Tag Archives: political parties

Not a Blow

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President Joe Biden has lost his nominee for OMB Director, Neera Tanden.

I have accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination for Director of the Office of Management and Budget,” the president said in the statement. “I have the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my Administration. She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work.

Just the News presents this as some sort of blow to Biden and his program, but they’re not alone in that assessment. Of course, it’s no such thing.

Tanden, with her blatantly racist attitude, exemplified by her history of tweeting (which she tried to erase, following the Left’s dishonest practice of trying to rewrite history by deleting uncomfortable posts, tweets, articles) was nothing more than a grape cynically offered up by Biden to let the opposing party claim a victory in the Nomination Confirmation Games.

Tanden was never a serious offering—which is as grave an insult to Tanden, unless she was a willing player in the charade, as she and her nomination were to honest Americans.

Yes, It Is

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But for reasons different from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘ (D, NY). Or it would be, if Ocasio-Cortez hadn’t slept through so many of her economics classes.

[Congresswoman] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D, NY] called the debate over raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour “utterly embarrassing” and reiterated her push for the Biden administration to override the Senate parliamentarian and include a pay floor increase in the Democrats’ coronavirus relief package.

It is embarrassing that a Boston University cum laude BA in economics could have so little understanding of basic economics. It is embarrassing, too, that so many grown adults alongside her in Congress could have so little understanding of basic economics.

It is well-known that the more something costs, the less of it that will be bought or otherwise acquired—or even sought after. Of course, that applies to labor as well as to the goods and services that labor produces.

It is well-known that if the output of labor isn’t worth the cost, the laborer won’t be hired in the first place.

It is well-known that minimum wage jobs—the jobs allegedly targeted by the Progressive-Democrats’ drive for $15/hr—are low/no skill jobs.

It is well-known that the primary workers in those low-no skill jobs are teenagers trying to earn some summer money for a number of reasons, earning some college money; existing college students looking to earn money for their current expenses; first-time workers looking to gain work experience and resume material; single parents looking to plus up their family’s income; two-parent families with one or both parents looking to plus up their family’s savings. Very few of these minimum wage jobs are the sole job held by the worker.

From that, it should be easy to understand that the ones who will be hurt the most by a mandated minimum wage increase will be precisely those folks, as they’re the ones who will be priced out of their jobs, and the small businesses who can’t afford to pay that much in wages.

It’s also lost on the Progressive-Democrats, or they simply don’t care, that the ones most hurt by such a move are minority low-skill workers and the minority-owned or -operated small businesses that can’t afford the labor cost.

We even have empirical evidence of the failure of such a minimum wage: in Seattle, where employment has fallen off in the aftermath of that city’s mandated wage increase.

Yet the Progressive-Democrats push on, with their eyes wide shut.

Not Serious

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The Wall Street Journal claims pressure is growing on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) to resign over allegations of his sexual harassment.

Gov Andrew Cuomo Faces Growing Calls From New York Democrats to Resign

goes the headline. And

US Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, of Long Island, became one of the highest-profile New York Democrats to call for Mr Cuomo to step down.

I’m having trouble seeing the pressure. So far, all that’s going on is a lot of loud chit-chat.

There are two ways to apply pressure in this context. One is for the State’s legislature to block Cuomo’s agenda until he quits or his term expires. “He can’t govern” goes one articulation of this. That, though, would redound to the legislators as much as it would to Cuomo.

The other way is to actually impeach Cuomo, convict him at trial, and thereby eject him from office.

But we have this:

Six Democratic state lawmakers who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America said Tuesday that they supported impeachment. In New York, impeachment articles must be approved by the state Assembly and a trial is conducted before members of the state Senate as well as judges of the state’s Court of Appeals. Democrats have a two-third majority in both the state Assembly and Senate. Mr. Cuomo has appointed all seven judges of the Court of Appeals.

OK. With numbers like that, what are those six legislators actually doing about impeaching and trying Cuomo?

…

Porch dog yapping. Not applying pressure. Not actually bringing articles of impeachment to the Assembly floor for up-or-down action. Absent that, there is no trial.

There’re just little, yippy dogs barking.

Testing, Testing

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The People’s Republic of China is doing that of the Biden administration.

Last week, after the PLA air force flew a fleet of 10+ bombers on a “practice strike” mission over the international waters of the South China Sea, the US sailed the USS Curtis Wilbur through the international Taiwan Strait. The PLA navy proceeded to track our destroyer on its transit.

Nor were the PRC’s government men happy about the transit. The PLA’s Eastern Theater Spokesperson, Air Force Colonel Zhang Chunhui:

The move artificially creates risk factors in the Taiwan Strait, deliberately undermines regional peace and stability, we are firmly opposed to this[.]

There’s nothing inherently risky in ships sailing international waters. Contra Zhang, the “risk factors” are those artificially created by the equally artificial angst projected by the PLA. That artificial nature is demonstrated by retired PLA colonel Yue Gang:

This is to show that the Chinese military is capable of countering and closely following what the US is doing, and that it is in control of the situation.

With the PLA claiming to be “in control,” it is demonstrating that it doesn’t believe there are any more artificial risk factors than there are with our naval ships peacefully sailing international waters.

The PRC’s conflicting messages are just part of its ongoing testing of the new Biden administration, as the PRC pushes Biden as it seeks to learn the degree of his understanding of the US-PRC relationship and to learn his limits and the point at which he’ll begin to back down.

Boycotts

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There’s growing interest in Congress in the US boycotting the Olympics winter games scheduled for Beijing in 2022. That, despite President Joe Biden’s continued passivity—beyond some chit-chat—regarding all things People’s Republic of China.

Congressman John Katko (R, NY) in his letter to Biden on the matter:

The actions taken by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are antithetical to the values of both the United States and its allies around the world. Participation in an Olympics held in a country that is openly committing genocide not only undermines those shared values but casts a shadow on the promise for all those who seek free and just societies.
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The United States simply cannot in good faith participate in an Olympic Games in a country that is committing genocide and continuously attempts to manipulate and lie to the global community about such atrocities. Before the eyes of the world descend upon China in 2022, I urge you to take action by working with our partners and allies to lead the free nations of the planet in a unified movement to hold this honored contest amongst nations in a country that actually lives up to the values of the Olympic Charter.

That interest is growing, too, across flyover country outside the DC and coastal bubbles.

Biden’s diffidence regarding the potential for boycott, though, is illustrated by what he said through his White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki:

There hasn’t been a final decision made on that. And, of course, we would look for guidance from the US Olympic Committee.

Three guesses how that went.

A spokesperson for the US Olympic Committee said they believe boycotts are an ineffective way to address global issues.
“We believe the more effective course of action is for the governments of the world and China to engage directly on human rights and geopolitical issues,” the spokesperson told Fox News.

Got it in one.

Of course the folks with a vested interest in their project are going to insist that their project be left alone. And USOC management personnel, through that spokesman, had only the most vapid of rationalizations, suggesting in wide-eyed innocence that the PRC would engage, directly or otherwise, on anything related to human rights.