Thursday, September 30, 2021
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary Bauer
Four Big Problems
Democrats, who have total control of Washington, are facing a fiscal crisis of their own making. They have four big problems that are all crashing together at the same time.
As you recall, the Senate passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill last month. Some of it is good because we do need infrastructure improvements like new roads and bridges and upgraded schools.
But that physical infrastructure bill is being held hostage in the House by Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and the Progs – the so-called "progressives" – who insisted that roads and bridges be connected to a $3.5 trillion "human infrastructure" bill.
That's $4.7 trillion that the Democrats want to spend – on top of the $1.9 trillion "rescue" plan they passed in March.
Nancy Pelosi had promised House "moderates" a vote on the physical infrastructure bill on Monday. She had to delay that vote after progressives threatened to defeat the bill. A vote is supposed to be held today, but progressives are still threatening to kill their own bill.
Why are progressives so upset? Well, the Senate can't come to an agreement on the massive "human infrastructure" bill – a $3.5 trillion socialist wish list.
West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin blasted the bill last night, warning that it was "designed to reengineer the social and economic fabric of this nation." He's right! And Manchin isn't the only holdout. Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema also opposes the bill.
It's possible Democrats will strike a deal with Manchin and Sinema for a lower price tag on the "human infrastructure bill," get progressives to back down and take a "win" at nearly three trillion dollars in total spending.
Then again, maybe they won't. Manchin doubled down this morning, telling reporters, "I cannot accept our economy [and] our society moving towards an entitlement mentality." He's also insisting that Democrats reinstate the Hyde Amendment to prevent taxpayer funding of abortions.
Democrats are getting desperate. President Biden canceled a trip to Chicago yesterday to huddle with party leaders at the White House because the clock is ticking on other big issues too.
For example, Democrats had to pass a continuing resolution today in order to keep the government open (they just did), and they also have to deal with the debt limit in the near future.
Republicans insist they will not vote to increase the debt limit while Democrats are pushing trillions and trillions in new spending. Biden, Schumer and Pelosi are furiously trying to figure out how they can do it alone. But many Democrats don't want to do it alone because they know it's unpopular.
Meanwhile, we're doing everything we can to make sure that "fiscally moderate" politicians don't buckle to this insanely liberal spending.
Biden's Two Surrenders
America's military leadership appeared before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday regarding the disastrous withdrawal and surrender in Afghanistan. They admitted it was a "strategic failure" that will continue to haunt us.
But it reminded me that this surrender is happening simultaneously with another surrender of territory. Just as we gave up what so many brave veterans fought and died for in Afghanistan, we're also surrendering at the southern border.
Our Border Patrol has been ordered to stand down for the last eight months. Just as we turned Afghanistan over to the Taliban, we've turned the border over to the drug cartels, to human traffickers and to whatever group of Third World migrants are breaching our borders this week.
Either surrender is a disaster, but combined they are catastrophic.
Our military leaders said yesterday that Al Qaeda will be back in operation in Afghanistan within six months. Why bother setting up there? They could just open shop in Mexico, march into Del Rio, Texas, and we'd never know!
For years, I have worked closely with leading defense conservatives and groups like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. We feel strongly that we must save our military from the woke culture. We cannot let another institution fall to the left, especially not our military. Every day, we are working hard to expose the radical left and defeat it.
Panic At DHS
If you think things at the border are bad now, brace yourself. They're about to get a lot worse.
One of the last effective Trump immigration rules was recently struck down by a federal judge, a liberal Obama appointee. The rule, known as Title 42, is not an immigration regulation, but a health regulation from the CDC that allows us to seal the border and quickly expel illegal aliens during public health emergencies.
President Trump made very effective use of Title 42 when the pandemic began, and for good reason. Biden's open border is a massive super spreader event.
The fact that a liberal judge is trying to take away that authority in the middle of record illegal immigration is obscene. And without that authority, the Department of Homeland Security is worried the border will be overrun.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asked senior officials this week if they could handle as many as 400,000 illegal aliens crossing the border next month. That would be twice the record number of illegal aliens that crossed the border in July.
And he's right to be worried. Panama's foreign minister said that 50,000 more Haitians are on their way to the U.S. border right now.
What will Joe do when a caravan of 50,000 migrants hits the border? Anything?
The Collapse Continues
It seems the breathtaking collapse of Joe Biden's approval rating in Iowa wasn't just a fluke. His poll numbers are collapsing all across the country.
For example, in 2020 Joe Biden won 49% of the vote in North Carolina. But according to the latest poll, his approval rating in the Tar Heel state is now just 38%.
Last year, Biden won 46% of the vote in Texas. Now his approval rating in the Lone Star State stands at just 32%.
The latest Economist/YouGov poll provides a clue to Biden's falling numbers: Only 29% of voters approve of Biden's handling of immigration, while 62% disapprove. By a 7 to 1 margin, more voters strongly disapprove of Biden's handling of immigration than strongly approve.
By the way, American Values is getting ready to make a major investment in critical voter education efforts in a number of important states.
