Radio America Online News Bureau

News & Politics

Debt-Ridden Dem Wins Primary, Libs Do Want Your Guns, Epic Failure to Launch

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are pleased to see pathetic levels of voter enthusiasm among Democrats in Texas and Georgia and they dissect the substantial personal debt afflicting the party’s nominee for governor in Georgia.  They also fire back as California Rep. Eric Swalwell argues for a ban on military-style semiautomatic rifles, a buyback program aimed at those who own such weapons, and criminal prosecution for anyone subsequently caught with one.  And they shake their heads over the 30-year-old man who took his parents to court for insisting he move out of their house.

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Freedom Caucus Demands DOJ Cooperation, Better GOP Leaders

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The House Freedom Caucus is increasingly frustrated with the Justice Department refusing to hand over documents critical to the investigation into the 2016 campaign and with its own Republican leadership on issues ranging from immigration to spending and more.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  He says the Justice Department is dragging its feet on turning over documents related to many different aspects of the 2016 campaign and the ongoing Mueller probe.

“(It’s) everything to be quite honest with you because the investigations into Hillary Clinton as well as the presidential campaign have shown there is egregious overreach here.  but one of the key points is what the scope of this (Mueller) investigation actually is.

“We see Mr. Mueller on a fishing expedition, trying to get anybody and everybody tagged into a crime that they create,” said Gosar.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C, is leading the charge for a second special counsel to be named so that person could impanel a grand jury and bring possible criminal charges on a range of issues.

However, Gosar says that is unlikely to happen since he believes the Justice Department is trying to “wait out the clock.”  When asked whether that meant letting the Mueller investigation play out or see if Democrats win a majority in one or both chambers of Congress, Gosar suggested it was both.

“A Pelosi-borne House cancels all these processes,” said Gosar, noting that his goal is to make sure “the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C, aren’t being held to a different standard than people out in the real world.”

Gosar and other House Freedom Caucus members are also furious with how Republican leaders are handling the immigration issue as proponents of a DACA amnesty near the 218 signatures needed to force the issue on the House floor.

The congressman blasts leadership for repeatedly promising to put the far more conservative Goodlatte bill on the floor for a vote but never making good on the vow.  That plan would only grant legal status to DACA enrollees, rather than a path to citizenship.  It would also limit chain migration to the immediate family, cancel the visa lottery, mandate E-Verify for all hires in the U.S. and beef up border security.

He also says leaders have reneged on promises to bring a bill to the floor focused solely on scrapping the visa lottery.

“Trust is a series of promises kept.  Leadership has drug its feet repeatedly on this aspect,” said Gosar.

GOP leaders are pleading with members not to sign the discharge petition, but Gosar says the alternative offered by leadership is equally unacceptable.

“We were presented with an idea.  They would go forward with the Goodlatte bill but we had to agree to a rule vote that not only brought up the Goodlatte bill but brought up an immigration bill to be named later as well.  No one in their right mind actually does that,” said Gosar.

Freedom Caucus members held up the latest farm bill in protest of the leadership’s performance on immigration but also to protest what they expect to be significant watering down of the farm bill in the Senate.

Gosar says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no intention of fighting to keep welfare work requirements in the legislation but does plan to push hard for legalizing industrial hemp.

Gosar says it’s another example of leaders unilaterally deciding what legislation will look like, just as House and Senate leaders hammered out an agreement for the $1.3 trillion omnibus earlier this year.

The congressman says new GOP leadership is desperately needed but there will be no leadership elections anytime soon because current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy cannot get 218 Republicans to support him.

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GOP House Prospects Improving, Trump Echoing Hillary? Duncan’s Anti-Gun Stunt

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After discussing an eventful trip to the DMV, Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are happy to see experts shifting projections towards Republicans in four key House races, with Jim noting that real nominees often fail to poll as well as generic ones.  Jim also rips President Trump for reportedly using cell phones that staffers fear could leave Trump – and classified information – vulnerable to hacking or espionage.  And they blast Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan for urging parents across the country to stop sending their kids to school until Congress passes gun control legislation.

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Trump’s ‘Bold, Comprehensive’ Iran Sanctions

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. will apply the toughest sanctions in history in order to squeeze the life out of Iran’s nuclear and territorial ambitions and a former Clinton administration official says the Trump administration is headed in a much better direction than the one charted by the Obama administration.

During a speech Monday morning at the Heritage Foundation, Pompeo made it clear Iran’s belligerent behavior is already resulting in economic pain.

“We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime.  The leaders in Tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness.  Thanks to our colleagues at the Department of Treasury, sanctions are going back in full effect and new ones are coming.

“Last week, we imposed sanctions on Iran’s central bank and other entities that were funneling money to the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’] Quds Force and were also providing money to Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations,” said Pompeo.

Pompeo then elaborated on what new sanctions were coming.

“The sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations,” said Pompeo.

Lawrence J. Haas served as communications director to Vice President Al Gore and was spokesman for the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget.  He is now a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and was a frequent critic of the Obama administration’s approach to Iran and Israel.

While eager for more details, Haas says Pompeo’s remarks are a welcome step.

“It’s bold.  It’s comprehensive,” said Haas.  “In an extremely unpredictable presidency, we do have some consistency here.  President Trump has said for a long time that one of the main problems with the Iran nuclear deal is that it wasn’t comprehensive enough.

“That is is only addressed the nuclear program and did not address the other damaging aspects of Iranian behavior: the ballistic missile program that’s tied to the nuclear program, the terror sponsorship, the efforts in the region to destablilize other regimes, the presence in Syria and all the rest,” said Haas.

He says the Trump approach takes all Iranian threats and destructive policies into consideration.

“Here we see a policy that, at least on paper, is broader and does take in all these different aspects of Iranian behavior,” said Haas.

Haas believes Pompeo’s speech was also aimed at our former partners in the Iran nuclear deal, putting Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China on notice that their own economic fortunes could be imperiled if they keep cooperating with Iran.  He says that’s easier said than done since the U.S. does not want to ostracize those allies, whom we will need for other international priorities.

However, if Trump can convince those other nations to get on board with the sanctions, it could have a massive impact.

“This could be potentially game-changing,” said Haas.

Pompeo made it clear that Iran will need to reverse course in a host of areas to see sanctions relief.  In addition to no enriching of uranium or pre-processing of plutonium, Iran would also have to scrap its missile program, get out of Syria, stop aiding the Houtis in Yemen and end its threats towards Israel.

Haas wonders if the Iranian regime has such a sea change in its DNA, even if were to see the benefits of becoming a responsible government.

“Can this regime do all this and still be true to itself, which is a brutally hostile anti–American, anti-Israeli, expansionist, revolutionary regime?” asked Haas.

Right now, Haas wants to know what the U.S. is willing to do economically and otherwise to keep Iran in check.

“I’m curious to see the specifics of the sanctions and I’m curious to see how the administration follows through on it’s promises to constrain Iranian behavior in the region,” said Haas.

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Crippling Iran Sanctions, Gun Control vs. Facts, Blankenship Won’t Go Away

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America cheer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for inflicting punishing sanctions on Iran, making it clear the Trump administration does not think the Iranian regime can be partners on anything. They also sigh as the gun control movement tries to advance its agenda again after the Santa Fe High School shooting, even though their proposed legislation would have done nothing to prevent this horrific shooting. Jim also asks why so few are interested in finding out why teenage boys are now lashing out and killing people when they are bullied or rejected by girls. And they discuss Don Blankenship’s pathetic attempt to keep running for U.S. Senate in West Virginia despite getting thrashed in the GOP primary and a West Virginia law that prevents losers in primaries from running again in the general election.

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The One Issue that Could Keep GOP Base at Home in Midterms

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A rebel band of moderate Republicans in the House are on the verge of teaming with 200 Democrats to sidestep GOP leaders and advance legislation granting amnesty to people brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Led by Reps. Jeff Denham, R-Cal., and Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., at least 20 Republicans are on board with what’s known as a discharge petition.  If a majority of House members sign a petition in solidarity on a given issue, they can force the issue on the House floor in defiance of leadership in the majority party.

“That allows them to leapfrog over leadership and take control of the House floor, and (House Minority Whip) Steny Hoyer has promised them 200 Democrat votes.  Right off the bat, you’re scratching your head.  Why would 25 Republicans give the floor over to the Democrats to pass a bill,” said Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are imploring Republicans not to join the discharge petition.  Brat, whose 2014 primary stunner over then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor was due largely to his tough stance on immigration, says Ryan and McCarthy know that this move could be lethal to the party in November.

“This is the one issue that has the capacity to keep our base at home in the elections coming up, which are just so critical,” said Brat, who is a prime target for Democrats in Virginia’s seventh congressional district.

If the discharge petition succeeds, supporters would then proceed to the “Queen of the Hill” strategy, which would allow for votes on four different measures that would address the fate of people in the country illegally but who are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.  The bill getting the most votes would then advance to the Senate.

One option is the Goodlatte bill, which is favored by immigration hawks because it confers legal status but not a pathway to citizenship for DACA enrollees and does not grant legal status to those eligible for DACA but failed to enroll.  It would also limit chain migration, scrap the diversity lottery, tighten internal enforcement, mandate E-Verify to screen all job applicants and beef up border security.

But that bill doesn’t have enough votes to pass, and with 200 Democrats champing at the bit, it’s a clean amnesty bill that would attract the most votes.

“The one with the more Democrat votes wins.  The American people didn’t give the House and the Senate and the White House to Republicans in order to do a giant, huge amnesty bill,” said Brat, who says the amnesty plan would extend a lot farther than just the DACA enrollees.

“The Democrats would have an all-out amnesty bill, which grants amnesty to about four million folks and then ten million folks over ten years without any border control, without any E-Verify to make sure you’re having legal hiring, without taking any account of chain migration,” said Brat.

Brat says this discharge petition tactic shows the Democrats and their GOP allies cannot win an open debate and they must resort to other tactics to advance their agenda.

“Democrats know they can’t win politically.  They know they can’t win in the public realm on the exchange of ideas, so they try to do it behind the scenes with these tricky little procedures,” said Brat.

Brat says he’s surprised that 25 Republicans have not yet signed on to the discharge petition, noting “they have plenty more ready to roll” but wonders whether Ryan and McCarthy warning them about the possible midterm calamity caused some to back away from the idea.

The debate took on a new dimension this week when Democrats savaged President Trump for allegedly referring to illegal immigrants as “animals.”  Even when they learned the president was specifically discussing members of the Latin American MS-13 gang, known for sadistic murders and sex trafficking, some, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, still chided Trump for questioning the humanity of the gang members.

“When you have these people on record battering children over the heads with baseball bats and these gruesome activities, I think the left has to agree something has gone wrong with the humanity of that person,” said Brat.

Even if the discharge petition succeeds, the effort will not result in the bill becoming law.  The legislation would still require 60 votes to pass in the Senate and even then it would face a certain veto from President Trump.

While Brat hopes the issue won’t tank Republican hopes in the midterms, he says this issue and many others present a stark choice to voters in November.

“If you want more federal government running your life, vote Democrat, and if you want to return to all the principles that made the country great in the first place, vote for that,” said Brat.

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Haspel Confirmed, Avenatti vs. The Mooch? Rudy’s Rough Ride

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the confirmation of CIA Director Gina Haspel, discussing the six Democrats who ended up back the nomination and their likely political calculations.  They also shudder at reports that efforts are underway to create a TV show featuring former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci and Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti.  And they walk through the rough public relations performance of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who seems to be creating more controversies than he’s resolving.

Note: The Texas high school shooting was first being reported at the time the podcast was recorded Friday morning.  Details were scarce and Jim and Greg determined it was irresponsible to comment on it until the facts are established.  Certainly, our prayers are with the families of those killed and for the recovery of those injured.

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‘We Aren’t Opening Up the World to Some Mad Max Version of the Internet’

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With the reversal of the Obama-era net neutrality policy set to take effect June 1, Democrats and some Republicans are scrambling to block the move legislatively, but an FCC commissioner says none of the nightmare scenarios are going to play out, many people completely miss what’s really changing, and the biggest changes likely to come from the policy change will be better, faster, and cheaper broadband.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 52-47 through the Congressional Review Act to reverse the FCC’s December action on net neutrality.  Supporters of the resolution, including three Republicans, fear that ending net neutrality will result in slower or less reliable internet service and more predatory behavior by internet service providers, or ISP’s, towards consumers, by rolling back consumer protections.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says the internet will simply revert to the pre-2015 policy, which was not a time of anarchy.

“We aren’t opening up the world to some Mad Max version of the internet, where ISP’s now have free reign to dictate their online experience.  What we’re doing is going back to the same legal framework that was in place in 2015 and for the 20 years before that where consumers are fully protected and wee saw massive investment in our broadband infrastructure,” said Carr.

Come June 1, he says no one will be able to tell anything has changed when they log onto the web.

“In terms of your day-to-day online experience, what you see the day these rules are removed is going to be identical to what you see the day before they’re removed,” said Carr.

But there will likely be a major impact that consumers will enjoy down the road.

“What we’ve seen principally (under net neutrality) is a pretty sharp decline in investment in the broadband space,” he said.  “The one difference we’re hoping they’re going to see that some of the decline in investment, hopefully we will see a reversal in that.”

So what’s behind the protests?

“I think a lot of what we’re seeing, by advocacy groups or otherwise, is intentional misrepresentations about what this issue is about purely – and I think this has been stated publicly by others – for partisan electoral politics,” said Carr.

Carr’s greatest frustration is that many of the vociferous opponents to the new FCC policy don’t seem to realize what is changing and what is not.  He says the biggest change is how the internet is classified in federal law.

“The debate is really about this Title II framework, not really about the rules themselves, and the negative impact we’ve seen in terms of investment is because of the broad Title II framework,” said Carr.

When the Obama-era FCC instituted net neutrality in 2015, it allowed the federal government to regulate the internet based on the Communications Act of 1934.  It’s that additional regulation that Carr and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai contend is creating disincentives for internet service providers to invest in upgrading and improving their products.

But what about the consumer protection policies?  Carr says that is easy to remedy.

“If you get down to the nitty gritty, it’s about the rules: no blocking, no throttling, no broken promises in terms of what you’re getting.  There’s a tremendous amount of common ground.  I’d be perfectly fine if Congress were to step in and adopt those types of specific rules,” said Carr.

He says efforts are underway to provide consumer protections through legislation rather than regulation, but only one party seems to have much interest.

“There are Republicans in Congress who have already introduced a standalone net neutrality bill and they’re not getting any traction in terms of a bipartisan group that will stand behind these bills.

“Unfortunately, there’s been so much of this focus on trying to go back to this Title II framework when I think it’s a pretty short putt…to try to enshrine the actual rules that consumers care about into law,” said Carr.

Carr firmly believes unleashing the incentives for ISP’s to invest in emerging technology will mean a much better experience for internet users much sooner than they would have gotten it under Title II regulation.

‘We’re at an interesting time from a technology perspective.  We’ve got this new generation of low-earth orbit satellites – these thousand satellite constellations that people are investing in now and potentially going to launch in a couple of years.  That could change the game for satellite broadband.

“We’ve got these new fixed wireless broadband applications which could give you – over the air – gigabit speeds.  We could see greater competition with cable.  And we’ve got 5G, this next generation of wireless broadband that going to, again, by gigabit-style speeds.

“In the not-too-distant future, these technologies and the regulatory work we’re doing at the commission right now to cut red tape and enable them.  It’s going to to serve consumers and so I’m really optimistic about where we’re going in this space,” said Carr.

 

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Media Malpractice: Good Guy with a Gun, ‘Animal’ Lies, Ignoring Hamas Admissions

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America take aim at three examples of egregious media bias.  They start with the heroism of Dixon High School (Ill.) school resource officer Mark Dallas, who saved countless lives in a would-be school shooting this week, yet the media glossed over the story since there was no body count and they have little interest in highlighting the effectiveness of a resource officer willing to engage the shooter.  They also slam the press for selectively quoting President Trump to make it seem he was referring to immigrants as “animals” when he was responding specifically to comment about the vicious Latin American gang MS-13.  And they throw up their hands as Hamas admits most of the people killed along the Israeli border were armed Hamas members and not random civilians and the media show no interest in reporting it.

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Prescription Drug Prices: How Can Trump Drive Them Lower?

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President Trump is vowing to bring down prescription drug prices by targeting the “middle man,” and a leading health care policy expert is explaining who that is and what should and should not be done about it.

The cost of prescription drugs continues to be a major frustration for patients and physicians, to the point that cash-strapped patients sometimes choose not to get their medication.

“Physicians tell me that they prescribe medication for their patients and they can’t afford to fill the prescription because of the cost of their co-payments,” said Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner.

So who are these “middle men” and how are they driving up the cost of prescription drugs?

At issue are distributors who sell to major clients like hospitals and big pharmacy chains like Walmart and CVS.

“Distributors, called pharmacy benefit managers, have set up their businesses to help provide not only distribution supply chains so these institutions have their medicines but also to try to negotiate big discounts for them.

“There are questions about how much of that money – the discounts – is actually going back to the people making the purchases.  You’re always going to have middle men in the economy that work between the manufacturer and the consumer, but I think the lack of transparency in this industry has become something of a problem,” said Turner.

Many liberal critics cried foul when Trump did not order the government to negotiate price reductions with drugmakers, calling it a sellout to the industry.  Turner says Trump made exactly the right call.

The left’s approach always is, ‘Let’s put price controls on drugs and we can get the costs down,’ what every government-run health care program in the world does.  It doesn’t work.  You end up artificially suppressing prices temporarily, but you wind up with fewer new drugs.

“We’re the medicine chest for the world because we don’t have price controls,” said Turner.

In fact, Turner says competition and consumer choice is leading to lower prices through the Medicare Part D program.

“It’s costs are 45 percent below what the government said the costs were going to be at this point when the program was created more than 10 years ago.  Seniors’ premiums are less now than they were ten years ago,” said Turner.

Turner says another way to bring down costs is to boost drug price transparency.  Right now, she says a pharmacist can only tell you what your insurance company is telling him to charge you.  He cannot tell you it might be vastly cheaper to get your prescription filled somewhere else.

Yet another advantage for patients would be to speed up the introduction of generic meds.  Turner says there is a difficult tension at work in the current timing.

“The balance of protecting intellectual property rights of that developer that spent maybe $2.5 billion bringing that drug to market is important.  But it’s also important, to them as well, that people have access to those drugs,” said Turner.

She says the Trump administration has about 100 different ideas to bring down the cost of prescription drugs and is urging the public to weigh to help prioritize its efforts.  More information can be found at hhs.gov.

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