The Daily Signal - New Gas Stove Rule, Ilhan Omar Wins, Two New State Abortion Amendments| August 14

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Energy Department placed new limitations on gas stoves. I'm Elizabeth Mitchell, and this is the Daily Signal top news for Wednesday, August 14th. The Department of Energy finalized its new gas stove rule. The Daily Signals, Jared Stepman, has been following this story. Jared, could you tell us about the new rule? Yeah, thank you very much. So basically this rule, which is going to go into effect in January 2028, is going to create new, so-called efficiency standards for gas stoves and for stoves in general. This is actually something that

Starting point is 00:00:46 the Biden administration, which they insisted initially that they were not actually going after gas stoves, well, it very much turns out that they are. Now, it won't necessarily immediately ban all gas stoves, but it's going to create higher energy efficiency standards, which will, of course, increase the costs of of stoves and other appliances. So there was some measure of delay in these rules, but after a short while, they decided to announce it anyway. And opponents of the rule include several Republican attorneys general, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Antonin Scalia Law School Administrative Law Clinic. They say the gas stove rule is an example of federal overreach that increases costs for customers. Are they correct? I think they're absolutely correct. And there's no question that these rules will

Starting point is 00:01:33 force, essentially, people to buy the stoves with the higher energy efficiency standards. Now, the Biden administration has said essentially that, well, you'll save money in the long term because they have better efficiency. But especially when you consider the fact the energy costs across the country have been going up, I think that's a little dubious, especially when you consider the front end price of a lot of these new appliances, which will require many states, many will require the industry essentially to change the things that they sell. So there absolutely be an increase in the overall cost of the American consumer. Interesting. Well, thanks, Jared.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Thank you very much. The Biden-Harris administration's Inflation Reduction Act is set to increase Medicare premiums. The Biden administration now plans to give private insurance companies billions to downplay the impact. The Inflation Reduction Act passed in August 2022 without a single report. Republican vote. While President Joe Biden said it would lower inflation for 8 million Medicare users, premiums increased by more than 25% in 2024. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, rolled out a three-year demonstration project to subsidize the elevated premiums and keep them low. CMS would give participating Medicare prescription drug plans a $15 subsidy. It would

Starting point is 00:02:56 also limit the amount insurers can raise premium rates. Critics have raised concerns about how the Biden administration's plan will affect the economy long term. Some Republicans have suggested that the move may be motivated by saving the votes of affected people in the 2024 election. According to a Politico report, Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, said the Biden administration is using the federal treasury for political gain. Cassidy said, this is a way for the executive branch to implement a policy, which has very positive political ramifications for them, but with very sketchy legal standing. Hunter Biden reportedly asked the U.S. Embassy in Rome to help him with a business deal while acting on behalf of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. At the time, Joe Biden was vice president.

Starting point is 00:03:43 Republicans have raised alarm about this information coming to light only after Joe Biden stepped out of the presidential race. The records released to the New York Times indicate that Hunter Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador Italy in 2016 seeking assistance for the potentially lucrative deal. Biden's lawyer, Abby Lowell, told Reuters that Hunter asked Italian ambassador John Phillips and others for introductions to the president of Italy's Tuscany region, where Burisma was considering projects. Lowell said in a statement, no meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought, and only an introduction in Italy was requested.

Starting point is 00:04:23 The letter, as well as those written by others at Burroughs. sought nothing more than an introduction, as hundreds of businesses do every year to ambassadors and embassies. Squad member, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, won her primary. Here's Omar talking to supporters last night. We would not have been able to have the kind of success that we had overcoming massive number of Republicans voting in our primary, egged on by every. single Republican influencer across the country without the help of mayors.

Starting point is 00:05:03 This comes after two far-left squad members, representatives Corey Bush and Jamal Bowman, lost their primaries after the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee invested almost $24 million to bring them down. Omar Bush and Bowman have all been accused of anti-Semitism, largely due to their responses to Hamas's October 7th attack on Israel. has said some Jewish college students are pro-genocide. In May, Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, introduced a resolution to censure her in response. The Minnesota Democrat beat former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels. Omar received 56.2% of the vote compared to Samuels 42.9%. The Prime Minister of Japan is stepping down in September.

Starting point is 00:05:51 Prime Minister Fumio Kishita announced his decision to resign and not seek re-election as the leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party today. He said at a press conference that politics cannot function without public trust. He said he made the decision thinking of the public with a strong will to push political reform forward. Kashida's terms have been marred with political scandals. He is connected to the controversial former Unification Church and his party received unrecorded political donations at fundraising events. The Liberal Democratic Party will hold a contest in September to determine his replacement. Ukrainian troops advanced further into Russia on Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:06:28 This is the second week of Ukraine's advance into Russia's Kursk region. Ukraine's military commander said the Eastern European country took more ground, captured more than 100 Russian prisoners, and destroyed a bomber in attacks on military airfields. The commander claims Ukraine has advanced into about 390 square miles of the Kersk region. The incursion marks the largest attack on Russia since World War II. Two more states, Arizona and Missouri added amendments to their November ballots expanding abortion on Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Mary Margaret Ollahan covers abortion for the Daily Signal. Mary Margaret, could you tell us about these amendments? Yes, these are amendments that are seeking to circumvent pro-life laws all across the United States where abortion activist groups will put these amendments on the ballot and word their amendments very carefully so that many Americans don't understand what's actually being posed here. These are a big deal, and a lot of the time, leftist activists will pour a lot of money and resources into these ballot measures while the right doesn't take such a pivotal view of the measures and often comes up short. Interesting.

Starting point is 00:07:34 And how many other states have amendments like this on their ballots? So as of August 13, 2024, there's eight states total with ballot measures related to abortion, and that's Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Nevada, and South Dakota. that's the most on record for a single year. Wow. And does anything stand out to you about any of these particular ballot measures? Well, Florida, I find particularly interesting because Florida is a pretty red state. They're very pro-life. They have some of those pro-life laws in the country. But you're seeing here these leftist activists trying to circumvent the pro-life laws and get this amendment in place. Governor DeSantis has put a lot of efforts into stopping this amendment.

Starting point is 00:08:16 He's spoken to pastors and religious leaders all over the state. They're putting a lot of efforts to stop this amendment from taking place. So we'll see what happens there. That is a really interesting amendment because it looks like they use the health of the mother to expand abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason. And that health of the mother definition can be pretty vague and legalize it for just about any reason. Exactly. And pro-life activists have concerns that the law will be weaponized against young girls in school and could even have implications for sex trafficking, abortions related to minors and the border and more.

Starting point is 00:08:52 Wow. Well, we'll be sure to keep following this. Thank you so much, Mary Margaret. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Signals, Top News. Please tune in tomorrow morning for our interview edition, where I will be sitting down with Oklahoma's State Superintendent of Education, Ryan Walters. We had a great conversation about school choice, immigration. and other education issues in Oklahoma, where Walter said they have the best school choice

Starting point is 00:09:19 in the country. Also, please make sure you subscribe to The Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts and help us reach more listeners by leaving us a five-star rating and some reviews. We enjoy reading your feedback. Thank you so much for listening today. Have a wonderful night and we'll be back with you in the morning for another episode of the Daily Signal podcast. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you.

Starting point is 00:09:46 Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Katrina Trinco. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, Mary Margaret O'Holohan, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - New Gas Stove Rule, Ilhan Omar Wins, Two New State Abortion Amendments| August 14

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