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Sunday Talks, Kevin McCarthy Makes His Case for the Debt Ceiling Bill

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears on Fox News Sunday to defend his deal with Joe Biden for a debt ceiling increase.

In the past 24 hours many fiscal conservatives have criticized McCarthy for the terms of the agreement. In this interview, McCarthy walks through the details of the terms as he constructed them and pushes back against some of the criticism.  WATCH:

As soon as the bill is in written form, we will be able to make a better determination.  At this moment this is all hearsay based on what people think the legislation says.

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McCarthy and Biden Strike Spending Deal to Raise Debt Ceiling

According to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a deal “in principle” has been reached between himself and Joe Biden.  McCarthy held a brief press conference to announced the deal; however, no details are forthcoming.  WATCH:

WASHINGTON DC – … [B]oth Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy still have to sell their respective parties on the agreement, navigating fraught votes in both chambers. McCarthy immediately hosted a call with members after the deal was announced, calling it a “big win” and claiming Democrats didn’t get “one thing” that they wanted out of the negotiations on a member-wide conference call, according to three people on the call.

While conservative Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) vocally criticized the agreement — saying he was “extremely disappointed” that the deal didn’t include “any meaningful cuts” — other Freedom Caucus members praised the deal, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Though both said they wanted to see the text, Jordan praised McCarthy for a deal where the government is “spending less” than it did before and getting Democrats to move on work requirements.

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Tucker Carlson Outlines the Ramification of Trillions in U.S. Treasury Bonds No Longer Needed as Global Securities

For his opening monologue and first interview tonight, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlined the ramification of non-western nations now trading in alternative currencies to the U.S. dollar.   {Direct Rumble Link Here]  As the dollar diminishes in value, and as an outcome of Biden using U.S. treasury bonds as part of the sanction regime against Russia, various non-western nations now perceive holding dollars as exposing themselves to risk.

Carlson is joined by Luke Gromen who accurately notes the dollar as a global trade currency may continue, but foreign nations holding U.S. treasury bonds as an asset will likely start contracting.  The result of U.S. treasury bonds returning after maturity with no repurchase, would be an inability of the U.S. to borrow against their sale. This could, perhaps likely will, severely diminish the amount of money the U.S. congress can spend.  WATCH:

None of this should come as a surprise to those who have paid attention. Factually, in March of last year, one month after the Russian sanctions were announced, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Deputy Managing Director said the sanctions against Russia are likely to undermine the US dollar’s global dominance as a trade currency.  Everyone could see this coming.

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Senator Bill Cassidy Confronts Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Biden Tax Proposal, “That’s a Lie”

During today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) questioned Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen about Social Security and the immediate cuts that take place in nine years if the current plan goes bankrupt.  The confrontation was professional, but also very focused.  WATCH:

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Fallout from SVB Collapse Begins Sending Twitches Through Tech Sector, While Congress Meets With Treasury

The 44-hour collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is having some reverberations amid the tech sector as companies who carried unsecured deposits with the bank are facing an uncertain future.

Tech company Roku streaming services holds $487 million in cash reserves at SVB representing 26% of their liquid holdings. Those unsecured funds are now tenuous, depending on what steps are taken next.  Additionally, Etsy an online brokering retailer for mostly independent sellers, has also run into a snag with processing disbursement payments to those same sellers.  Etsy used SVB as a depository and payment transfer provider to the merchant accounts.

According to Axios, “Circle’s usd coin (USDC), the second largest stablecoin in the world” is also in a tough position “because a portion of its cash reserves were held at SVB, which the U.S. government took control of on Friday.”  These and other ancillary issues are now part of a larger conversation about whether SVB is representative of a weakness that may impact other banks.   However, current consensus is that a contagion effect is not expected.

SVB was exclusively a tech sector bank.  Small to mid-size tech companies who relied on SVB may have some immediate issues; but the larger banking sector seems much more solid and less exposed to the long-term treasuries that SVB was holding. “People are used to having zero interest rates and easy money, and it’s gone. And there are people who will manage that well and people who will not,” former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said during an interview on “Cavuto Coast-to-Coast” Friday. {link}

Meanwhile, congress is meeting with treasury and FDIC officials to discuss if taxpayer intervention is needed.  {insert eyeroll here}:

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Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Fails, Now the Idiots Are Considering a Taxpayer Bailout

SVB is Silicon Valley Bank, the almost exclusive banking network for Venture Capitalists (VC), tech sector start-ups and tech industry holding accounts.  48 hours ago, SVB was a “grade A” Moodys rating. As of tonight, they are insolvent.

“All told, customers withdrew a staggering $42 billion of deposits by the end of Thursday, according to a California regulatory filing. […] “The precipitous deposit withdrawal has caused the Bank to be incapable of paying its obligations as they come due,” the California financial regulator stated. “The bank is now insolvent.” (link)

Now, as ridiculous as this sounds outside Silicon Valley, the powers that be are concerned about a ‘contagion‘ effect, and openly discussing the need for a taxpayer funded bailout.  Blood-boiling doesn’t even begin to describe the sensation.

Let the Silicon Valley companies who started with the funds from the bank sell some of their capitalization on the market and finance the bailout themselves.  After all, this is one interconnected system of lenders, borrowers and investors.  This is not a crisis for the guy making their catered lunches, mowing their lawns, or washing their clothes.

♦The system.  A tech guy/gal has an idea or product.  Venture Capitalists (VC) organize the funding for the idea/product and go to SVB for money to start the company.  The bank funds the startup and takes an equity position in the company.  The VC brokers the deal, takes payment and also takes an equity position.  The company launches and if successful builds a multi-billion enterprise.  If they IPO (most do) then shares of the company are sold and the value of the company rises with the increased stock purchasing.

The shares of the company are capital. The shares can be sold to create funds that can support SVB.  If SVB needs funds, let the networked companies sell some of their capital and fund the bank that generated their venture.  They do not need outside ‘bailouts’.   That’s just the way I look at it.

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The Great “Nihilistic” Gaslighting of the Professionally Republican Chattering Class

Before going through some of the insufferable debates and positions amid the current political dynamic, something needs to be said, and we need to say it with the intent of stopping this insufferable pretending, breaking the cycle of battered conservatism and speaking bold truth.

The current chattering class of the professionally Republican have joined with the chattering class of the professional leftists and begun decrying the efforts of the 20 House Republicans as being ‘nihilistic’ in their efforts to reform the House rules and present pragmatic political defenses to the surge of destruction around us.

Nihilism” is essentially a political belief advocating for destruction of current political systems without discernible constructive goals.

This is the opposition argument toward what they perceive as the goal and objective of the 20 House Republicans who fought for a new rules package and against the appointment of Kevin McCarthy until such changes were implemented.

As the argument is made against the House 20 group, they were/are nihilistic against modern political norms with the end result being their desired destruction of our constitutional republic.  That’s the position of the professionally Republican.  Now let me add some context to this ridiculous and insufferable gaslighting, because that’s exactly what this narrative is.

The same people claiming the House Republicans are nihilistic in their goals, are the same UniParty members in politics and media who have put us $32 trillion into debt.  They’re the same UniParty that has created a crisis at the border, millions of illegal aliens, massive omnibus spending leading to rampant inflation, ridiculous energy policy wrapped around the false premise of climate change and yet provide $100 billion to a foreign country, Ukraine.  In essence, a great UniParty effort that is destroying the very fabric of our nation.

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White House Flies 4,000 Page Omnibus Bill to Virgin Islands for Biden Signature

According to recent media reports the $1.7 trillion omnibus budget and legislative bill was sent to the White House late Wednesday night.  However, Joe Biden and his familial entourage had already departed DC for their holiday vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

However, the continuing resolution/omnibus spending bill needed to be signed by December 30th in order to fund government without technical interruption, so the White House sent the bill all the way to St. Croix for signature via Spirit Airlines.

(Via Daily Mail) – The White House flew the federal budget to St Croix for President Joe Biden to sign into law ahead of the December 30 deadline, so the government didn’t shut down over New Year’s Eve.

The 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion omnibus package to fund the government through September 2023 arrived at the White House on Wednesday evening, after it completed the legislative enrollment process. On Thursday, it was flown to St Croix, where Biden is spending the holiday week in a luxury villa owned by a billionaire Democratic donor.

The bill arrived in the US Virgin Islands via Spirit Airlines on Thursday evening around 5:30 pm Eastern time. A little over an hour later, Biden’s POTUS Instagram account posted a picture of the president signing the bill.

The caption of the Instagram post read: ‘Today, I signed the bipartisan omnibus bill, ending a year of historic progress. It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, VAWA funding – and gets crucial assistance to Ukraine. Looking forward to more in 2023.’

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House Passes $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill, Nine House Republicans Supported

First, some context:  ♦ A trillion dollars is one-thousand billions. ♦ A trillion seconds is 31,709 years. ♦ The last federal budget that went through regular order was signed into law in September of 2007. ♦ Today is December 23rd. ♦ Obamacare was passed in the Senate December 23, 2009.

Today, the Democrat controlled House of Representatives has just passed the Senate constructed $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill.  The massive spending bill now blocks the incoming Republican congress from impeding the Biden agenda and heads directly to the installed occupant of the White House for signature.

Most of the House republicans who voted to approve the spending bill are retiring, they include: Liz Cheney (WY), Rodney Davis (IL),  Brian Fitzpatrick (AL), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA), Chris Jacobs (NY), John Katko (NY), Adam Kinzinger (IL), Fred Upton (MI), and Steve Womack (AR).

The 2022 Omnibus bill includes $45 billion for Ukraine in addition to changes in election laws intended to block the American people from interfering in the legislative business of Washington DC in the future.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated the House passage calling the bill “truly a package for the people,” where people are defined as those who live and congregate in Washington DC to indulge themselves at taxpayers’ expense.  There is no larger disconnect.

Speaker Pelosi continued by saying, “members have planes to catch, gifts to wrap, carols to sing, religious services to attend to,” she said, adding that the time reminded her of an English song: “Christmas is coming, goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat.” No, I’m not making that up – she said that.

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House Democrats Create Another ‘Deem as Passed’ Stopgap Spending Omnibus Construct – Chip Roy Calls It Out loudly

House Democrats have returned to their old ‘deem as passed’ playbook to provide a vehicle for the Senate to construct another stopgap omnibus spending bill despite the legally required non-origination from the House.

WASHINGTON DC – The House is expected to pass a stopgap spending bill Wednesday night that would give negotiators an extra week to finish a $1.7 trillion year-end spending package, setting up an all-out legislative sprint before lawmakers leave for the holidays. (more)

Texas Representative Chip Roy explains exactly what the House is doing.  WATCH:

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Yup, it’s Deja vu all over again.

Did you know the last regular order congressional budget was passed in September of 2007 for fiscal year 2008.  That’s it.  Every single year from 2008 to now has been a series of baseline budgeting, continuous resolutions and omnibus spending bills.

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