America's Talking - Episode 82: Debt Ceiling Sets up Major Battle in Congress

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Join The Center Square’s Executive Editor Dan McCaleb and D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss the debt ceiling setting up a major battle in Congress. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen sent a letter to Congressional leaders Thursday notifying them that the agency has begun taking “extraordinary measures” as the federal government bumps up against its debt limit of just over $31 trillion. President Joe Biden touted Americans' rising wages over the weekend, but a closer look shows there is more to the story. --- Listen to Other ATN Productions: America's Talking: An interview podcast hosted by Austin Berg. Guests include professors, journalists, artists, business and nonprofit leaders, authors, and more. Everyday Economics: Join economist Dr. Orphe Divounguy and Chris Krug as they discuss global markets, inflation, and everything else that will help you understand the economic world around you. Future of Freedom: Future of Freedom is a bi-weekly podcast highlighting the work of the non-profits which are shaping the future of the freedom movement. Listeners will hear civil, intellectual conversations about why the organizations exist, what their mission is, and how they work to achieve it. Hosted by Scot Bertram. 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.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the America In Focus podcast, powered by the Center Square. America in Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. To support great podcasts like this one, please donate by clicking the link in the show description. Joining me today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief, Casey, how are you? Doing good, Dan. How are you? I'm doing well. We are recording this on Friday, January, 20th, and Casey, as I understand it, you and your lovely wife, Rebecca, have your bags packed and are ready to head to the hospital at any time to welcome your first child, a baby boy. How are you feeling? That's right. We have the go bag ready of a go bag of a different sort. But I'm feeling, you know, some mild trepidation, but overall excitement, overall excitement, as you said, first kid. So not too sure what to expect, but, you know, how hard can it be, right?

The baby's rooms all ready for. That's right. The back. That's right. Well, good luck. Congratulations. We at the Center Square and America's Talking Network are excited for you. Send pictures, please.

I will. You have any, what's your advice, Dan? You have your one piece of sage advice on what to do or how not to mess your kid up. Well, enjoy your sleep when you can because you're not going to get a whole lot of it over the next several months. I guess that's my best advice. Not great, but it is what it is. Wow, man, your poor children. Okay, yeah, let's get to the news, I guess.

You're ready to move on? Yeah, let's go. All right, let's do that. We do have some actual news to talk about this week. Casey, some debt ceiling deadlines hit this week, Janet, the Secretary of the Treasury warned of potential fallout, economic fallout, if lawmakers don't approve raising the debt ceiling yet again. What's going on here? Yeah, you know, with the election of Kevin McCarthy, a speaker of the house after rounds and rounds of

voting and drama, you may have breathed a sigh of relief, Dan. You may have said, wow, Congress can finally get back to some semblance of normal with no crises, no drama. You know, the omnibus past and McCarthy is in, but you would be wrong. You'd be very wrong because the the debt ceiling is hurtling down like an asteroid headed towards Capitol Hill. Wow. And it is going to be a, it's poised to be, you know, quite the fight. So, you know, the U.S. federal debt, Sir Pat, is of almost $31.5 trillion, which, you know, there's a whole separate conversation about what a problem is that the debt is so high. The debt last year passed both $30 trillion and $31 trillion.

Great. And now it's almost halfway to $32 trillion, right? we're you know the committee for responsible federal budget I had this in my story earlier this week they project that you know we're we're about to be hitting adding two trillion dollars a year to the debt like we're on pace to do that what's what that essentially means is the U.S. has been borrowing tons of money for years to pay its expenses right that's right and I mean just the debt the interest on the debt is extremely high I mean it's you know billions and billions of dollars. So it's kind of a snowballing problem. And what we're bumping up against now is there's actually a legal limit on how much debt the U.S. can have. And we have officially, we're bumping up against it now. So the U.S. Treasury Department is having to do all kinds of financial finangling to make sure that the federal government doesn't default on its debts, which would be really catastrophic economically. You know, we have a perfect, basically a perfect credit score right now because we're the United States.

and we've never defaulted. But if we were not able to make our debt payments, it would most economic experts say, they don't really know because it's never happened, but they say that it would start this cascade of negative economic effects. The stock market would just absolutely plummet. And, you know, it would actually be a global economic event

if that would happen. So there's a lot of pressure, both internal and external, to raise the debt limit, which is something Congress has to do. they've done it many times. They've done it, you know, multiple times in the last few years because of how quickly the debt grows. But it's become the new equivalent of kind of a government shutdown, right? Where, you know, we have to fund the government.

If we don't, everything's going to shut down. And sometimes lawmakers use that to actually get reforms. Now, so that's basically what's coming up. They have until about June now. Yellen basically said there's some things she can do with, you know, deferring different payments so that we can make it until about June 5th. But if we go beyond that, we're going to be in real trouble. And so, you know, people are pretty hard on the lawmakers saying, you know, you can't use the debt shutting down the government.

You can't use the potential catastrophic economic event to get fiscal reforms. It's not the right thing for the American people. But I am sympathetic to them because, you know, nothing ever changes in Washington. I mean, you know, there's no real spending. It's hardly ever cut. Nobody wants to be the one who's arguing for cutting some favor federal program of a lobbyist or something. So it never really happened. So if it ever is going to happen, it's when we're kind of under the gun in these kind of scenarios, or at least that's the thinking of those who are pushing for these kind of cuts. So this is something to keep an eye out. We'll definitely be covering it. But this is kind of like, you know, it could be, we basically have this, as I said, this asteroid. heading for the U.S. They projected it's going to hit around June 5th. It's still possible that it narrowly misses us, but it's definitely something to be looking out for because I think I would be, I would say, oh, this is not going to be too big a deal.

But after seeing how hard so many House Republicans fought over the House Speaker and how willing they were to drag that out for several days despite major pressure and consequences from their own party, who knows what they'd be willing to do in this scenario. All right. A little bit of hyperbole there with the metaphor on the giant asteroid. Dan, that's what the people want. The people like it. The viewers, they love hyperbole, okay?

Okay. All right, well, let's move on to another important story, something we've talked about frequently on America in focus, and that is the scourge that is fentanyl and the increased number of poisonings, overdoses, deaths. New report out this week shows that the children under 14, children under 14 are dying from fentanyl poisoning at a faster rate than any other age group. And you would think, of course, children under 14 aren't purposely going out and trying to get high on fentanyl. These are poisonings. Most of these are unintentional deaths. What's going on?

Yeah, I mean, this is one of the crises. of our generation, you know, this generation, I think. I mean, it's really tragic what's happening in the past two years. These synthetic opioids deaths happen when children have surged. Just reading, you know, from this report, these fentanyl-overrelated deaths among, you know, infants, which is children under age one. We're talking under age one, quadrupled from 2019 to 2021. It tripled among kids age one to four and nearly quadrupled between ages of five and 14. So, you know, I could be convinced that there's some 12, 13, or 14 year olds out there who are curious seeking out, you know, some drugs or something. But of course, no one year olds, no five

year olds, no, you know, are out here looking for drugs. So these are poisoning. They're really tragic. I think there still is a lack of awareness at just how dangerous fentanyl can be. When you can, just from contact, just from kind of touching it coming into contact with it, depending on how your body reacts, it can be extremely deadly. This isn't, this isn't marijuana, you know, I think All drugs are not created equal. This is marijuana where you can handle it, you know, use it and do things and see, you know, the minimal or not fatal, I guess, side effects. This is, you know, most experts are said this is probably the most dangerous drug to ever come on the streets in the U.S. And we're seeing that and we're seeing it affect kids.

And didn't we have a story about Halloween candy? Dan, I'm kind of reaching back in the archives here. Yeah, shortly before Halloween last year in October, several. police agencies, including the drug enforcement agent, the USDAA, issued alerts for parents to be on a lookout because, first let me say this. The precursors of fentanyl are made in China. They're shipped to Mexico where the cartels laced the fentanyl with other, into other opioids, apparently into candy or at least they're made to look like candy and then they the cartels smuggle the fentanyl across the border and it gets distributed around the country well police of course confiscate some of that

fentanyl and they found in the weeks leading up to halloween fentanyl um fentanyl laced candy in like candy boxes that were meant to look like candy now thankfully there was you know as far as I know no big fentanyl poisonings during the Halloween season, but yes, agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department, New York City, and federal agencies were warning about that leading up to it. A month, maybe six weeks ago, we also wrote at the Center Square.com about a San Francisco mother and her toddler child who were just playing in a park. The toddler was on the ground playing in the park, and the toddler contacted, you know, a small. amount of fentanyl, and the toddler almost died. Thankfully, they were able to revive the toddler. And we just did a story this week in Illinois, where in a downstate Illinois prison,

more than 20 guards and other personnel needed medical care, and some required hospitalization after they came in contact with a quote-unquote unknown substance that very well could be fentanyl. It's still being investigated. But essentially what the police union, the fraternal order of police, which represents the guards, a few months ago, came out with concerns that fentanyl-laced paper was being mailed into the guard. And they needed better scrutiny of inmates mail. And so just this week, you had the poisoning. So it's very dangerous.

It can be deadly. Just the smallest amount of it can be deadly. And as you said, this is a new scourge. And it largely has to do with the flow of illegal immigration across our southern border. That's right. I mean, I think that's one reason it hasn't been talked about as much because it has that political tie to the border, which is kind of a third rail for some politicians. But I think another reason we're seeing these kinds of deaths. and Bethany Blankly has done so good reporting on this as a contributor for us. But the portions, I guess you'd say, the doses are so much smaller than what you'd expect from other drugs.

Like if you did as much fentanyl as someone would do of cocaine, for instance, you would die, for sure. If you did as much fentanyl as just a normal dose of crack cocaine, you would die. I mean, two milligrams of fentanyl, which is about the size of a mosquito, is enough to, to kill an adult, a grown man. And it's a hundred times more potent than morphine. So we're talking crazy. I mean, you have to have so you have to have so much restraint, you know, to use this drug safely, if there is a way to use it safely.

And the DEA said last month that in 20, or they said that in 2022, they, you know, captured C's through their efforts, enough fentanyl to kill everyone in the United States. I mean, if you, if you spread up the doses across. you know, all, you know, well over 300 million of us, it'd be enough to kill us all. So this is a major problem. This isn't a one-off. This isn't some border scare with some kind of, you know, racial undertones. This is a real thing. Kids are dying. There's enough coming into the country to kill literally everyone. It's only getting worse. The overdoses are getting worse. The illegal immigration that is helping drive it is getting worse. And there's no big solutions

coming out on this. We're just kind of, it's like ER nurses is just trying to keep someone a live right now. There's no big cure. There's no solution. So I think it could very reasonably expect this problem to only get worse over the next year, which is really, really sad and frightening. Yeah. When you talk about how little of a dose it takes for fentanyl to kill an adult human, we've run a photograph at the son of centerscore.com with a penny and this just little minuscule spec almost next to the penny. much, I mean, significantly smaller than the penny. And that's the dose that that's all the dose that it takes to kill an adult male.

So definitely parents, be aware of this issue. Talk to your kids about it deadly and it's only, it looks like it's continuing to get worse. Let's move on though, Casey. You wrote this week at thecentersquare.com about continued inflation and how higher housing costs are really hurting Americans. What's happening here? Yeah, I mean, we've written a lot about inflation at the cintessware.com. The latest inflation data has shown a more optimistic picture, right?

We saw producer prices this week actually fell. Consumer prices fell in December, right? Correct. And consumer prices have been better as well, although, you know, things like food were still matire, which we talked about at length before. But another thing that's really, you know, everyone needs and it's much more expensive is housing. You know, housing costs have continued to rise. They've been a major factor at times in driving the index, the inflation index is up.

Americans are having trouble just paying rent. Of course, it varies by if you have a homeowner, if you're a homeowner versus if you're renting. But this survey came out from US News and World Report. And they interviewed 2,000 adults who either had to move back in with. with their family or had to get, you know, a roommate or housemate because of, you know, to help make ends meet. And 71% say cost of living increases or had a major, you know, personal impact on them. And 59% of those surveyed said inflation and higher housing costs made them consider moving to another city. So, you know, this is something that is happening

a lot, actually, especially from states like California to Texas. I think that's probably the best example is Americans fleeing the high prices and taxes of California. to go to other states like Texas. I'm from Texas, as you know, Dan. I think, you know, it's one of the... I know, Casey. Just move out. Yeah.

I'm from Texas and everyone back home, they're always talking about all these Californians who are moving in. I mean, there's Facebook groups about it. It is a cultural phenomenon, it is economic phenomenon because all these Californians are showing up in the houses are a third of the costs. And they can just pay cash. you know, they might have their house half paid off in California. They sell it with that equity of, you know, 400 grand or something.

Most towns in Texas, you can buy a mansion for 400 grand. Whereas in California, you know, that may not be able to get you, get you a house. So it's really having a big impact because the housing prices are so different. Some of this is related to taxes. I don't know. I mean, I know that in Illinois, have you seen this in Illinois? Do you guys have Californians coming there? Are you just two?

Oh, no, Illinois is very much like California where the out migration is just rapid. People are fleeing Illinois. We have the second highest property taxes in the country. That certainly drives some of that. The other side of this, too, though, is if you're a younger adult, you know, maybe in your first or second job after, if you graduated from college or whatever, and you're looking maybe to get in the housing market to buy a house now, just with interest rates have soared as well. So that makes the cost of buying a home now that much more expensive. Right.

And for those young, for young people, though, it makes total sense to leave. I mean, you could try to stay in a city in California where you're going to pay so much taxes. It's so expensive. Or you can move somewhere cool like Nashville or Austin, right, where those are, they're growing economically. even Miami is really becoming a big tech hub. So there's these cities that are because of low taxes, because of low cost or just absorbing a lot of talent from the rest of the country. So there's real world impacts. It's not just, oh, Americans are having more trouble making ends meet and their budgets are tighter.

I mean, people are leaving. People are picking up, moving, taking their, you know, taking jobs in different places, changing the economies, everything. That three of the states you mentioned there, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida are also, Three of just a small number of states that have no income tax. Right. No state income tax. It's a wonder that those states are growing in states like California, Illinois, New York are shrinking in population. Yeah, Dan has me out here in a 307 square foot apartment in the D.C. area.

And your boy will love every inch of it. No, no compassion. No, great. Great. I'm not buying. I wouldn't have it any other way, Dean. I'm not believing it anyway. All right, Casey, another story this week. Biden over the weekend, last weekend, touted rising wages in a tweet. You did a fact check on that, found that inflation has kept working, even though wages are increasing. inflation in many cases has exceeded the rising wages so Americans essentially can't enjoy the benefits. That's right. I mean, so Biden, you know, we've been fact-checking Biden lately, Dan, and it's been fun.

He talked about, you know, last week we talked about how he said food prices were going down, which isn't even close to true. You know, we talked about that. But this time around, he said wages. This is a quote from his tweet, wages. are climbing faster than prices. Now, it's definitely true, as you said, that wages have gone up, and they've gone up pretty significantly.

But I don't think most Americans are just laying the money on the bed like Scrooge McDuck and swimming around in it. I don't think people are feeling the benefits of these new, you know, purported higher wages because, in fact, things like what we talked about, food, shelter have eroded, eroded those so much. So, you know, I talked to economists on this. And E.J. Antony economist at the Heritage Foundation, he pointed out that only a few months of the Biden presidency have we seen wages and earnings rise faster than prices, right? It's only been a few months of that. And over the last two years, you know, the average family has lost $6,000 in purchasing power because prices have risen so much faster than wages. So what I think is happening here is Biden has taken, you know, December, which has was a good economic month for him. and he's going out and he's spiking the football and he's claiming he's he's kind of I think purposely

being misleading and what he's saying and acting like things are just on the up and up. It's been that way like we've recovered when actually all the economic data for the last two years has been really bad and now he had a decent month in December and he's trying to make that seem like everything is turned around but it could very well be that the January data is just as bad as the previous months. And even if January is better, it's still kind of disingenuous to talk about how good things are when Americans have seen their income, their wages rise slower than their prices. I mean, we wrote about this, I wrote about this at the beginning of the year because Biden announced a pay raise for most federal workers. It was 4.6%. But consumer prices have risen 6.5% in the last 12 months.

So you don't have to be a mass genius or an economist to say, wait a minute, you know, 4.6% raise for federal employees and 6.5% higher consumer prices. And I also point out that the year before that, federal workers only got a 2.7% raise. So, and prices have definitely risen rose much more than 2.7% that year. So I don't know. I don't know if this is quite as much of a clear, you know, false fact check. but you could definitely put it in the misleading category. Got it.

I appreciate you fact-checking President Biden because it seems like there's so few out there in the media nowadays that are. Of course, we had, it seems like a million and one fact-checkers just a few years ago. That's true. Casey, that's all the time we have. Good luck to you and your wife. We're excited for you. I can't wait to hear the news. A reminder to our listeners, you can find all of the CenterSquars 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. We'll talk to you next week, and maybe we'll get Casey's son on it.