News:
United States
Immigration
Over 250 Somali migrants attempting to fly to Nicaragua and then enter the southern border were stranded after their flight was canceled. Rather than applying for asylum in Turkey, they’re trying to find other ways of entering the US to take advantage of Joe Biden’s open border policy. This is yet another example of how our asylum system is broken. (Hiiraan)
The first three months of this year, 3,855 Chinese migrants crossed the Darién Gap, the 60 miles or so of treacherous terrain connecting South and Central America, a route many take to the US. That compares with 2,005 for the full year in 2022. (The Wall Street Journal)
Dozens of House and Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that states illegal immigrants who are LGBTQ “may not be detained” by DHS, along with other “vulnerable persons,” who they have defined as anyone under 21, over 60, pregnant, limited English, and several other categories. This bill covers basically every person trying to enter the US. Open borders is the policy of the Democratic Party. (Fox News)
Congress
Speaker McCarthy has released the House Republican plan on the debt ceiling. The plan calls for cutting federal spending to 2022 levels, limiting growth to 1% per year, repealing enhanced IRS enforcement funding, undoing President Joe Biden's federal student debt forgiveness, and rescinding unspent pandemic relief funds. The plan would lift the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or extend it to March 31st, whatever comes first. Chuck Schumer said this plan is dead in the Senate and is calling for a clean debt ceiling increase without any spending cuts. (NBC News) Spending cuts during the Obama Administration between the Republican House and Democrat President led to significant spending cuts, so who knows what may come of this.
The “centrist” Problem Solvers caucus has proposed a bipartisan plan to lift the debt ceiling and avert a default. NBC News reported that the plan would suspend the debt ceiling through Dec. 31, 2023, allowing the U.S. to pay its bills and buy time for congressional leaders to negotiate a spending bill with unspecified “deficit stabilization controls.” In addition, the lawmakers propose to create a fiscal commission “to review and recommend a package to stabilize long-term deficits and debt” by Dec. 31, 2024, which will get an expedited up-or-down vote in Congress by Feb. 28, 2025.
Senator Josh Hawley introduced the Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act and the Ending the Prescription Drug Kickback Act of 2023. The first bill says the retail list prices for drugs sold in the U.S. may be, at most, the average costs they are sold for across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The legislation would allow the secretary of health and human services to calculate the average cost across those countries annually and impose stiff fines on drugmakers who run afoul. The second bill would remove safe harbor protections for prescription drug rebates that drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (known as PBMs) now have under a federal anti-kickback statute. It calls for insurance companies to ensure that PBMs do not receive any rebates from drug manufacturers for any prescription drug offered to its enrollees. (NBC News)