Executive Editor Dan McCaleb & D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss: Manchin, Sinema defy Biden on removing filibuster for abortion law as Republicans rally opposition. FBI’s response to attacks on pregnancy clinics undergoes scrutiny. Feds: 46 states saw GDP decline in first quarter of this year. Poll: 83% of Americans cutting back on personal spending due to inflation & Poll: 88% of small businesses concerned recession is around the corner. Study: Teen cannabis use rose, mental health declined in states with fewer legal restrictions 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.

This is not the end of this fight. This is just the beginning and this is taking the cork off the bottle and it's going to go to the states. A lot of states have passed or in the process of passing different restrictions on abortion, which would have been previously illegal. Welcome to America in Focus. I'm Cole McNeely General Manager of America's Talking Network. If you have not already, we ask you hit that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast so you don't miss any new episodes of American Focus. Now here's your host, Dan McCaleb. Thank you, Cole.

And welcome to the America in Focus podcast. podcast powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulam, 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 podcast at Americastalking.com. That's America's talking.com. Joining me today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. We're recording this on Friday, July 1st. It is Independence Day weekend, Casey. Any fireworks or parade in your future? Oh, yes, Dan. I'm a big Independence Day guy going all traditional burgers, swimming, the grill. We're going to be me and some friends.

Actually, my whole church is meeting on the National Mall to watch the big Washington, D.C. fireworks display that probably your tax dollars pay for every year, but I'll enjoy it. I'll think of you as I'm watching your tax dollars go up and smoke. But it's pretty cool show. There's a ton of people, a ton of traffic. but it's it's pretty cool what about you uh yeah well the the town i live in the suburban chicago town i live in has its annual um for support fourth of july excuse me um weekend festival this weekend and my wife will and i'll be going there and enjoying some live music and good food and fireworks are sunday night independence day july fourth is monday but the fireworks are sunday night uh here so looking forward to it Yeah, I forgot to tell you that in solidarity with our nation, I'm going to be coming in at noon every day next week as an act of patriotism.

I hope that's okay. We'll have to talk about that plan a little bit there, Casey. Yeah. I don't know that that's going to work. Yeah. All right. All right. We actually have some news to talk about today.

Casey, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling last week, overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the issue of abortion rights back to the states, President Joe Biden this week suggested that the Senate should end the filibuster to pass abortion rights laws via Congress. But he got some pretty quick blowback for that. Tell us about this. Yeah, this abortion issue, if you thought it was a Supreme Court issue, those days are over. I mean, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and said there's no Constitution. right to an abortion. I said this on our last podcast. I said, this is not the end of this fight. This is just the beginning. And this is, you know, taking the cork off the bottle. And it's going to go

to the states, which is absolutely true. A lot of states are already have passed or in the process of passing different restrictions on abortion, which would have been previously illegal. And so it's going to the states, but it's also heading to Congress. And that's largely because President Joe Biden is feeling a lot of pressure from his base, you know, Representative Alexandria Ocasia Cortez has been really vocal about this. She is really motivating, whipping up support among the base to do something on abortion, to stand against it. A lot of the more progressive members of the party are demanding by and do something and putting

a lot of pressure on him. At the same time, Democrats are eager to change the narrative heading into a midterm election. You know, right now, record high gas prices, record high inflation. a struggling war in Ukraine on the heels of a chaotic and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, that's not a great narrative for the Democrats going in. So they're seeing, you know, from everything I've seen and from their comments, they're seeing this abortion ruling as an opportunity to take a hard left on the narrative and make this election about abortion. That's their best hope, I think, of not having this be a referendum on the economy,

which all the polling and experts suggest would be devastating for, Democrats in the midterm. So that's what they're trying to do. That's kind of the landscape. So practically, you know, Biden is saying, we need to pass federal law that codifies Roe v. Wade. Now, to do that, they would need 60 U.S. senators, right? Unless they overturn the filibuster, then they would just need a simple majority. But we've already seen, so Biden, you know, he goes out, he gives a speech in Spain. He was an overseas trip related to Ukraine and other things. And in Spain, yesterday, he calls for this. We need to end the filibuster.

He did this once before with voting rights. He said, we need to do a carve out on the filibuster to pass something on voting rights. It's that important. He gets on the plane. But before he's even landed in the U.S., senators, Kristen Cinema and Joe Manchin of Arizona. Both Democrats. Yeah, both Democrats. And mansions from West Virginia, they already.

came out and said, we're not doing that. They want to work with the Republicans. They want to find a deal. They're holding the line on the filibuster. And so this is kind of a familiar narrative, probably somewhat frustrated probably for some Democrats. But I think, you know, Manchin and cinema are saying, hey, we need to think long term on this because if we set a precedent for new king the filibuster, what happens to Republicans are back in charge? They can ram through anything they want. So this is a big battle. It's not going anywhere. We're going to keep seeing this play out in the states. I think it may be gridlocked at least for now in Congress, but Biden is going to keep getting pressure. He's meeting with governors today to see what they can do to make,

you know, expand abortion access. But the Roe v. Wade decision of overturning did not end this battle. It just, it's Senate to every level of government and really increase the battle. Without ending the filibuster, let's say that it doesn't happen because, you know, two Democrats, as you mentioned, Kirsten Sennel and Joe Manchin both said they oppose ending the filibuster. So let's say they do need 60 votes to codify something allowing abortion across the country. What are the chances of Democrats reaching any kind of an agreement? They need 10 Republicans. Is that possible?

You know, it's totally, we're totally guessing, I think, because this issue has not really been put before members of Congress in such a specific way for, you know, literally decades. I mean, you know, there's been different discussions about things, but they've never really had to get too specific on it because it was not possible to do much because of Roe v. Wade. So, you know, in some ways we're guessing, but my read on it is I don't think anything's going to happen. You know, they can't come to agreements on much less controversial things. I think, you know, Democrats are wanting, I don't think Democrats really want to do anything on this. I think they want to just use it to campaign against Republicans

and get a lot of people to vote for them. Some issues, sadly, it often feels like lawmakers don't want to solve them because they're so useful in getting out the vote. Republicans have their own issues, Democrats have theirs. So I don't think that there's a lot of motivation to actually do much among the whole party, especially because I think they know that nothing can happen.

I mean, what Republican is going to go against, you know, his party on this when it's such, so motivating. And then I think, you know, you might say, well, what if they agree to a certain number of weeks to allow abortion? But like, why would a, you know, why would a Republican do that when he's, he or she has got the big victory in this? I mean, they, the pro-lifers have a total victory. So they don't, there's no motivation for them to work with Democrats because right now they have exactly what they want. And that Republicans are probably better suited fighting these state battles.

Sticking with the topic of abortion, ever since the Supreme Court's draft opinion in this case was leaked almost a couple of months ago now, six weeks or so ago, pro-life groups, churches, women's health care organizations that oppose abortion, they've been under attack, not just verbal attack, but actual violent attacks against. them. The FBI says it's investigating these things, but many, particularly Republicans, question whether the FBI is being aggressive enough in investigating these attacks. What's going on there? Yeah, I mean, I spoke with the FBI for this story, and they did say they are investigating. They don't comment on a lot of congressional things like this, you know, in response to Republican

lawmakers raising concerns. But, you know, it hits this narrative of people don't trust federal law enforcement like they used to. There's been a lot of questions about partisanship within federal laws. It's force me to think of like Lisa Page and Peter Strach talking about they're going to take down Trump. And those kind of things have made people really see partisanship when the IRS was only targeting conservative groups. So people, Republican lawmakers are skeptical of these federal law enforcement

agencies, federal agencies in general. And so they're keeping a close eye on this. And it's a little bit of what aboutism. But I think their argument is, you know, if these were, you know, you know, if these were LGBT groups or if these were pro-abortion clinics and, you know, every federal agency would be having like a day of silence and be making this a top line for law enforcement priority. And they're saying, hey, we need to make sure these pregnancy clinics and pro-life groups get the same attention that a more left-leaning group would. And so, you know, I talked to

a lot of pro-life groups about this. They're really welcoming it. They're glad that grass I think, you know, they're glad that Grassley has been, Senator Chuck Grass has been focusing on this. And I'd be curious to toss the UTA, one of the arguments that they made, we don't talk too much about the media or criticize the media. But the common pro-life argument I heard talking to people is they feel like the media has not covered this as much as they should. So I'm kind of wary. It's easy to always beat up the media. But what is your, do you feel that discrepancy? What's your read on that?

Yeah, you know, it certainly doesn't lead CNN or MSNBC daily or nightly newscasts. And if you, and I don't religiously watch CNN or MSNBC. I tune in, I look at their headlines, et cetera, see what they're writing about, see what the news is as they see it. But it's rare to see coverage of this kind of thing. So I think it's a valid point, to be honest with. Yeah, and I think it's just, I mean, I don't think anyone doubts the FBI is doing something, but it's like, hey, let's not let this get swept under a rug.

This is something we're going to be following. And there's been more than 40. There's been arson attacks. There's been broken windows. There's been graffiti. There's even been hackers targeting, you know, states that have been passing abortion restrictions. And so this is something we're going to keep following. But I do think it's interesting.

And we'll see if, you know, just keep pulling the podcast. It's, you know, three months, six months go by. The FBI hasn't really gotten anywhere. I think that we're going to be writing about that as well. Yeah, well, we've got to if the mainstream media, it doesn't. So let's absolutely do check-ins with the FBI if we don't hear any news about arrests or anything like that. But another, the Supreme Court has been making news in recent weeks. That's true.

Another very big Supreme Court decision this week that we covered at the Center Square has to do with the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory authority. The Supreme Court said that the EPA does not have the authority to broadly regulate things like carbon emissions coming from coal plants. Essentially, the Supreme Court said that's Congress's job. That's not the EPA's job. Tell us about this ruling. Yeah, our intrepid reporter, Ritchie Maloof, covered this at thecentersquare.com.

He's doing a great job. I would say this is not exactly what it seems. But this is a huge ruling. I think some people were surprised by this. It limits the EPA's power pretty significantly at a time when many on the left are pushing the EPA to be much more aggressive on climate change, on regulating oil industries,

different things like that. I'm pushing, you know, clean energy alternatives, all of that. What's interesting here is the Supreme Court is not so much in my mind. I don't think there's so much targeting the EPA as they are. And of course, that's how it feels and it does have that effect. But they are saying, hey, Congress, you have this habit. And this is true. You have this habit of giving kind of a vague direction and several billion, you know,

hundred billion dollars or something to an agency. And then they just kind of take it from there and do whatever they want. And so we've transitioned in this country, like in the last hundred years to where so much of what is being done in the government is doing by, you know, nameless, faceless bureaucrats is being done by federal agencies. They're making their own rules. They're passing them. You know, Congress can't even repeal many of these federal agencies' rules if it's been more than a certain number of days. And so what I think the Supreme Court is saying is they're reining in all federal agencies that have taken this power and said, hey, Congress has given us the keys to the kingdom and we can do whatever we want. And they're saying, well, not quite. You can do only what Congress

told you you can do. And this really does hit on the problem. So much of Congress's power, they have just delegated to these agencies delegated to the executive branch. They're not making specific laws about what should be done. They're just saying, we delegate this much money to create an agency that will then later decide what we should do. And so I think this time the EPA overstep their authority. It would be interesting to see how this might affect other agencies that could be perceived as overstepping the authority in the same way. And conservatives, strict constitutionalists have been arguing for years, decades, that these agencies, such as the EPA, they're not lawmakers. They weren't elected by the people, and they shouldn't have such

broad powers to regulate individuals and businesses and whatnot. So this is essentially the Supreme Court adhering strictly to the U.S. Constitution and what powers it grants the executive branch, the congressional branch, et cetera, and saying, hey, this has been going on too long. Congress needs to write laws, not the environmental protection agency or any of these other administrative branches of government. So I agree. This is a broad-reaching opinion that could have ramifications across the executive branch. Yeah, any congressional, you know, any federal rule you want to challenge, you can point to this and say, hey, Congress didn't say you could do this and you can challenge it. And I think that's what we're going to see happen. So, you know, who knows how successful

that'll be. I think, you know, they want to let them take it. take that too far. But if you're a business interest and you feel like you're being overregulated, this could be your in to challenge that rule at the Supreme Court. Let's turn to the economy. Casey, of course, we've talked a lot on American focus. We've covered inflation and record high gas prices a lot at thecenter square.com. A new report released yesterday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that 46 of the 50 U.S. states saw a decline in gross domestic product in the first quarter of the year. Tell us about that and what does it mean. That's not good. And it's overall the U.S. saw a 1.6% decrease in GDP. And actually, you know, you could make the argument now that we officially are in a recession. We had back-to-back quarter.

We've had such a, it's a GDP shrinks, you know, are you in a recession? I mean, it's pretty interesting. And so when the next GDP numbers come out, if there is bad too, I mean, two quarters of poor GDP is definitely recession territory. So overall, in the first three months of this year, the US GDP decreased by 1.6%. As you said, 46 states saw their GDP decrease. Only four solid increase. those who saw an increase were, you know, it was minor. The increase is, you know, if you live in these states, you can pat yourself on the back.

Michigan, you know, Vermont saw an increase. And so overall, though, you know, we see like Alaska, it's a negative 8.2% on GDP. I mean, some of these numbers are pretty bad. California, negative 1%. I know we have a lot of Illinois listeners, negative 2.5%. GDP in Illinois. So North Dakota, negative 6.3%. I'm just throwing some of these out.

Wyoming's 9.7%. These are some pretty big numbers. And if you see your GDP decreased by almost 10% in three months, I mean, that is pretty significant. There's a few reasons for this. Part of it is a drop off from just the huge infusion of federal spending that we saw last year that has caused, you know, some of the inflation we're experiencing.

You know, once you stop spending, that money, you're going to see the drop off in a way some of that growth is kind of artificial because it's just propped up by federal money. You know, another thing that we found in this economic analysis is that Americans saw a decrease in their savings account and their disposable income in those three months. So this is, you know, GDP is some big number. Like, what does it really mean? You know, okay, the size of the economy decrease, but how does that impact mean?

It's like, well, the average American's savings account is smaller than it was at the beginning of this year, and they have less disposable income in their budget than they did at the beginning of January. Right. We are now, it's July 1st. We're recording this on July 1st. We are now in the third quarter of the calendar year. So in the coming weeks, we'll probably start seeing reports about second quarter figures.

And if GDP shrinks in the second quarter, isn't that the definition of a recession, two quarters in a row of a shrinking economy? It is. Yeah. And that's kind of a technical definition, which is, you know, we've talked about the political complications, but it's ill-timed if you're a Democrat in a swing district in the House because you're hitting a official recession, you know, less than six months before Election Day. So this is going to be really interesting, but it's it's got the political complications. It's got overall economic recession implications, and it's got, you know, individual implications for the bank accounts of regular people. Well, sticking with the economy and how it's impacting Americans, as we talked about, to learn 40-year high inflation, the cost of everything.

Of course, we hit record highs in June for gas prices. They have since come down a little bit, although not that much, still flirting with the national average of $5 a gallon gasoline. But the cost of food, all groceries, clothing, everything, services are up. poll shows that the vast majority of Americans are cutting back on their personal spending because of the high cost. Yeah, this is one of the trending stories on our website at the sooner square.com. And Provident Bank, which is based in New Jersey, they released this report, which found

that about 83% of those surveyed have cut back on their personal spending because of higher prices, inflation, right? 83%. So that's just about, I guess that's just about everybody. You can't get 83% of people to agree on anything. Yeah, I mean, the way that polls are, there's always going to people who just always say no or yes to any poll. So if you ask people, you know, do you like Santa Claus?

You're going to get 5% or 10% who say no. I mean, it's just, you know, it's really hard. You never get 100% on anything. So these are really high numbers. Another noteworthy number is 23% say they have made drastic changes to their spending. I mean, that's one in four people have had a drastic. what they call a drastic change to their life since Biden took office because of these higher poles. And so people are doing things like eliminating non-essential purchases. They're not traveling

like they thought they were. And, you know, gas prices are a big part of it. But the price of everything is more expensive. So the group said in addition to gasoline, groceries, clothing, respondents named baby products, meat, utilities, household goods, milk and alcohol as adding the most to their monthly bills. And so this is, This isn't like, you know, new cars and vacations that people are struggling with or that are given a problem. This is milk. This is baby formula.

This is utilities. This is filling up your car. So this is everyday stuff. This isn't just the luxuries of life. People are feeling this. And they're having to make, you know, what they call drastic cutbacks just to make ends meet. And when Americans stop spending money because of that has widespread implications, for the economy as whole.

We just talked about GDP declined in the first quarter. If Americans curb their spending to a certain degree, that's going to affect small businesses, the wider economy. So it doesn't bode well. No, I mean, it just does a ripple effect. Like, you know, we just talked about how this poll talks about how many Americans are cutting down their travel. That's one of the first things to go.

So if you have any kind of travel industry or a business that helps people travel or you operate some kind of Airbnb or cottage on a mountain. I mean, anyone who works in the travel industry now is going to suffer. And so that's just one example of how it runs downhill. If there's less travel, there's less money for your business. But that impacts everything. When people can only buy the essentials, they don't have that disposable income. All the things outside of that are going to suffer because the money can't flow to them.

And time for one more story, Casey. And this one's a little bit of a disturbing one. As states across the U.S. have been legalizing recreational marijuana. A new study came out that you reported on about the effects, particularly on younger Americans. What does that study found? This is a really, really interesting study. As you said, states around the country have been loosening restrictions. decriminalizing doing different things over the last decade or so.

And the Drug Free America Foundation, along with this group called Johnny's Ambassadors, they commissioned the study. They wanted to look at all 50 states. It's wide ranging and say, what have been the effects of these laws? And so before I kind of share it, I'll say it's kind of hard to say, you know, what is causation, what actually is responsible for what, to make a one-to-one connection. It's not always easy. But what they found is that states that have loosened restriction on marijuana,

have seen more mental health problems among teenagers. So you can't say for sure that this state is having more mental health problems with teenagers 100% because they have allowed more access to marijuana. But it's really interesting that there is that correlation and that it's, you know, across multiple states. It's not just, you know, one county or something. This is a 50 state study. And when you talk about the health impacts of marijuana, it's pretty controversial.

Some people, you claim to use it for medicinal purposes and all that. But there's been a lot of studies that have shown that using THC products increases your risk of psychosis and all kinds of mental health issues. Now, there's been some studies that have not really found a strong link there. And when you look at the National Institute of Health on this, they say that there have been studies, but not all show it. And more research needs to be done. but there definitely have been studies that have found mental health problems for people who consume a lot of marijuana. And so this is a wide-ranging study and it found that it's impacting teens.

And teens are among the most vulnerable from the experts I talked to. One, because they're most vulnerable to the marketing for these things, right? And two, because their brains are still developing. You know, I think the male brain, which won't surprise many of our female listeners. A male brain, I think, doesn't done developing until like the age of 25. So these teens who are using these products, they're especially vulnerable to the impacts. And so at least now we're seeing what could be a linkage between allowing legalization of marijuana and real health consequences for teens. And one thing I toss this to you, Dan, but I found it really interesting.

This study came out right after Jewel was banned by the FDA from the markets, which is vaping, nicotine. things. And one of the main reasons that Joel has been in controversy is because of teenagers using vapes. So it's interesting that, you know, Jewel can be banned, but marijuana is still okay across the country. It's just an interesting fact point. Yeah. The FDA has received widespread criticism for that. Yes, teens shouldn't be vaping, but it's, vaping is better than smoking cigarettes, for example, and when it comes to your physical health. But definitely interesting, definitely something particularly parents need to be aware of. Again, the legalization of weed in America is still relatively in its infancy. You know, some states, Colorado, it's been legal

now for almost a decade. Other states are just now doing it. But it's something parents need to pay attention to. Because according to this study, at least, there may be some correlation to teen smoking marijuana and these increased mental health issues. But Casey, that's all the time we have this week for our listeners. You can find all of the Center Squares podcast at America's Talking.com. Take a look.

Please subscribe. There is no cost. This has been the America in Focus podcast. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAulb. Happy Independence Day weekend. Casey and our listeners, we'll talk to you next week.