WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Tuesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
- President-Elect Joe Biden sought to calm troubled waters Tuesday in a rare question and answer session following a speech repeating how important he views the Affordable Care Act. It was under review by the Supreme Court which heard oral arguments during the day. Biden had a simple answer to the question, what about the refusals of Republican legislators to acknowledge your win? “They will,” he said, smiling. “They will.” The questions by some of the justices, incidentally, suggested Obamacare is not actually threatened with extinction when the high court delivers its opinion next year. Yet, remarks during arguments can be misleading. Only after the intensive court study of the case and the alignment of the justices’ opinions will Obamacare’s fate be known. Asked about being denied transition access to the daily intelligence briefings, Biden was similarly low key, saying there is only one president at a time and since he won’t be in a position to act on anything he might learn until Inauguration Day, intelligence briefings are not vital so “I don’t think we’re being slowed down at all.”
- And as Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said during the day, no cause for alarm. The process is well established. Up until the time the states certify their votes by the Dec. 8 deadline, anyone can offer objections. And as Rep. Jim Clyburn said on CNN Tuesday night, it won’t be like Hitler being duly elected Chancellor, then discrediting the news media and then all the rest. Well, the former history teacher did say, “It could happen” but only if Americans are a lot less intelligent than he knows they are.
- Discrediting the news media might be described as cursing the mirror. If you can persuade enough people the mirror lies then everything else is relatively easy. The news media has, after all, been declared the enemy of the people. Speaking of Fox News, all those stories about a new Fox, with management instructing anchors to accept the results of the election and observe Fox’s own election calls, seems to have been unevenly applied. Sean Hannity Tuesday night pointed out for his viewers that, “Biden’s out there making phony pleas for unity.” He featured a panel of familiar election deniers – Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Doug Collins, the designated leader of a Georgia recount effort. Fox anchor Laura Ingraham then featured a Nevada poll worker in silhouette with her voice altered saying how she witnessed people in a parking lot suspiciously appearing to be marking ballots. Sidney Powell, counsel to the president, reacted, saying such complaints are “coming in faster than we can count them.” She said she has evidence of “hundreds of thousands of votes being injected” into computerized voting systems. She called it “coup 5.0.” As one Republican voter told a network interviewer, even if election fraud is not proved, she will always believe it happened.
- President-Elect Biden, in that Q&A session after his ACA speech, declared that the American people need pandemic relief now and he hoped President Trump would negotiate a package quickly. However there’s an alternate view that there is no upside for Democrats to go forward with a stimulus package, at least until next year, after the Jan 5 Georgia Senate runoffs. As Status Check opined Monday, there are two Biden presidencies possible, massively different in scope and potential accomplishments. With Kamala Harris able to break Senate ties, the $2.2 trillion stimulus, comprehensive and far reaching, is the future. If not, then a Mitch McConnell-sized stimulus, considerably more narrow, with tax breaks and less virus control funds happens.
- Meanwhile, the pandemic. Overcrowded morgues tend to make an impression and as more El Pasos happen, the portion of political leadership at the state and local level that become sensitive to the mass revulsion is likely to trigger a reaction that shakes the country. That is, unless the general public has become numbed to the casualty figures. The other half of the threatened near-term catastrophe is the economic pothole that is deeper and wider than assumed now. Businesses most visible to the general public, from restaurants to all the other local commercial establishments, seem to be approaching the end of the rope. Evictions and economic pain that is highly visible may fuel demand for action. Again, the two-scenario presidency of Joe Biden will be faced with a two-sided health and economic catastrophe that could shake the confidence of the markets and – best case – galvanize leadership.
- “When you open up, the virus comes back,” said Trump virus adviser and lockdown opponent Scott Atlas, Tuesday night on Fox. The announcement Monday by Pfizer/DioNtech of a vaccine candidate that appears to be more than 90% effective was timed “to undermine the president.” Hospitalizations Monday set a new record at 60,000. New cases a day in the past week are 64% ahead of the average two weeks ago (NYT Tracker). The average of deaths per day is climbing toward a thousand.
- Government and corporate bond markets are closed for Veterans Day Wednesday while the stock markets remain open. The government holiday means no government economic reports. The MBA will do its weekly report on mortgage applications at 7a ET.
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