Trump, Biden spar on Social Security, Medicare

Trump, Biden spar on Social Security, Medicare.

DOJ opens criminal probe of Boeing door-plug blowout.

Haiti: US airlifts diplomats as situation spirals.

NATIONAL NEWS

The two Presidential frontrunners have set up competing budget visions. Biden has laid out a budget proposal that calls for raising taxes on individuals making over $400,000 per year and corporations. Meanwhile, Trump seemed to call for cuts to retirement and Medicare spending in an interview.

Biden’s proposals include among other things:

Restoring the expanded child tax credit. In 2021, a short-lived child tax credit expansion lifted millions of American children out of poverty, only for childhood poverty to rise sharply again in 2022 when the expansions expired.
Bolstering Medicare drug pricing negotiations to save the program and seniors more money on healthcare.
National paid family leave programs.
Increasing the mortgage tax credit to make home purchases more attainable while interest rates remain elevated.
More tax credits for lower- and middle-income brackets.

Despite all these new boosts for working class and the middle class, Biden claims this budget will still reduce the deficit by $3 trillion. According to the budget outline, this will in part be achieved by allowing the 2017 Trump tax credits to sunset in 2025. The benefits of the Trump tax credits skewed heavily towards the wealthiest and corporations at the expense of the poor and working class.

These presidential budgets are always a political priorities wishlist with little chance of passing. The House GOP has already shot down Biden’s budget proposal

Trump floats cuts to entitlement programs, then walks it back

Trump has not yet laid out a detailed budget proposal on his 2024 campaign website. However, in a phoned-in interview, he previewed what some of his budget priorities would be should he win re-election. “There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting,” Trump responded. “And in terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements — tremendous bad management of entitlements — there’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”

This statement was quickly panned by Biden at a campaign event. “If anyone tries to cut Social Security or Medicare, or raise the retirement age again, I will stop them,” Biden said today during a speech in New Hampshire. “This morning, Donald Trump said cuts to Social Security and Medicare are on the table again.”

Trump’s statements were also a departure from his previous stated position against cutting programs like Social Security and Medicare, despite the desires of his fellow Republicans to do so. Following the interview, and the backlash, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign clarified that Trump was only referring to “cutting waste and fraud”. However, the statement did not provide further details on how this would be achieved, nor on Trump’s other budget priorities.

DOJ opens criminal probe of Boeing door-plug blowout

The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation of the door-plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines plane in January. It’s not yet clear who the DOJ is targeting in this investigation. So far, they have said they have reached out to passengers, notifying them that they are victims in the case. Flight crew involved in the incident are also being interviewed. Alaska Airlines has said they don’t believe they are the target of the investigation.

The cause of the blowout has been traced back to manufacturing errors by Boeing, including a botched repair job where several bolts were left off the door-plug when it was re-installed. Reports suggest the DOJ may be eyeing violations by Boeing of a 2021 agreement that followed two deadly crashes of its 737 Max planes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Last week, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board told Congress that Boeing was not cooperating with the NTSB’s probe of the blowout incident. NTSB head Jennifer Homendy said that Boeing had so far not named the individuals in the repair crew so they could be interviewed. Homendy also said Boeing had failed to provide documentation about the repair, and had not even confirmed whether they kept such documentation.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

US airlifts diplomats from Haiti as security situation spirals

The US has managed to airlift non-essential diplomatic personnel out of Haiti and is bringing more Marines in to secure its embassy in Port-au-Prince. The operation took place overnight via helicopters to and from the Dominican Republic. As public order collapses, it’s not clear how other US citizens are meant to escape since the airport is under siege. Last week, reporters put the question to White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who responded flatly, “There are other ways to leave,” without elaborating.

Last week, the US and Caribbean powers abruptly pulled support for embattled de facto Haitian leader Ariel Henry. Henry was due to fly back to Haiti (via the neighboring Dominican Republic) after visits to both Kenya and the US to secure backing for his efforts to combat gangs which have seized control of Haiti for the last two years. Taking advantage of Henry’s absence, the gangs joined forces under the leadership of former police officer-turned-gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier. Cherizier’s G9 gang and others besieged Haiti’s airports to prevent Henry’s return. Henry is now stuck in Puerto Rico.

What happens next is uncertain. Henry’s beleaguered government has lost both legitimacy and any semblance of control and could fall at any moment and its unclear who or what will take its place. For the moment, Cherizier’s gang and others are solidifying their control over the capital, Port-au-Prince. The US is hoping that Henry can establish a caretaker government that will receive a Kenya-led force of policemen and peacekeepers to help restore order in the country. Daniel Foote, a former US envoy to Haiti, doesn’t believe this will be effective. “That’s just a suicide mission, worst case, and a waste of money, best case”.

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