Sound On: Ukraine Funding and Baby Formula Shortage

On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The U. S Senate clears forty billion dollars more for Ukraine, has Finland and Sweden visit the White House in their bid to join NATO. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics. We have breaking news from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and a conversation ahead with Senator Tim Kane, Democrat from Virginia, on the Arms Services and Foreign Relations committees, with some very determined thoughts about how this should all be conducted.

The baby formula shortage becomes a crisis, we'll have details on efforts to fix it in Washington and discussed with Congresswoman Abigail span Berger, who was out with legislation to help analysis from the panel. Today, Bluebird Politics contributors Jeanie Chanzano and Rick Davis are with us for the hour and the money for Ukraine clears the Senate happened a short time ago, more than forty billion dollars, even more

than President Biden requested. The yea's are eight six and as are eleven, and the bill is past Senator Angus King, the Independent from Maine with the tally. This sends the bill, of course to President Biden, who wants to sign it. And today hosted the leaders of Finland and Sweden at the White House the show support for their bid to

join NATO. To day, I'm proud to welcome and offer the strong support of the United States for the applications of two great democracies and two close, highly capable partners to join the strongest, most powerful, defensive allies in the

history of the world. Gathered in a sunny rose garden with the media on hand, and I discussed all of this earlier today on Capitol Hill with Senator Tim Kane, as I mentioned the Democrat from Virginia who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, of course, Hillary Clinton's one time running mate. I started by asking him if he was a yes on aid for Ukraine. I am to continue the real uptick in military humanitarian support for Ukraine. We need to help them beat this illegal

invasion of of their country by Vladimir Putin. The President, of course, made the call an urgent call a couple of weeks ago. At this point thirty three billion. It's crept up to about forty billion. And this this bill was held up, as I'm sure you well know, by Senator Ran Paul, who had concerns about oversight. And I know that you specifically were not in favor of the individual he was talking to. Even went further to talk

about the impact on inflation through deficit spending. Right in principle, why is he wrong, Well, he's not wrong on oversight. So he had a fairly vanilla oversight amendment that all of us said, you're right, there ought to be oversighting these moneys. But then he started to dictate the terms of who the oversight should be done by, and we don't do that in oversight bills. Oversight, yes, but letting one senator pick who the oversight uh official will be that's not the way we do it. But on the

oversight we need to and we will. We will provide oversight. Will the president be allowed to to appoint a watchdog? How do you see it best fit for this use? Well, I I think the there are traditional ways that you set up inspector generals, and you set them up as independent of the agency, and so they are executive appointed, but they are not sort of embedded within the the agency performing the function so that they can have true independence.

You worry about the inflationary component or is the senator from Kentucky making too much out of that? Well, I actually think the best thing, one of the best things in the world for inflation, would be if this war is over, because the Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing massive disruption in energy markets, which is leading to inflation. So allowing Russia to succeed um would make things worth winning.

The war is how you beat inflation? Is there there's other strategies to for beating inflation, but certainly in the energy sector and also in the food sector. Ukraine is a is a huge food producer, and when they are not able to export to other parts of the world, it creates hunger and also has an impact on food prizes. Again, if we help them beat this illegal invasion, it will help bring prices down. So Senator, the bill goes to the President, he signs it. What happens after that? How

will this work in conjunction with len Lease Act? And what will it buy for Ukraine? So what what what you see right now? We did the thirteen point six billion dollar aid package a couple of months ago, and then about every week you see President Binary leases three

hundred million or five million. What we do is, once we know what the scope is, our military is in very close touch with Ukrainian Defense Forces and also with the other allies who are providing defense support, and we are in dialogue every day what do you need and where do you need it and when do you need it? And then we release tranches of aid based on those discussions, and and each week they need is a little bit different,

but the communication and the intelligent sharing. The Ukrainian Defense Forces have been heavily trained by the US and NATO since after the invasion of Crimea were dramatically um increase the pace of training with the Ukrainian Defense Forces. So we have been very cooperative for the last eight years, and that turns makes it easy to make real time

decisions with them about what they need. As we speak here today, Senator, the leaders of Finland and Sweden are with President Biden talking about their bid to join NATO. I'm sure you support that bid, but do you worry about Vladimir Putin seeing this as an escalation, that this could be in fact a dangerous development, You know, Vladimir Putin worrying about what will provoke Putin. I think the guy was born provoked. I mean, just listen to this

language he uses. I'm I'm invading you Krane because they need to be denazified. When Vladimer Zolenski is one of three heads of state in the world who's Jewish, I mean, this guy lives in an alternate reality. He was born provoked. I don't think there's anything that we can do right now that will provoke him. Sweden and Finland have maintained neutrality because they felt like they needed to have good

relations with this sizeable nation right on their border. But now they see Russia as a dangerous and destabilizing force and any even dangerous to their own national security, and they want to link arms with other democracies to protect ourselves and be an ally with democracies around the globe. I think it's very post from your view, though a unique view on armed services and foreign relations. Does that potentially add to the chances this creeps beyond the borders

of Ukraine. Um, I I would argue it probably look Vladimir Putin is hard to predict. It might have the opposite effect. He clearly had an expectation he could go into Ukraine top of the government, take it over to pose Zelinski. Um he's realized his ambitions were wrong. The Ukrainians don't want to be part of Russia, even even the most pro Russian parts of Ukraine on the Russian boarder,

Russian speakers, Russian national Ukrainians. They've seen what Vladimir Putin has done in Daynetska little Hanska said we don't want any part of it. And so this is backfired. And when he sees Sweden and Finland abandoning decades of neutrality to join NATO, you know he or somebody else in Russia needs to come to their senses about what a disaster this illegal war is. Senator approved our new U S ambassador to Ukraine last evening. What does ambassador bring

bring to the table, What will that change in the war? EPs? Well, its first, it just sends a powerful symbol to the Ukrainian people when we reopen our embassy in Keith. The European nations have done that in recent weeks. This is a time when communication at all levels between the US and Ukraine, at the political level, at the military level, at Congress, people in parliamentary and more communication helps um and having a U s embassy, flagship embassy there in Kiev,

that will um. That will send a powerful signal and improve the communication that we do every day. China's of course watching and making some noise as the president prepares for his trip to Asia, suggesting that it that we're taking a dangerous road I think was the quote from China's Foreign minister with regard to Taiwan. As the president prepares to engage with South Korea Japan. What is it

that keeps you up at night? The threat from North Korea as they prepare another NWKE test or China Um, China is the one that I'm worried more about nor North Korea. Sadly, if they feel like they're being ignored, then they want to do something to get everybody's attention back. I mean, it's which is which is kind of a sad statement about the leadership of that country. I have complete trust in our defensive capacities to deal with a threat from North Korea. That China threat is a multi

level threat. It's military, it's economic, it's diplomatic. China is an adversary across many many domains and in some instances a competed editor and in some instances we even cooperate together. So it's a complex relationship. UM. I think it's important that we are providing, together with others, Taiwan with the ability to defend their own country, and that's what they want, and we ought to be providing them with that. And what China has seen that you know, they pledged forever

friendship with Russia right before the Beijing Winter Olympics. I don't know that they were meaning to pledge forever friendship with a war criminal. And I have reason to believe they're now questioning the degree they want to completely link arms with a Russia that's committing war crimes. But they've what that China has also seen is They've not only been, you know, gotten a vision into wh Vladimir Putin is

there forever friend. They've also seen how quickly the democracies of the world will link arms and stand up against an illegal invasion of somebody else's country. Um. And they see the the impact that sanctions and military and humanitarian aid can have. So we're not embarked on a dangerous road with Taiwan. We're trying to do the kinds of things that will enable them to defend themselves. And that China Wood view that is dangerous. I think that's that's

a language that they're using. I I they don't. They don't think we have any designs on Taiwan. Um. But but the fact that Taiwan has more ability to defend itself, I guess is troubling to them. These are dangerous times and we have a lot to talk about. But I'll ask you lastly about this baby formula story. The House has acted on this, as there a legislative solution in the Senate. I'm I'm reading that it may not pass the Senate. Is there more that can be done than

with the White Houses? I think you'll see us take this bill up in the Senate next week and vote, and I would say you're gonna see every Democrat I believe vote for it. There's got to be ten Republicans. As much as they've been out bashing Joe Biden for this, and I want to come back to how inaccurate that is. As much as they've been out bashing him about it, you would think they would vote to solve it. And

I hope we'll see that. I mean, look, this is a challenge that was driven by the largest manufacturing facility for infant form in the United States had serious safety problems. The last thing we want is for people to be buying formula off shells and have it be tainted, have it be dangerous to their kids. So the safety problems were so serious that that plan had to be shut down. We're now going to use the Defense Production Act to

increase production. We're allowing importation of formula that's safe from other countries. The company that closed its plant down has reached an agreement to do some fixes. They should be reopened within two weeks and starting to produce again, so we will solve this problem. I think you'll see that be bipartisan, but we'll have to have that vote next week, and see Senator Tim Caine earlier today talking with us

in the halls of Congress. Just to get back to the Ukraine vote today, as we told you, was eighty six to eleven. Hey, Eleven Republicans voted no for the additional funding for Ukraine, starting with Rand Paul, who of course already expressed issues. We talked about that with Senator Kane.

The other no votes Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, John Boozman Arkansas, Mike Braun Indiana, Like Creepe, Idaho, Bill Haggerty of Tennessee, Josh Holly of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Cynthia Lammis of Wyoming, and Tommy Tubberville of Alabama, all coming out against the legislation, despite cries from Republicans and criticism the President Biden was not doing enough to enrich the Ukrainians in their war effort.

Will assemble the panel next, Rick and Jeanie for their take on this. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg sound on on Bloomberg Radio. The money is moving to Ukraine, more than forty billion dollars clearing the Senate, even as eleven Republicans vote no. Thanks for being with us. On the Thursday edition of Sound On, I'm Joe Matthew in Washington as we assemble the panel. Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeannie chantay No and Rick Davis are with us with a

couple of moving parts today. It's not just the funding for Ukraine. But of course, before President Biden left for his trip to Asia, which will be talking more about in the days ahead, he hosted the leaders of Finland and Sweden at the White House. They held an event, as you might have heard earlier this hour, to support their bids to join NATO, which appears to be on the fast track right now. So things are happening, and Genie,

I'd like to start with the bill on Ukraine. This comes after Republicans told the President he was not doing enough, that we had to send more, more MiGs, more missiles, more everything. And I read the statement here uh from Senator Haggerty. Bill Haggerty of Tennessee says the size of this bill is the size of my state's annual budget, when a much more obvious answer is we should stop

the war on American energy right now. As the President lost some Republicans when it comes to this war effort, there is, obviously, as Mitch McConnell himself said, a growing isolationist trend. And I'm not even so sure it's growing. It's always been there at least for some time in the Republican side. Likewise, there's there is that in the

Democratic side as well. But the reality is, and for people like Josh Holly and Rand Paul and Marsia Blackburn and all these people, these eleven in the Senate now on top of the fifties seven in the House who voted against this bill, is what is it they are proposing to do. The President is right now heading to Asia for this first big trip. If the United States takes no action of substantial proportion to allow Ukraine to defend itself, we are going to then be in a

challenge at visa e. Taiwan and China. This is very much like Ronald Reagan's idea in the nineteen eighties. You support people who want to defend themselves in that case with communism. In this case, if we don't do this, we then will be entering because we have a NATO obligation when putin enters our NATO allies. So Ukraine wants to defend itself, let's allow them to do that. Does

this come down to oversight? Rick? Was this the Rand Paul complained that we're spending too much without oversight, without accountability, and potential lee adding to inflation with deficit spending, which of course Senator Tim Kane kind of dismissed earlier this hour when we were talking with him, I realized, Ran Paul is one thing, But are these other senators are going to be called out for this? Or I'm assuming that they wanted to send more money to Ukraine? What

made them say? No? Well, I don't think you can assume they want to send more money to Ukraine. I think that they follow along different fault lines. I mean, obviously, Rand Paul most notably is the anti deficit hawk uh in the caucus and and and so you know, he usually complains about any kind of spending, and especially deficit spending.

UH so, so that's his grind, and a few of them have that that point of view, But they also fall on the non interventionist line, which, regardless of spending, they don't want to have US activity in a war zone outside the United States. And that could be in Syria, that could be an Afghanistan, that could be anywhere else. In this case, it just happens to be in the Ukraine. And then there are those like Josh Holly who are really nationalists, right, They don't even want to talk about

what's going on outside our borders. They just want to focus in on what's happening here and and and believe that a strong country, you know, pursuing his nationalist goals, UH is strong enough to ward off any other kind of threats from around the world. UM. You know, Look, these are doves at the core of it. UH in a hawk um party and UH. And yet there are a lot more of them now than there used to be.

I remember Lindsay Graham specifically told me that he ran against UH for a president in two thousand and sixteen to to to be a contrast to Rand Paul, who was many of us have forgotten actually running for president into six didn't last very long. Here does this become an issue for them though? On on the campaign trail, those that will be up for re election, Rick, you voted, notice, send more money to Ukraine. It was a Republican principle to send as much as we could to Ukraine. You know.

I mean they're coming from pretty conservative states, you know, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana, Idaho, but they also have incredibly high numbers of military and military veterans in their states, and I think ultimately this kind of activity which is just politics, right, They knew this bill was going to pass, and it took a walk on it to try and make a political point, and at some point I do think that backfires on you. But they have voted yes if it was a Trump bill, Genie,

I'm not so sure about that. You know. You look at the polls and Morning consult shows. The number of Republicans who are saying the US is doing too much in Ukraine has doubled since March. So, you know, I don't know if if even Donald Trump himself, as much control as he has over his wing of the party, could have could have made that case. But of course Donald Trump has gone along with this isolationist trend as it pertains to Ukraine. He's been criticizing this spending as well.

So there are shades of bipartisanship here. Rick. As far as Finland and Sweden are concerned, I'm assuming that is a bipartisan Uh move here. Republicans and Democrats want to see the allidance the alliance expanded here in this case, and to protect our allies in Europe. Tim Caine, who of course serves on Armed Services and Foreign Relations and has told us earlier, he thinks that will actually have the opposite effect on Vladimir Putin. This will not be escalatory,

but in fact might contain the war to Ukraine. Is he right? Well, I hope he's right. Um. You know, you don't want to do things that is going to needlessly, um accelerate the Russian war machine, although I'll comment him once again that the Russian war machine may not be able to escalate even if he wanted to. But at the end of the day, Uh, it's good policy, right.

I mean, the more we have other economies involved, other militaries involved, it shores up the capability, but it also spreads the risk, and I think that's a good thing for the United States and in most of Europe. So uh, this is a very good propaganda tool to show that other Western nations are pulling together, exactly the opposite of

what Vladimir Putin thought he was going to achieve. And so it's a huge strategic gain for us in a horrible strategic loss for putin a wise move, Jennie, it is, and hopefully they get Turkey in or had gone to go along with it, because that's right now. That is a question. As we spend time with Rick and Genie today on sound On, they'll be back in a bit with us for the hour. As we turned to the baby formula crisis, Abbott f d A formula deal stirs Democrats are they were upset today and we have it

next on sound On. This is Bloomberg filling over baby formula. The FDH chair answering questions on Capitol Hill today about the shortage. We're gonna talk about it next with Congresswoman Abigail Spanburger, Democrat from Virginia, has been urging the administration

to act. Will get her take next with an eye on Capitol Hill once again, not for Ukraine this time, but the baby formula shortage, which House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa de Lauro, the Democrat from Connecticut, calls a crisis. He wants to know why it took so long and why the f d A entered an agreement that will allow production to resume at the Abbot Labs plant in Sturgis, Michigan. As Abbott deals with the fallout from four babies becoming sick,

we're given infant formula. In recent months, there were two fatalities. The Laura concerned the agency, the f d A has not dealt with the whistleblowers claims. Seriously. Remember looked at that report, felt that there was no need to respond at all from October to February until there was a record. That is a dereliction of duty in my view. And in addition to which you have the person who was

the acting commissioner should have done that. Now it would appear that that person is going to oversee this effort. That is the fox in the henhouse. We're joined for more on this by Congresswoman Abigail Spanburger, Democrat from Virginia, who, as I mentioned, has been urging the administration to act in as out with legislation of her own. Congresswoman, welcome

back to Bloomberg. Thank you for having me. I could not help but to notice the President's chief of staff retweeted you last night a tweet that you posted with a red siren referring to the administration's decisions to invoke the Defense Production Act. You write quote, I've been pressing the Chief of Staff and the President to take this step, and I'm glad they're listening. Why Congresswoman, did the White

House wait until they heard from lawmakers like you? Well, in my conversations with the White House Chief of Staff UM last week, UM, we were going back and forth about how the circumstances of actually putting the Defense Production Act into place, how that would be instituted, what the would be the results, and how to go about moving

forward on that. So I've been pressing them since last week to do this UM aggressively, I suppose I am known to be a bit of a squeaky wheel on Capitol Hill, UM aggressively to take this action, and also recognizing that the result of invoking the Defense Production Act wouldn't be immediate immediate, that in the interim it would be important to get baby formula on the shelves, and

to do so by bringing it in from other countries. Certainly, as a mother of three girls, UH and I relied on on baby formula throughout their infant see and including when I lived overseas where my middle daughter was born uh. Knowing that foreign formula can meet all of our same standards and be on Shell's fast is something that I

urged the White House to take action on. A lot of people are, of course, asking what took so long, and your colleague, Representative Rosa Deloro, today, in a hearing with the FDA, share called this a dereliction of duty on the part of the f d A and that Abbott Labs was not being honest about the problems at its facility. Here's what she said, quickly. I'd love to

have you respond. If the allegations are true, the company has lied, cut corners, falsified records to cover up their misdoings at the risk of instant health, and retaliated against employees who tried to correct the problems they were seen. Congresswoman, should the FDA allow that Abbot plan to reopen without further investigation? Well, I think there should be absolutely further investigation into what happened, how it happened, when it happened, when people had any idea that we were on the

trajectory towards the shortage um. But as to whether or not that particular plant should be stopped from opening, I mean it's about safely having the capacity of production to put baby formula on the shelves in the quantity that

we needed nationwide. UM. I have a piece of legislation that I'm working on with Dusty Johnson, Republican from South Dakota, focused on ensuring that legally there is a requirement on the shoulders of baby formula manufacturers that when it looks like there might be a potential for a shortage, that they have the requirement to report that to the f d A so that there's no guessing, there's no questions

about what that looks like. And we're going to be introducing that legislation should be tomorrow UM, so that there's a legal requirement that they know their business best and when they are on paths towards the potential shortage like this not being able to meet the demands of their their purchasers and and ultimately the consumers who rely on that baby formula to keep their kids fed, that they are raising the alarm bills and the red flags as

early as possible. The Commissioner says the FDA has reached a deal with manufacturers to resume production while streamlining regulations that will allow apparently additional companies to sell baby formula. We need, we need more to do this. Should we trust the FDA in streamlining regulations after what's already happened. Well, so I think it's it's important to look at what

the what the regulations are. So there's regulations related to for example, WICK, which is a program that that some families rely on to be able to purchase baby formula for their families, but that currently has allowed for formula manufacturers to have unique contracts state to state, So basically in in trining some what what some may consider anti competitive behavior state to state and further reducing competition within

the marketplace. Of course, we only have just a few baby formula manufacturers across the country, which means when there is such a crisis as what we've seen with the Abbott production plants, that it can throttle our nation's ability. I guess the the overriding question, and here, Congresswoman, is the is the FDA the weak link? Here? Is it the agency's fault that it got this far? They could

have acted months ago? I mean, I think right right now, and certainly I'm not defending the FDA in any way, but I think right now the blame needs to be squarely with Abbott. Uh. They are the producer of baby formula. They have been in this industry for years upon years upon years. UH. They are the ones that saw their production levels declining. They are the ones that, because of the death of two infants, UM ultimately had to shut down a factory. And so, yes, I want to have oversight.

I want to ensure that the FDA is doing everything necessary and possible to ensure the health and safety of the American public, as is their mandate. But ultimately, UH, Abbott was should have been well aware of the trajectory that we were on and their potential and ability to meet market demand. Well for to believe the whistleblower report, Abbott did know. And you know what, people have very

basic questions, and you understand this as a parent. They it back like, I don't know what's going on here. I just can't get baby formula. Where's the White House on this? You know, we've been through a number of different shortages. What would you tell people who want to blame President Biden? I would say, as a as a parent, UM, I absolutely understand people's frustration. As an American, I am just tired of the continued challenges that we faced supply chain related uh, and it it feels uh and I

understand this. It feels like it is one thing after another. I'm a former CIA officer. I always do it after action report. You should always understand a problem, how something occurred. You know what could have been done differently or better. But the reality is in this moment um and moving forward. Yeah, we want to understand the disruptions within our supply chain, be at meat, be it gas, be it uh baby formula. But these issues shouldn't be part of the punching bags.

And I think every American should be asking themselves, like which legislators are actually trying to fix these problems and trying to address them head on the view from Virginia's seventh Congress Final Districts Representative Abigail Spanburger. Thanks for your insights today on Bloomberg. Thanks for having me appreciate it. We hand this one to the panel. Next. Rick and Genie's take on the baby formula shortage. What's the next shortage after this one? I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg.

You're listening to Bloomberg sound On on Bloomberg Radio. Headline on the terminal. House passes f d A baby formula bill, but Senate fate uncertain. We've talked about this a couple of times this hour, but the House did pass twenty eight million dollars in emergency funding for the FDA. They say it the dress the shortage of infant formula. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke about it today at her weekly briefing Back to the Kitchen Table for the Babies, for

the Children. We were pleased yesterday that we were able to pass two bills that address the baby formula shortage.

Republicans not interested. The House bill, opposed by Republicans who says that a first a blank check to the f d A, as I read on the terminal without securing an immediate boost in formula supply, looks like it does not have enough support in the Senate to pass, and so we're likely left with what the administration has already done here, of course, invoking the Defense Production Act to

step up production of baby formula. We reassemble the panel in the midst of the shortage now crisis with Rick Davis, Jeanie Schanzano Bloomberg Politics contributors. Rick We've gotten to this a couple of times on the program. Now this has become a screaming headline. President Biden says it is his top priority right now. Speaker Pelosi likes to say, the baby is crying now, but are any of these gonna help now? Well, it's kind of like putting Genie back

in the bottle. Uh. This has been going on for quite some time. The public has already felt the pain of not being able to access a commodity that's critical to families all over the country. And why it has taken this long for the administration react, And you could argue almost overreact. Right now, we're using military assets to fly baby formula and from all around the world so that we can restock the shelves. But where was this

administration when this was already emerging. I mean, it was sort of blind and the FDA was out there, you know, basically making it harder to produce a supply um with Abbott Labs betting, getting Abbot facility getting shut down, and and and with no plan to reopen it. Now all

of a sudden, there's a plan to reopen it. So you know, it's it's honestly, it's it's reminiscent of the energy problem where we were short on supply, prices started going up, and then you know, once again the administration tries to put their finger in the dike and and keep it all together. But it's all after the fact. Well that's just it's a genie that this could have

been handled months ago. Should the FDA not be faulted for this or this something we're just gonna all blame Abott Labs for, you know, it should have been handled months ago. But we also need to step back and say that this has very little to do with the Biden administration. We need to recognize this is a government created problem. Explain why though, because people want to blame the Biden ministry, Well, because they happen to be in control of the government right now, and I am critical

of the speed at which they've done this. And of course the President's you know, operation what did he call Operation fly formula and the you know, Defense Production Act that's gonna do very little to solve it. The real problem here is number one, we have one supplier with fort Share that gets shut down, and that is the same supplier. Fifty of the children born in this country fall under Wick that one supplier has contracts with forty nine states, and then you add to that me Johnson,

which has the other fifteen. Because there's more than just states, you have almost of the babies in the Wick program they are being served by these two companies. So we have a problem number one again, government created with this contracts. Everything is then on top of that being sourced in the US. I thought it was really interesting in your discussion with the representative she said she had a baby overseas. We can trust the formula there. We absolutely can, and

you can't be stopping that from coming in. You know, the President wants to fly planes and bring formula back. Our problem is not, you know, transport to Europe. Our problem is is that we haven't posed these enormous you know, boundaries and obstacles to getting formula into this country. So this is a government imposed mess. It extends well beyond the Biden administration. But of course they've got to solve

it now. And you know, their plan right now is not going to do that much to address the problem of this. Apparently not. But you know a couple of things here, Rick. The f d A is part of the Biden administration, and could have dealt with this months ago. Right. Also, the FDA has not had a chair until just a couple of weeks ago. I mean there's been an acting chair. Uh and and all of this through COVID. It's this This does date back through the beginnings of the year.

This goes back to last September. As we heard from Rosa D. Lauo, is it Is it not, in your view, the Biden administration's problem. Yeah, absolutely, the Biden administration is on point here. They've had time to make these kinds of changes if they had been focused on it. And this is part of what we're seeing emerge, is this lack of competency. You know, we talked a lot about it last summer over a year ago. The competency issue came up with the really haphazard withdrawal that lost lives

in Afghanistan, started to raise questions amongst the electorate. Is this really the administration that we had hoped for? You know, we were tired of all of the drama around Trump and all we wanted was competency. We didn't want drama, and now here we have drama again. And it's not just this, it's in the housing markets. And the automobile markets.

It's in the labor markets. This administration really needs to be able to articulate plans for how to get these post COVID transition into this new economy, UH and not have these levels of shortages in all these different categories. Jennie, should we be taking formula from China? Um? You know,

if it's safe, we absolutely should be. You know, we we it's unconscionable that the United States have has babies that are going hungry because we can't source formula from overseas and we have you know, basically one production that has capacity. I mean, that's unconscionable. So if it's safe, it absolutely should be. You know, Democrats are attempting right now to say that, you know, they are going to pass these bills. That's also a big source of frustration.

If a bill doesn't have sixty votes in the Senate, no reason to pass it at this point except for political reasons. And that's also what frustrates people in the in the constituency and voters. There's a lot of that going on lately. As we spend time with our panel, Rick and Genie here on Bloomberg Sound On, I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. I have to ask you both about

George W. Bush. You probably heard his comments from Dallas. Uh. This was at an event on election integrity at his presidential library, the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. He was talking about election integrity and turning to Russia as an example of a place where elections are rigged. His remark about the war in Ukraine where he misstated something turned into a joke. You might also argue it turned into an admission. And this has a lot of

people talking and writing. Listen to what the former president, George W. Bush said, and we'll talk about it. The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq, I mean of Ukraine. Right anyway, Okay, a couple of things there. He said seventy five of these, referring to his age. But right before that he said Iraq too. So we had a slip up, maybe a Freudian slip. But then was it

allowed Rick by an admission. I'm sure it's on his mind, right, I mean, he's done a better job than any president in memory of disappearing after his two terms of office, and and and he was very unpopular because of the war in Iraq. And I would say, I'm just wondering. You have to scratch your head and say, was he actually thinking of Dick Cheney, who I think he thinks was the one who actually designed and executed the invasion of Iraq? So I mean, like, it's a Freudian moment

by any stretch of the imagination. I want to just to have everyone here it again, because not everyone is writing up the Iraq to part. You have him correct himself. I mean Ukraine. But listen to what he said after that again, Genie, and brutal invasion of Iraq, I mean of Ukraine right here anyway, Iraq too, And it got a laugh from the crowd. Genie, what did he mean by that? You know, it sounds like it was a slip up, But it was a slip up that speaks volumes.

And you know, I happened to agree with Rick on this that I think there is a chance that President Bush feels that he was misled by Dick Cheney and others in the administration pushed him into an invasion and of course, this is not a laughing matter at all. This is something that profoundly changed the trajectory of the United States. I mean, we could just start with the fact that this was one of the main talking points for somebody like Donald Trump, like Barack Obama and others.

So you know, when I do wonder if he could have been more honest and said something more profound about how that would have been something. Yeah, and so you know, a slip up is one thing, but it sounds like he has real regrets and he should quite frankly, well just imagine to your point you need this is funny in a way, it's really not funny when you consider parents of fallen service members hearing that. Does he need to follow up on this? Does he need to answer

some questions? Rick, you know, I'm sure he'll be asked quite a few, and I think he will um do what every politician does after a sort of live Mike moment like that, and uh and and probably just dismiss it as a lame attempt at a humor. And so I can't imagine anybody wants to reopen that chapter right now. Is a painful, harsh lesson of American adventurism in a foreign country, and I doubt if there was anything other than h a slip up on his part and probably

somewhat of an admission. But I doubt if it will go much beyond this. Well, for those of us who lived through that debate, I mean, that's that's pretty seismic stuff. It seems to me and Genie. While we're talking about oversight here with this next forty billion we're handing over to Ukraine, there are lessons that were learned in that war about oversight, the use of contractors. You remember the no bid contracts. I mean, this stuff, well, that brings

back a lot of memories. It does. And you know, when we think about it and you're talking about the number of people killed, both you know, military and some billions by some accounts, we're talking two hundred thousand people, many of them civilians, and also, of course then you have the military depths. So this is not a laughing matter. I doubt he's going to come out and say something, but you don't think so. I doubt it, But he actually should because there is a responsibility there that hasn't

been accepted. Rick and Jennie with us are sound on signature panel, Rick Davis, Genie Chanzanol, Bloomberg Politics contributors and always an informative and inscifle conversation. That's why you're here on the fastest hour in politics. If you showed up late, subscribe to the podcast sound on wherever you get your podcasts. This is Bloomberg.