🚨 Emails confirm the Social Security Administration canceled contracts with Maine as political payback against Janet Mills.

From Rep Gerry Connolly (D-Va) letter called on SSA acting chief Leland Dudek to resign: Dudek admitted to me last month he was mad at Mills and had put it in an email. (SSA declined to provide the email at the time.)

“I was upset at the governor’s treatment, and I indicated in an email as such."

huffpost.com/entry/leland-d…

Good morning. ☕️

The Trump administration has made it impossible for Maine parents to register their newborns for Social Security Numbers at the hospital like everyone in America has done for the past 30 years.

They won't say why.

huffpost.com/entry/maine-so… It's likely the work of DOGE, which has canceled Social Security contracts related to "enumeration at birth" in other states, but Maine isn't on their "wall of receipts."

No idea if it's just a coincidence the president has threatened to punish the state's Democratic governor.

Meals on Wheels America spox on OMB pause:

"the uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they should be serving meals today. Which unfortunately means seniors will panic not knowing where their next meals will come from." A senior administration official stresses to me "no benefits to individuals are affected by this—funding specifically that violates the president’s EOs."

Meals on Wheels isn't a direct benefit to individuals tho -- it's grants that wind up at local charities

Rep Clay Higgins (R-La) is asking FBI director Chris Wray about alleged "ghost buses" that perhaps brought undercover FBI assets to the Capitol on Jan 6.

"This buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI agents dressed as Trump supporters" correction: he said the buses were filled INFORMANTS from the FBI, not agents.

First I've heard about ghost buses on Jan 6

Fed chair Jerome Powell on debt ceiling stalemate: don't look at us!

"No one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy from the potential, you know, short and long term effects of a failure to pay our bills on time." I believe this is partly a rebuke of the Trillion Dollar Coin...

... the idea that Joe Biden could get us out of the debt ceiling drama by asking the Treasury Department to mint a coin and deposit it at the Fed.

Inside the right-wing freakout over mortgage fees, which even the Mortgage Bankers Association calls "misinformation" huffpost.com/entry/loan-lev… The FHFA announced new fees for govt-backed mortgages, some higher than before for borrowers w good credit, some lower for borrowers w worse credit.

Key fact: borrowers with worse credit still pay higher fees than borrowers with food credit.

"The legislation does not make any specific cuts to veterans benefits and defense, but also does not specifically protect them."

Interesting that Republicans chose not to wall off the VA in their symbolic bill!

https://twitter.com/emilybrooksnews/status/1653020048460505089

If I were concerned that people could accurately construe my symbolic legislation as cutting funding to the VA, I would simply not write my bill that way

Trump spoke via video at a fundraiser last night where Jan 6 defendants accused of violent crimes also spoke from behind bars Here are some of the "political prisoner" speakers, as seen in photos from charging documents

Sorry, fellas. No recession right now.

Chin up, though. You might get one next year.

huffpost.com/entry/us-reces… Rep Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who shouted from the rooftops about the two prior negative GDP reports this year, says this positive one only shows "ghost growth."

And he says "economists have dumbed down economic projections" to fit Joe Biden's agenda.

NEW: The moderate New Dem faction calls on leadership to bring back the monthly child tax credit as part of a year-end spending deal.

"The enhanced CTC lifted millions of children out
of poverty, gave parents the flexibility to return to work..." I have talked to House and Senate members about the idea of cramming CTC into an omnibus spending bill and don't see how it could work.

For one thing, Joe Manchin. He's still there.

NEW from Joe Biden: "I am announcing a pardon of all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. " And taking step toward making marijuana legal. Can do w/o Congress:

"I am asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law."

.@moetkacik on Dems seeking $28 million for the FDA:

“It boggles my mind that...they can’t just fine Abbott for that amount. It is a $44 billion company that has spent $15 billion plus on stock buybacks and dividends over the past 3.5 years.”

huffpost.com/entry/biden-fo… Stock buybacks enrich shareholders and are often criticized as a missed opportunity to invest in production.

A fraction of what Abbott lavished on shareholders could have fixed up their decrepit plant in Michigan, where investigators found bacteria on equipment, leaks, puddles

Democrats take rhetorical aim at "corporate consolidation" in baby formula industry, @igorbobic reports.

DeLauro yesterday: “The shortage was caused in large part by corporate greed and consolidation."

Warren, Booker today say Abbott misused its power.

huffpost.com/entry/baby-for… Federal Trade Commission Lina Kahn with a lucid explanation of how formula makers' WIC contracts with states, to be sole brand available in WIC, boost consolidation:

"Other manufacturers are not willing to step in as quickly because of those long term contractual arrangements."

Beginning of last week the White House said the formula shortage was the FDA's problem and several senators told @igorbobic they hadn't heard about it.

This week so far: burst of activity, w/ lawmakers sending letters to the FDA, the USDA, and Dems about to introduce legislation “Mothers across the country are looking to us for help,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. “And we will not force them to face this crisis on their own.”

New bills would boost FDA funding and make it easier for low-income parents to buy formula using WIC vouchers

bit of an I-told-you-so moment for the people who said stablecoin runs could be a problem huffpost.com/entry/crypto-r… For those who are unfamiliar with crypto: there are tokens called "stablecoins" that promise to be worth a dollar, kind of like how a bank promises you can get a dollar if you deposit a dollar.

It's an important banking promise that has been heavily regulated for 90 years

Big deal: Sen Rob Portman (R-Ohio) cosponsoring a bill w/ Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to lift SSI’s antiquated asset limit.

Disabled Americans on SSI lose benefits if they have more than $2k in their bank accounts. Some got docked because of stimulus checks, for instance. Portman: “Rising costs and inflation is hurting all Americans, but especially our nation’s seniors and those with disabilities. Yet the [SSI] program that serves these vulnerable populations hasn’t been updated in decades and punishes them for trying to save responsibly.”

Huge win for employers courtesy Senate Republicans plus Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. Story w @jamieson huffpost.com/entry/joe-manc… David Weil, the Labor Department nominee they blocked, sought more accountability for corporate giants that delegate staffing to franchisees and contractors.

“This is bullshit. You’re bullshit,” Joe Manchin just told me I had asked if it was true he wanted CTC out of BBB.

“I've always been for child tax credits,” he said.

So I asked if he wants it to continue paying parents $300 a month, and he said he was not going to "negotiate" with me and that I'm bullshit

It's interesting how much Mark Meadows wants everyone to like him and is hurt by criticism but when people were begging him to help call off a violent mob he just couldn't make it happen, and then he tried to cash in with a lying-ass book Mark Meadows wrote in his book the mob had "absolutely no urging from President Trump."

Just incredible!

The 25-30% reduction in child poverty isn’t getting its due in the national economic conversation huffpost.com/entry/inflatio… Talked to a mom who’s getting payments for 2 kids and whose husband took off 4 weeks b/c they just had a 3rd.

CTC was their only income for that time.

“If we didn’t have that, we would have had nothing.”

big flex by the Congressional Progressive Caucus today.

“I am so proud of our caucus,” CPC chair Pramila Jayapal said. “I have never seen our caucus so strong.”

Me either!

huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pe… Jayapal just took a bite out of Joe Manchin's leverage by showing it's not just moderates who can tank legislation around here.

Manchin still has plenty of leverage.

Dems still have time, too.