DESANTIS VS. NEWSOM
The “Great Red State vs. Blue State Debate” is about to get underway. Florida Gov. Ron Desantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom will take the debate stage tonight for a 90-minute one-on-one matchup.
Moderated by Sean Hannity, the showdown is set for 9 p.m. ET in Alpharetta, Georgia.
“This is one of those moments where you have two heavyweights in the political arena that are gonna have an opportunity to go head to head and talk about substantive, real issues and governing philosophies that affect everyone’s lives,” the Fox News host told Politico earlier this week.
“This is going to be a debate for the future of this country,” campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin told The Epoch Times. “What kind of leadership and what kind of results do we want from the leadership that we put up in 2024?”
The Floridian governor is also expected to compare matters such as his state’s handling of COVID-19, as well as recent population growth, economic success, abortion, gun rights, education, immigration, and stance on communist China compared to that of his California counterpart.
But is it a smart move for DeSantis?
“Newsom had been challenging DeSantis for months to debate, and the fact that he finally accepted as his campaign was circling the drain shows just how bad DeSantis needs to distract from his disaster of candidacy,” Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click told Politico.
That being said, Craig Shirley, presidential historian and biographer of the late President Ronald Reagan told The Epoch Times: “This is a briar patch they should love to be thrown into.”
“The facts are on his side,“ he said. ”Florida’s the winning state. California’s the losing state.”
Gail Choate, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University, told The Epoch Times that she sees DeSantis and Newsom more as proxies for different groups in their political parties, challenging the ideologies and policies with which they identify.
A DeSantis victory on policy matters, she said, could “empower” a new wave of Republican politicians to run at the state or congressional level, especially in California.
But Choate and Shirley don’t see a victory being enough to get DeSantis caught up with former President Donald Trump, who’s leading the GOP field by a wide margin.
“It could set him up nicely to be the clear number two and certainly to be the front runner for four years from now,” Shirley said.
DeSantis is scheduled to appear in Newton, Iowa, on Saturday, Dec. 2, to complete his mission to visit all 99 counties before the first-in-the-nation caucus on Jan, 15. Yet his polling numbers fail to bear the fruit of his effort.
FiveThirtyEight showed him averaging 13 percent of the primary vote on Nov. 29. Trump is sitting at 58.7 percent, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley remains close at 9.9 percent.
–T.J. Muscaro
JOHNSON: NO BORDER SECURITY, NO UKRAINE AID
The House will not approve supplemental military aid to Ukraine unless the Senate agrees to close the open southern border of the United States, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told senators yesterday.
Republicans are trying to set the stakes for handling President Joe Biden’s $106 billion request for supplemental spending on aid to Israel, Ukraine, U.S. border security, and other needs.
Democrats want to pass the entire $106 billion spending package in a single vote.
Republicans want to vote on major spending items one by one, ensure that they are paid for, and include benchmarks for border security improvements.
House Republicans have been increasingly skeptical of additional spending on Ukraine, and they are frustrated that the Senate has been unwilling to consider H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which the House passed earlier this year.
It’s unclear if Republicans have enough leverage in the Senate to make their ultimatum stick.
“You'd have to be a real optimist to see how this is going to work,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) told reporters.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) worried that any deal between the parties might not be substantial enough to achieve the domestic security aim.
“The fear that I have is that … you have facially reasonable but ultimately meaningless changes on border policy, and you get money for your Ukraine,” Vance told The Epoch Times.
Senate Democrats appear to be firm in rejecting that premise, seeing it as imperative to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I still think there is a mythology inside the Republican caucus that they are going to somehow get H.R. 2 out of this. That is not happening,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters.
Some GOP senators have said border security is the top concern of their constituents.
“We’re not going to move forward with any type of funding if we don’t have actual border security. Our base has been very clear about this,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told reporters.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said, “We have an administration that doesn’t care what the law is. And so if we don’t have metrics, nothing’s going to change.”
—Lawrence Wilson
MELEI’S AMBITIOUS PLANS
Argentina’s newly elected president, Javier Milei, has reaffirmed his commitment to a broad economic revolution, including the abolition of the country’s central bank and the adoption of the U.S. dollar.
But can the new libertarian president achieve these ambitious goals?
Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Tressis, believes that the Argentine peso’s failure has already paved the way for a shift to the dollar. He asserts that the public has rejected the peso, making the transition to a dollarized economy “completely feasible.”
Argentina’s economic woes have been exacerbated by an official annual inflation rate of approximately 140 percent. The peso’s value has plummeted to historic lows, with exchange rate disparities of around 200 percent between the official government rate and the market rate. It’s a currency that has lost the trust of its own citizens, who increasingly transact, save, and even produce in dollars.
Some observers have questioned how Argentina would participate in the international community since other central banks would no longer have a counterparty to engage with moving forward.
That’s not a problem, Lacalle notes, because countries worldwide have created and maintained a “dollarized corridor,” so it would be a simple endeavor to generate liquidity from internal and external sources.
Dollarization, while unconventional, is not unprecedented. Several countries, including Montenegro, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Zimbabwe, have adopted the U.S. dollar as their official currency. The move has often been associated with greater economic stability and lower inflation.
Heritage Foundation economist Peter St. Onge believes that dollarization could lead to substantial improvements in Argentina’s economic situation, akin to the experiences of other nations.
Milei is set to take over the presidency of Argentina on Dec. 10. His critics, however, describe his plan as a radical economic vision that may clash with the country’s complex political reality. He faces challenges in gaining support in Congress and among provincial governors for this bold transition.
It’s also essential to note that dollarization alone may not solve all of Argentina’s economic challenges. The country needs urgent fiscal reforms and effective governance.
Argentina’s substantial debt to the IMF, amounting to around $46 billion, has created an urgent need for negotiations to address the country’s financial obligations. Some believe that balancing the need for fiscal responsibility with public expectations will be a delicate task for Milei.
Path to dollarization is not easy, but it may provide hope to a country grappling with hyperinflation and economic instability.
—Andrew Moran
WHAT’S HAPPENING
President Joe Biden will meet with President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço of the Republic of Angola. The president and the first lady will then participate in the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony.
- Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee meets to try for the fourth time to vote on subpoenas for its Supreme Court ethics investigation.
- The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hears testimony from Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, two of the Twitter Files journalists, about the collusion between the government and Big Tech to censor speech online.
- Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) face off in a televised debate at 9 p.m. ET.
BOOKMARKS
Iowa Democrats are offering a caucus-by-mail option in 2024 after bungling the reporting of 2020 caucus results. Beth Brelje of The Epoch Times, a veteran caucus reporter, has the story. Meanwhile, Radio Iowa reports that the Dems have hired an outside firm to handle their caucus cards.
Newly released court documents show that Trump prosecutor Jack Smith looked for info on anyone who “favorited or retweeted” President Donald Trump’s tweets. Jack Phillips of The Epoch Times tells you why, and what happened. In case you missed it, prosecutors have used Trump’s tweets against him in court, The Washington Post reports.
Former Minneapolis copy Derek Chauvin has been in the news lately. For getting stabbed in prison. The Epoch Times’s columnist Roger L. Simon thinks Chauvin should have been acquitted on the charge of murdering George Floyd in 2020, based on a new documentary. The American Spectator thinks the same, alleging that prosecutors knew the charge was false.
Is Micronesia a real country? You bet it is. And China is working hard to pull this island nation out of the U.S. orbit. This report from Axios tells you why, and what the stakes are for the United States.
China’s been getting rambunctious in the Pacific region, even challenging U.S. warships. Check out this report from Stephen Katte of The Epoch Times on the latest harassment.
As noted in this report from Lawrence Wilson of The Epoch Times, Speaker Mike Johnson told the Senate yesterday that aid for Ukraine is conditional on fully securing the U.S. border. How is President Joe Biden taking the news? He’s playing the pork card, releasing a list of the states that benefit from increased military spending, according to Politico.
Nikki Haley got a boost yesterday from Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan/Chase, the largest bank in the country. Dimon told business leaders they should consider supporting Haley. The Epoch Times’s Andrew Moran has the full story. At the same time, some heavy hitters are tossing cash Haley’s way. Will that help her beat Donald Trump? CNN handicaps the race in this report.
