The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Biden Announces Tanks for Ukraine, Georgia Police Officer Resigns Over Faith, GOP Sens. on Debt Ceiling Fight | Jan. 25

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: President Biden’s decision to send 31 Abram tanks to Ukraine Two bills introduced by Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz Republicans senators weighing in on the debt ceiling fight A police officer resigning over his religious beliefs  Relevant Links 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Samantha Sherris. I'm John Pop. And this is the Daily Signal top news for Wednesday, January 25th. Here are today's headlines. A group of Republican senators held a press conference this afternoon to discuss the ongoing debt ceiling debate. The White House has said that President Joe Biden won't negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, but Senator Rand Paul says he has news for the president.

The Republican majority in the House will not vote to raise the debt ceiling without out significant budget reform. Republicans are calling for Democrats to agree to new spending limits before they agree to raise the debt ceiling. The GOP leaders have not yet outlined what spending cuts they would like. America's current debt limit is $31.4 trillion. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week informing him that America has reached its debt limit and was taking special.

measures to prevent a default on the debt. Senator Ted Cruz said at Wednesday's press conference that America will not default on its debt and criticized Biden for even suggesting that a default was possible. Joe Biden wants to threaten the default in the debt. He wants to scare the markets. And frankly, he's counting on y'all. He's counting on the press corps just to repeat his talking points. He's counting on the press corps just to say, those crazy Republicans, want to default on the debt. That is false. Lawmakers have until June to agree to raise the debt ceiling. In other bill-related news, lawmakers and their spouses would be prohibited from using privileged information to trade stocks. Under legislation introduced Tuesday by Republican Senator Josh

Holly of Missouri, Holly's bill follows news last year that then-house speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, traded between $1 million and $5 million worth of semiconductor stocks shortly before Congress allocated $52 million to the industry. In a pointed reminder, Holly calls his bill the preventing elected leaders from owning securities and investments act, or the Pelosi Act. In a news release, Holly said for too long, politicians in Washington have taken advantage of the economic system they write the rules for, turning profits for themselves at the expense of the American people. As members of Congress, both senators and representatives are tasked

with providing oversight of the same companies they invest in, yet they continually buy and sell stocks outperforming the market time and time again. The bill would require members of Congress to divest any holdings or put them in a blind trust within six months of entering office. It would also require lawmakers to return prohibited stock market profits to taxpayers. Holly tweeted on Tuesday, of Congress and their spouses shouldn't be using their position to get rich on the stock market. Today I'm introducing legislation to ban stock trading and ownership by members of Congress. I call it the Pelosi Act. Holly originally introduced the bill in the last Congress under the title of the banning insider

trading in Congress Act. It would amend the Ethics and Government Act of 1978, which prohibits insider trading for business leaders and everyday Americans. In other bill-related news, Republican Senator Ted Cruz is working to help prevent non-citizens, including illegal aliens and embassy staff from other countries, from voting in local elections in the nation's capital. That's according to a press release from Senator Cruz's office. Cruz introduced a bill this week in response to the D.C. Council's recently passed measure that would allow non-citizens, including illegal aliens, to vote in local elections,

according to that same press release. In a statement, Cruz said, allowing non-citizens, including aliens occupying our nation illegally, to exercise a right reserved for American citizens not only violates the constitutional principles our nation was founded upon, but also naively invites foreign meddling in our elections. Senators Steve Danes of Montana, J.D. Vance of Ohio,

Rick Scott of Florida, and John Kennedy of Louisiana, are co-sponsors of the bill. Kennedy said in a statement that no one earns the right to vote in American elections by entering and living in our country illegally. Congress has an obligation to uphold our Constitution, safeguard our elections, and stop renegade policies like these from nullifying the vote and voice of American citizens. We will keep you updated on these two bills. As the one-year mark of Russia's invasion into Ukraine approaches, U.S. support remains unwavering. It remarks at the White House earlier today, President Joe Biden announced he is sending 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Let's listen to the president's remarks via his Twitter account.

Today, I'm announcing that the United States will be sending 31 Abram tanks to Ukraine, the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion. Secretary Austin has recommended this step because it will enhance the Ukraine's capacity to defend its territory and achieve his strategic objectives. The Abrams tanks are the most capable tanks in the world. They're also extremely complex to operate and maintain. So we're also giving Ukraine the parts and equipment necessary to effectively sustain these tanks on the battlefield. And we'll begin to train the Ukrainian troops on these issues of sustainment, logistics, and maintenance as soon as possible. Delivering these tanks to the field is going to take time. Time that we'll see and we'll use to make sure the Ukrainies are fully prepared to integrate the

the Abram tanks into their defenses. We're also closely coordinated this announcement with our allies. The American contribution will be joined by an additional announcement including that will be ready to available and more easily integrated for use in the battlefield

in the coming weeks and months from other countries. Demetro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, tweeted earlier today saying so the tank coalition is formed. Everyone who doubted this could ever happen sees now, from Ukraine and partners impossible is nothing.

I call on all new partners to have Leopard 2 tanks in service to join the coalition and provide as many of them as possible. They are free now. A Georgia police officer has resigned after he was told by superiors that he could not share his personal religious views on social media. Jacob Kersey, the former officer, told the Daily Signal, if someone somewhere considers an opinion I have that isn't a. a direct quotation from scripture to be offensive, then that would be a fireable offense.

Cursey, who is 19, began working last May at the Port Wentworth Police Department in a jurisdiction just outside of Savannah and says everything was going well until the start of the new year. On January 2nd, Cursey posted a 20-word message about his view of marriage on Facebook. Cursey wrote, paraphrasing the Apostle Paul's teaching in the book of Ephesians, God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That's why there is no such thing as homosexual marriage. The next day, Curseys said he received a phone call from his supervisor who told him that someone had complained about the post and to take it down. When he refused, the supervisor warned him that failure to delete the Facebook post on marriage could result in his

termination. Although he is confident of finding other work, Cursey said he knows that a long-time officer with a family to support, put in a similar situation, would be faced with the choice of losing everything that they ever worked for and their retirement or standing up for their beliefs. The Port Wentworth Police Department, which serves a city with a population of just under 11,000 in 2020, did not respond to the Daily Signals' request for comment. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices.

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