References: bHgIEcGkQNGSg4rKZT97-WSJNewsPaper-8-6-2021.pdf; Elizabeth Warren laid into Amazon and Facebook for trying to sideline new FTC chair Lina Khan. Both companies ‘fear’ Khan’s antitrust expertise, she said. (msn.com)
First, a federal court ruled that the CDC’s eviction moratorium was unconstitutional and beyond its regulatory authority. Then the Supreme Court said if it is going to be extended, Congress has to extend it, the CDC lacks the authority to do so. Then the CDC agreed that it lacked legal authority to extend it. Then the President – who is a lawyer, by the way – said both he and the CDC lacked authority to both extend it and do it in the first place. Then the woke left protested. Then suddenly the CDC says, and the President agrees, OK the CDC can implement a new moratorium because this one is “targeted” rather than the prior elephant-gun-to-kill-a-mouse approach. And then the President expressly says that he doesn’t think this approach is legal, but what the hell, he’s going to do it anyway. Because of the woke political pressure, is what he didn’t say but is obvious.
And all this unnecessary nonsense is notwithstanding the fact that the supposed bill for late rent nationwide is about $21 billion, yet over $43 billion previously appropriated and available to the states precisely for the purpose of paying rent for people who couldn’t pay during the pandemic goes unused. That pot of money is just sitting there while Washington and state clowns twiddle their thumbs and point fingers at each other rather than getting off their asses and doing their job, which isn’t a hard job, by the way. It’s not a hard job to write checks to people from a full bank account, is it? Instead the President decides to admittedly violate the law and the Constitution by implementing yet another moratorium. “Disconnect” is the word that comes to mind, as well as a host of others less neutral.
Second, the shenanigans around this supposed “bipartisan” “infrastructure” bill get curiouser and curiouser. Obviously most of the Senators negotiating this thing flunked math, since the verbal gymnastics these clowns have to go through to claim that this bill is “paid for” already would earn any of them a 10 at the Olympics. Even their own Congressional Budget Office rejects their claims and says the current bill would increase the national deficit by about $256 billion over the next ten years. Only in Washington (aka Bidenland), and wherever the emperor got his new clothes, can everyone in power look at a watermelon, agree among themselves that it is an orange and then go out and try to convince the rest of Congress, and all of us, that it is indeed an orange despite the fact it is a watermelon. They certainly seem to think that the rest of us are every bit as stupid as they are.
Third, Lina Khan is the new Chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission. She was named by the President basically to bring “big tech” to heel via the anti-trust laws. She is famous for wanting to do so, so we all expect that she is going to pull the anti-trust regulatory reins as tight as she possibly can, all with the President’s express support. So famous is she in fact that Amazon and Facebook have already asked that she be recused from any issues involving them.
Meanwhile, according to today’s WSJ, “the U.S. government is enlisting the help of tech companies, including Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google, to bolster the country’s critical infrastructure defenses against cyber threats after a string of high-profile attacks. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency [“CISA”] unveiled the initiative Thursday, called the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.”
OK, so on the one hand, Biden’s FTC is going to go after “big tech” and break it up, while on the other hand, at the same time Biden’s CISA is begging “big tech” for help corraling an issue that the government cannot deal with itself. Think of it as your neighbor using the local zoning laws to force you to tear down the $1 million dream house and deck and ornate yard and gardens you just built too close to his property line, while at the same time he’s asking you if he can use the house, deck and garden for his daughter’s wedding reception before you tear it down AND help him with the decorations AND bake the cake. What’s your answer going to be?
Geez, do we smell an unholy deal here? You lay off the anti-trust attacks and we’ll help you all you want. Think that’s in play? Remember this article in a few months when the rubber starts to hit the road on these issues.