GOP CLASS WAR

Kevin McCarthy reportedly agrees to leave cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table in debt ceiling negotiations

Ayelet Sheffey,Juliana Kaplan
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Kevin McCarthy agreed not to cut Social Security and Medicare in debt ceiling negotiations, Sen. Joe Manchin told reporters.

Previously, cuts to those programs were on the table as the GOP negotiated terms to raise the debt limit.

Manchin, and even former President Trump, urged the GOP to leave those programs alone.

On Wednesday, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin told reporters that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has agreed to leave cuts to Medicare and Social Security off the table in debt ceiling negotiations.

This came after the two lawmakers met earlier today on raising the debt limit — an issue Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been clashing over recently as they negotiate how to keep the US on top of paying its bills.

A source familiar said that the meeting between Manchin and McCarthy was good, albeit with no commitments; Manchin encouraged McCarthy to negotiate and try a find path forward that would avoid harming Americans.

The US officially reached the debt limit last week, and President Joe Biden's administration has urged House Republicans to work in a bipartisan way to keep the country from defaulting on its obligations and potentially triggering a global financial crisis and recession. But Republicans have expressed their intent to use raising the debt limit as a bargaining chip to achieve their own priorities, and previous reports indicated they were considering cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits.

However, Manchin — who has been a centrist holdout on some previous Democratic legislation — said on Sunday that he did not think Republicans should consider Medicare and Social Security in these negotiations.

"No cuts to anybody that's receiving their benefits, no adjustments to that. They've earned it. They paid into it. Take that off the table," he said. "But everyone's using that as a leverage."

Even former President Donald Trump joined the dialogue, urging Republicans in a video message last week against cutting those programs.

"Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security," Trump said in the video. "Cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere that we can find it and there is plenty, there's plenty of it," he continued. "But do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don't destroy it."

McCarthy has not yet publicly commented on his discussion with Manchin, but he previously said that the reports of him considering cuts to those programs are not true.

It's still unclear what other types of cuts Republicans are considering in these negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Monday that the GOP should reveal their intentions to the public, saying that "Republicans are talking about draconian cuts, they have an obligation to show Americans what those cuts are and let the public react. … Does that mean cuts to Social Security or Medicare or child care or Pell Grants?"

Biden is expected to meet with McCarthy regarding these negotiations, but an exact date remains unclear. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told House Republicans that the government has begun using "extraordinary measures" to keep the country afloat, but those measures are expected to run out at some point this summer — meaning the GOP needs to come to an agreement by then to avoid a catastrophic default.

Republicans' plans to slash Social Security and Medicare are becoming clearer: 'We have no choice but to make hard decisions'

Jason Lalljee
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Reports suggest that concessions Rep. Kevin McCarthy made to secure his Speaker seat involved promoting cuts to entitlement PUBLIC GOOD programs.

Kent Nishimura /Los Angeles Times via Getty Image

House Republicans have alluded to cuts they want to make to the federal budget for months.

They're becoming more explicit about those cuts involving Medicare and Social Security funds.

They've indicated that they're willing to leverage raising the debt ceiling to secure cuts. Not raising the ceiling could spell financial disaster.

After being evasive about their plans for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare in the months leading up to midterms, the House GOP has begun to confirm its intention to cut spending on both.

That's according to The Washington Post's Tony Romm, who reported that Republican lawmakers are willing to use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in order to get the Biden administration to cave on spending cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Failing to raise the debt ceiling by the summer could cause the US to default on its debt for the first time in history, the consequences of which would be dire.


"We have no choice but to make hard decisions," Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, leader of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told The Post. "Everybody has to look at everything."

The Post reported that in the past few days, a group of Republican lawmakers have pushed for House panels that would recommend changes to Social Security and Medicare.

Democrats control the Senate, and Republicans only have a slight majority in the House. But it's enough of a majority to give them power over the debt ceiling, a law restricting the amount of money the government can borrow to pay its bills.

And that's on top of the leverage that the most conservative members of the party have on the recently elected Speaker of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Conservative holdouts kept the vote for Speaker going a historically long time, and reports suggest that the concessions McCarthy made included promoting cuts to entitlement programs.

GOP leaders gave a slide presentation to Republican House members on Tuesday outlining their budget and spending priorities, CNN reported. According to a screenshot of the presentation viewed by CNN, the spending priorities were vague but mentioned reforms to "mandatory spending programs" that could include Social Security and Medicare.

Additionally, Republicans have proposed converting Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies to block grants, which would cut spending by $3.6 trillion over 10 years.

"That would obviously be strongly opposed by the Senate and the White House," Edwin Park, a public policy professor at Georgetown University who focuses on health policy, told Insider, but "the holdouts were clear that they would hold raising the debt limit hostage to major spending cuts, and it is possible that smaller, damaging cuts to Medicaid could be on the table, even if the most draconian cuts are dropped."
GOP plan to leverage debt ceiling is a threat to "trigger global economic chaos"

Although Republicans have been vague about the budgetary cuts they want in recent months, it's becoming clearer that Social Security and Medicare are among their major targets, even as both programs are extremely popular among Americans.

So popular, in fact, that former President Donald Trump recently warned the GOP to keep them out of debt ceiling negotiations.

The fight to raise the debt ceiling isn't a new problem for Congress. Historically, the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow has been raised in a bipartisan fashion. But in the last decade, Republicans have begun entertaining using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to accomplish their own policy goals.

The White House, and Democratic lawmakers, have criticized the GOP using the debt limit to implement cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

"They claim their plan to use the debt ceiling to trigger global economic chaos is about fiscal responsibility. It's not," Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed this month. "The House Republican plan for the debt ceiling is about protecting the wealthy and the well-connected from paying their fair share in taxes — nothing more and nothing less."

Treasury takes another 'extraordinary' step on debt limit

- In this image taken from a video, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023, in Dakar, Senegal. Yellen is in Zambia on the second leg of her African tour, a stop aimed at promoting American investment and ties while she's in a capital city that is visibly dominated by Chinese dollars. (AP Photo/Yesica Fisch, File)


JOSH BOAK
Tue, January 24, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter Tuesday to congressional leaders saying she's suspending the reinvestment of some federal bonds in a government workers' savings plan — an additional “extraordinary" measure to buy time for President Joe Biden and Congress to raise the nation's debt limit.

The government bumped up against its legal borrowing capacity last Thursday, prompting Treasury to take accounting steps regarding federal employees' retirement and health care plans that will enable the government to stay open until roughly June.

Yellen said in the letter that as of Monday she also determined that the government “will be unable to invest fully” in the government securities portion of the thrift savings fund in the federal employees' retirement system.

She noted that her predecessors have taken a similar action in the past, noting that by law the accounts “will be made whole once the debt limit is increased or suspended.”

But it's an open question to how the White House and Congress find common ground on the artificial cap imposed by Congress.

Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have sharp differences over how to raise the debt ceiling, setting off the possibility of the extraordinary measures being exhausted this summer and risking a government default that could wreak economic havoc.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said the U.S. will not default, but it's unclear how Biden can reconcile his insistence on a clean increase with McCarthy's demand for spending cuts.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Monday's news briefing that Biden is “happy to talk to anyone who wants to deal” with deficit reduction in a “responsible way.”

But Jean-Pierre said that deficit reduction should not be tied to whether the U.S. government pays its bills that are already being incurred.

“It must be done without conditions,” Jean-Pierre said, adding, “President Biden will never — will never allow Republicans to cut benefits that our hardworking Americans have earned. This is what they have earned.”

McCarthy has yet to outline the scope or the specifics of the cuts that House Republicans would like to see, although any final plan would need to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and receive Biden's signature.

"Families and businesses have to live within a budget — Washington must as well," McCarthy tweeted on Sunday.

Debit Limit Ceiling Crisis Could Hit Your 401(k), Social Security and Medicare

Ashlyn Brooks
Tue, January 24, 2023 

americas-debt-ceilin-crisis-SmartAsset

America's debt ceiling was reached - again - on January 19, 2023 as the country exceeded its $31.4 trillion spending cap. The cap was raised to that amount in December 2021. As much terms like "ceiling" and "cap" are used in this discussion, the truth is this limitation is more of a temporary hindrance than a cut-off - the cap has been raised 78 times since 1960.

While this may seem like a topic outside of your realm of concerns, the longstanding effects of not having this ceiling raised again have a strong potential to bleed over into your personal finances - namely your 401(k), Social security and Medicare.

What Is America's Debt Ceiling?

The national debt ceiling is the legal limit on the amount of debt that the U.S. government can incur. This limit is set by Congress and is intended to ensure that the government does not spend more money than it takes in. However, when the government reaches the debt ceiling, it can no longer borrow money needed to run the government.

America's Debt Ceiling Crisis

Raising the debt ceiling isn't a swift single-step process, it requires a series of steps through multiple parties, and in recent years it has been contentious. The full process looks like this:

The Treasury Department forecasts when the government will reach the debt ceiling and notifies Congress.


The President submits a request to Congress to raise the debt ceiling.


The House of Representatives and the Senate hold hearings to discuss the need to raise the debt ceiling and potential alternatives.


Both chambers of Congress vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling.


If the bill passes both chambers, it is sent to the President for signature.


If the President signs the bill, the debt ceiling is raised.

Ultimately, it's up to the president and Congress to agree on lifting the ceiling and by how much. Time is a factor, though. If negotiations carry out too long, the U.S. can default on its debt, yielding repercussions throughout the economy and government programs.

raising-americas-debt-ceiling-SmartAsset

Impact on 401(k)s

The impact on 401(k)s is a direct one since the value of a 401(k) relies on the success of the stock market. If the government is unable to raise the debt ceiling, it may default on its debt obligations, which can lead to a loss of confidence in the U.S. economy.

This, in turn, can cause the stock market to drop, leading to a decrease in the value of 401(k)s. As a result, a default on debt obligations could lead to long-term effects on 401(k)s, as investors may be less likely to invest in the stock market in the future.

Impact on Social Security and Medicare

Social Security and Medicare are also at risk if the debt ceiling is not raised. These programs are funded by the government, and if it is unable to borrow money, it may have to cut spending on these programs. This could lead to reduced benefits for recipients of Social Security and Medicare. This could have a significant impact on seniors and those who rely on these programs for their livelihood.

Keep in mind, the debt ceiling does not affect the amount of debt the government incurs; it only limits the government's ability to borrow more money to finance existing debt. The government can still spend money on programs such as Social Security and Medicare even if the debt ceiling is not raised. However, if the government is unable to borrow money to finance its existing debt, it may have to cut spending on these programs in order to meet its financial obligations.

The Bottom Line

While it benefits no one to see the U.S. default on its existing debt, the fact still stands that issues such as the debt ceiling are commonly used as political bargaining chips which only further complicates the proceedings.

The U.S. Treasury has since stepped in to institute necessary measures to buy Congress a few months to carry out negotiations. However, close calls are never settling, and, amid real implications for Americans' retirement accounts and entitlement programs, it brings up many concerns as to how dependent Americans are on government debt to supplement their retirement.

Photo credit: ©iStock/Douglas Rissing, Dilok Klaisataporn

Putin Lackeys Lose Their Minds Over Ukraine Getting Battle Tanks

Allison Quinn
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Getty

It didn’t take long for Russian officials to start foaming at the mouth and ranting about global conspiracies after Germany agreed to deliver its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday.

After weeks of resistance, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that, along with allies, the country would provide 88 of the battle tanks to Ukraine, effectively giving Kyiv more firepower to launch new offensives. The Biden administration was also expected to announce a deal to send 30 M1 Abrams tanks to the country.

The Russian Embassy in Berlin was among the first out of the gate after the news broke—offering a bizarre, if not deranged, take: “Berlin’s decision signifies the unequivocal refusal of the Federal Republic of Germany to recognize historical responsibility to our people for the terrible, timeless crimes of Nazism,” Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechayev said in a statement.

The statement went on to say the tanks would also put an end to “postwar reconciliation between Russians and Germans” and “take the conflict to a new level of confrontation.”

Kremlin mouthpiece Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT, joined Russian diplomats in offering up far-fetched Nazi comparisons.

“After a flogging by Washington, Germany will send 14 tanks to Ukraine. Closer to summer, deliveries of gas chambers are also expected,” Simonyan tweeted.

TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov called European leaders “Nazi scumbags” and argued that the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine makes all of Germany a “legitimate” military target for Russia.

He claimed Germany has “forgotten its historical guilt” and must pay for it.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin’s man in charge in occupied Crimea—one of the territories Ukrainian authorities may use the tanks to take back—published what he said were the schematics of Germany’s Leopard 2A4 tank on Telegram.

Swarm of Tanks Is Just the Start of Putin’s New Nightmare

“I am sure that everyone will be able to find more detailed information about the vulnerabilities of this… on their own, and the command will provide our fighters with everything necessary to destroy the descendants of the fascist ‘Tiger’ and ‘Panther’ [tanks used in WWII],” Aksyonov wrote.

Pro-Kremlin pundits unanimously bent themselves into knots (and broke their brains) trying to prove a global Nazi conspiracy.

“Tank conspiracy. 14 Challenger tanks will be supplied by Britain to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And it was also announced that Germany will supply the Armed Forces of Ukraine with 14 Leopard tanks. Is this some kind of secret number they have, 14? It turns out yes. 14 is a secret fascist number,” wrote political analyst Sergei Markov, noting that 14 “is the number of words” in two slogans used decades ago by the American neo-Nazi David Lane.

“Thus, the number of Challenger and Leopard tanks is a secret message from the governments of Britain and Germany: ‘We know that these tanks are for the Nazis,’” Markov said.

He did not explain how his “14” theory holds up in light of several other countries sending an entirely different number of tanks.

Is 30—the number of Abrams tanks reportedly to be supplied by the U.S.—also a “secret” fascist number? The Kremlin has yet to confirm, though Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Wednesday blasted the purported deal for U.S. tanks as “absurd” and bound to fail.

“This is a really disastrous plan, and most importantly, this is a clear overestimation of the potential this will give to the armed forces of Ukraine,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

The Abrams tanks, he said, “will burn just like all the others.”

Despite Peskov’s bluster, some pro-Kremlin military bloggers appeared fully aware the tanks could give Ukrainian forces a new competitive edge on the battlefield.

“The ice has broken and NATO tanks are heading to Ukraine. It looks like all the arguments about who would be the first to send them led to everyone sending them all at once,” wrote one popular pro-war Telegram channel.

Russians Urged to Keep Kids Indoors—as Wagner’s Freed Convicts Come Home

Other prominent figures appeared to suggest the decision to send tanks simply means the rest of the world isn’t frightened enough of Russia.

“Russia’s impotence in the field of foreign policy must be compensated for with military successes. Or the threat of military success. Or just a threat,” argued state TV host Sergei Mardan.

“Why not then arrange a random visit to Estonia of a Russian tank squadron, or a guided-missile cruiser in the Gulf of Riga? Or a random flight of Kalibr [cruise missiles] over all of Poland? Then we don’t even need to apologize, no one needs our apologies. We need local horror and an understanding that Russia is unavoidably nearby and stronger than ever.”

The Daily Beast.

Germany to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv, allow others to do so - sources


 German Chancellor Scholz visits German army training at a military base in Bergen

Tue, January 24, 2023

BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries such as Poland to do so while the United States may supply Abrams tanks, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

A government spokesperson, the foreign ministry and the defence ministry declined to comment.

The decision concerns at least one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks that will be provided out of Bundeswehr stocks, said Spiegel magazine, which first reported the news. One company usually comprises 14 tanks.

"Today the Chancellor made a decision that no one took lightly. The fact that Germany will support Ukraine with the Leopard tank is a strong sign of solidarity," Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP) was quoted as saying by t-online news portal.

"The #Leopard's freed!," Katrin Goering-Eckardt, vice president of the Bundestag, tweeted, sharing a link of media report on the news.

Other allies, in Scandinavia for example, intend to go along with Germany in supplying their Leopard tanks to Kyiv, the magazine reported.

In the longer term, more tanks could be restored to be fit for use, according to the magazine.

U.S. officials told Reuters that Washington may soon drop its opposition to sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine, in a move intended to encourage Germany to follow.

The Pentagon declined to comment on any coming announcements on the Abrams. It also declined to comment on whether Germany might green light deliveries of the Leopards.

Defence "Secretary (Lloyd) Austin did have very productive conversations with his German counterpart when he was in Germany" for meetings last week, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a news conference.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa, Andreas Rinke, Holger Hansen in Berlin, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; writing by Sabine Siebold; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Tank maker Rheinmetall raises sales view, asks Berlin for firm orders



Germany delivers its first Leopard tanks to Slovakia, in Bratislava

Tue, January 24, 2023
By Anneli Palmen and Christoph Steitz

DUESSELDORF/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German defence group Rheinmetall on Tuesday raised its sales expectations for 2025 on higher demand for weapons due to the war in Ukraine and called on Berlin to speed up planned big orders and make good on a pledge to boost its armed forces.

The comments by Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger come as Germany has earmarked 100 billion euros ($109 billion) to bring its military back up to scratch after decades of attrition since the end of the Cold War.

They also come as Germany comes under pressure to step up defence supplies to Ukraine, including Leopard tanks manufactured by Rheinmetall together with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

Papperger said Germany's investment plans needed to be mapped out quickly and that Chancellor Olaf Scholz's plan to upgrade Germany's troops needed to start properly this year.

"The entire German industry is ready. The resources are there, the people are there, we also have the know-how," Papperger said at an industry event hosted by German business daily Handelsblatt.

He said what was needed now was close coordination with the German government so defence companies such as Rheinmetall, which spent 700 million euros in capacity expansion and hired 2,000 new staff last year, have planning security.

GRAPHIC: Rheinmetall shares rally - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjklwaxpr/rheinmetall.PNG

Papperger told German magazine Stern that he expects sales to grow to between 11 billion and 12 billion euros ($12 billion to $13 billion) in 2025, up from a range of 10 billion to 11 billion euros given by the company in November.

For 2022 the company expects sales of 6.5 billion euros.

UKRAINE

Rheinmetall has so far supplied Ukraine with air defence systems, which are also used to combat drones, along with various types of ammunition, military trucks and a field hospital, Papperger told the magazine.

He added that the group had also sold Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles as well as trucks as part of a swap system whereby countries that still have Soviet equipment hand it over to Ukraine and Germany backfills with more modern Western equipment.

Papperger said that while the company was in theory able to produce more artillery ammunition than the United States, it has "not received a single order".

MORE TANKS

Germany has so far resisted pressure from Ukraine and some NATO allies, such as Poland, to allow Kyiv to be supplied with German-made Leopard 2 tanks to defend itself against Russia.

The Leopard 2 battle tank is armed with Rheinmetall's 120mm smoothbore gun and the company also supplies ammunition, fire control technology and C4I systems for it.

A company spokesperson told media group RND that it could deliver 139 Leopard tanks to Ukraine if needed.

Rheinmetall could send 29 Leopard 2A4 tanks by April/May and a further 22 around the end of this year or early 2024, the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

It could also supply 88 older Leopard 1 tanks, the spokesperson said, without giving a timeframe for potential delivery.

Asked how much the company earns from Leopard 2 battle tanks, he said Rheinmetall was targeting a profit margin before tax of at least 10%.

"We're working for national and European security - and that includes fair prices," the 59-year-old Papperger said.

Rheinmetall, which also makes Marder infantry fighting vehicles, could gain further from the 100 billion euro defence spending plans announced by Chancellor Scholz shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

However most of those plans, hailed at the time as a new era of more assertive German foreign policy backed by military spending, are still unclear.

UBS last week downgraded Rheinmetall to "neutral" from "buy". It said positives, including mid-term defence spending, had been priced into the stock.

Its shares have risen 170% in the past year.

Further upside depends on the order flow from the government's spending plans, which is not yet reflected in Rheinmetall's order log, the bank said.

($1 = 0.9210 euros)

(Reporting by Anneli Palmen and Christoph Steitz; Additional reporting by Josephine Mason and Sabine Siebold; writing by Madeline Chambers; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)

Germany approves transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Spiegel reports

Tue, January 24, 2023 

Leopard-2 at military exercises in Poland

The German government previously said it would consider the matter and arrive at a decision on Jan. 25.

Read also: Rheinmetall ‘ready to send 139 Leopard tanks’ to Ukrainian army

Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram that Ukraine needs Western tanks to restore its territorial integrity.

“Several hundred tanks for our crews, the best tank crews in the world,” said Yermak.

“This would be a real strike of democracy against autocracy from the northern swamps.”

Citing an unnamed Ukrainian official, ABC news previously reported that representatives of 12 countries agreed to supply Ukraine with around 100 German-made Leopard-2 tanks, pending Germany’s approval.

Read also: Baltic countries call on Germany to deliver Leopard tanks to Ukraine as soon as possible

Earlier on Jan. 24, The Wall Street Journal reported Washington is leaning towards supplying Ukraine with a “significant” quantity of Abrams M1 main battle tanks, with the corresponding announcement expected within days.

Defense ministers of Ukraine’s international partners gathered at the U.S. Air Force Ramstein base in Germany on Jan. 20, discussing the ongoing and future efforts to equip Kyiv’s troops with modern weapons.

Following the summit, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that countries have achieved “a positive breakthrough” regarding the Leopard-2 tanks. He explained that the meeting participants agreed that countries with Leopard 2s in service could begin training Ukrainian tank crews.

Read also: US, Germany stuck in standoff over sending tanks to Ukraine — media reports

Following numerous Ukrainian requests, Poland has decided to transfer German-made Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda said during his visit to Lviv, Ukraine, on Jan. 11, where he met with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Gitanas Nauseda.

Earlier in January, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak decided to provide Ukraine with 14 Challenger 2 tanks, making the United Kingdom the first Western country to equip Kyiv with modern heavy tanks.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine


A look at Leopard 2 tanks that could soon be sent to Ukraine


German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to soldiers in front of a Leopard 2 main battle tank after the Army's training and instruction exercise in Ostenholz, Germany, Monday, oct. 17, 2022. Germany has become one of Ukraine's leading weapons suppliers in the 11 months since Russia's invasion. The debate among allies about the merits of sending battle tanks to Ukraine has focused the spotlight relentlessly on Germany, whose Leopard 2 tank is used by many other countries and has long been sought by Kyiv. (Moritz Frankenberg/dpa via AP, FILE)

JAMEY KEATEN and FRANK JORDANS
Mon, January 23, 2023 

GENEVA (AP) — Following intense pressure from its allies, Germany appears to be inching toward approving deliveries of high-tech Leopard 2 main battle tanks that Ukraine and its biggest Western backers hope will boost Kyiv’s fight against Russian invaders.

Over the weekend, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin would not get in the way if Poland — arguably Ukraine's most vocal supporter among European Union neighbors — wants to ship Leopard 2 tanks from its arsenal across the border into Ukraine. And Germany is not ruling out supplying such tanks to Ukraine itself, cautioning however that the implications of such a step need to be carefully weighed.

Here's a look at what those tanks might mean for Ukraine's defense against Russian forces — and hopes for driving them out.

WHAT IS THE LEOPARD 2?

Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the manufacturer of the Leopard 2, touts it as “the world's leading battle tank" that for nearly a half-century has combined aspects of firepower, protection, speed and maneuverability, making it adaptable to many types of combat situations.

The 55-ton tank has a crew of four and a range of about 500 kilometers (310 miles), and top speeds of about 68 kilometers per hour (about 42 mph). Now with four main variants, its earliest version first came into service in 1979. Its main weapon is a 120mm smooth bore gun, and it has a fully-digital fire-control system.

HOW MANY COULD BE SENT TO UKRAINE?

One big appeal of the German-made tanks are their sheer number: More than 2,000 have been deployed in over a dozen European countries and Canada. Overall, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann says over 3,500 units have been supplied to 19 countries.

Rheinmetall AG, a German defense contractor that makes the 120mm smoothbore gun on the Leopard 2, says the tank has been deployed by “more nations than any other."

According to a recent analysis by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based global think tank, some 350 Leopard 2s — in different versions — have been sent to Greece, and Poland has about 250 of varying types. Finland has 200 in operation or in storage.

For Ukraine's war against Russia, “it is believed that for the Leopard 2 tanks to have any significant effect on the fighting, around 100 tanks would be required,” the International Institute for Strategic Studies analysts wrote.

Ukraine's defense minister wants 300 tanks, and some European Union leaders support him on that.

“We need a fleet of 300 tanks,” Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said Monday in Brussels, alluding to the wide deployment of Leopards across Europe and the need for “synchronous” weaponry — that can operate smoothly together.

Getting Leopards into Ukrainian hands isn't as easy as rolling them across the border from friends farther West in Europe. The International Institute for Strategic Studies estimates that three to six weeks of training would be needed for operating crews and support staff to reach basic proficiency.

Ralf Raths, director of the Panzer Museum in Munster, Germany, said experienced Ukrainian tank crews would likely be able to learn to use the Leopard 2 fairly quickly, and training could be shortened to focus on essential knowledge.

“Do you really have to exploit 100% of the potential or is it enough to utilize 80% in half the time? Ukrainians will certainly vote for option B,” he said.

WHAT DIFFERENCE WOULD IT MAKE TO THE WAR?

Yohann Michel, a research analyst for defense and military affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said such tanks could allow Ukraine to go onto the offensive in the 11-month-old conflict that has been stalemated for months following two key Ukrainian counteroffensives that recaptured areas occupied by Russian forces for months in the northeast and south.

“In this type of conflict, it's just not possible to carry out large-scale offensives without the full variety of armored combat equipment and armored vehicles, and tanks are a part of that," he said. In addition to Main Battle Tanks, or MBTs, like the Leopard 2, others include infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

Western deliveries of Leopard 2s could help equip Ukraine with needed high-caliber munitions to replace its own dwindling Soviet-era stockpiles, opening a new avenue for supplies of Western firepower to get to Ukraine, he said.

Raths noted that the Leopard 2 and similar Western tanks are more agile than T-models used by Russia, which can't reverse at speed, for example.

“Imagine a boxer who cannot move freely in the ring, but only in one direction,” he said. “The other boxer, who can move in all directions, has a big advantage and that it is the case with the Leopards.”

Still, even Western MBTs are vulnerable to aerial attacks, or anti-tank infantry while in forests and urban areas, highlighting the importance of anti-aircraft and reconnaissance support, said Raths.

With similar numbers of tanks on both sides, Leopards 2 and similar tanks could give Ukraine the upper hand, especially given the poor tactical performance of Russian troops during the war, he said.

“The Ukrainians shine through creative, dynamic and often very clean warfare,” Raths said. “So it could well be that if Ukraine’s operational offensive were to begin, the Russians would have real problems countering it.”

Niklas Masuhr, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies at Switzerland’s federal polytechnic university ETHZ, based in Zurich, cautioned that the addition of Leopards to the battlefield alone wouldn’t be “a game changer or a war-winning technology, anything like that.”

“You can’t just deploy a bunch of main battle tanks and assume they will win,” he said. “They’re very valuable, but you still need to use them in the correct way and integrate them with all the other military tools that you have at your disposal,” such as infantry, artillery, air defense, combat engineers and helicopters.

WHY DOESN'T UKRAINE HAVE LEOPARDS ALREADY?

Germany has final say about whether Leopard 2s can be delivered — even from other countries' arsenals — and has been reticent about anyone shipping them to Ukraine.

More-hawkish Western allies have been stepping up the pressure on Germany, but the United States has also refused to send its powerful M1 Abrams tanks.

The United States announced an upcoming new package of military aid that is expected to include nearly 100 Stryker combat vehicles and at least 50 Bradley armored vehicles — but not the Abrams, which U.S. officials say has complex maintenance needs and may not be the best fit.

Allies and military analysts say the Leopard 2 is diesel-powered — not driven by jet fuel that powers the M1 Abrams — and is easier to operate than the big U.S. tanks, and thus has shorter training times.

Britain this month announced it will send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, and the Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukrainian forces. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that he had asked his defense minister to “work on” the idea of sending some of France’s Leclerc battle tanks to Ukraine.

Even if modern western MBTs are superior to their Russian counterparts, donor countries supplying them need to prepare for losses, Raths said.

The Leopard 2 “is an offensive weapon that will be thrown into high-intensity battles," he said. "Vehicles will be destroyed, and people will die in these tanks.”

___

Jordans reported from Berlin.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Pakistan's premier apologizes to nation for power outage





Pakistan Power Outage

Motorcyclists and car drive on through a market where some shopkeepers use generators for electricity during a national-wide power breakdown, in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Much of Pakistan was left without power Monday as an energy-saving measure by the government backfired. The outage spread panic and raised questions about the cash-strapped government's handling of the country's economic crisis. 

(AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

MUNIR AHMED
Tue, January 24, 2023 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister on Tuesday apologized to the nation for a major, daylong power outage that disrupted normal life across the country and drew criticism from millions who were left without electricity amid the harsh winter weather.

Monday's blackout engulfed schools, factories and shops, and many among Pakistan's 220 million people were without drinking water as pumps powered by electricity also failed to work. In key businesses and institutions, including main hospitals, military and government facilities, backup generators kicked in.

Power was mostly restored, though some parts of the country still experienced blackouts on Tuesday.

“On behalf of my government, I would like to express my sincere regrets for the inconvenience our citizens suffered due to power outage yesterday," tweeted Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

“On my orders an inquiry is underway to determine reasons of the power failure," he said adding that the probe will uncover who was responsible.

At a press conference earlier Tuesday, Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir defended the government’s handling of the collapse of the grid and lauded engineers and technicians for their efforts to boot up the system. He made no reference to the fact that an energy-saving measure by the government had backfired.

Authorities had turned off electricity during low-usage hours on Sunday night to conserve fuel, according to an energy-saving plan. Efforts to turn power back on early on Monday morning led to the system-wide meltdown.

“Today, at 5:15 in the morning, power was fully restored,” Dastgir said Tuesday. He blamed the outage on a technical glitch but also floated a “remote chance" that it was caused by hackers targeting the country's grid systems.

The minister also expressed faith in Sharif's three-member committee, which is expected to complete a preliminary investigation within days. “We will fully cooperate" with it, he said.

He cautioned that some regions may still face “routine power outages" this week as Pakistan's two nuclear power plants and coal plants have yet to come fully online.

The outage was reminiscent of a massive blackout in January 2021, attributed at the time to a technical fault in Pakistan’s power generation and distribution system. Pakistan gets at least 60% of its electricity from fossil fuels, while nearly 27% of the electricity is generated by hydropower. The contribution of nuclear and solar power to the nation’s grid is about 10%.

Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader at the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on Monday criticized the government for mismanaging the country's economy and said the outage was a reflection of the government's incompetence.

Grappling with one of its worst economic crisis in recent years amid dwindling foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan is currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund to soften some conditions on a $6 billion bailout. Sharif's government say the harsh conditions will trigger further inflation hikes.

The IMF released the last crucial tranche of $1.1 billion to Islamabad in August but since then, discussions between the two parties have oscillated due to Pakistan’s reluctance to impose new tax measures.

South Korea to offer 18 months of paid parental leave for both parents

Iris Jung
January 12, 2023




Introduced on Monday, the plan was introduced as an attempt to reverse South Korea’s declining birth rate. In 2022, South Korea’s birth rate dropped to a record-low of 0.81. The birthrate for countries to maintain their population size without migration is 2.1.

According to South Korea’s Department of Labor Minister Lee Jeoung-sik, the plan will increase the time for paid parental leave from 12 months to 18 months for each parent, reported Yonhap News. With the option available to both parents, Lee stated, “Women will no longer face concerns regarding career interruptions.”

In addition, the plan will allow parents to take paid parental leave up until the child is 12 years old. Other incentives included shortening working hours for parents responsible for childcare.

More from NextShark: Missouri firm Cerner to pay $1.8 million for allegedly discriminating against Asian and Black applicants

If successful, South Korean men will receive the longest paid paternity leave in the world.

1933

However, the plan fails to address growing fears surrounding parental leave and its impact on working individuals.

According to Hangyung, employees of larger companies faced a “disadvantage” after taking parental leave. As a result, although 193,000 men were eligible for paternity leave in 2022, only 4.1 percent used the opportunity.

In contrast, 65.2 percent of women eligible for maternity leave chose to take the option.

In addition to increased parental leave, the plan also aims to address the participation of the elderly in economic activities, increase opportunities for foreign workers (E-9 visas) to 110,000, strengthen unemployment benefits and implement policies regarding workplace incidents.

On the same day, the Ministry of Labor announced their upcoming “Risk Assessment” system — first introduced in 2013 — which would attempt to prevent industrial accidents by identifying risk factors in the workplace and establishing improvement measures.

Related stories:
South Korea triples baby payments in attempt to reverse fertility ‘calamity’

Japan ‘on the Verge’ of Societal Collapse Due to Plummeting Birth Rate, Prime Minister Says

Ari Blaff
Mon, January 23, 2023


Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida spoke in desperate terms about the country’s cratering birth rate in an address to his nation’s parliament on Monday.

“Now or never when it comes to policies regarding births and child-rearing-it is an issue that simply cannot wait any longer,” Prime Minister Kishida said in a speech marking the new parliamentary session. “The number of births dropped below 800,000 last year.”

“Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” he added.

For perspective, Japan experienced nearly 2 million births per year throughout the 1970s.

Although the Asian island nation has a population of roughly 125 million, its demographic pyramid is rapidly greying. Only Monaco, the city-state on the French Riviera, has a higher proportion of residents 65 and older.

Graph of population sizes

The rising cost of living and low immigration has hampered Japan’s ability to elevate its lagging birth rate. Barely 3 percent of the country’s population is foreign-born, compared to over a quarter of Americans.


Kishida pledged on Monday to double spending associated with child-related initiatives and announced the creation of a new governmental agency tasked with addressing the issue.

“Focusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed.”

Demographers use the measurement of a replacement or fertility rate, the average number of children born to each woman, to evaluate the health of a society. When the fertility rate drops below 2.1, a society begins to shrink.

In 2020, Japan had a fertility rate of 1.34. The same year, a team of researchers projected in the Lancet that Japan’s population would shrink to barely above 50 million by the end of the century.

Japan is among a growing list of East Asian nations that are expected to face harsh demographic headwinds throughout the coming decades.

Last Tuesday, the Chinese government published demographic data showing that the country’s population had declined over the previous year, for the first time in six decades. The news surprised many academics who projected that China would not experience such a precipitous drop for another decade.

“I don’t think there is a single country that has gone as low as China in terms of fertility rate and then bounced back to the replacement rate,” Philip O’Keefe, a professor at the University of California, Irvine and demography expert, told the New York Times.

India is set to become the world’s most populous country in 2023.

Japan PM warns country will cease to 'function as a society' if population decline persists



Iris Jung
Mon, January 23, 2023 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared a dire need for policies tackling the country’s declining birth rate, calling it “now or never.”

“Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” Kishida told lawmakers at the opening of this year's parliamentary session on Monday. “Focusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postposted.”

In recent years, Japan — a population of barely 125 million — has been facing a rapidly declining birth rate. In 2022, the country saw a record low of less than 800,000 births. According to research published by The Lancet in 2020, at the current rate, Japan’s population is expected to fall below 53 million by the end of the century.

To address the issue, Kishida argued to double the government’s fund for child-related programs by June and revealed a plan to create a new Children and Families government agency, which is expected to begin operations in April 2023.

More from NextShark: Pink Floyd's Roger Waters says 'Taiwan is part of China,' dismisses abuse of Uyghurs as 'nonsense' in interview

“We must build a child-first social economy to reverse the [low] birthrate,” the prime minister explained.

Although the country’s government has previously attempted to implement similar policies and incentives to encourage childbirth, they so far have been met with failure.

As one of the world’s most expensive places to raise a child, Japan’s falling birth rates have been attributed to increasing living costs, more work and education opportunities for women, greater access to contraception, lack of inclusivity and individual freedom, corporate culture and difficult economic conditions.

More from NextShark: Mitch McConnell votes against interracial marriages bill despite being in interracial marriage

Adding to the country’s ongoing crisis, Japan’s life expectancy has significantly risen, reaching a median age of 49.

With one of the oldest populations in the world — second only to Monaco — Japan’s growing senior population signifies a declining number of workers and a possibility of losing a fifth of its population by 2050.

However, despite Japan’s crisis, residents and conservative government officials have remained hostile to immigration.

GOP HOMOPHOBIC HETEROSEXISM

More than half of LGBTQ parents in Florida say they are considering leaving the state

Brooke Migdon
Tue, January 24, 2023 

More than half of LGBTQ parents in Florida are considering moving their families to another state over concerns that a new Florida education law – known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law – stigmatizes LGBTQ identities and creates a hostile learning environment for LGBTQ children or students with LGBTQ family members.

In a report issued Tuesday by the Williams Institute, a public policy research institute based at the UCLA of Law, and Clark University in Massachusetts, 56 percent of LGBTQ parents surveyed said they were considering leaving Florida over concerns about how the new law may impact their children and family. Another 17 percent said they had already taken steps to do so.

“I am terrified that I would need to make the decision to leave Florida and leave my parents,” one respondent said. “The idea of having to leave to protect my child and my partner is scary but one I am willing to do.”

The new law, officially titled the “Parental Rights in Education” law, bars public kindergarten through third grade teachers from engaging in classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity – subjects the measure’s proponents in the state legislature last year argued are inappropriate for young students.

Educators through high school are barred from addressing either topic in the classroom in a manner that is not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for their students. Florida public school teachers who violate the law risk having their licenses suspended or revoked under a rule adopted by the state Board of Education in October.

LGBTQ parents in Florida surveyed by the Willams Institute between June and September said their initial response to the bill, introduced last January in the state House, ranged from fear to disbelief. Many were unconcerned about the measure at first because they believed it would not be signed into law or was unenforceable.

Over time, however, as the measure moved swiftly through the legislature, LGBTQ parents who were initially not worried became increasingly concerned. Some even considered removing their children from the public school system altogether, according to the Williams Institute survey.

LGBTQ parents surveyed by the group voiced a variety of concerns about the “Don’t Say Gay” law’s expected impact on their children, including that it would restrict them from speaking freely about their families, negatively impact their sense of legitimacy and encourage a hostile school climate.

“Many are concerned that the bill will not only result in restricted or nonexistent education about the existence of diverse sexual and gender identities, but it will result in a chilly or hostile school climate for LGBTQ educators, students, and families because it suggests that something is wrong with LGBTQ identities,” researcher Abbie E. Goldberg, a psychology professor at Clark University, wrote in the report.

LGBTQ parents with LGBTQ children said they were especially worried how the law would impact their child’s learning environment and mental well-being, and 13 percent said their children have expressed fears about continuing to live in Florida as an LGBTQ young person.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), seen as a top GOP contender for the 2024 presidential election, has spearheaded a statewide crusade against LGBTQ issues and identities over the last year, calling for physicians who provide gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors to be sued and accusing teachers and public school systems of indoctrinating vulnerable young people with “woke gender ideology.”

Earlier this month, as he was sworn in for his second term as governor, DeSantis touted his administration’s success in passing educational reforms including the “Parental Rights in Education” law and pledged to ensure Florida schools “are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology.”

“Florida must always be a great place to raise a family – we will enact more family-friendly policies to make it easier to raise children and we will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence,” DeSantis said.

But according to LGBTQ parents, Florida has become an increasingly hostile place to live.

Nearly a quarter of LGBTQ parents surveyed in the Williams Institute report said they feared being harassed by their neighbors because of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, and more than 20 percent said they had been out less in their neighborhood, workplace or community over the past 3 to 6 months.

“The Don’t Say Gay bill claims to be for parent rights, but my rights have been taken away since its passage,” one respondent said. “My right to send my daughter to school freely, my right to live without fear of who I am, my right to not be discriminated against based on my sexual orientation, and my daughter to not be discriminated against based on her parents’ sexual orientation.”

For some LGBTQ parents, the passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law has motivated them to engage more directly in community activism; nearly 20 percent said they participated in a demonstration to protest the legislation over the past 6 months.

Others spoke to how their parenting and activism serves as means of queer resistance and empowerment.

“We do our best to instill the right things in our children to help them grow to be kind collectivemembers of society,” one survey respondent said. “As queer parents we do this all in spite of a society that actively tries to silence us. But what they do not understand is that we also raise our children to scream above the silence and fight for the right to love and exist without persecution.”

Palestinian workers strike as UN agency squeeze hits salaries



Palestinian workers strike as UN agency squeeze hits salariesAid-reliant Palestinians struggle for basic necessities amid UN assistance reduction

Wed, January 25, 2023 
By Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Schools, clinics and some municipal services in the West Bank were closed on Wednesday as workers went on strike for a third day amid an escalating funding squeeze on the United Nations agency that pays their wages.

Around 3,700 workers in the West Bank joined the strike, demanding an across-the-board pay increase of 200 Jordanian dinars ($281.81) a month from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

"The strike will go on until UNWRA accepts our demands," said Jamal Abdullah, head of the union representing workers paid by the agency in the West Bank.

On Tuesday, UNRWA appealed for $1.6 billion in funding for schools, healthcare and aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where most Palestinian refugees or their descendants from various Arab-Israeli conflicts live.

With donations to the agency hit by crises across the world, compounded by inflation and supply chain disruptions, there was no immediate prospect of relief.

"All indications point out that it is going to be a difficult year," said Adnan Abu Hasna, spokesman of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza City.

With health clinics closed, some 50,000 school students shut out of their classrooms, and rubbish piled up in the streets on Wednesday, the strike added to the daily struggle faced by people in deprived areas of the West Bank.

"Cleaners aren't working, so garbage and dirt are piling up next to houses and stores," said Hussein Zaid, a resident of Jalazone camp outside Ramallah, where UNWRA supports a health centre and two schools. "If you go into the camp, you will not be able to pass because of the dirt and garbage."

In Gaza, the blockaded southern coastal strip run by the Islamist movement Hamas, there was only one brief stoppage this week but pressure mounted for humanitarian supplies that many refugees depend on for food.

Nahed Abu Amira, 63, who said his 24-member family depended entirely on UNWRA aid to survive, said cooking oil and flour allocations in the aid packages they received had become smaller in recent months as food prices have surged globally.

"I am afraid UNRWA may suspend the food aid; if that happens our households would be ruined, and we won't be able to eat or drink," he said.

($1 = 0.7097 Jordanian dinars)

(Nidal Al-Mughrabi reported from Gaza; writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

LIKE THE IRS
Depleted Under Trump, a 'Traumatized' EPA Struggles With Its Mission

Lisa Friedman
Tue, January 24, 2023 

A coal-fired power station in Euharlee, Ga., Oct. 19, 2022. (Kendrick Brinson/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top environmental agency is still reeling from the exodus of more than 1,200 scientists and policy experts during the Trump administration. The chemicals chief said her staff can’t keep up with a mounting workload. The enforcement unit is prosecuting fewer polluters than at any time in the past two decades.

And now this: The stressed-out, stretched-thin Environmental Protection Agency is scrambling to write about a half-dozen highly complex rules and regulations that are central to President Joe Biden’s climate goals.

The new rules have to be enacted within the next 18 months — lightning speed in the regulatory world — or they could be overturned by a new Congress or administration.

The regulations are already delayed months past EPA’s own self-imposed deadlines, raising concerns from supporters in Congress and environmental groups. “It’s very fair to say we are not where we hoped we’d be,” said Miles Keogh, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents most state and local air regulators.

As staffing at the EPA thinned out, the workload only increased, both the agency and its critics say.

Career employees are being “worked to death,” said Betsy Southerland, a former top EPA scientist. “They’re under the greatest pressure they’ve ever been.”

Biden administration officials insist the agency has delivered more environmental protections than any previous presidency and listed dozens of new policies, including the creation of a high-level office focused for the first time on addressing racial disparities when it comes to environmental hazards.

The agency’s administrator, Michael S. Regan, has promised that new regulations being written by his staff now will be made public by spring. Agency officials said that the EPA has stepped up its recruitment efforts and has purchased software that has helped it identify more potential job candidates, particularly from universities.

“The agency is moving further and faster than ever before,” Dan Utech, Regan’s chief of staff, said in a statement. He added that accomplishments had come “despite depleted staffing levels, persistent funding challenges and a previous administration that left the agency neglected and scientifically compromised.”

The EPA is at an unusual juncture. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the climate law enacted last year have begun to pump $90 billion into the agency over the next 10 years for climate projects such as $1.5 billion for new technologies to monitor and reduce methane emissions from oil and gas wells, $5 billion for states to purchase low-emission school buses, and $3 billion to cut pollution at ports. For the first time the EPA has “a little bit of walking-around money,” Regan joked to staff at a recent meeting.

But experts said they worry the EPA’s regulatory and enforcement work is taking a back seat to issuing grants.

“EPA is a regulatory agency, and I worry the huge piles of money they now have to administer and manage could end up obscuring the regulatory work the statutes say they have to do,” said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group.

And time is running out.

Biden wants to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions roughly in half this decade in order to avoid the most severe climate disruptions. Analysts say that even with the new climate law, the president can’t achieve his goal without new regulations designed to cut carbon dioxide and other pollutants from power plants, cars and trucks.

The process from proposing a regulation to enacting it can take months, and the current delays may mean that some rules are not completed until next year. Under the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers can repeal any regulation within 60 legislative days of being finalized with a simple majority vote. So any final rule issued in late 2024 could be repealed by Republicans if they maintain control of the House and pick up seats in the Senate in the November 2024 elections.

Moreover, Biden administration climate rules are also likely to face legal challenges. If a new administration is elected in 2024, it might opt not to defend the rules in court.

A recent report card from Evergreen, an environmental group, found the EPA was behind its own deadlines on nine key environmental regulations, including limits on power plant emissions of mercury and other toxic substances, ozone standards, and curtailing the storage of coal ash to avoid spills and contamination. Most worrisome, climate advocates said, is that the agency has yet to propose rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new gas-fired power plants and existing coal and gas plants — measures that energy analysts say will be necessary to eliminate fossil fuels from the electricity sector by 2035 as Biden has pledged to do.

In a recent interview, Regan said his agency has recently been reassessing its regulatory plans. The millions of dollars now available through the climate law to make it cheaper and easier for utilities and automobile manufacturers to move away from fossil fuels has led the agency to consider whether it could impose more stringent emissions goals than initially conceived, he said. That would move the power and transportation sectors of the economy even faster away from fossil fuels. He said developing the legal and economic justification for such regulations would take time but was nearing completion.

“This spring, you’re going to see a number of actions taken by EPA,” Regan said.

Despite the billions earmarked for climate programs, EPA remains underfunded and understaffed when it comes to its other obligations, including enforcing environmental laws and evaluating chemicals to ensure they don’t pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.

The nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project recently found that federal environmental enforcement was slipping under Biden. EPA’s civil cases against polluters hit a two-decade low in 2022, with 72 such enforcement cases closed in court. That’s fewer than during the Trump administration, which bristled against restrictions on industry yet closed an average of 94 enforcement cases per year. The Obama administration averaged 210 per year, the report found. EPA officials said they were focused on protecting heavily polluted communities by increasing inspections and targeting the most serious violations.

Industries regulated by the EPA are also frustrated, saying the agency is taking too long to determine whether new and existing chemicals pose an unreasonable risk to the environment or human health.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents companies such as Dow, DuPont and ExxonMobil Chemical, is frustrated by “constant delays and lack of transparency in how resources are being deployed,” according to a statement from Kimberly Wise White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the trade group.

Michal Freedhoff, who leads the EPA’s chemical unit, told Congress recently that the office of chemical safety would fall short of its obligations and miss many “significant statutory deadlines.” She blamed the fact that after a 2016 law significantly increased the agency’s duties, the EPA under the Trump administration never sought the resources from Congress that were required to perform the work.

In fact, former President Donald Trump tried each year to slash the EPA budget by at least 30%. Highly skilled scientists and other experts left the agency as the Trump administration dismantled science advisory panels, disregarded scientific evidence and weakened protections against pollution.

“They beat down the EPA workforce; a lot of people left dispirited,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, which oversees the EPA.

The result is that the EPA’s chemical safety office is way behind, Freedhoff told Congress. Attracting and retaining staff have been difficult because of the heavy workload, she said.

Carper said he was “impatient,” particularly with the regulatory delays, and had expressed that to Regan personally.

The EPA is hiring and, in the past two years, has increased its payroll by 3%, up to 14,844 employees. But that has brought total staffing levels to slightly more than when Ronald Reagan was president.

Staffing at the EPA peaked in 2004 during the George W. Bush administration, when there were 17,611 employees, according to the agency. Those levels ebbed and flowed slightly, but began to take a sharp dip during the Obama administration amid Republican control of the House and Senate.

When Trump entered the White House, the EPA had 15,408 employees. The following year it dropped to 14,172 employees, a level that stood more or less steady until the Biden administration.

It was only last month that the agency received its first significant budget increase in years, an additional $576 million, for enforcement and compliance, as well as clean air, water and toxic chemical programs.

Max Stier, head of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to make government more effective, said the EPA faced a “consequential hurdle” to both accomplishing the long list of rules that Biden has promised and to expanding further to make sure money from the new climate law gets spent effectively.

“You have an organization that was at some level traumatized to begin with, that was facing difficulties created over many, many years of divestment, and now you have a new set of requirements that are going to call for new capabilities,” he said. “They’re going to have to build up their strength, and that does not happen overnight.”

© 2023 The New York Times Company

Biden rolls out 'Renters Bill of Rights' as lawmakers push for federal rent control laws

Jennifer Schonberger
·Senior Reporter
Wed, January 25, 2023 

In the face of sky-high rents, President Joe Biden is rolling out a new set of principles the White House is calling a "Renters Bill of Rights" in an effort to improve rent affordability and protections for tenants.

The president is directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to examine limits on rent increases for future investments and actions promoting renter protections. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been tapped to root out practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing.

This rollout comes as progressive Democrats have asked Biden to direct different agencies, including the FTC, to limit rent increases. While rent control is common in some cities, there has never been federal residential rent control.

Nearly 50 progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), sent a letter to Biden earlier this month urging the president to take executive action to protect tenants from rising rents.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) meets with (L-R) Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), near the entrance to the Capitol Building on August 03, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"In the absence of robust investments in fair and affordable housing, it is clear that additional timely executive action is needed to address the urgent issue of historically high rental costs and housing instability," the lawmakers wrote. "…We urge your Administration to pursue all possible strategies to end corporate price gouging in the real estate sector."

Specifically, lawmakers had called on the president to direct the FTC to issue new regulations defining excessive rent increases and enforce actions against rent gouging, suggestions that are aggressive than what the administration has so far put forth. The letter also asked to have FHFA put in place rent protection for tenants living in properties financed with government-backed mortgage properties, which is more closely aligned with what the president outlined on Wednesday.

In Wednesday's announcement, the administration also sought to rally state and local governments — as well as the private sector — to protect renters.

The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, for instance, have agreed to cap annual rental increases to 5% per year for federal- or state-subsidized affordable housing.

In the private sector, the National Association of Realtors has also agreed to put new resources towards property managers in their network to promote practices like advertising to prospective tenants that Housing Choice Vouchers are accepted at their property, providing information about rental assistance, and using alternative credit scores for applicants without a detailed credit history.

Despite Wednesday's action, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Sen. Warren think the actions fall short.

"We believe that the administration can go significantly further to help tenants struggling to pay rent as soon as next week," Bowman said. "We need actions that will urgently address skyrocketing housing costs, keep people housed, and rein in corporate profiteering...I look forward to continuing to work with the Biden Administration on this issue."

Bowman said he plans to work with colleagues in Congress to work on legislation to address high rents.

The limits of FTC power

In advance of receiving the letter, the White House held several conversations with staff from Rep. Bowman and Sen. Warren’s offices about ensuring rental markets are fair and affordable for renters. Lawmakers argued the FTC already has the power to limit rent increases, given Congress has granted the agency power to police unfair and deceptive acts and practices. The argument is that rent hikes which are not proportional to higher costs for the landlord are unfair or deceptive.

But analysts are skeptical the FTC could impose rent controls and that courts would uphold these policies if put in place.

"The Supreme Court is more conservative. It is less inclined to let agencies assert authorities that Congress did not explicitly give them. Congress never empowered the FTC to limit how much residential rents may increase," Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg said in a recent note. "It is why we would expect the courts to reject this type of regime."

Seiberg also questioned how a federal regime would actually work, given costs vary from city to city and buildings may get remodeled or upgraded. "The FTC is a relatively small agency," Seiberg added. "We don't see how it could account for all this in a way that could survive court challenges."

While legislation could accomplish this, Seiburg said he doesn't see Congress adopting federal rent control.

Rent prices rose 7.45% year over year in November, according to the latest available data from the Rent Report, the slowest annual rise over the last 15 months. Still, this increase is more than triple the 2.2% annual rent increase seen during the same month two years ago.