Times of London: “Russia has moved troops, tanks and heavy artillery to a new base about 150 miles from the Ukrainian border, stoking fears of a military offensive. It is thought to be Russia’s biggest show of force in the area since 2015, when Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists signed a peace deal to end fighting in the eastern Donbass region.”
China’s Arrogance Is Uniting Its Rivals
Hal Brands: “Over the past century, globally ambitious autocracies have frequently made two fatal mistakes. First, they have underestimated the U.S., a country whose shambolic democracy masks its tremendous resilience and strength. Second, they have failed to see how their own aggressive behavior will, eventually, drive their multiplying enemies together. Judging by recent events, Xi Jinping’s China is making both mistakes at once.”
America’s Biggest Boom Since 1946
“America’s financial titans are coming to a consensus: We are on the early edge of the biggest economic boom since World War II, with the promise of years of growth after the privation of the pandemic,” Axios reports.
“They might be wrong, but all point to the same data — this expansion will be kickstarted by trillions in spending from presidents Trump and Biden, the Fed’s easy money, and piles of cash that consumers and companies accumulated during the COVID shutdown.”
Amazon Takes Early Lead In Union Vote
Associated Press: “By Thursday evening, the count was tilting heavily against the union, with 1,100 workers rejecting it and 463 voting in favor. The count will resume Friday morning.”
GOP Lawmaker Calls on Matt Gaetz to Resign
“Rep. Adam Kinzinger became the first congressional Republican to call on his colleague from Florida, Rep. Matt Gaetz, to resign in the face of a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations,” CNN reports.
Another Matt Gaetz Staffer Resigns
“A second senior aide to Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, abruptly quit in recent days as the congressman tries to fend off a Justice Department sex trafficking investigation and mounting public scrutiny,” the New York Times reports.
“The aide, Devin Murphy, resigned as Mr. Gaetz’s legislative director on Friday. He told associates that he was interested in writing bills, not working at TMZ — equating the work that Mr. Gaetz’s aides were now handling to the tabloid publication.”
Boehner Says He Regrets Clinton Impeachment
“Former Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, says in a new memoir that he regrets supporting the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, calling it a partisan attack that he now wishes he had repudiated,” the New York Times reports.
Said Boehner: “In my view, Republicans impeached him for one reason and one reason only — because it was strenuously recommended to us by one Tom DeLay. Tom believed that impeaching Clinton would win us all these House seats, would be a big win politically, and he convinced enough of the membership and the G.O.P. base that this was true.”
He added: “I was on board at the time. I won’t pretend otherwise. But I regret it now. I regret that I didn’t fight against it.”
Matt Gaetz Paid Accused Sex Trafficker
Daily Beast: “In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.”
Confusion May Help Democrats Push Tax Hikes
Politico: “To defray the cost of their $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan, they are turning to one of the densest, most impenetrable parts of the tax code in search of revenue. They want to raise hundreds of billions of dollars by changing the arcane rules governing how multinational corporations do their taxes.”
“It is a section of the tax system that even gives tax experts trouble, and it comes with a vernacular that will mean nothing to most lawmakers: GILTI, QBAI, earnings stripping, intangible income, Subpart F, transfer pricing, FDII, BEAT… Most members of Congress don’t understand the first thing about the international corporate tax system and won’t have the bandwidth to figure it out — which should make Democrats’ proposals easier to approve.”
House Republicans Report Big Fundraising Haul
Fox News: “The National Republican Congressional Committee on Thursday reported that it brought in $33.7 million in fundraising in the January-March first quarter of this year.”
“The committee highlighted that it had $29.7 million cash on hand as of the end of last month, which it says is a 57 percent increase over the amount of money the NRCC had in the bank at the same point in the last election cycle. The committee also noted that it has no debt and that its average grassroots donation was $32.70.”
Pelosi Wants Infrastructure Bill Done by July 4
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is aiming for July 4th for House action on President Biden’s infrastructure package, CNN reports.
She also says that while she’ll listen to suggestions on paring back the size of the proposal, that the overall package “it can’t be too small.”
No Permit Needed to Carry Handgun In Tennessee
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a bill that will allow most adults to carry a handgun without a permit, the Tennessean reports.
Tax Hikes Worry Democrats About Suburban Voters
McClatchy: “Republican and Democratic strategists alike say at stake in the argument over taxes is whether wealthy, suburban voters were only temporary Democratic supporters because of Trump and the pandemic, or whether they’re poised to snap back to the GOP in coming elections.”
Brian Kemp Tries to Win Back Trump
New York Times: “Since signing the bill into law on March 25, Mr. Kemp has done roughly 50 interviews, 14 with Fox News, promoting the new restrictions with messaging that aligns with Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that the election was rigged against him.”
“A political reversal of fortune would represent an unlikely turnaround for Mr. Kemp, making him the most prominent Republican to find a way to overcome Mr. Trump’s campaign of retribution, and perhaps providing an early test of the former president’s ability to impose his will on the party’s electoral future.”
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) is not expected to run for re-election.
GOP Lawmaker Called Police Officer ‘Donut Boy’
Kansas Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop (R) “reeked of alcohol, struggled to speak or walk, and threatened the Kansas Highway Patrol officer who stopped him in the early hours of March 16 for driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 in Topeka,” the Kansas Reflector reports.
When the officer approached the car, Suellentrop called him “donut boy” and complained this was “all for going the wrong way.”
Why McConnell Backtracked on Corporations Speaking Out
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Quote of the Day
“I am sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.”
— Attorney Fritz Scheller, who is representing Joel Greenberg, quoted by CNN on how Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) might be feeling ahead of Greenberg’s likely plea deal.
Alabama Official Denied Affair Until Confronted with Audio
Although Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) denied having an extramarital affair with Cesaire McPherson, there was audio of a conversation between Merrill and McPherson which proved otherwise.