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Podcast going now by Kaylee Lines, It's great to see you, Kaylee. Around this time yesterday we thought there would be a strike. Yeah, it's different when you actually hear it. And this is historic.
It's the first time all three of the Big Three.
Yeah, unprecedented. Granted, this isn't all one hundred and fifty thousand workers in the United autoworkers you need walking out at once. They are being very specific about where they are striking on three specific facilities that produce high profit vehicles, only about thirteen thousand workers at this moment. The concern, though, is the longer this drags on, the more it's going to ramp up.
Rick Davis was just saying they're going to level this up over the weekend and it's going to start looking real ugly when we walk into next week. We'll see if that actually happens. The President, though, did talk about this. We were asking everybody yesterday it does a strike prompt a presidential a draft US it does. He didn't have a lot to say, but a few moments from the White House, they are sending help is the message hereas it's.
My hope that the parties can return the negotiation table to forge a win win agreement to continue our active engagement. I'm deploying dispatching two members of my team to Detroit, Acting Labor Secretary of Julie Schue and White House Senior Advisor Gene Sperling. Both of them been involved up in that to offer their full support for the parties and reaching a contract.
We'll see if they can make a difference where Jeene Spriling has already been in touch with them and that has not made a difference.
Right, The UAW hasn't been super eager to engage with the White House on this. Maybe now that they're actually striking, things will change. But what else the President said from the Roosevelt Room today I thought was very interesting. He talked about record corporate profits and how that should mean a record contract for the UAW. If there was any real question that the President was going to come down on the side of the union, he definitely tried to squad that this afternoon.
Well, Mary Barra says, you know, the longer you're gone here, fewer vehicles are made, could mean fewer jobs. Yeah, and there's a real push and pull here. One of the first emails I woke up to this morning was from you with the statement from the Chamber, and it's a ripper quote. The UA double ed strike and indeed summer of strikes is the natural result of the Biden administration's whole of government approach to promoting unionization at all costs.
It goes on from there.
Pretty tough language for a president who is trying to be the most union friendly in American history.
Absolutely, should we talk to the chamber about Absolutely.
Look who's at the table, Neil Bradley, Executive vice President, Chief Policy Officer, Head of Strategic Advocacy. Three business cards and one at the US Chamber. Neil, it's been a while and it's good to see you. Thank you for coming in.
Great to see.
We have a lot about this from the uaw's perspective. We heard earlier from Mary Barra, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this hot labor summer and what has brought us to this moment. Union membership is near a record low, but we're looking at a potentially economic disrupting event.
Here we are.
And let me start where you did. Let's talk about union membership. In the private sector. Ninety four percent of the workforce is non unionized. Yet this six percent and even a subset of that with the strikes at the UAW, the strikes that we're seeing in Hollywood right now, and the over two hundred strikes that we've already seen this year, are really causing havoc not just for the overall community, but for lots of businesses that end up being collateral
damage in these fights. And so at the Chamber, one of the things that we're most concerned about are those small restaurants, the dry cleaners, the service stores who their employee bay their customer base. Are the people on strike or the businesses that are shut down because of these strikes. What concerns us the most is that no one's thinking about what happens to them.
Well, I understand that point, Neil, But the counterpoint would be, when you're thinking about the economic ramifications of a strike, is the economic reasons we are at this point in the first place, that these workers have been dealing with inflation that no one saw coming wages haven't necessarily kept pace, and in order for them to keep consuming, to keep visiting those shops, keep paying for what they need, they need more money. What do you say to that argument?
Absolutely, and that's why in this particular instance, the auto companies came forward with pay raises, in some cases twenty percent plus. Understand that twenty percent pay increase is a pretty good pay increase, but the unions want forty percent, and the unions want five days of pay for four
days of work. Hey, hey, listen, that sounds great, except it's really hard to operate a business and keep offering people jobs when you're demanding these type of concessions that are really just going to put those businesses into bankruptcy.
And so, you know, there are people throwing around a lot of numbers here, but when you look at just the scale of what they're asking for, I think you kind of get a sense of why they were demands that these companies couldn't meet and why now today we're facing the strike.
Of course, Sean Fain would tell you that's because it has been so long since we've been able to renegotiate. When you wait a decade and the world changes around you, and they're seeing technology change around them. He says, we're tired of living off the scraps. Neil, can you relate with that?
Well?
Can you sympathize with that?
Absolutely? And listen, unions play an important role. Even though they're a small part of the workforce, they and play an important role. And so we want healthy union management negotiations.
We want to get deals.
But I think what we look at and what really concerns us, is that we've kind of reached a point in which both public policy and a lot of the narrator around unionization is really trying to tip the scales. And in tipping the scale to distort that balance, you're going to create the type of disruptions, the type of unfeasional, feasible, over the top demands that we're seeing right now play out in this UAW strike.
Well, to continue the conversation on disruptions, economic disruptions that may have resulted in this moment. This is something that Muhammad al Arian, he was an economist and a Bloomberg opinion columnist as well, was talking about earlier on Bloomberg. Let's just listen for a moment to what he had to say about how we got here.
When you have a combination of the labor market on the one hand and workers being hit by an unanticipated part of inflation, you normally get catch up wage negotiations.
If you owe U a w worker.
If not now, when this is your key point of boggaining power, your boggaining power is going to erode over time. So if you're going to strike, now is the time to strike.
So he's saying now the time is the time to strike for the UAW. But I wonder how much it is the concern of the Chamber of US Businesses that this is contagious almost, that it's not just the UAW that is dealing with this issue of wages wanting to be higher because of inflation. That this is going to have ripple effects across the wider economy of people demanding more. And that's when we talk about a wage price spiral. Is that a real risk or is this idiosyncratic to the auto sector.
It's not idiosyncratic.
It is a real risk. And by the way, wages are going up for unionized and non unionized workers, and they need to go up right for the very reasons that Mohamma just talked about equilibrium in the labor force inflation. This is not a situation in which people are objecting
to increases in wages. In some cases, what are really high increases in wages given our experience over the last twenty years, But there are natural limits to this, And I think the thing that concerns us is that in many cases, labor today feels empowered by support or government policies that say no demand, no matter how high, is out of bounds. And so when you look at our response to this strike, it's not just the particulars of
the UAW and the negotiations with the Detroit three. It really is about this broader policy push to put the thumb on the scale in favor of labor and unionizations in a way that leads to the wage price price spiral that you just talked about that will be devastating economically for all of us. And so there are contagions that can occur here. Even though we're talking about one strike in one industry.
The conversation about economic impacts grows a lot worse when you out of government shutdown. The combination of an auto strike that we have now, especially if it goes into a longer duration, and a shutdown, according to Bloomberg Economics, is the difference between a recession and not a recession. What's the Chambers message to some Hoou's Republicans who are in fact urgent a shutdown right now for leverage.
Well, our message to them is the same as been to parties Republicans and Democrats in the three previous times over the last decade that we've had shutdowns instigated by both parties, is that a shutdown is a choice, and it's a really dumb choice to make. So this doesn't have to happen. This is a question of elected officials deciding that they would rather shut down the government as a means of achieving leverage to advance their policy proposals.
But the history is unanimous. Anytime someone does that, they are unsuccessful in achieving their policy objectives. And in the meantime, the shutdown has real world implications. It's not just government employees who are furloughed and what that means. Think about all the businesses in America who need permits, who need government inspections, who need export licenses to be able to operate. Guess what when the government's shut down, you can't do
any of those things. So it's really amazing that we could be in a position in just a few short weeks where we are elected representatives. Yeah, would literally choose to make the government non functioning, shut it down, and you really can't have a functioning that you can't allow government.
To keep this from happening.
There is, Yeah, but fewer legislative days, and judging by how this past week went, seems like progress is going to be quite slow on this.
It was not a good week in that direction. Yeah.
What we've heard, though, consistently from economists and others on this program here on Bloomberg Television is that a shutdown is nothing like a potential default, which was the risk we were dealing with months ago in the debt's dealing debate that was also about spending. That no one wants to stick to that deal anymore. So is that just the wrong way to be thinking about this?
Well, they are very different, and a default on the debt, which has never happened before. We've had shutdowns, too many of them that we've had them. A default on the debt would be unprecedented, and that cosmic, like you would just.
Right by comparison I sure understand how a lawmaker says, well, at least this wouldn't be that right, right.
But you know, like I could amputate my arm, or I could amputate a finger.
A finger is less than they are.
But we don't need to do this, right, this is we don't have to go through this. And you know, yes, I get the economic arguments that mandatory spending continues, and when we reopen the government coffers get backfilled. What can't
get backfilled is time. You can't reclaim time. And what gets lost for the American business community is the time and the economic activity where you needed the government to be a partner and when you called them up, no one answered the phone to give you that permit to help you get that project licensed because somebody decided to shut it down. You can never make that up, and that has real implications for a lot of industries in America who have to have the government as a partner.
When the Chamber calls the Speaker's office, is there an answer. You have back channels with the Speaker right now to deliver that message.
We have relationships on both sides of the isle, leadership in rank and fould, even with the White House, and so that doesn't mean that he's from the business community, though they are all hes from the business community. And listen, the Speaker has been great on this. He's been very clear he doesn't want to shut down. You know, the remarks that leaked out of the conference meeting this week, he was describing it in terms more colorful than we are about you can go there if you want. The
negative consequence a lot of beliefs. But but you know, he's right on and listen, that's because he's been there. You know, he had a front row seat at the twenty thirteen shut down, the last one in twenty eighteen. He understands that no one wins in a shutdown, and in particular, it's really hard for the leveraging party to win. And so I don't think this is of the speakers doing. I think he understands what's at stake, and he's really trying to find a solution and a way forward.
So as we talk about the idea that a shutdown combined with a UAW strike, perhaps you know, toss in their student loan payments resuming as well in the month of October, creating a bit more of a difficult economic cocktail than we are currently dealing with in this moment when things still look pretty strong, when all of a sudden done, are US businesses bracing for a recession still? Or is there now faith in that soft landing narrative and despite all those things a thought that will be okay?
You know, I think businesses looking at their own operations and they're feeling pretty good. I mean, American consumers are strong. Demand is strong, and so if you look at forecasts from either our surveys of small businesses, mid sized businesses, you know, even large companies, the outlook for their individual businesses are pretty good. The question is is can you add enough of these external factors, particularly these self inflicted wounds,
where that begins to change. And I don't think that's been internalized for a lot of businesses yet. But listen, pile a couple of these things on a prolonged, spanded UAW strike, a government shut down, Dover's apter students which has been factored in, and we could be in for a world.
Of hurt throwing one hundred dollars barrel oil. And you've got quite a confluence there, Neil. I'm glad you could come talk to US today. Thank you for weighing in on an incredibly important time here, the strike, the shutdown, Kaylie, we can keep going. Indeed, Neil Bradley, Executive VP, Chief Policy Officer at the US Chamber of Commerce, let's stay in touch with Kaylee Lines.
I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg.
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Congressman Jim Costa, the Democrat from California twenty first District, think Fresno is joining us now on a Friday. Congressman, It's good to see you, and I appreciate your time. Mary Borro to us earlier, the CEO at GM and said this strike should never have happened.
Do you agree?
Well? I, given our economic recovery, certainly the last thing we need is to have a strike with our major automotive companies in this country. But clearly we hope that the President s effarts with others will sooner than later bring this strike to a successful resolution for all parties.
What's your concern here about a potential economic impact if any. You seem hopeful that this will be short lived, but some have suggested this could be weeks, not days, including the president's former labor advisor. If we start stretching into October, for instance, and I'm going to ask you next about a possible shutdown, there could be corrosive effects here that impact the economy nationally.
Right, well, that's certainly a possibility, and we hope not. And that's why I resolve in this strike among the parties sooner than later is so important. And I think that the president's comments this morning and is sending his labor secretary along with Jeans Spurling to sit down with the parties to determine how we can bring this to
a successful resolution. I mean, we've had we've had strikes before, certainly in this country, and it's certainly organized labor's right to do that to represent working men and women in this country who do so much to bring about this economic recovery that we are enjoying at this point in time. But we need to continue, and clearly a prolonged strike is not in the interest of that economic recovery.
I'm sure you've heard it's being called the hot labor summer.
Right.
We've had the doc workers, we've had ups, we've had Yellow they haven't all turned out the same way, and
now we have an historic auto workers strike. Do you worry about the impression here, as Joe Biden claims to be the most union friendly administration in American history, the impression that Democrats are not always aligned with workers here that in fact, in many cases the rank and file pull a little leaning toward Republicans more, while the leadership is obviously striking accord with Democrats and endorsing Democratic candidates
for president and Congress. Do you worry about a shift though, in organized labor leaning towards the Republican Party.
Well, I think that it's not what you say, but what you do. And I think the President Biden's actions as working supporting working men and women, which has always been a strong foundation of his political efforts over the years, going back to the United States Senate, I think when it's all said and done, you look at the Inflation Reduction Act, you look at the Bipartis and Infrastructure Package. All of those have provided funding that create jobs, good
paying jobs here in America. And certainly, the strike that was resolved to the longshoremen here on the West Coast that was a result of the five year contract coming due and the problems that we've had with supply chain issues was a successful resolution to the men and women here on the West Coast that are so critical to our America's exports. And I hope the same resolution is going to come about with this auto strike that we're
witnessing at this time. And I know that the President is folks Laser liked to ensure that we bring the parties together and we ensure that working men and women and these jobs that are so critical here in America stay here in America.
Spending time with Congressman Jim Costa, the Democrat from California, joining us here on Bloomberg Sound on our analysts at Bloomberg Economics. Congressmen, we're estimating that a protracted auto strike here will say weeks not days again, and coupled with a government shutdown would mean the difference between a recession
and not a recession. And I wonder your thoughts having just been back in Washington for a week here and some of the drama that we've heard about in the House, a lot of folks are expecting a shutdown, and some of that might hinge on funding for Ukraine. I know I'm coming at you with a lot here. You just came back from a Kiev and I'm sure you have very strong feelings about this supplementary budget request that the
President is asking right now of the US House. Is Ukraine potentially going to be the reason why the government shuts down?
No, I don't believe so. I think that there are a group of congressional extremists, some call them terrorists, who simply have required the speaker to meet a list of
demands for their votes to avoid a government shutdown. But I was talking with a number of my Republican colleagues over the last few days on the floor, and they're frustrated because they really believe, and I believe as well, that these list of demands that are being represented by this MAGA extreme group, even if they were to succeed, they wouldn't vote for the budget anyway. They want to
shut down government. They want to eliminate the FBI, They're extremists period, and so it's a very difficult situation with a small margin. And I have never voted to shut down government in the nineteen years that I've been in Congress. It's irresponsible, regardless of which party it's in power and who occupies the White House, just as not lifting the
death ceiling is irresponsible. The Speaker was able to successfully negotiate that back in the springtime with the President with an agreement on two year caps on spending and work requirements, and we need to keep that agreement, and that's part of the basis for this year's ultimate budget resolution, I believe. But we're not in a place where we can reach a budget resolution between the House and the Senate with
the October one deadline looming. Therefore, a continuing resolution is absolutely critical, and whether or not we're successful next week in the first effort remains to be seen. There is I think for many of us doubts that they're going to be able to put together what would I suspect be just a partisan vote with maybe four votes to spare to pass it through the House. And if that's
not successful, we could well have a government shutdown. But I think, as you discussed the supplemental appropriation for Ukraine is is separate, but there are those that are trying to link it with the concurrent resolution, and I think.
Across the board, I know the Pentagon has been a sticking point here.
Congressman.
I don't mean to interrupt you, but he used some pretty spicy language there referring to some of these members as terrorists. Kevin McCarthy is your colleague representing a different districts in California. Is he capable of controlling would you describe as terrorists in his party?
Well, Speaker McCarthy is not only he's my neighbor, and I've known Kevin for thirty years. This is a tough challenge that he's facing you, and he was able to successfully deal with the debt ceiling earlier this year, and I wish him every possible success in passing a concurrent resolution so that in October November we can ultimately resolve the differences on a bipartisan basis, a bipartisan basis between the House and the Senate before the end of the year.
But we have to pass this concurrent resolution, and we have to do everything possible to avoid a government down for all the reasons that I indicated, but he's got a tough challenge he's facing with some of the locular extreme elements in his Cocker conference.
Well, Congressman, I want to welcome you back to Bloomberg again.
Let's stay in touch on this.
We'd love to have you come in studio and talk more about your visit to Ukraine. Thanks for being with us, Congressman Jim Costa of California.
I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound on podcast. Catch us live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg Business App, or listening on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
Well, the first time it's ever happens, the uaw's striking all three of the Big three at once. Sean Fain made the announcement late last night.
We're calling on GM Winsville Assembly Local twenty two fifty in Region four to stand up and strike. We're calling on Stilantis Toledo Assembly Complex Well in Region two B to stand up and strike. And we're calling on Ford, Michigan Assembly Plant Final Assembly and Paint Only Local nine hundred in Region one A to stand up and strike.
The word from the CEO at GM heard earlier on Bloomberg in a conversation with our own David West and Mary Bara, this is clearly not good news.
I'm extremely disappointed and frustrated that we're even on a strike. We didn't need to get here. General Motors has an exceptionally strong offer on the table. It's historic. It's the largest increase from a wage's perspective in our one hundred and fifteen year history, along with world class healthcare benefits and many other provisions job security, etc. And a cola adjustment.
But of course, as we discussed earlier with Keith Naughton, our auto reporter at Bloomberg, they're a mile apart on a lot of issues, including pensions in retirement. Let's assemble our panel for their take. Rick Davis, Bloomberg Politics contributor, along with Genie Shanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributor. Happy Friday to both of you. This is not really a surprise. Everyone
knew that it was coming. It feels a little different when it actually happens, though, Genie, I wonder your take on Joe Biden's response here he's sending the acting Labor Secretary to Detroit along with Gene Sperling, in the hopes of finding some kind of a breakthrough. I guess, but I'll point you to what else. Mary Bara said today. This is her conversation with Bloomberg. She said, frankly, when you put it up, when you have a strike and we're not making vehicles, you start to put jobs at risk.
It's an historic transformation. Referring to the EVS. How long can this go on before union workers start regretting this strike? Before jobs are lost?
Genie, Yeah, I mean the risks for Biden are very real. Obviously, the risks for the workers on the ground are very real. I think that we are looking forward, unfortunately to probably what might be a longer strike than anybody would hope. And I think the President is trying to do what he can. I mean, this is one of the situations where he doesn't have any direct role. There's nothing he can do to force a negotiated settlement, but he can use the power of the bully pulpit, and there are
plenty of risks for the president out there. We saw the Chamber of Commerce come out very strongly and talk about the impact. We know this will impact Michigan's economy first and foremost, and of course, without Michigan's sixteen electoral votes, President Biden wouldn't be President Biden today. So there's a
lot riding on this for him. And more than that, of course, this is a president who has long said he is a friend, the best friend the unions as have ever had, and he is determined to try to grow this economy in favor of the lower the middle class, as he talks about from the bottom up. So there's a lot writing on this for him. But he I think his statement today was very good, and he is sending the right people out there to bring these parties together as best he can.
Rick Jennie points to a statement from the Chamber of Commerce, and I want everyone to know we're going to be talking with Neil Bradley from the Chamber here in studio in just about a half hour's time. It reads, quote the uaubed strike and indeed the summer of strikes is the natural result of the Biden administration's whole of government approach to promoting unionization at all costs. I could keep reading this statement. Does not get more positive for the president.
Rick does this blow back on Joe Biden immediately. Republican candidates for president are already saying it's his fault.
Yeah, I mean, shocker. The Chamber of Commerce is attacking Joe Biden on his union support. Yeah, no, I mean you would expect this right. And if anything, I've been surprised that the Chamber hasn't been more vocal in an attempt to get back in the good graces of the House Republicans by really pinging on this. But they have a tricky place to be because a lot of Republicans are now looking to say, you know, like, how do
we how do we get those union voters. You look at Donald Trump reaching out directly to union voters this week to say, hey, you know, these Democrats can't help you.
Come along with us.
We'll bash those corporations. And by the way, what is the underlying aspect of this that's being missed by most of the media, and that is the union workers are deathly afraid of the ev and the trend toward that because the biggest company in that category, Tesla, is non union,
and they're doing just fine. In fact, their market capitalization is much better than all these companies that they're they're protesting now and so so what in the world are these union guys thinking the future is, Oh, we're going to hold back the ev revolution in cars, you know, so that we can protect ourselves and get a pension in the process. Pensions were washed out years ago because the people managing them couldn't actually keep track of the
needs of the pensioners and they were underwater. I mean, like this union, it sounds like it's going back to the nineteen fifties in their approach to negotiating with companies. They want one hundred billion dollars in concessions, and these
companies don't have a market cap that's that high. I mean, like, honestly, I think the level setting of this is going to happen this weekend, and it'll be interesting to see with this stand up strike strategy where only you know, three locations are affected, whether that's enough to empower the UAW to get the kinds of concessions they're looking for. But I really wonder whether these car companies can afford to have these unions.
I'm compelled by this conversation Jeanie about unionized workers, whether it's auto workers or otherwise warming up to the Republican Party an opportunity here for Republicans. On the campaign trail, I asked Congressman Costa about that a short time ago, a Democrat from California, and he said, look at our actions, not at our words, But how much will Democrats be at risk of losing this important block of voters. I know the membership is low, but they count on these endorsements.
Yeah, the endorsements are important.
As we look at the latest Gallop poll, you still find support strongest among Democrats, less so amongst independents, and then certainly least among Republicans. But to your point, it is growing. Republicans should be buying for the support of these workers. That's the way our system works. But let's be realistic here, and I agree with the representative on this. It is going to be a question of who delivers for these workers. And that's exactly what the Biden campaign
was talking about yesterday. That's what they're going to keep talking about, which is this idea, look at what we have done for workers, and let's compare that to what the Republicans have put forward. Policy wise. We saw the memo from Anita Dunn and she laid out many of those statistics there. That's very real and just as one example of that. And I'm struck by Rick talking about Elon Musk and Tesla because of course, just this morning
when the strike, when they went on strike targeted strike. Albeit, what did Elon Musk do in Twitter? He unverified the UAW. So this is somebody who on the one side of his mouth talks about out publicly as if he is some big populist, and as an owner of Twitter or x now he unverifies the union because it goes on targeted strike because to Rick's point, he also owns Tesla, which is not a unionized car business or company. And then when he was criticized for that and it's pointed out,
he plups that verification right back. And workers are not immune to or unclear about this kind of hypocrisy coming out. So I think that's something important to keep in mind in this conversation as well.
Wow, here I just thought they failed to pay their bucks, Genie.
Rick, I've got less than a minute here.
I can't does the Labor Secretary, does Gene Sperling provide any breakthrough here? Can they make a difference this weekend?
You know.
Look, I mean it'll be interesting to see what their instructions are, right, Uh yeah. I agree with previous speakers on this program saying it's it's a good thing that the White House has representatives, you know, in and out of the room. And I think that Jean Spurling and Julie Shue are the perfect to to send. They have different appeals and can help. But it's not totally clear
to me, like what is their their mission. Are they going to tell the UAW leaders that they're asks are too high and they got to come down to get a deal done.
Are they going to.
Rustle the the companies to you know, adjust the cola so that it's something that's in line. I mean, it's not totally clear. And I they are smart enough to be agile and and successful, but having the impact of having the White House there has got to be positive. If they're there, you know, with instructions that don't come home. If you don't have a deal.
By Monday, well we're going to turn next to the other potential cloud hanging over this administration and the capital, of course, and that's a potential government shutdown. More to report on. Even since we spoke yesterday. We'll have that next with Fricking Genie.
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So we've got two weeks to figure this out, how to keep the government from shutting down, and we are no closer to a solution today than we were yesterday. Certainly a lot of concerns about the debate around defense spending in the House. Trouble is that debate can't start because a small number of Republican hardliners in the Freedom Caucus blocked that from happening this week, and there's just no path realizing. A lot of this comes up to
the last minute. But people are starting to get nervous two weeks away because this time does feel a bit different. As Libby Cantrell told us a couple of weeks back, the ingredients to this shutdown are more harrowing than they have been in recent history, potentially more poisonous. Congresswoman Katie Porter, Democrat from California, taking aim at Speaker McCarthy and a hearing on Capitol Hill before leaving town.
We have sixteen days until the government shuts down. Speaker McCarthy, who is slow walking government funding bills one by one, has only passed one of twelve. I'm a former professor, so I know what one of twelve means. The Speaker's getting an F.
Speakers getting an F.
She says, let's bring the panel back in Jennie Shanzano and Rick Davis Bloomberg Politics contributors. Is that fair, Rick, how would you grade Speaker McCarthy.
Yeah, he's a man on the run. I mean, he had some of the most tumultuous meetings this week with
his own con caucus. A lot of four letter words being thrown back and forth at each other, and no really apparent progress other than the fact that now he's talking about, you know, like maybe we ought to be working on a minibus and there's a way to package together some budget items, and so you can tell he's scrambling to find something that he can get people to rally around, rather than how he started the week earlier.
Which is telling everybody, if you don't want to get a spending bill passed, throw me out, you know, get rid of me as speaker, because I'm going to get one done.
Apparently, you know, there are a number of Republicans in the House who are pretty upset about the way this is going when it comes to defense spending. Genie Political reporting this morning that Hal Rogers and Dave the Republican from Ohio, are pushing McCarthy to bring it to the floor instead of getting bogged down in the deal making at the committee level dealing with the Freedom Caucus. Is there something to this Should Speaker McCarthy start calling bluffs.
I think he's going to have to. I mean, I don't see another way out. You know, at this point, if we think about what we are all sort of hoping for a best case scenario in all of this is a c r It's a heck of a way to budget. You'd never do it in your home, and yet this is where we are in the US Congress. He is completely beholden to this far right of his caucus. He made this deal, This was in the works in January.
We don't know what's in the deal except that he has very little room to maneuver, so I think he's got to bring this to the floor. I'm not sure if he'll be successful at that, but this is where we are today, and I think, you know we what Kevin McCarthy thought he was going to do is sort of throw the far right of the Freedom Caucus of bone by opening this impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. And they did call his bluff by saying that, okay, we'll take that, and now we're still going to hold your
feet to the fire. You can't operate a caucus this way. Kevin McCarthy is in a similar boat to his predecessors Paul Ryan and John Bahner, and he is going to either have to figure out a way to get them to move forward with the basics of governing, which is to pass a budget and keep the government open, or he is going to have to step out of the way. The problem for the entire caucus is there's nobody there to pick up the slack because who would want to be speaker.
At this point Rick, As we discussed earlier with Congressman Costa, funding for Ukraine is a big sticking point here. When you have any conversation about defense spending. Certainly the multi billion dollar supplemental request that President Biden has made of this congo. We've just learned and it's a headline on the terminal right now that Vladimir Zelenski will be at the White House on Thursday. We knew there were reports
he was going to be here next week. We can actually put a day on it this following, of course the United Nations General Assembly meeting. Well, having the President of Ukraine back in town and I'm sure he's going to visit Capitol Hill as well, have any impact on the debate that we're hearing now.
Absolutely. I mean, he is the best advocate that Ukraine has ever had. His speeches to Congress and congresses all over the world in Allied Group nations has been part and parcel with the selling of their defense of their homeland against Russian aggression. And you can't count him out. He's an impressive figure who can articulate the importance of the battle that he's fighting for the rest of the world. And so he'll start the week in New York at
the General Assembly and make a big splash there. And I think that's the kind of momentum that this cause constantly has to be thinking about. And it's very conscious on the part of Zelenski's regime to keep the world focused on Ukraine, and so by his physical presence, by just going to Washington and being with Biden and seeing members of Congress, reminds them every single day that these are real people who are shedding blood and treasure, you know,
to fight the Russians on all of our behalf. So I think it's a savvy move. I'm not surprised They've been smart about how to sell this war, and I think it will result in a lot of Republicans who have been sort of stucking up to putin in the House of Representatives to shut up for a couple of weeks, and that may be the opening they need.
As only Rick Davis could say, Jeanie, he addressed a joint session of Congress, it was December.
I actually had to look back.
It wasn't this year, the very end of last right before Christmas that was arguably the high water mark for support here in Washington. Remembering the Ukrainian flags lining Pennsylvania Avenue alongside the Stars and stripes. Could this visit bring us back to that level of support.
You know, I think it can. And that is the real danger here because we've all seen the polls as support, particularly on the Republican side, has started to diminish. And it is not that Americans, Republicans or Democrats don't support Ukraine's cause, but that they are concerned about the amount of spending. So that's really what's got to be addressed here.
And you know, the reality is Republicans in the House today, this is where they find themselves with a caucus that is going to be, to Rick's point, cheerleading for Putin, not supporting funding for Ukraine, trying to impeach the president on flimsy on flimsy evidence, and of course shutting down the government. It's no place for the party to be and the President is going to make the most of that.
So that's the danger for those Democrats I am in New York who won Republicans rather who won in Biden districts. They are living in fear that their caucus has gone amok and that it is so magnetized at this point that they can't win in these districts anymore.
Jenny Shanzino and Rick Davis, I'm Joe Matthew in Washington.
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I always get a kick out of politicians who refer to themselves as the third person, or anyone for that matter.
You know, Bob Dole thinks Bob Dole is gonna win. Donald Trump does it too.
He's always talking about that, you know Trump Trump said this, Trump did that, the Trump brand. But it goes even further when you're referring to your alter e go as a different person.
Right.
Enter Dark Brandon, which we've talked about quite a bit. President Biden out today with a new video to try to sell a dark brand in a color changing Dark Brandon mug. Picture the President. Here's the mug. He's pouring hot water into it as if he's making tea.
I maybe you should buy this mug.
I'll ask you nicely what he wanted.
That's so weird.
So you see the picture of Biden with the glasses and the eyes turn red when you pour hot liquid into the mug. I'll ask you nicely, but he won't. Genie Shanzano help me out here. Is this normal for someone, or namely a president, to be referring to their alter ego?
Like this? Is this working again for Joe Biden?
I think it's working. Joe, I have the most boring coffee I wanted Dirk Brandon one.
I love it.
Kudos to the team for putting this together. And Joe, I want to know who your alter ego is because we're going to start.
Thanks you, Okay, Laurio, we'll talk about that off the air. Rick, was you buy one just for a souvenir? It could be a collector's item.
Yeah.
I love the way the eyes turn red. I mean it's not just you know, like a color changing, it's color changing evil red. So I can't remember in Canada having a alter ego. So this is all new to me.
I kind of I'm digging it. And you were on the Dole campaign, you knowd about and that's Bob Doll.
But he didn't actually have it ego.
It's just him exactly all right, Joe Matthews going to say goodbye to the panel now, Rick Davis and Genie Shanza and I love you guys. Happy Friday. Thanks for another great week of analysis.
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