Is $886 billion sufficient for you? Yesterday, the Senate handed a invoice appropriating a cool $886 billion in protection spending. The invoice extends authorization for Part 702, which permits for warrantless spying on international nationals—and their communications with U.S. residents.
It offers members of the navy 5.2 p.c pay raises, and it shells out an terrible lot of funding for each Israel and Ukraine. That is along with the $111 billion in funds for weapons doled out to allies overseas that Senate Democrats have been engaged on passing this week. (Zach Weissmueller and I mentioned Part 702, the nationwide debt, and the 2 wars overseas with Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie this week on our new present, Simply Asking Questions.)
The Home will vote on the $886 billion protection invoice right now. It’s anticipated to go.
As for the 167-page invoice that will authorize $111 billion in spending, $15 billion would go towards Ukraine, $10.6 billion would go towards Israel (together with $1.2 billion “to accelerate development of the Iron Beam missile defense system” and $4 billion in missile protection spending), $43.6 billion would increase American weapons manufacturing, $5 billion would go towards Customs and Border Safety, and $2.3 billion could be doled out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It is much less clear that this one will go, because the border-securing provisions have been a big supply of debate.
In brief, Congress has a spending dependancy that can not be curbed. For libertarians involved about runaway authorities spending, or the U.S. getting too closely concerned in international wars overseas, or the warrantless spying on Americans, or the Republican calls for to crack down on migration, there’s little or no to love.
Abortion drugs thought-about by SCOTUS: Yesterday, the Supreme Court docket introduced that it will contemplate a pair of instances involving the abortion capsule mifepristone, particularly contemplating whether or not the capsule will be prescribed up till 10 weeks of being pregnant (versus seven), whether or not it may be delivered by mail, and whether or not it may be prescribed through telehealth appointments.
Mifepristone plus misoprostol, a two-pill mixture, are utilized in greater than half of the abortions in the US. “Mifepristone has been the subject of a high-profile legal battle throughout the past year,” writes Motive‘s Elizabeth Nolan Brown. The ruling will almost certainly come towards the top of the Court docket’s time period, in June.
“The Supreme Court is now in the unusual position of ruling on abortion access even after its conservative majority declared that it would leave that question to elected officials,” reported The New York Instances. The timing of this additionally implies that the abortion ruling will come just some months earlier than the presidential election.
Republicans are struggling to provoke assist for the pro-life trigger within the period of considerable abortion restrictions and high-profile instances like that of Kate Cox, a mom who’s touring out of her house state, Texas, to hunt an abortion for her second-trimester fetus who was identified with trisomy 18. For professional-lifers like myself, constant voter backlash to abortion restrictions has offered ample proof that my aspect has did not make the case as to why we imagine abortion is immoral, in addition to how legal guidelines must be diligently crafted to make sure physicians aren’t working in authorized limbo.
Now, because the harrowing medical exemption instances come into full show, it appears doubtless that the voter backlash will develop even stronger, and that Republicans searching for workplace should cope with the implications of each the legal guidelines their get together has created and the Supreme Court docket’s forthcoming mifepristone ruling.
Scenes from New York:
A New York Instances investigation discovered that, over a three-week interval, town wasted 70,000 meals meant to go towards migrants.
DocGo, a medical companies firm (with a CEO embroiled in scandal), acquired a $432 million contract to supply companies for migrants at taxpayers’ expense. The contract stipulates that every meal is value roughly $11, so the overall sum of money wasted comes out to about $776,000. Over the course of a full month, that is greater than 1,000,000 {dollars}.
“Look how they’re throwing out the food, because nobody eats it,” stated one Venezuelan migrant in a video. “This food is pure trash.”
QUICK HITS
- Statistician/journalist Nate Silver writes in regards to the huge divide between liberals and leftists, first uncovered by COVID-19 and now uncovered by Israel (that includes some heavy speak of F.A. Hayek).
- Republican strategists—together with former Trump administration official Kellyanne Conway—are telling the remainder of the get together to deemphasize abortion points and concentrate on increasing contraception entry.
- “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit recently upheld New York’s requirement that applicants for handgun carry permits demonstrate ‘good moral character,’ deeming it consistent with the Second Amendment,” writes Motive‘s Jacob Sullum. “But the appeals court enjoined enforcement of the state’s demand that applicants submit information about their social media accounts, deeming it inconsistent with the First Amendment as well as the Second.”
- If the Federal Communications Fee had been harassing my son, I would in all probability go all Lucille Bluth on it, too:
I’m the mom of @elonmusk His aim is to make this world a greater place. @POTUS desires to cease him. Have you ever any thought how livid I’m? Individuals in different international locations are pleased with Elon and don’t perceive the US President’s motive. Please inform me how I ought to reply them. https://t.co/lPGcMvW5kz
— Maye Musk (@mayemusk) December 13, 2023
What would you study in case you ran all PhD theses from 1960-2023 by way of complete plagiarism checking?
— Marc Andreessen ???????? (@pmarca) December 13, 2023
- The Federal Reserve indicators that price cuts could also be on the horizon.
- I usually like A24, however this appears unhealthy. I like that it made Texas be a part of forces with California—not Florida—ostensibly to make it appear much less inflammatory:
A24 civil conflict, alrighty then pic.twitter.com/I1Z5XUlsf6
— Aaron Slodov (@aphysicist) December 13, 2023