Biden Pledges $60 Million in Aid to Puerto Rico

Biden Pledges $60 Million in Aid to Puerto Rico

President Biden in Ponce, Puerto Rico
Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey
Monday, October 3, 2022

Happy Monday! President Joe Biden on Friday signed the stopgap funding bill passed by Congress, and a new fiscal year started when the calendar turned to October, but with the federal government funded through December 16, the House and Senate are now out for the month. Actually, they’re out until November 14, six — count ‘em, six! — weeks from now. Of course, there are elections between now and then to determine who will fill all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats. And when lawmakers return for a lame duck session to end the year, they’ll have plenty to do, including — yep, you know it — funding the government again.

Here's what else is happening.

Biden Announces $60 Million in Aid to Puerto Rico

President Biden traveled to Puerto Rico Monday to meet with families affected by Hurricane Fiona and get briefed on recovery efforts. The president pledged to provide more than $60 million in aid in response to last month’s storm, which struck five years after Hurricane Maria devastated the island and killed thousands there.

"We came here in person to show that we're with you. All of America is with you as you receive and recover and rebuild," Biden said at an event in Ponce, Puerto Rico, later adding, "We’re going to make sure you get every single dollar promised."

The new funding, which will come from the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, is intended to "to shore up levees and flood walls, and create a new flood warning system to help residents better prepare for future storms," Biden said on Twitter, adding, "This funding builds on our work to support Puerto Rico's resilience like the $1.3 billion we allocated to the island to protect against future disasters. And the nearly $700 million in infrastructure investments since I signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law."

Biden earlier told reporters that he was heading to Puerto Rico "because they haven’t been taken very good care of. They’ve been trying like hell to catch up from the last hurricane." Those comments were likely alluding to the controversial response of former President Donald Trump’s administration to Hurricane Maria. You may remember the video of Trump tossing rolls of paper towels to people in San Juan. Trump also opposed providing additional disaster aid to the island and his administration delayed $20 billion in congressionally approved funding.

Biden is scheduled to travel to Florida on Wednesday to see firsthand the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian.

Op-Ed of the Day: Free Lunch Conservatism

As Florida struggles to clean up from the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Ian, Bloomberg’s Matthew Yglesias notes the seemingly hypocritical attitude toward federal spending expressed by some Republican officials in the state. That group notably includes Gov. Ron DeSantis, who as a congressman in 2013 famously voted against federal relief funds for New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc in those states, but is now happily accepting federal assistance that will likely run into the billions of dollars.

"Florida, it must be said, is a perfect laboratory for what might be called free-lunch conservatism. Not only is it in regular need of federal assistance for hurricane relief, its economy is also unusually dependent on the federal welfare state. Florida has the second-highest share of citizens over 65 (after Maine) and it’s second in per-patient Medicare spending (after New Jersey) — meaning that the federal government is injecting vast sums of money into the local economy. Meanwhile, the state’s leaders brag about not having an income tax and its conservative representatives in Washington complain about excessive spending. …"
"There is a growing belief among conservatives that trying to harmonize Republican donors’ aversion to taxes with the Republican electorate’s dependence on government programs is more trouble than it’s worth — and that belief helps explain DeSantis’s rise as a national figure. Rather than criticizing his irresponsible and hypocritical approach to fiscal matters, conservatives are increasingly embracing it as the way forward."

Read the full piece at Bloomberg.

Chart of the Day: Trouble for the Treasury Market?

Some analysts are worried that buyers of government debt — including commercial banks and foreign governments — are stepping away from the market, even as one key buyer, the Federal Reserve, reduces its holdings of Treasury notes and bonds. JPMorgan analysts led by Jay Barry and Srini Ramaswamy recently wrote that they "remain concerned about the [lack of] structural demand for Treasuries."

The editors of the Bloomberg News opinion page wrote Monday that one problem with the Treasury market is the sheer size of the Treasury debt that is now trading, making it difficult at times for market participants to handle. "The Treasury market’s challenges stem from a fundamental imbalance," they say. "As deficit spending has driven up the US government’s debt, the value of publicly traded Treasuries has ballooned to more than $23 trillion. This has far outpaced the financial resources of the group of large dealer banks that, as market makers, are supposed to facilitate orderly trade in this market."

The authors recommend some changes that could be made to address the problem, which include broadening the market for Treasuries by getting more institutions involved, such as asset managers.

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Quote of the Day: The GOP Abandons Obamacare Repeal

"I think it’s probably here to stay."

− Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), discussing the Affordable Care Act in an NBC News story by Sahil Kapur noting that the 2022 election is the first since 2010 in which the health care law is not a prominent campaign issue. "None of the Republican Senate nominees running in eight key battleground states have called for unwinding the ACA on their campaign websites, according to an NBC News review. The candidates scarcely mention the 2010 law or health insurance policy in general," Kapur writes. "And in interviews on Capitol Hill, key GOP lawmakers said the desire for repeal has faded."

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