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OnAir Post: Articles … July 22-28, 2024
News
It could also have a major impact on House and Senate races. Both chambers of Congress are narrowly divided at the moment; Republicans hold a slim advantage in the House and Democrats narrowly control the Senate. Either chamber could go either way in November.
I went to Simone Pathe, a senior Washington editor for CNN Politics and the author of an occasional series, “The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip.” Read the most recent version here.
We talked by email about the state of play for the House and Senate and how the shake-up in the presidential race might change things.
See CNN link for details.
As soon as Vice President Kamala Harris hit the campaign trail this week, she made it clear what one of her top priorities would be if she wins the presidential election in November.
“Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” she said at a Wisconsin rally on Tuesday. “Because here’s the thing we all here (in) Wisconsin know: When our middle class is strong, American is strong.”
Similarly, former President Donald Trump has also promised to help the middle class, which he says has been hurt by the steep rise in prices in recent years.
“Under Biden and the radical left Democrats, inflation is wiping out our middle class,” he said at a Michigan rally last weekend.
Her initial presidential campaign speeches offer some insights into her priorities, though she’s mainly voiced general talking points and not more nuanced plans. Like Biden, she intends to contrast her vision for America with that of former President Donald Trump.
“In this moment, I believe we face a choice between two different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” she told members of the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta at an event in Indianapolis on Wednesday. “And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”
That path forward focuses on lifting up working and middle-class Americans, enabling them to join unions, retire with dignity, live without the fear of gun violence and obtain affordable health care, she said. Harris has also touted the Biden administration’s efforts to lower drug costs, reduce child poverty, forgive student loan debt and remove medical debt from credit reports.
See CNN link for more details.
Poll question
Do those with children have more of a stake in the country’s future than those who do not?
Selection of Smerconish daily headlines
Michael Smerconish discusses July 26th Headlines (YouTube) from the Smerconish.com Newsletter.
Saboteurs Hit French Trains Pre Olympics, AP
Russian/Chinese Bombers Off Alaska, USA Today
Both Obamas Endorse Harris, Politico
Trump Backpedals on Debate, Forbes
RFK Jr. Advocates “Wellness Farms“, Mother Jones
Republicans Worry About Shapiro, NBC News
Cali to Clear Homeless Encampments, Axios
Aniston Among Vance Critics, People
Optimistic video has Beyoncé’s anthem as a soundtrack and touches on gun violence, health care and abortion
‘We choose freedom’: Kamala Harris campaign launches first ad
Optimistic video has Beyoncé’s anthem as a soundtrack and touches on gun violence, health care and abortion
Helen Sullivan
Thu 25 Jul 2024 07.00 EDT
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The Harris for President campaign has launched its first official video, less than a week after US President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race and his vice-president Kamala Harris said she was running for the nomination.
The ad caps a week during which Harris also broke funding records and quickly clinched enough delegate support to become the presumptive nominee in an election that is now just over 100 days away.
Released on Friday morning [?], the ad opens with shots of Harris’s smiling face behind a podium, the word Kamala, the word Harris, and the American flag. The soundtrack is the beginning of Beyoncé’s song Freedom, to which Harris entered and exited her first speech to campaign staffers after gaining lightning speed momentum on the road to becoming the presumptive nominee.
The Conversation, – July 18, 2024
As the 2024 presidential election heats up, some people are hearing about the Heritage Foundation for the first time. The conservative think tank has a new, ambitious and controversial policy plan, Project 2025, which calls for an overhaul of American public policy and government.
Project 2025 lays out many standard conservative ideas – like prioritizing energy production over environmental and climate-change concerns, and rejecting the idea of abortion as health care – along with some much more extreme ones, like criminalizing pornography. And it proposes to eliminate or restructure countless government agencies in line with conservative ideology.
While think tanks sometimes have the reputation of being stuffy academic institutions detached from day-to-day politics, Heritage is far different. By design, Heritage was founded to not only develop conservative policy ideas but also to advance them through direct political advocacy.
If you listen to venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz explain why they’re supporting Donald Trump, between the discussions of crypto and China and AI, you’ll detect a much more conventional reason for rich people to vote Republican: They’re worried about Democrats raising their taxes.
Specifically, Andreessen and Horowitz railed against President Joe Biden’s proposed Billionaires Minimum Income Tax, which they claimed would destroy the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley. They aren’t alone: Finance and tech commentators have been furious since Biden first unveiled the plan in 2022.
“Billionaires oppose tax increase” has a certain “dog bites man” quality to it as a story. But this particular iteration viscerally annoys me. For one thing, Andreessen and Horowitz are complaining about a tax that not only is dead on arrival in Congress but one that the Supreme Court, just a couple weeks ago, implied would be unconstitutional.
