Letters from an American - February 29, 2024

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

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February 29th, 2024. Today's story is that in the negotiations to fund the government and pass the National Security Supplemental Bill, MAGA Republicans appear to be losing ground. Biden appears to be trying to weaken them further by making it clear it is Republicans, not Democrats, who are preventing new, strict border security legislation. The first of two continuing resolutions to fund the government for fiscal year 2024 will expire tomorrow. tomorrow. Fiscal year 2024 began on October 1, 2023, and Congress agreed to a top-line budget, but it has been unable to fund the necessary appropriations because MAGA Republicans have insisted on having their extreme demands met in those measures. In this struggle, former President Trump has urged his loyalists not to give way, telling them in September 2023, unless you get everything, shut it down. But a poll from last September showed that 75%

of Americans oppose using brinksmanship over a government shutdown to bargain for partisan gain. After kicking the can down the road by passing three previous continuing resolutions, House Republicans a week ago expected a shutdown, but today they backed off. The House passed a short-term continuing resolution that pushes back the dates on which the two continuing resolutions expire, from March 1st and March 8th to March 8th and March 22nd. The vote was 320 to 99 in the House with 113 Republicans joining 207 Democrats to pass the measure. 97 Republicans opposed the bill as did two Democrats who were protesting the lack of aid to Ukraine. Tonight, the Senate approved the continuing resolution by a vote of 77 to 13.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign it tomorrow. What we have done today has overcome the opposition of the MAGA hard right and gives us a formula for completing the appropriations process in a way that does not shut the government down and capitulate to extremists, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said. Trump opposes helping Ukraine in its fight to resist Russia's invasion, and under his orders, MAGA Republicans have also stalled the National Security Supplemental Bill, which contains Ukrainian aid, as well as aid to Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The measure passed the Senate on February 13th by a strong bipartisan vote of 70 to 29,

and is expected to pass the House if Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, takes it up, but so far he has refused. Today, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican of Pennsylvania, told reporters that several House Republicans are willing to sign a discharge petition to force Speaker Johnson to bring a national security supplemental measure to the floor for a vote. A simple majority can force a vote on a bill through a discharge petition, but such a measure is rare because it undermines the House Speaker. With Johnson refusing to take up the Senate measure, Fitzpatrick and his colleague, Representative Jared Golden, a Democrat of Maine,

have prepared their own pared-down aid measure. Fitzpatrick told CNN's Jake Tapper Tuesday that we are trying to add an additional pressure point on something that has to happen. Speakers from the parliaments of 23 nations wrote to Johnson yesterday and urged him to take up the Senate measure, saying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has challenged the entire democratic world, jeopardizing the security in the whole European and Euro-Atlantic area, and that the world is rapidly moving towards the destruction of the sustainable world order. On Tuesday, Johnson met with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat of New York, to discuss the importance of funding the government

and passing the National Security Supplemental Bill. There, he was the odd man out as the other five pressed upon him how crucial funding for Ukraine is for U.S. national security. Yesterday, Johnson told Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity that the leaders told him he was on an island by myself and it was me versus everyone else in the room. He went on, what the liberal media doesn't understand, Sean, is that if you're here in Washington and you're described as a leader that's on an island by themselves, it probably means you're standing with the American people. But an AP-NORC poll released today shows that it is not Johnson, but the others at that meeting who are standing with the American people. 74% of Americans, including 62% of Republicans, support U.S. aid to Ukraine's military. The struggle between Biden and Trump for control over U.S. politics played out starkly today as both were in Texas to talk about immigration. Both say the influx of migrants at the southern border of the United States needs to

be better managed. But Trump blames Biden for what he compares to a war in which an invasion of criminal fighting age men are pouring over the border. NBC News noted that there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the United States and that, in fact, their review of crime data shows overall crime levels dropping in those cities that have received the most migrants. Trump promises he would solve immigration issues instantly with executive orders, although his orders during his term face legal challenges. In contrast to Trump's promise to dictate a solution, Biden emphasized that the government should work for the people. In Texas, he noted that the federal government has rushed emergency personnel and funds to the state to combat the deadly wildfires there that have

burned more than a million acres, and he urged Congress to pass a law to address border issues, as he has asked it to since he took office. Such a measure is popular. And earlier this month, Trump undermined a bill that was tilted so far to the right that it drew the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and the U.S. Border Patrol Union. the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and the U.S. Border Patrol union. Senators from both parties had spent four months hammering the bill out at the insistence of House Republicans, who then killed it when Trump, apparently hoping to keep the issue open for his campaign, told them to. Today, Biden urged Congress to pass the $20.2 billion bipartisan border bill that would, he said, give Border Patrol officers the resources they need. 100 additional immigration judges to deal with the backlog of cases, 4,300 more asylum officers, more immigrant visas,

and emergency authority for the president to shut the border when it becomes overwhelmed. Biden spoke directly to Trump. Instead of playing politics with the issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me, or I'll join you, in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill. We can do it together. Instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we just get together and get it done? Let's remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people, not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. We work for the American people. Trump may not share that perspective. Last night, Maggie Haberman and Andrew Higgins of the New York Times reported that

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has undermined democracy in Hungary, will visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago next week as Trump scrambles to find the more than half a billion dollars he needs to pay the fines and penalties courts have ordered. We cannot interfere in other countries' elections, Orban said last week, but we would very much like to see President Donald Trump return to the White House. by Michael Moss.