How White House and GOP leaders are working to sell the budget deal

Published

2 years ago

May 29, 2023

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After President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) signed off on a final budget agreement and a raise of the debt ceiling, the two sides moved onto a difficult task: selling the legislation to their respective parties to get it passed through Congress.

Conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats have been quick to voice concerns with certain aspects of the deal, with each side expressing worry that their leadership gained too little or conceded too much in negotiations.

White House officials and McCarthy’s team spent much of Sunday working to spin the deal as a victory for their own side and assure members that it was the other party that ultimately caved on certain priorities.

“Right now the Democrats are very upset,” McCarthy said on “Fox News Sunday,” asserting that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffires (D-N.Y.) told him “there’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats.”

In remarks Sunday evening, Biden said the final agreement “protects key priorities and accomplishments and values that congressional Democrats and I have fought long and hard for.”

Asked what he would say to members who believe Biden made too many concessions, the president responded, “They’ll find I didn’t.”

The White House has focused on reassuring Democrats about the bill largely by pointing to ways that it is significantly watered down from the Republican legislation that passed the House in late April, dubbed the Limit, Save, Grow Act.

While the 99-page bill does include changes to work requirements for government assistance programs, White House officials argued the agreed upon language would have “much less severe consequences” than the House GOP legislation.

The White House has also argued that the overall spending agreements are ultimately a win for Democrats. A White House source argued the deal would help avert “enormous cuts to key programs and investments.”

And officials were also quick to point to key priorities that were left untouched in the final legislation, including that there are no changes to Medicare work requirements and that veterans medical care will be fully funded.

Perhaps the broadest argument the White House will make to persuade Democrats to back the agreement is that passing the bill would mean raising the debt ceiling and averting a default that experts warned could have triggered a recession and sunk the economy that will be central to any reelection campaign for Biden.

While some conservatives had pushed for the debt ceiling to be pushed into 2024, making it an issue in next year’s election, the agreed upon bill would suspend the debt ceiling into 2025.

“We think taking the threat of default off the table into 2025 is a significant upside for the economy, a significant accomplishment,” a White House official said.

Republicans have painted a similarly rosy picture of how the agreed upon text amounts to a victory for their side.

Some in the GOP argued the fact that Republicans pulled the White House to the negotiating table over the budget in order to pass a debt ceiling increase was a win in itself, because it allowed the party to extract some concessions in the process.

“We have something, right? We negotiated,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), House GOP conference secretary, told reporters. “Is it what we wanted or what I wanted? No. I wish we would’ve gotten more. It’s clearly better than a clean debt ceiling, that’s for sure.”

But there are also specific policies in the bill that Republican leadership has been keen to highlight to members.

The agreement includes changes to work requirements for food stamps and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

A document distributed to Republican offices about the agreement highlights a rollback of non-defense discretionary spending to fiscal year 2022 levels, while limiting topline federal spending to 1 percent annual growth for six years.

The same document highlighted an agreement to cut a fiscal year 2023 funding request for new IRS agents and a deal to claw back billions of dollars in unspent COVID-19 relief funds, two priorities for Republicans.

In a nod to the GOP’s conservative wing, the deal includes a measure to cap continuing resolution to fund the government at 99 percent of current levels until Congress passes all 12 appropriations bills, an idea that has been backed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

“The American people elected House Republicans to stop the out-of-control inflationary spending that has broken family budgets,” members of House Republican leadership said in a joint statement on Sunday night. “Today, we secured a historic series of wins worthy of the American people.”

Ultimately, both the White House and Republican leaders only need to convince enough of their respective parties to back the budget agreement so that it gets a majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate.

The rhetoric from Biden and McCarthy on Sunday simultaneously reflected two leaders seeking to portray themselves as having gotten the better side of negotiations, while acknowledging that working in a divided government often means settling for a final product that doesn’t contain every single priority. The Memo: Trump and his primary rivals get set for fight over Ukraine Companies and individuals without AI expertise will be left behind: tech CEO

“Maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction that no one thought that we would be able to today,” McCarthy told “Fox News Sunday.”

Speaking Sunday evening at the White House, Biden said the deal “represents a compromise, which means no one got everything they want. But that’s the responsibility of governing.”

–Mychael Schnell contributed

World

‘They’re the ones who wronged us’: Freed Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi rebukes UK and US over ‘harm they’ve caused’

Published

2 hours ago

February 1, 2025

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'They're the ones who wronged us': Freed Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi rebukes UK and US over 'harm they've caused'

One of the most high-profile prisoners to be released by Israel has told Sky News that the world has ignored Palestinians and says Britain is one of the countries he blames for taking away his freedom.

Zakaria Zubeidi was imprisoned in 2019 after being found guilty by an Israeli military court of involvement in terrorism.

He was released as part of the ceasefire agreement and welcomed back to the West Bank by crowds of well-wishers, including the man who was prime minister less than a year ago.

Analysis: Zubeidi an ‘extremist’ to Israel but inspiration to Palestine

In his first interview with a European broadcaster, Zubeidi told Sky News he still believes in “a resistance that will lead us to freedom” but claimed that Israeli occupation of the West Bank was wholly down to the international community.

“My life is worthless without freedom,” he said, speaking in Ramallah. “Freedom has no price. But the world that has denied me my freedom – particularly Britain, France, and the United States – must return what they have taken from me and my children.

“They are the ones who need to reconsider their mistakes, not me.

“They are the ones who have wronged us, and they should think about rectifying the harm they have caused to me and my children.”

Zubeidi, whose mother, brother and son have all died as a result of Israeli military action, has admitted involvement in a 2002 bombing that killed six people.

However, he has also been acclaimed by many in the West Bank as a symbol of the resistance.

He was famously part of a group of prisoners who briefly escaped their Israeli jail after using kitchen utensils to dig a tunnel.

“My message to the Palestinian people is to prioritise their safety and well-being because the assault being carried out against them is immense. I have no message for the occupation [Israel],” he said.

“My message is to the world – the same world that granted the occupation the right to live on my land – to grant me my freedom.”

In common with many other released prisoners, he claimed to have been beaten while behind bars, saying: “The situation in Israeli prisons is extremely harsh. We’ve witnessed it all: severe beatings, attack dogs, relentless insults. Every form of abuse imaginable has been inflicted on the bodies of our prisoners.”

While many in Israel will consider Zubeidi to be a dangerous, murderous extremist, he is considered a totemic figure in the West Bank, and a natural leader in Jenin, where he grew up in a refugee camp.

After being released, Israeli authorities banned him from returning to Jenin.

Instead, he has remained in Ramallah, where a long line of people came to a school building to shake his hand and hug him.

Among them, former prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who resigned less than a year ago.

He embraced Zubeidi and told Sky News the release of prisoners could be a catalyst for an enduring peace deal.

“We would like to see all prisoners released and we would like to see all hostages going home,” said Mr Shtayyeh.

He continued: “It’s a historic moment for everybody. It’s time for this bloodshed to stop. And I think it is a moment of truth for everybody.

“In Gaza, 60,000 people have been killed, more than 120,000 have been injured. And of course, there have been so many casualties in Israel, too.

“We know that. And this time Palestinians are desperate for peace. We want a genuine peace process that does really bring peace and justice for everybody.”

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The offensive followed Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when it took 250 people hostage and killed around 1,200 others.

UK

‘We’ll play some more soon’: Emails believed to be from Prince Andrew to Epstein after he claimed to cut contact revealed

Published

2 hours ago

February 1, 2025

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'We'll play some more soon': Emails believed to be from Prince Andrew to Epstein after he claimed to cut contact revealed

The Duke of York told Jeffrey Epstein they would “play some more soon!” two months after he claimed he cut contact with the convicted paedophile.

The emails were disclosed in a filing by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who are defending an appeal by former Barclays boss, Jes Staley.

Staley is challenging a decision to ban him from the industry for misleading regulators on his ties to Epstein, one of the most severe measures the FCA can impose.

The court documents show an exchange of messages between Epstein and “a member of the British Royal Family” – believed to be Prince Andrew. It suggests the duke and Epstein – who killed himself in jail in 2019 – were in contact for longer than he has previously admitted.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. After his release, Epstein and the duke were photographed walking together in New York’s Central Park, in December 2010.

The prince has claimed this was the last contact he had with Epstein.

In a 2019 interview with Newsnight, Andrew said he visited Epstein in person to tell him they could no longer be friends, believing it was the “honourable” thing to do.

Yet emails between the pair, which were handed to a court in London, show they kept exchanging messages until at least 27 February 2011.

On this date, Andrew emailed Epstein: “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!”

The disgraced duke has come under fire for his relationship with the paedophile financier. In 2022, he settled a multi-million pound claim with Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with the royal.

Andrew stepped down from royal duties and public life and had claimed he never met Ms Giuffre. He agreed to settle the claim without admitting liability.

He has previously strenuously denied all allegations against him.

Newsnight interview ‘ill-advised’ – aide

Other court documents released on Friday revealed one of the prince’s senior aides admitted in a letter to an alleged Chinese spy that the duke’s Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis was “hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful”.

Dominic Hampshire wrote to Yang Tengbo on Buckingham Palace notepaper in March 2020.

In the letter, he said they “have dealt with the aftermath of a hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful television interview”.

Mr Hampshire praised Mr Yang, writing that “in what originally seemed like a lost cause, you have somehow managed to not only salvage but maintain and then incredibly, enhance the reputation of my principal [Prince Andrew] in China.

“Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor; we orchestrated a very powerful verbal message of support to China at a Chinese New Year’s dinner and between the three of us, we have written, amended and then always agreed a number of letters at the highest level possible.”

Mr Yang said in a statement on Friday the spying allegations against him are “entirely unfounded”.

The Jes Staley emails

Emails showed Epstein inviting Andrew to meet Staley on 27 February, saying: “jes staley will be in London on next tue afternoon, if you have time [sic].”

Andrew replied: “Jes is coming on 1st March or next week?”

The pair then engaged in a discussion about press articles, before the duke told Epstein they would “play some more soon”.

Sky News has contacted Prince Andrew for a comment.

The prince still making uncomfortable headlines for his family

Just when you thought Prince Andrew couldn’t fall any further, another twist emerges in his shameful association with Jeffrey Epstein.

He’d claimed the last time he had contact with the convicted paedophile was in December 2010, when the pair were infamously photographed together in Central Park.

The Duke of York insisted he thought he was being “honourable” when choosing to stay with Epstein and personally tell him they could no longer be friends.

But this email suggests the pair stayed in touch beyond this date. We don’t know for how long, but it leaves Prince Andrew once more facing difficult and damaging questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

And yet again, Andrew’s judgement is under considerable scrutiny.

Last year had ended badly for the disgraced Duke after his association with an alleged Chinese spy was exposed. He had to keep clear of the Royal Family’s traditional Christmas day gathering at Sandringham.

The Duke of York has always denied witnessing or suspecting any of Epstein’s behaviour.

But their friendship cost him his reputation.

He now leads a reclusive life in Windsor, stripped of responsibility and royal roles. Yet still making uncomfortable headlines for the rest of his family.

Environment

This is New Jersey’s largest high-rise residential rooftop solar array

Published

3 hours ago

January 31, 2025

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This is New Jersey's largest high-rise residential rooftop solar array

New York-based real estate developer LeFrak has installed the largest rooftop solar array on a high-rise multifamily residential building in New Jersey.

The Beach, a 336-unit waterfront rental tower in Jersey City’s Newport neighborhood, now hosts a 180kW, 450-panel rooftop solar system that will offset 13% of the building’s carbon emissions, equivalent to removing 37 gas-powered cars from the road annually. Sunkeeper Solar, a Brooklyn-based solar energy company, installed the nearly $1 million system.

The new rooftop solar offsets energy produced by electrical systems used in The Beach’s common area spaces, including those that power elevators and lighting, as well as cooling and ventilation in the high-rise building’s lobby and amenities. The Beach’s roof design and the building’s orientation optimize the amount of solar power generated by the system.

“Solar makes sense on multi-family buildings, and especially because Jersey City is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, projects like this should become the bar for new development. Going solar saves consumers money, reduces air pollution, and creates a more resilient energy grid – solar is a double green amenity,” said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey.

Last year, LeFrak partnered with EV-sharing platform Envoy to offer Newport residents exclusive car-sharing benefits and access to a fleet of on-site electric vehicles, representing Envoy’s first expansion into New Jersey.

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