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    Republican Ted Cruz introduces bill to block US supreme court expansion

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    The Republican senator Ted Cruz, whose party defied convention to delay then rush conservatives on to the supreme court, has introduced a constitutional amendment to stop Democrats expanding the court in response.“The Democrats’ answer to a supreme court that is dedicated to upholding the rule of law and the constitution is to pack it with liberals who will rule the way they want,” Cruz said.“The supreme court should be independent, not inflated by every new administration. That’s why I’ve introduced a constitutional amendment to permanently keep the number of justices at nine.”There is no constitutional provision for how many justices sit on the court.Democrats say the current court is not independent of the Republican party.In 2016, when the conservative Antonin Scalia died Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, held the seat open until a Republican president, Donald Trump, could replace a Democrat, Barack Obama, and nominate Scalia’s replacement. Neil Gorsuch filled that seat.In 2020, Democrats were helpless again when Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal lion, died shortly before the presidential election and McConnell changed course, rushing Amy Coney Barrett on to the court before Trump lost to Joe Biden.Those changes and the replacement of the retiring Anthony Kennedy with Brett Kavanaugh produced a court dominated, 6-3, by conservatives.Conservative justices including Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas have claimed not to be influenced by political considerations.Coney Barrett notably did so, saying the court “is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks”, while standing next to McConnell at a political studies centre named for the Republican leader.Among conservative rulings passed down by the new super-majority, a May 2022 decision saw the court side with Cruz in a case concerning personal loans to campaigns. The three liberal justices said the ruling paved the way for corruption.But the Dobbs decision of last year, removing the right to abortion, most enraged Democrats and progressives.On the left, plans have been floated to increase the size of the court and thereby redress its ideological balance.Writing for the Guardian last year, David Daley, author of Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, said: “The court’s hard-right majority has neither popular support for its agenda nor institutional legitimacy.“It is the product of a hostile takeover of the courts 50 years in the planning by conservatives who have long understood that unpopular policies … can be thrust upon Americans by an unaccountable and unelected judiciary.“The court must be expanded and reformed to counter a rightwing power play that threatens to remake American democracy and life itself.”Biden ordered a commission to study options for reform. It found bipartisan support for term limits for justices but reported “profound disagreement” on whether the court should be expanded. Biden has said he is “not a fan” of expanding the court.Cruz’s amendment has little chance of passing a Democratic-held Senate but 10 Republican senators supported it nonetheless.Josh Hawley of Missouri said: “For years the left has been desperate to pack the court to promote their radical agenda. We must ensure that we stay true to the court’s founding principles, maintain the precedent of nine justices, and keep the Democrats from their brazen attempts to rig our democracy.” More

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      Mitch McConnell released from hospital after treatment for concussion

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      Mitch McConnell was released from the hospital on Monday after the Republican leader of the Senate received treatment for a concussion, and he will continue to recover in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, a spokesman said.McConnell’s office said his doctors discovered over the weekend that he had also suffered a “minor rib fracture” after he tripped and fell at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington on Wednesday evening.“Leader McConnell’s concussion recovery is proceeding well and the leader was discharged from the hospital today,” said McConnell’s spokesman, David Popp, in a statement. “At the advice of his physician, the next step will be a period of physical therapy at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he returns home.”The office did not give any additional detail on McConnell’s condition or say how long he will be out. Concussions can be serious injuries and take time for recovery, and even a single incident of concussion can limit a person’s abilities as they recover.It is unclear how his extended absence will affect Senate proceedings. The Senate returns to Washington on Tuesday evening after the weekend off and is scheduled to be in session for the rest of March.The Kentucky senator, 81, was at a Wednesday evening dinner after a reception for the Senate Leadership Fund, a campaign committee aligned with him, when he tripped and fell.McConnell’s head injury comes almost four years after he tripped and fell at his home in Kentucky, suffering a shoulder fracture that required surgery. The Senate had just started a summer recess, and he worked from home for some weeks as he recovered.At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, McConnell opened up about his early childhood experience fighting polio. He described how his mother insisted that he stay off his feet as a toddler and worked with him through a determined physical therapy regime. He has acknowledged some difficulty in adulthood climbing stairs.First elected in 1984, McConnell in January became the longest-serving Senate leader when the new Congress convened, breaking the previous record of 16 years.McConnell is one of several senators who have been absent lately due to illness or hospitalization. The 53-year-old Democratic senator John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke during his campaign last year, was expected to remain out for some weeks as he received care for clinical depression. And Senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, said earlier this month that she had been hospitalized to be treated for shingles. More

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      It’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism review: Bernie Sanders, by the book

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      ReviewIt’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism review: Bernie Sanders, by the bookThe Vermont senator and former presidential candidate offers a clarion call against the American oligarchsThe Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has a predictably unsparing view of the effects of “unfettered capitalism”: it “destroys anything that gets in its way in the pursuit of profits. It destroys the environment. It destroys our democracy. It discards human beings without a second thought. It will never provide workers with the fulfillment that Americans have a right to expect from their careers. [And it is] propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency.”Has Bernie Sanders really helped Joe Biden move further left?Read moreThe two-time presidential candidate makes his case with the usual horrifying numbers about the acceleration of inequality in America: 90% of our wealth is owned by one-tenth of 1% of the population; the wealth of 725 US billionaires increased 70% during the pandemic to more than $5tn; BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street now control assets of $20tn and are major shareholders in 96% of S&P 500 companies.Sanders recites these statistics with religious fervor, and poses fundamental questions for our time: “Do we believe in the Golden Rule? [or] do we accept … that gold rules – and that lying, cheating, and stealing are OK if you’re powerful enough to get away with it?”Bernie believes (and I strongly agree) that it’s long past the time when we should be paying at least as much attention to American oligarchs as we do to those surrounding Vladimir Putin. Our homegrown plutocrats “own” our democracy.“They spend tens of billions … on campaign contributions … to buy politicians who will do their bidding. They spend billions more on lobbying firms to influence governmental decisions” at every level. And “to a significant degree”, the oligarchs “own” the media. That is why our prominent pundits “rarely raise issues that will undermine the privileged positions of their employers” and “there is little public discussion about the power of corporate America and how oligarchs wield that power to benefit their interests at the expense of working families”.We were reminded this week of how this system works. Joe Biden released a budget with perfectly modest proposals for tax increases, like a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans and a seven-percentage-point raise in the corporate tax rate to 28%, which would still leave it seven points lower than it was before Donald Trump gutted it with his gigantic tax giveaways.Instantly, experts owned and operated by the billionaires started spewing their familiar bilge, like these moving words from the Cato Institute: “Higher tax rates on the wages of a narrow segment of the United States’ most productive executives and business leaders will have strong disincentives against their continued work and other negative behavioral effects that translate into a less dynamic, slower growing economy.“Higher taxes on investment income target the financial rewards to successful entrepreneurs who undertake risks and persevere through failure to build high return businesses that provide welfare enhancing goods and services to people around the world.”Sanders quotes one of the most prescient Americans of the mid-20th century, from 1944: “As our industrial economy expanded [our] political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”The name of that dangerous revolutionary: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.Several decades before that, Theodore Roosevelt similarly bemoaned the “absence of effective state, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting” which “has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power”.There is something extremely refreshing about an author who assumes it should be obvious that billionaires should not be allowed to exist – and has perfectly reasonable proposals about how they should be eliminated. At the height of the pandemic, Sanders proposed the Make Billionaires Pay Act, which would have imposed a 60% tax on all the wealth gained by 467 billionaires between 18 March 2020 and January 2021.“But why stop at one year?” he now asks. After all, the 1950s were economic boom times in America – and under a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, “the top tax rate for the wealthiest Americans was around 92%. America thrived. Unions were strong. Working-class Americans could afford to support themselves and buy homes on a single income.” And the richest 20% controlled a measly (by current standards) 42.8% of the wealth.Bernie Sanders: ‘Oligarchs run Russia. But guess what? They run the US as well’Read moreSanders’ 99.5 Percent Act would only touch the top 0.5% of Americans. “But the families of billionaires in America, who have a combined net worth of over $5tn, would owe up to $3tn in estate taxes.” He would accomplish this with a 45% tax rate on estates worth $3.5m and a 65% rate on those worth more than $1bn.There is much more here, including a convincing case for Medicare for All and an excoriation of a for-profit healthcare system which spends twice as much per citizen as France or Germany and still manages to leaves tens of millions of Americans un- or underinsured, all while nourishing an obscene pharmaceuticals business in which profits jumped by 90% in 2021.I first toured the castles of the Loire Valley as a teenager in the company of the family of my uncle, Jerry Kaiser, a 60s radical and a very early opponent of the war in Vietnam. As we absorbed the opulence of one chateau after another, Jerry had only one question: “What took them so long to have a revolution?”The noble purpose of Bernie Sander’s powerful new book is to get millions of Americans to ask that question of themselves – right now.
      It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism is published in the US by Crown
      TopicsBooksBernie SandersUS politicsDemocratsUS SenateUS CongressUS economyreviewsReuse this content More

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      Norfolk Southern’s call to burn derailed train cars ‘jaw-dropping’, Senate hears

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      Norfolk Southern’s call to burn derailed train cars ‘jaw-dropping’, Senate hearsLocal official tells panel of chaotic response Ohio derailment and operator’s CEO makes first appearance before CongressNorfolk Southern’s decision to call for the burning of five derailed train cars in East Palestine, Ohio, was “jaw-dropping” and a consequence of poor communication by the railroad, a local emergency management official told a Senate panel on Thursday.Eric Brewer, director and chief of hazardous materials response for the emergency services department in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, just over the state line from East Palestine, described to the chamber’s environment and public works committee an initially chaotic response to the 3 February derailment.‘No one is coming to save us’: residents of towns near toxic train derailment feel forgottenRead more“The boots on the ground crews were great to work with. It seems as bosses or management gets there, that’s where the communication failures start,” Brewer said.The derailment of the train carrying vinyl chloride – used to produce PVC plastic – in the small town has left its more than 4,700 residents complaining of health effects like headaches, and fearing long-term pollution of the area. An interim report released last month by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) noted the train’s crew received an alert about an overheating wheel bearing and tried to slow the train before it came off the tracks.Brewer, whose agency was among those responding to the accident, described how Norfolk Southern initially raised concerns that one of the derailed tank cars was “starting to heat up” and could explode, leading to local officials creating an evacuation zone around the site of the accident. The railroad then suggested destroying that tank car in a controlled detonation, he said.“We were assured this was the safest way to mitigate the problem,” he said. Then, Norfolk Southern asked to burn five cars, rather than just one.“This changed the entire plan, as it would now impact a much larger area. I think this confusion was probably a result of the lack of communication from Norfolk Southern and the fact that they they weren’t present during these planning meetings,” Brewer said.He later added: “The decision to go from the one tank car to the five was jaw-dropping,” and “that’s probably why we’re here today”.His critique was echoed by Anne Vogel, director of Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency, who said: “I do believe there were quite a few gaps in communication and missteps in the very eye hours following the derailment … things could have been handled better in the beginning hours.”However, both Brewer and Vogel agreed that the communication issues had been ironed out since then. “I do believe that those gaps in communications have been addressed. I believe that teams are working well together on the ground today.”The Democratic-led committee’s hearing featured the first appearance before Congress by Norfolk Southern’s CEO, Alan Shaw, who was pressed by lawmakers on how far his company would go to take care of Ohio and Pennsylvania residents affected by the derailment.“I’m terribly sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the folks of that community. And yes, it’s my personal commitment and Norfolk Southern’s commitment that we’re going to be there for as long as it takes to help East Palestine thrive and recover,” Shaw said.He also said that though the NTSB report found that the train’s crew was operating in a safe manner, “it is clear the safety mechanisms in place were not enough.”Shaw was more taciturn about whether he would support the Railway Safety Act of 2023, proposed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers from Ohio and Pennsylvania, which would levy financial and regulatory consequences on railroads involved in accidents.“We are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer. Norfolk Southern runs a safe railroad and it’s my commitment to improve that safety and make our safety culture the best in the industry,” Shaw said.Another topic of concern for senators was the extent of pollution in East Palestine and the surrounding communities. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator Debra Shore said indoor air monitoring had not yet turned up any sign of widespread vinyl chloride contamination.“As of March 4 approximately 600 homes have been screened through this program and no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride have been identified,” Shore said, adding that air monitors haven’t detected any organic compounds “above levels of health concerns” since the derailed cars were extinguished.Despite the EPA’s assurances, senators said they’d heard from residents who didn’t trust the agency’s messaging, and worried their concerns would go unheard.“These communities have been abandoned too many times before,” said Ohio’s Democratic senator Sherrod Brown. “My job, our job, is to hear their voice and to demand corporate accountability to bring this town back to the vibrant community we know that it can be again.”TopicsOhio train derailmentUS SenateUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden vows to protect social security and Medicare in speech outlining budget plan – as it happened

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      President Joe Biden is delivering remarks at a union hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania about his fiscal year 2024 budget proposal.It is now 4pm in Washington DC. As we wrap up the blog, here is a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
      Biden unveiled his budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year at a union hall in Philadelphia that would slash the federal deficit by nearly $3tn. He also pledged to increase taxes for the rich while promising to safeguard social security and Medicare. He also called for increased funding for training programs within law enforcement.
      Hundreds of gun safety advocates gathered at the Florida capitol today to protest a Republican bill that would remove the requirement to obtain a permit before carrying a concealed firearm. The Florida senate held a committee hearing on the bill today.
      Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesperson David Popp said the Kentucky senator, 81, suffered a concussion and would remain in hospital “a few days” for observation and treatment. “The leader is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes,” Popp said.
      Ken Cuccinelli, once a homeland security official and immigration hawk in Donald Trump’s administration, has launched a political action committee in support of his preferred candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024: Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor has not yet declared a run but is Trump’s only serious challenger in polling. Launching his Never Back Down Pac, Cuccinelli said: “I have been speaking to many grassroots conservative activists around the country who are very enthusiastic for Governor DeSantis to run for president in 2024.
      During Thursday’s hearing, South Carolina’s Republican senator Lindsey Graham asked Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and EPA whether he would live in East Palestine which has been environmentally affected by the derailment. Shaw replied, “Yes sir, I believe that the air is safe, I believe that the water is safe, there are hundreds of tests … billions of data points …”
      Shaw appeared to avoid Oregon’s Democratic senator Jeff Merkley’s question on whether his team would lobby for safety improvements rather than lobby against them. “We will continue to follow data. There are actually a number of areas in which we’ve invested in safety systems well above government regulation,” Shaw said. In response, Merkley said: “I’m sorry you can’t tell this crowd here today that would like to hear that is the case.”
      Vermont Democratic senator Bernie Sanders grilled Shaw about more paid days off and better treatment for the company’s workers. “Will you make that commitment right now? To guarantee paid sick days to all of your workers? That’s not a radical demand. It really is not,” Sanders said. Shaw proceeded to deliver a non-answer, saying: “I will commit to continuing to discuss with them important quality of life issues.” Sanders replied, “With all due respect, you sound like a politician here.”
      Shaw said, “We are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer,” without specifically indicating whether he would commit to supporting the bipartisan Railway Safety Act. “We can always get better and that is my intent to continue to invest and continue to improve” in industry safety standards, he added.
      The Environmental Protection Agency has “not detected any volatile organic compounds above levels of health concerns” since the derailment fire was extinguished on 8 February, the agency’s regional administrator, Debra Shore, said in her testimony on Thursday. Shore added that the EPA is currently conducting 24/7 air monitoring and a voluntary program set up by the agency has seen approximately 600 homes screened for toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride – no detections of the chemicals have been identified.
      Shaw has acknowledged the safety deficits that led to the disastrous derailment, saying, “It is clear the safety mechanisms in place were not enough.” Shaw added that the company has launched a series of initiatives to ensure industry-wide safety improvements and better training measures for its employees.
      During his testimony, Ohio Republican JD Vance called on the Environmental Protection Agency to swiftly and safely remove the “toxic dirt” that has been filled with chemicals since the derailment. He said, “We need leadership. We need the EPA to get on the ground and aggressively get this stuff out of Palestine into properly licensed facilities. It’s maybe the most important and pressing thing …”
      Ohio Democratic senator Sherrod Brown who testified at the hearing has issued harsh criticism against Norfolk Southern. “If Norfolk Southern had paid a little more attention to safety and a little less attention to its profits, if it cared a little more about the Ohioans along its tracks and a little less about its executives and shareholders, these accidents would not have been as bad or maybe not happened at all,” he said.
      That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for joining us.Hundreds of gun safety advocates gathered at the Florida capitol today to protest a Republican bill that would remove the requirement to obtain a permit before carrying a concealed firearm. The Florida senate held a committee hearing on the bill today.In recent years, permitless carry, known as “constitutional carry” to its supporters, has been embraced by gun rights activists who view any firearm-related regulation as a violation of their second amendment right to bear arms. Twenty-five states have already enacted laws allowing residents to carry concealed guns without a permit.But gun safety advocates warn that the policy will only make gun violence more common, endangering the lives of Floridians. Research does appear to substantiate those concerns; one study released in 2019 found that states saw an increase of 13% to 15% increase in violent crime rates in the years after they loosened regulations on carrying concealed firearms..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We’re turning out in force today to make sure Florida lawmakers know that permitless carry puts communities in danger,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action.
      “Allowing more guns in more places with no questions asked only leads to more gun violence and more senseless and preventable tragedy.”The debate over the permitless carry bill comes as Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is widely expected to launch a presidential campaign..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“While Governor DeSantis puts his political ambitions over the public safety of his constituents,” Watts said, “we won’t stop fighting for the majority of Floridians who oppose this reckless legislation.”Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has criticized Biden’s budget proposal, calling it “reckless”.In a statement released on Friday, McDaniel said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Paychecks are worth less, the cost for everything is up, and Biden’s tax-and-spending spree will only worsen the economic burden on American families. Biden’s reckless budget proves how out of touch his administration is with reality.”“No one making less than $400,000 will see a penny in federal taxes go up. Not a single penny,” Biden promised as he called for increased taxes on the rich.“No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a school teacher or a firefighter,” Biden said.“My plan is to make sure the corporations begin to pay their fair share. It used to be 35%, we cut it down to 21%,” referring to the corporate tax rate. “I think we should be paying 28%. It’s going to be a real fight in that but we should be paying more than 21%” he added.Biden promised to protect social security and Medicare, to which the crowd responded with whoops and cheers.“I won’t allow it to be gutted or eliminated as Maga Republicans threaten to do … My budget will not cut benefits and it definitely won’t sunset programs like some of my Maga Republican friends want to do,” he said.Biden added that his budget will ensure that the “vital program keeps going strong for generations without cutting a single penny and benefits”.Biden said his budget includes funding for more training and “more support for law enforcement.”“They need more help… We don’t expect a cop [to be] everything from a psychologist to a counselor. These departments need more investment in this kind of help and we’re going to fund proven strategies for accountable, effective community policing.”“We’ve got to get cops back on the streets and the communities they know.”“It’s going to lower prices for seniors,” Biden said about his budget, adding that it is “not just going to save people’s lives and save people money so they don’t have to go bankrupt. It’s going to save the government.”He added that his budget will “invest in critical issues that matter to families…lower rental costs and make it easier to buy a home…all of which will generate economic growth and prosperity.”Describing his budget which would slash the federal deficit by nearly $3tn in the next 10 years, Biden said his plan will help those who “hold the country together, who have been basically invisible for a long time”.The proposal also seeks to raise taxes for corporations and the rich, as well as lower healthcare and prescription care costs, along with housing and education costs.Biden added that his budget also seeks to “restore the child tax credit,” saying, “We can reduce child poverty, increase child opportunity.”As Biden revealed his $6.8tn budget proposal, saying, “Show me your budget, I’ll tell you what’s your value,” the president called upon House speaker Kevin McCarthy to lay out his plan.“I’m ready to meet with the speaker anytime,” Biden said, adding that he would like to go “line by line” with McCarthy to see which aspects of the proposals’ the two can agree on.President Joe Biden is delivering remarks at a union hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania about his fiscal year 2024 budget proposal.We have an update on the health of the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, who was taken to hospital in Washington on Wednesday night after he fell at a hotel during a private dinner.On Thursday, the spokesperson David Popp said the Kentucky senator, 81, suffered a concussion and would remain in hospital “a few days” for observation and treatment.“The leader is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes,” Popp said.McConnell is a survivor of polio. In 2019, he tripped and fell at his home, suffering a shoulder fracture. In 2020, he dismissed speculation over his health prompted by pictures of his bruised and bandaged hands and bruising around his mouth.On the Senate floor on Thursday, the Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, said he had called McConnell and spoken with his staff “to extend my prayers and well wishes”.“I joined every single one of my colleagues in wishing Leader McConnell a speedy and full recovery,” Schumer said.The number two Republican, John Thune of South Dakota, was at the dinner on Wednesday, in support of a conservative Super Pac, the Washington Post reported. Thune told reporters McConnell delivered remarks “as usual”.“Evidently it happened later in the evening,” he said of McConnell’s fall.McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984. He was majority leader from 2015 to 2021. He is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history but only the fourth-oldest member of the current chamber. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is the oldest senator, three months senior to her fellow 89-year-old Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, is 81.Amid concern about the advanced age of many US political leaders, proposals for age and term limits for public officials have featured in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old former governor of South Carolina, says candidates older than 75 should be subject to mental competency tests.03:30The candidate who dominates polling, former president Donald Trump, is 76.More lunchtime reading, in this case an important survey by a Guardian US team – Alice Herman, Carlisa N Johnson, Rachel Leingang, Kira Lerner, Sam Levine and Ed Pilkington – who have worked with our graphics desk to produce a guide to all the election-denying Republicans who remain in positions of influence in federal and state government…Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election brought the US to the brink of a democratic crisis. Refusing to concede his loss to Joe Biden, he attempted to use every lever available to try and throw out the results of the election, pressuring state lawmakers, Congress and the courts to declare him the winner.Those efforts didn’t succeed. But Trump nonetheless created a new poison that seeped deep in the Republican party – a belief that the results of US elections cannot be trusted. The belief quickly became Republican orthodoxy: it was embraced by Republican officeholders across the country as well as local activists who began to bombard and harass local election officials, forcing many of them to retire. The January 6 attack on the US Capitol – in which thousands stormed the building, and five people died – was the starkest reminder of the potential violent consequences of this rhetoric.In 2022, several Republicans who embraced election denialism lost their races to be the top election official in their state. But at the same time, many Republicans who unabashedly embraced the idea and aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the election were re-elected and, in some cases, elevated to higher office.Here’s a look at how some of those who tried to overturn the 2020 election have since been promoted into positions of power:The election-denying Republicans who aided Trump’s ‘big lie’ and got promotedRead moreAhead of Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia this afternoon, in which the president is due to introduce his budget proposal, here’s our columnist Robert Reich, a former US labor secretary, on the cards Republicans might play in return – and why when it comes to threats to default on the national debt, they’re bluffing.Joe Biden is proposing to trim the federal budget deficit by close to $3tn over the next 10 years. He was an FDR-like spender in the first two years of his presidency. Has he now turned into a Calvin Coolidge skinflint?Neither. He’s a cunning political operator.Biden knows that he – along with his three immediate predecessors (Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W Bush) – have spent gobs of money. In addition, Bush and Trump cut taxes on the rich and on corporations.Not surprisingly, the national debt has soared. It’s not so much an economic problem as a political one. The huge debt is giving Republicans a big, fat target.House Republicans are planning to stage theater-of-the-absurd pyrotechnics – refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Which means that at some point this summer, Biden’s treasury department will say that the nation is within days (or hours) of defaulting on its bills. A default would be catastrophic.To counter this, Biden is planning his own pyrotechnics…Read on…Republicans are threatening to default on the US national debt. Don’t believe them | Robert ReichRead moreKen Cuccinelli, once a homeland security official and immigration hawk in Donald Trump’s administration, has launched a political action committee in support of his preferred candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024: Ron DeSantis.The Florida governor has not yet declared a run but is Trump’s only serious challenger in polling.Launching his Never Back Down pac, Cuccinelli said: “I have been speaking to many grassroots conservative activists around the country who are very enthusiastic for Governor DeSantis to run for president in 2024.“The energy is there, grassroots conservatives see the governor as a leader and a fighter with a winning conservative track record who will lead the Republican party to victory in 2024.“Based on those conversations, I am most confident that we will build an unmatched grassroots political army for Governor DeSantis to help carry him to the White House.”Trump did not immediately comment.Here, meanwhile, is a story about some of what Cuccinelli got up to while working for Trump – presiding over hardline immigration policies including family separations at the southern border.In particular, about what the former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley did when he saw Cuccinelli, a fellow graduate of Gonzaga high school, in a Washington bar one Thanksgiving evening…O’Malley slams acting DHS deputy: ‘You cage children for a fascist president’Read moreIt is slightly past 1pm on Capitol Hill. The first Senate hearing on the East Palestine train derailment has concluded. Here are some of the hearing highlights:
      During Thursday’s hearing, South Carolina’s Republican senator Lindsey Graham asked Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and EPA whether he would live in East Palestine which has been environmentally affected by the derailment. Shaw replied, “Yes sir, I believe that the air is safe, I believe that the water is safe, there are hundreds of tests…billions of data points…”
      Shaw appeared to avoid Oregon’s Democratic senator Jeff Merkley’s question on whether his team would lobby for safety improvements rather than lobby against them. “We will continue to follow data. There are actually a number of areas in which we’ve invested in safety systems well above government regulation,” Shaw said. In response, Merkley said: “I’m sorry you can’t tell this crowd here today that would like to hear that is the case.”
      Vermont Democratic senator Bernie Sanders grilled Shaw about more paid days off and better treatment for the company’s workers. “Will you make that commitment right now? To guarantee paid sick days to all of your workers? That’s not a radical demand. It really is not,” Sanders said. Shaw proceeded to deliver a non-answer, saying: “I will commit to continuing to discuss with them important quality of life issues.” Sanders replied, “With all due respect, you sound like a politician here.”
      Shaw said, “We are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer,” without specifically indicating whether he would commit to supporting the bipartisan Railway Safety Act. “We can always get better and that is my intent to continue to invest and continue to improve” in industry safety standards, he added.
      The Environmental Protection Agency has “not detected any volatile organic compounds above levels of health concerns” since the derailment fire was extinguished on 8 February, the agency’s regional administrator, Debra Shore, said in her testimony on Thursday. Shore added that the EPA is currently conducting 24/7 air monitoring and a voluntary program set up by the agency has seen approximately 600 homes screened for toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride – no detections of the chemicals have been identified.
      Shaw has acknowledged the safety deficits that led to the disastrous derailment, saying, “It is clear the safety mechanisms in place were not enough.” Shaw added that the company has launched a series of initiatives to ensure industry-wide safety improvements and better training measures for its employees.
      During his testimony, Ohio Republican JD Vance called on the Environmental Protection Agency to swiftly and safely remove the “toxic dirt” that has been filled with chemicals since the derailment. He said, “We need leadership. We need the EPA to get on the ground and aggressively get this stuff out of Palestine into properly licensed facilities. It’s maybe the most important and pressing thing…”
      Ohio Democratic senator Sherrod Brown who testified at the hearing has issued harsh criticism against Norfolk Southern. “If Norfolk Southern had paid a little more attention to safety and a little less attention to its profits, if it cared a little more about the Ohioans along its tracks and a little less about its executives and shareholders, these accidents would not have been as bad or maybe not happened at all,” he said.
      Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said that he would live in East Palestine, Ohio, given what he has seen.During Thursday’s hearing, South Carolina’s Republican senator Lindsey Graham asked Shaw and EPA regional administrator Debra Shore whether they would live in East Palestine which has been environmentally affected by the derailment..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Yes sir, I believe that the air is safe, I believe that the water is safe, there are hundreds of tests…billions of data points. They all point to the same thing and I generally enjoy my conversations with the folks of East Palestine.”Shore echoed Shaw’s comments, saying:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We follow science and I drank the water there, I drink it every time I go to down because the scientific data says it’s safe, as does the air.”Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw appeared to avoid Oregon’s Democratic senator Jeff Merkley’s question on whether his team would lobby for safety improvements rather than lobby against them..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We will continue to follow data. There are actually a number of areas in which we’ve invested in safety systems well above government regulation,” Shaw said.In response, Merkley said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I just really thought when you said ‘turn over a new leaf’ that…you were saying you were going to now support safety regulations. I’m sorry you can’t tell this crowd here today that would like to hear that is the case.”Merkley went on to ask Shaw if his company – which announced $10bn in stock buybacks earlier this year – would pledge to do no more stock buybacks until a series of safety measures have been completed.Merkley once again avoided answering the question, saying, “I will commit to continuing to invest in safety. We invest in over a billion dollars a year.”“I am committed to having the best safety culture in the industry,” he added, to which Merkley responded:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“You’re coming here with three derailments within three months and the average in the industry is one per month for the entire industry so congratulations on maybe some good luck over a few years but at this moment, your team is the team that has the most derailments in the last three months.”Vermont Democratic senator Bernie Sanders grilled Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw about more paid days off and better treatment for the company’s workers..css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“Given that Norfolk Southern provided $10 billion in stock buybacks recently, can you tell the American people and your employees right now that in order to improve morale in your workforce, that you will guarantee at least seven paid sick days to the 15,000 workers you employ?” Sanders asked.
      “Will you make that commitment right now? To guarantee paid sick days to all of your workers? That’s not a radical demand. It really is not,” he added.Shaw proceeded to deliver a non-answer, saying:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I will commit to continuing to discuss with them important quality of life issues.”In response, Sanders said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“With all due respect, you sound like a politician here… Paid sick days is not a radical concept in the year 2023. I’m not hearing you make that commitment to guarantee that to all of your workers… Will you make that commitment, sir?”Shaw echoed his earlier response, saying:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“I’m committed to continuing to speak to our employees about quality of life issues that are important to them.”Sanders proceeded to ask Shaw if he would pay for all of the healthcare needs of East Palestine residents.“We’re going to do what’s right for the citizens,” said Shaw, adding: “Everything is on the table.” More