What a wild turkey tells us about Washington -- April 28, 2022 column

 By MARSHA MERCER

A wild turkey is terrorizing people on a bike trail in the District of Columbia. Several runners and bicyclists report being menaced by the angry bird.

“There’s actually a pretty healthy turkey population in D.C. and the surrounding areas,” Dan Rauch, a wildlife biologist with the district’s department of the environment, told NBC 4 in Washington. “There’s at least a hundred, maybe even two, here in the District.”

Oh, come on. Everybody knows there are more turkeys than that in Washington.

At least that’s what the polls say. President Joe Biden and Congress both suffer from rock-bottom approval ratings. Only about 40% of people approve of the job Biden is doing, and Congress’s approval rating is even lower.

Only about 25% approve of the job Congress is doing, according to the latest Real Clear Politics poll average. Slightly more – but only slightly – think the country is moving in the right direction, about 30%, according to RCP’s poll average.

The rampaging turkey looks diligent compared with the do-nothings in Washington.  

It’s spring, but in the nation’s capital it feels like the dark days of fall – as in election season. The midterms may be six months away, but Democrats and Republicans are so busy attacking each other they can’t get anything accomplished.

The country is awash with problems – inflation, the pandemic (still with us) and the crisis at the border, chief among them. Government is supposed to solve problems, or at least try, but Democrats keep fighting among themselves and Republicans, who smell electoral blood in the water, won’t lift a finger to help.

Biden has failed to deliver on much of his agenda. Hardly anyone even mentions voting rights legislation anymore, even though more than a dozen states have passed more restrictive voting laws.

The Build Back Better package – scaled down from Biden’s original $4 trillion proposal to about $2 trillion – appears doomed, although some Democrats still hope to salvage about $1 trillion. They disagree about what should be their priority – maternal and child health, pre-K education, a child tax credit, clean energy measures – and about what can pass.

Nearly every day the news about the environment worsens: “megadrought” in California, wildfires, water shortages, and yet, again, nothing happens in Washington.

It always comes back to: What does Joe want? A spokesman for Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday he was agreeable to boosting energy production, lowering prescription drug costs and raising taxes on the rich, The Washington Post reported. But Manchin himself told reporters Tuesday there’s no formal agreement.

“I want to make sure ya’ll understand: There’s no false hopes here,” said Manchin, who also continues to hold out for fully paying for the package, a sticking point.

Manchin says he will run for re-election in 2024, so there’s no downside in his red state for his opposing Biden’s agenda.

Congress failed to pass aid to buy more coronavirus vaccines and treatment before leaving on spring break. Now, more aid for Ukraine is also in doubt, as Republicans warn they won’t allow Democrats to include coronavirus aid in the Ukraine package.

Republicans want a vote on lifting Title 42, the controversial Trump-era measure that allows the Department of Homeland Security to “expel” migrants at the border without allowing them to apply for asylum. The administration contends the emergency measure, a public health order, is no longer needed and planned to lift it May 23.

A federal judge in Louisiana has blocked the administration from phasing out the restrictions before May 23. Border crossings are up and are expected to surge even more.

Washington almost never blames itself for anything, so it was surprising to hear Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, lash out at both political parties.  

“Our immigration system is broken,” she declared at a hearing Wednesday. “Democrats and Republicans own that. Right now, Democrats have the House and Senate and White House and have done nothing to get comprehensive immigration reform.

“Four years ago, Republicans had the House, the Senate and the White House and did nothing” on immigration reform. Imploring her colleagues to introduce legislation to make the border situation better, she said: “Don’t just use it as a political cudgel.”

But they will. No wonder people are so grumpy.

©2022 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

Putin's war tests our resolve, patience -- March 10, 2022 column

 By MARSHA MERCER

The horrifying news from Ukraine has no end.

“Russian strike hits maternity hospital,” read the banner headline on page one of Thursday’s Washington Post.

“Conditions Worsen in Ukraine as War Enters 3rd Week,” was the dispiriting, early headline on The New York Times site. High-level talks between Russia and Ukraine failed again to agree on allowing civilians safe passage to escape the carnage, much less on a deal to end the fighting.

Meanwhile, more than 2.3 million people have somehow managed to flee the war-torn country, the U.N. reported Thursday.

In our nuanced age, few situations are black and white, but Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, immoral, brutal assault on Ukraine has united most of the world against him.

President Joe Biden announced the United States will no longer buy Russian oil and gas, following stiff economic sanctions by the West against Russia and its oligarchs. Apple, McDonald’s and Starbucks, among others, have ceased sales in Russia.

All these actions are welcome but have not stopped Putin’s aggression.

What fresh hell is next? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is everyone’s candidate for Person of the Year, but the “no-fly” zone he desperately wants is apparently a non-starter. The West cannot risk escalating the conflict with an unpredictable foe armed with nuclear weapons.

And so we watch, united in unalloyed anger, as the suffering intensifies. Public buildings glow blue and yellow. Blue and yellow ribbons wave on tree branches. The Ukrainian flag flies. A hand lettered sign in a window in my neighborhood reads:

“Putin

“Liar

“Killer.”

That sums him well. I would add monster and madman.  

And yet our daily lives continue apace. Truckers drive around Washington’s Beltway to protest pandemic restrictions that are ending anyway.

Biden warned gas prices, which have been rising overnight, would rise still more with the cut-off of Russian oil.

The national average price of a gallon of gas was $4.318 Thursday, and the average cost for a gallon of regular in Virginia was $4.241, according to AAA. No one knows how high prices will go or how pain at the pump will affect tourism and other parts of the economy that were just starting to recover. 

So far, most Americans – 63% -- are willing to pay more at the pump to support democracy in Ukraine, a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken March 7-8 reported.

One in four said they’d pay “as much as it takes,” 11% said they’d pay $2 more a gallon than currently, 32% would pay $1 to $2 more and 31% said they were willing to pay less than $1.

One wonders how long support will last, though, if the cost of nearly everything keeps soaring. Prices rose 7.9% over the past year, the highest level in four decades. The February inflation report released Thursday reflects prices before the war in Ukraine.

Many Republicans condemn the Russian invasion, and even Biden’s predecessor  has stopped calling Putin “smart” and “savvy.” The Reuters/Ipsos survey also found 80% of Americans want political leaders to provide a unified front in support of Ukraine instead of attacking their rivals.

But political fighting has not taken a vacation. Congressional Republicans wrongly blame Democrats for high gas prices, claiming Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and other policies have hiked prices. Fact-checkers say those policies are not to blame.  

The National Republican Congressional Committee lashed out at Democratic Reps. Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia for doing “nothing” about high gas prices. “Their war on American energy is to blame for the pain Virginians are feeling at the pump,” the NRCC tweeted.

Oh, please.

What can individuals do now? We can try not to complain (too much) about the price of gas and remember who really is to blame.

We can donate to charities that are bravely helping Ukraine and Ukrainians who have fled their country. Beware, though, despicable scam artists who use names similar to reputable charities to trick donors.

We can prepare to welcome the Ukrainian refugees who want to settle here. And we can steel ourselves to conditions getting worse, and maybe a lot worse, in Ukraine.

Now is the time to take a stand. If Putin wins in Ukraine, where will his lust for former Soviet territories stop?

And we can learn from Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who wrote in “War and Peace,” the two most powerful warriors are patience and time. Let them be on our side.

© 2022 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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Toxic politics, inflation batter Washington -- Nov. 11, 2021 column

By MARSHA MERCER

That was quick. Republican euphoria over Virginia’s election results and what they may portend for 2022 began to evaporate in less than a week.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu dashed the hopes of fellow Republicans Tuesday by saying he would not run for the Senate. Instead, he will seek a fourth two-year term as governor, which he is expected to win handily.

“My responsibility is not to the gridlock and politics of Washington. It’s to the citizens of New Hampshire. And I’d rather push myself 120 miles an hour delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down and end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics without results,” Sununu told reporters.

Republicans had counted on Sununu to run against incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan, one of the weakest Senate Democrats seeking re-election in the midterm elections. Former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire has also indicated she won’t run, leaving the New Hampshire GOP with lower tier candidates, so far.

Every Senate seat is crucial as both parties seek to break the 50-50 tie in their direction. Vice President Kamala Harris casts tie-breaking votes. Sununu’s decision was a blow to Republicans, who were blindsided by the announcement. Party leaders found out the same way everyone else did – on the news.

You can’t blame Sununu for saying, thanks but no thanks, even if he did it artlessly. Politics in Washington could hardly be nastier. Republican House members who vote “wrong” in the eyes of extremists – that is, in a bipartisan manner – now endure death threats.

One wonders why anyone who wants to be constructive – rather than a demagogue -- would take on the capital’s toxic atmosphere, although we must be thankful for those who do.

At the same time, Democrats are still smarting from the Virginia election debacle -- and they can’t catch a break. They want to celebrate the roughly $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill the House passed Nov. 5 and President Joe Biden is scheduled to sign Monday.

But Biden saw his victory lap derailed Wednesday by scary inflation numbers. The Consumer Price Index rose 6.2% last month from a year ago and is at its highest level in more than three decades.

Taming inflation is now a top priority for the White House, though there’s little a president can really do. Gerald Ford’s Whip Inflation Now button and Jimmy Carter’s cardigan sweater led to their one-term presidencies.

“Everything from a gallon of gas to a loaf of bread costs more, and it’s worrisome even though wages are going up,” Biden said Wednesday in Baltimore. “We still face challenges, and we have to tackle them.”

The spike in inflation threatens his $1.85 trillion social safety net and climate change reconciliation bill in the Senate, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and others worry it will feed inflationary pressures. White House and independent economists dispute that assessment.

“By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not `transitory’ and is instead getting worse. From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day,” Manchin, of West Virginia, tweeted.

But Manchin, who holds a knife over Biden’s reconciliation package, has been all over Twitter touting the goodies the infrastructure bill will bring his state – “nearly $6 BILLION in infrastructure funding over the next decade.”

Note the time element: The money will come over 10 years. Democrats worry voters won’t see enough new jobs and economic growth by Election Day 2022.

Yet the bill was a bipartisan victory in a Congress where few occur. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was one of 19 Republicans who voted in favor in August. He recently called it a “godsend” for his home state of Kentucky.

Incredibly, House Republican leaders threaten to punish the 13 Republican members there who dared to vote for that same bill by stripping them of their committee assignments.

The threat prompted Biden to renew his call for more civility and cooperation in politics.

“I know I get in trouble when I talk about” bipartisanship, he said Tuesday. “As people say, why the devil would I like any Republicans? Well, it’s important. If we don’t generate consensus in America, we’re in trouble.”

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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