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The $1.2 trillion bill that was negotiated a day before March 22 deadline will be voted in the House on Friday. Senator Ms. Murray of Washington state and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut secured spending on child care and education programs- a 9% increase in Child Care and Development Block Grant, and a $275 million increase for Head Start, $120 million for cancer research.For the Border the spending bill puts in a 25% increase in funding for technology at the southern border, 8000 more detention beds (Congress funded 34,000 beds), 2000 new Border Patrol agents. Shalanda Young, Janet Yellen and Jared Bernstein of the Biden economic team went before a Appropriations committee in the House. Rep. Steny Hoyer said the Congress that passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the Science and Chips Act and other Biden legislation to aid the economy was the best he has seen in 40 years in the US Congress.

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 Mayor Reiter of Munich, Christian Kern, head of Austrian railway OBB, say here that the actions of Viktor Orban of Hungary gave the German government very little time, only a few hours, to act. The first motivation was to act in a humanitarian way, which is what happened. The German government had asked Orban to register and handle immigrants in an orderly way. In the end with the failure of Orban to do this, the immigrants who would have come north anyway, streamed into Germany and Austria in buses and trains. Clearly Hungary and Germany could have handled this better. The German public provided support with a large number of volunteers helping. One German minister is cited here as saying that if Orban wanted to build a fence he should have done it in a quiet way, as there are fences between Bulgaria and Turkey, and Turkey and Greece and it has not bothered anyone.

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Ezra Klein on the three questions on which the Supreme Court will decide after three days of hearings on March 26-28, 2012- the Anti-Injunction act, The Individual Mandate, and Medicaid Expansion. Related to the Individual Mandate question are Severability issues.

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Obamacare and other similar efforts were never the solution needed to a broken healthcare system in the US, and acted with a mere band aid patching up effort not getting at the root causes for the breakdown in the healthcare system in the US. Pharmaceutical companies act with impunity in the US to price medicine in ways that are inimical to the lives of the people of the US. This is true also of other companies in the healthcare system in delivery of insurance plans and delivery of medical services.

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Social media companies such as Twitter were classified differently under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. This is now being reviewed as the companies are now seen as monopolies by the government, that the role of these companies has evolved as they reached tens of million of people around the world. Twitter started in 2006- the year the Act governing its regulation was written was ten years prior. And Twitter only reached its access to tens of millions by 2012, fifteen years after the Act was written.  Basically the White House is saying the social media companies role has changed since the Act was written and the law should keep up with the new situation. President Trump is expected to sign a draft executive order setting new rules that limits the broad legal protection status provided by the law written in 1996, when social media companies did not exist. The immediate event preceding the action, was the president's frustration with the fact check placed by Twitter on the president's comments on the issue of voter fraud when mail in ballots are used. The WSJ podcast and discussion shown here points to this not being a black and white issue, but one where there are different and diverging views as to the policy that should be followed, which are legitimate based on the evidence on each side. Making this not appropriate for a fact check as Twitter had done. The U.S. president's views and traditional Republican party views converge on this issue that mail in ballots favor the other party. ...

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Ada Colau and her fight to introduce fair practices for mortgages and change Spain's mortgage banking laws. Her organization is PAH- Platform for People Affected by Mortgages. The need for consumer protection in Spain's mortgage laws.

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Senator Chuck Schumer in the US Congress after the passage of the US Debt Ceiling Agreement on June 1, 2023. It is a historic day when president Biden helped preserve most of what has been accomplished by the Inflation Reduction Act and other spending programs for US workers and families, for US infrastructure, and world leadership in science and technology.

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Xi Jinping of China's offer to act as mediator in Saudi Iran relations is expected to lead to a resumption of relations between the two countries 7 years after relations were disrupted. The conflict in Yemen with whom Saudis share a common border has resulted in damage to both countries with Iran and Saudis supporting opposite sides. 

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This report in the WSJ says the RICO (Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges in the Trump Indictment in Georgia offer opportunity for a sweeping narrative. Charges include several related Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer, False Statements and Writings. In addition to Mr. Trump charges were made for 18 other individuals. 

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Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, on the flaws in the No Child Left Behind Act that need to be corrected.

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The U.S. Senate passes a motion that allows the chamber to proceed with a debate on a health care bill. The motion passed 51-50 with Vice President Mike Pence casting the deciding vote. Republican Senators Collins and Murkowski voted against the motion. This report in the WSJ says this sets in motion a process in which debate will take place and amendments will be made. It is not clear what shape the bill will take. Under the process used only a simple majority is needed in the Senate, yet this allows for many amendments to be made.  Only hours after this motion passed by one vote, a bill replacing major parts of the Affordable Care Act failed to pass 57 votes against and 43 in favor. Senator John McCain who arrived in Washington from Arizona following brain tumor surgery, delivered strong criticism of the way the Republican healthcare bill was rushed through allowing very little debate. Experts have commented on the way the bill was rushed through with a thin majority for passage, with very little debate, first by Democrats in 2009 and now in the House by Republicans. With the same pattern now followed in the Senate by Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. A backup bill would remove just the individual and employer mandates and a tax on medical devices- the elements Republicans agree on, if no majority can be put together for the healthcare bill. ...

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David Brooks of the NYT comments on the Hillary Clinton interview by Goldberg in the Atlantic magazine, where she criticized U.S. president Obama for a weak foreign policy and failure to act in Syria. Brooks says Obama's failure to act in the robust manner Clinton is advocating only leads Obama into situations where he is forced to act later as the situation deteriorates with more serious consequences for the U.S. By not acting in a timely manner the U.S. may be forced into greater involvement later, which makes Obama's "don't do stupid stuff" less of a sound idea than it appears. As Clinton points out not leading to better decisions in the same manner as the Bush-Cheney jingoistic policy making.

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The background behind Secretary Paulson's efforts to ensure an orderly disposition of assets and not distress sales, that would be damaging to the financial markets and create continued difficulties in the markets for all types of commercial paper. Describes in detail the meeting on Sept 16, 2007 convened by Treasury with private banking sector participants.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is the only Treasury Secretary who also served as the chairperson of the US central bank the Federal Reserve 2014-2018, and the only woman in these roles. Here she says she toured the country in 2022 a year after joining the Biden administration as head of the finance ministry. What she has seen are the early results of president Biden's  two trillion dollar bills, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Science and CHIPS Act 2021, which give manufacturing and new infrastructure building a critical role in a new revitalized America. All across this vast country aging infrastructure is being rebuilt and new infrastructure is changing the landscape. Yellen says the US economy is resilient and growing amidst a global economic slowdown and higher interest rates. The labor market is strong and household balance sheets are healthy, consumer spending robust, says Yellen. It provides the basis for American global economic leadership in the years ahead. ...

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Former Special Counsel Mueller answers questions in the U.S. Congress related to his investigation of the president's election campaign and interference by Russia. Mueller continues to say nothing exonerates the president for his actions. And insists that he did not act on his investigation findings as a sitting president cannot be indicted according to Justice Department rules. Only Congress can do this and it was upto Congress to act. Mueller also replied in the affirmative that in this case the investigation could continue and action could be taken on findings after the president leaves office. The 74 year old lawyer calm demeanour appeared to be under strain as he handled question after question from Democratic Congressmen. The appearance of Mr. Mueller only brought the details about the flawed election process and poor judgement of officials at U.S. government agencies and of the candidates themselves, to a larger audience. It left the issue unresolved, with new questions, and no one looking good in the process. ...

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Medicaid Cuts - cutting costs for a program that went from $20 billion in 1980 to 918 billion in 2025, went up 45 times in 45 years. Projecting it out at this rate would leave little for other priorities for the Nation. Hence the need to set priorities- helping one means not helping the other in need. Helping a able bodied person means not helping the elderly who need help as by eliminating Social Security tax for about 90% of recipients over 65 years for instance. Medicaid was originally intended for able bodied. Critics of the plan say there is a lot of red tape and reporting at state levels. The correct solution would be to cut the stringent reporting requirements, cut the bureaucratic reporting, make it simple easy to report and not frequent. California, New York and other states will likely make the reporting easier. For impact on rural hospitals Collins and Murkowski have setup a $25 billion fund in this Big Beautiful Act to support rural hospitals. ...