PLANTING SEEDS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

President Joe Biden and House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently reached a tentative deal to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the economic fallout from the federal government defaulting on its bills.

The deal includes excluding military and veterans programs, capping non-defense spending for two years, restarting student debt payments and expanding the age requirements for some to work to receive food benefits. The agreement now needs Congressional approval, with votes scheduled for this week.

Elements of both parties disagree with parts of the compromise — Democrats have indicated it is at least better than consequences of debt default.

The deal keeps non-defense spending at 2023 levels and increases it by 1% in 2025, keeping the proposed arrangement in place until after the 2024 election cycle. Republicans had wanted that spending to again rise in 2024. Last month, Republicans supported spending caps that would have stayed in place through 2033. Social Security could have had a cut, but that was not in the Biden-McCarthy deal.

What many Democrats don’t like: increased work requirements for benefits (but not to levels sought by Republicans), and, to get West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin’s vote, fast-tracking the Mountain Valley Pipeline in his home state. Experts say it would produce emissions equal to 26 coal plants, or 19 million cars.

Not cut: Repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act, sought by Republicans, and Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law, which Republicans had proposed for a carve-up.

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

Other items in the proposed deal include the full funding of Biden’s 2024 budget for medical care for veterans; cutting $400 million from CDC for global health funding; “streamlining” changes in the environmental review process for energy projects; and, a “claw back” of money left over from the COVID-19 relief package. Biden sacrificed tax increases on the wealthy and corporations from his budget proposal to make the deal. According to The New York Times, the agreement will see federal spending drop $650 billion over a decade.

The U.S. spent $77 billion in 2022 on its military, more than the next 10 countries combined.

The tentative debt ceiling deal, according to McCarthy, has “no new taxes, no new government programs.” Bidens said the deal averts a catastrophic economic scenario, which would have led to a recession, and headed off “retirement accounts devastated and millions of jobs lost.”

Cuts sought by Republicans focused on non-defense discretionary spending, which is, as The New York Times described it, “a small corner of the budget,” accounting for less than 15% of the $6.3 trillion the government would likely spend this year.

If Congress fails to approve some kind of debt ceiling lift, the U.S economy will shrink, significantly affecting the global economy; there will be a domino effect on debt investors getting nervous about numerous countries’ ability to repay their loans, leading to investors asking for higher interest rates to buy government debt; the cost of borrowing in general would go up; and there’s an expectation of prices rising

Educator Randall Rosecrans has spearheaded a new program at Lake Pend Oreille High School, teaching career and technical education courses in a non-traditional way to help students make a larger impact.

The class recently grew seedlings and planted them in the school garden, as well as community gardens at Christ Our Redeemer Church and the East Bonner Library District Sandpoint Branch. Both community gardens donate some of their seasonal crops to the Bonner Community Food Bank. Also, since Rosecrans and his students had so many healthy starts this year, they were able to contribute some to the Food Bank this week as well.

Rosecrans also showed the class how to trim an apple tree, with students using that knowledge to prune an overgrown apple tree at a local home near Lake Pend Oreille High School. Students will then use the applewood as a part of a cooking project.

In the above photos, Rosecrans and students get their hands dirty in the garden, learning how to grow plants from seeds, make their own compost and serve their neighbors. Photos courtesy Lake Pend Oreille School District.

The federal government needs to borrow money to pay bills because it spends more than it raises in taxes, BBC explained. President Biden hoped to change that by authorizing $80 billion for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats. Last weekend’s deal agrees to cutting $10 billion of that IRS sum in 2024 and the same again in 2025 from the $80 billion — instead of cutting the entire amount, which had been on Republicans’ wishlist.

The original $80 billion IRS investment was estimated to be able to net $600 billion or more for federal coffers from wealthy tax dodgers through 2031. American Progress reported that tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy have added $10 trillion to the nation’s debt.

Blast from the past: The roots of separation of church and state took hold with Roger Williams, who came to Rhode Island in the 1630s. He felt that “forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils.” His progressive ideas were rejected: he was forced to flee from white colonial society, though local Indigenous peoples welcomed him and gave him land for a settlement at Providence. The new colony insisted on religious freedom as well as separation of church and state, and both concepts were accepted by King Charles in the colony’s charter.

And another blast: “There are only two important things in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember the second.”

— Mark Hanna, political strategist, in 1895.