The Daily Signal - Congress Returns for Spending Fight, Harris Adds Policy Positions to Website, Apple Unveils iPhone 16 | Sept. 9

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

Description:      TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down:  Congress is back and top on their to do list is funding the government. The Harris campaign now has policy positions on its website.  The House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report detailing the failures of the Biden-Harris administration that led to that batched Afghanistan withdrawal.  Apple introduces the iPhone 16.   Relevant Links: https://kamalaharris.com/issues/      https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/WILLFULL-BLINDNESS-An-Assessment-of-the-Biden-Harris%20Administrations-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan-and-the-Chaos-that-Followed.pdf    Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is back in session, and there's really only one issue members have to tackle before the election, spending. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Monday, September 9. It's a little bit worse in Washington, D.C. this morning of 535 members of Congress and their staff returned to the nation's capital after August recess. And on top of Congress's to-do list is funding the government. The fiscal year ends on September 30th, and that new fiscal year begins. on October 1st. But because it's impossible for Congress to agree on passing 12 appropriations bills in just three weeks. Instead, they're going to pass something called a continuing resolution

or often referred to here in D.C. because we love acronyms as a CR. A CR kicks that spending can down the road and it continues to keep the government funded, at least likely through the election. So leadership in the Republican-led House has introduced a bill that funds the government not only through the election, but actually through March. And it also includes a Republican-backed bill called the Save Act. The Save Act is a voter security measure. And here with us to explain more about it and this spending fight is the Daily Signal's politics editor, Bradley Deadlin. Bradley, thanks for being back with us. Thanks for having me on.

So explain what the Save Act is first. So the SAVE Act, as you eloquently said, is going to be partnered with the continuing resolution, and it is a bill that would compel states to require proof of citizenship when registering new voters. It would also require states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls, and it would do that by integrating existing databases at the Department of Homeland Security and other federal government institutions to facilitate new requirements for states to remove these aliens from the voter rolls, right? So if you have access to these databases and the federal government has been tracking illegal immigration's fingers cross on that, but that is how these states could clean up their voter rolls from illegal immigration. So Republicans have been very clear that they back this. What about Democrats?

Yeah, critics say it's already illegal for illegal immigrants to vote in federal elections. But I don't know, you be the answer. You be the judge of this. How many illegal immigration laws are being upheld by the Biden administration right now? Not many. In fact, that is why Republicans are pushing so hard for it right now is because this is going to amend the motor voter laws of 1993. So in many states, these illegal immigrants are now eligible for driver's licenses and other

benefits. And this provides ample opportunity for local governments to intentionally or mistakenly register illegal immigrants to vote. So this is most likely not going anywhere. but it gives Republicans an opportunity to get Democrats on record voting against the integrity of U.S. elections saying that actually we don't think federal elections are just for American citizens anymore. We think it should be for all of those people, those millions of great, great people, that the people of Aurora and the people of Springfield, Ohio, etc., can testify to that they should be voting in federal election.

So then where does that leave the spending fight? Because there have been Republican members who have gone on record saying, I will not vote for a continuing resolution to keep the doors of the government open if it does not include the SAVE Act. Yeah, that is a problem for Republicans in the House. I think the answer is really, really simple. If I'm in Speaker Mike Johnson's office, for example, I say, listen, we have the opportunity to get Democrats on record against preventing illegal immigrants from voting. Will it go anywhere? No, it won't.

Great. That's a political win for us, but, you know, ideally would we like to get the Save Act? Sure, we would. But now we get to turn the election into a referendum on those types of issues, right? If you want the Save Act passed, if you want to make sure that your vote is protected from illegal immigrants, well, then vote for us come November 5th. If you want the next year of appropriations to be determined by Republicans in Congress and by President Donald Trump, vote for us on November 5th because once we get back in January,

into a new Congress will have the authority to negotiate those appropriations. And Republicans have a good chance, good chance of holding the House, a good chance of flipping the Senate, and potentially could take the White House as well. So in that situation, Republicans could be much better off passing a longer term CR where in the past, obviously, the Republican caucus has completely fallen apart amidst CR considerations. But now I think everyone's on the same page. We want to turn this into a referendum on government spending and the American people, obviously,

after inflation and after Biden's constant threats to raise taxes amidst large deficits, they want government spending to go down. And in all of the analysis that I have seen, which I have to think is pretty accurate, no one wants to shut down less than two months before an election. So that's not really on the table. Why risk the blame? Yeah. Why risk the blame?

I mean, some individual members might say that they're willing to shut down the government over the immigration issue. That is, in my opinion, a righteous shutdown. but the time for that was last year when we were negotiating a border security provision with supplementals that were going to be tied into appropriations. You know, there was a litany of different proposals for Congress to consider when appropriations were up last time. Republicans decide to walk away from that fight, and now it seems it's too close to the election

to actually justify a shutdown. So individual members might say I'd rather have a shutdown, but that changes when you have a critical mass of members saying, hey, we're going to go for a shutdown. Instead, I don't think if we ever reached that point that Republicans would go full speed ahead, they would back down and they would end up passing a continuing resolution. Bradley, any other major issues on the docket for Congress before the election? Too many, actually, in my opinion. They're going to be throwing as much at the wall to see what sticks in the next few weeks.

Congress is only in session three weeks until the November 5th election. They go on the October recess to go back in campaign, which there's a hidden narrative of incumbents getting advantages in elections that they ought not have. Anyway, House Judiciary Committee, the House Education Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, they all have separate investigations of the Biden administration, which is trying to directly implicate Vice President Harris, who's atop the Democratic ticket now, as well as other investigations that implicate her vice presidential nominee, Tim Walls. the governor of Minnesota. So they are doing all that they can there. And of course, there's also the bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump. So all of that means it's going to be a very busy three weeks for the House GOP. And I think Senator Schumer is happy to sit back and let all the chaos ensue and then spring his demands on the House GOP with regard to the continuing resolution whenever he sees fit. That's exactly what

happened last time, and it ended up working out for him because he got what he wanted. Well, never a dull moment here in Washington, D.C., and thank you for all of your coverage. Tell our listeners how they can keep up with everything that you're doing, of course, by visiting Dailyfool-com. But, Alice, can we follow your word? Well, yeah, dailysignal.com, and my Twitter is at Bradley Devlin. Excellent. Bradley, thanks.

We have some big news out of the Harris campaign today. They now have policy positions on their website. This was an important addition ahead of Harris's debate with former President Donald Trump taking place tomorrow night. So now if you go to the Harris campaign website and you click on issues, you're going to find policy positions that fall under four main buckets. The first bucket is build an opportunity economy and lower costs for families. Harris says that she will support tax cuts for the middle class. According to her platform, more than 100 million working and middle class Americans will get a tax cut if she's elected president. Harris and her running

make Tim Walls will, according to them, do this by restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle class and working Americans, the child tax credit, and earning income tax credit. Growing small businesses and adding protections for Social Security are some of the other economic policies that Harris is running on. Under that second bucket of the Harris campaign, she says that she will safeguard our fundamental freedoms. So what freedoms in particular is the Harris campaign talking about? Well, they list two. First, restore and protect reproductive freedom, and second, protect civil rights and freedoms. Under the third policy bucket is ensure safety and justice for all. Here, Harris provides her policy on guns, crime, the border,

fentanyl, and drugs, and says that no former president has immunity for crimes committed while in the White House. That last policy position is no doubt a reference to Trump and the Supreme Court's ruling on an immunity for president's official acts. Finally, Harris has a bucket of policy proposals dedicated to keep America safe, secure, and prosperous. This includes standing with our allies, supporting veterans, and investing in America. But not only is Harris providing some of her policy positions on her website, but she also has a tab under each of those four buckets with what she calls Trump's Project 2025 agenda that attacks former president Donald Trump's policy on a number of these positions. If you're curious and want to see it all for yourself, you can check out today's

show notes where we have a link to Harris's campaign platform issues. We just passed the third anniversary of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and over the weekend, the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report detailing the failures of the Biden Harris administration that led to that botched withdrawal. The GOP issued a full report that is 353 pages long. It concludes that the Biden-Harris administration prioritized the optics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. personnel on the ground. And that report further determined that the Biden-Harris administration misled and, in some instances, directly lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal from before the go-to-zero order until today.

This cover-up included mid-level administration officials all the way up to the White House, according to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Representative Michael McCall is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and he joined Fox News to discuss the report and the committee's findings. President Biden had no justification to go to this go to zero, pulling all military troops out, all contractors, going to zero, leaving our Marines at the end of the day, were left completely unprotected, and 13 servicemen and women died as a result of that. But Republicans were not the only ones to release a report. Democrats also issued a document on that withdrawal. and in it they claim that Republicans are manipulating the facts.

Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Meeks also accused GOP Chairman McCall of pursuing a predetermined partisan narrative about the Afghanistan withdrawal. Meeks also says the Republicans' partisan attempt to garner headlines rather than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their investigation have only increased with the heat of, of an election season. That full GOP report is in today's show notes. Fall is around the corner and that means all things pumpkin spice and of course the rollout of the latest iPhone. If you lost count, we're now on the reveal of iPhone 16. Apple introduced the iPhone 16 at a press event earlier today and there are over 1.3 billion iPhone users worldwide. so this affects a lot of people around the world.

So what exactly is in this new iPhone 16? Well, there's a lot of focus on AI or artificial intelligence with this model of the iPhone. Apple CEO Tim Cook says the iPhone 16 line is the first iPhone designed from the ground up for Apple intelligence. That's according to Axios. As far as features on the phone, there's a new camera control key and there's also a lot more fun colors to choose from. Apple has also just unveiled its latest watch and also its newest AirPods. The Apple Watch Series 10 will allow users to play music and other audio through its speakers. And Apple AirPods have some of those wild updates, if you ask me.

According to Axios, AirPods 4 gain spatial audio support and the ability to detect nods and headshakes as yes or no responses to Siri. The new iPhones are expected to be available in stores on Friday, September 20th. Before we go today, the Daily Signal is going to be bringing you live coverage of tomorrow night's debate. The debate starts at 9 p.m. ABC is hosting that debate, and before, during commercial breaks and after, the Daily Signal is going to be bringing you in-depth commentary and analysis of both candidates' comments and policy positions. You can watch that stream, on the Daily Signal's YouTube or Rumble, so be sure to check that out. But if video and audio is not so much your thing and you want to stick to print, of course,

we're going to be bringing you coverage at daily signal.com, and you can catch our fact check there. But that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here for the Daily Signal's top news. Make sure to catch Elizabeth Mitchell's interview tomorrow morning with not one but two members of Congress. She is sitting down with Congressman Chip Roy and Ralph Norman in two separate interviews. to discuss the Save Act in depth, what it is, what it would do, and why these members are backing it. Also, be sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new shows from The Daily Signal.

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Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.