March for our lives will begin change with the ballot box

Saturday's “March for Our Lives” was the epicenter of a decades long effort to have gun laws in the nation that would keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill and structure protective barriers to end what has become an increasingly common occurrence in America - mass shootings.

Less than a generation ago they seemed random, as some of us remembered, in the shooting on August 1, 1966 when “Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower with three rifles, two pistols, and a sawed-off shotgun. The 25-year-old architectural engineering major and ex-Marine—who had previously complained of searing headaches and depression—had already murdered his mother, Margaret, and his wife, Kathy, earlier that morning. He fired his first shots just before noon, aiming with chilling precision at pedestrians below,” recalled Texas Monthly.

“At the time, there was no precedent for such a tragedy. Whitman “introduced the nation to the idea of mass murder in a public space,” noted executive editor Pamela Colloff in her 2006 oral history of the shootings,.”By the time he was gunned down by an Austin police officer early that afternoon, he had shot 43 people, thirteen of whom died.”

A generation later in a public consciousness defined by shootings in Columbine, Sandy Hook Elementary, the movie theater in  Aurora Colorado, and now the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, we are confronted with a reality that has scourged the consciousness of our young people, who standing for their very lives lead a demonstration of tens of thousands in Washington, D.C. saying that “Enough is Enough” and “Arms are for Hugging”,

The youthful organizers also harnessed a wealth of celebrity support from Paul McCartney, the last surviving Beatle, protesting the shooting of John Lennon in 1980, to the nine-year-old granddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Yolanda Renee King, the nine-year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King, who said: “I have a dream that enough is enough,” young Miss King, noted and in a simple coda, simply stated, “and that this should be a gun-free world.”

As the US has grown increasingly violent, especially in urban areas, these mass shootings served to underscore the need for what has been labelled common sense guidelines: limiting the age to 21 that someone can purchase gun, expanding background checks and banning the use of bump stocks so that rifles can shoot row after row of ammunition, like a machine gun; all measures opposed by the most powerful lobbying organization in the country, the National Rifle Association, who has countered earlier resistance like the Brady Bill, and others, with phrases like “People kill people, not guns.”

Reaction to any change has also been recently met by incredulous statements, such as “Former U.S. senator Rick Santorum [who] on Sunday dismissed efforts by young survivors of last month's Florida school shooting to change gun laws, saying they should instead learn CPR and work on halting bullying,” reported USA Today.

Santorum was a guest on CNN's State of the Union one day after March for Our Lives and said: "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that.”

As we have observed before, overcoming this type of mentality will be the hardest to do to pass laws that can protect innocent lives, and to counter arguments that are tightly wound with either a misinterpretation of the Second Amendment, or a belief that only an arsenal of weapons can offer protection.

One unfortunate note: mass murders, while less than general homicide, has increased from 1983 to 2011, from 200 days, to 64 days, now. Even now, as of this writing there is one that is probably being planned

The reaction from the White House, to Saturday’s events, was cautious, if a bit tepid: “we applaud these young organizers in American exercising their First Amendment rights.”

In another weak response, The New Yorker reported that, “The students marched on Saturday, the day after Congress had departed for its spring recess, and the spending bill that Donald Trump signed on Friday had included three meagre actions to address gun violence: fifty million dollars in grants for school-security measures; attempts to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System; and a clarification of the terms of the Dickey Amendment that will now allow for research into the effects of gun violence (although the amendment still bans the use of government funding to promote gun control).”

The day, in all ways, there were 800 adjoining protests, and continuing across the ocean in Berlin and Tokyo, where there were supporting demonstrations, belonged to the young people, and “It was a full day where only teenagers spoke on the nationally-televised stage in Washington, because they started all this, and they continued it full of eloquence and resolve and optimism — perhaps optimism, most of all,” reported the Sun-Sentinel.

They noted, that they owned those protests with “David Hogg saying, “Let’s put the USA over the NRA.” and  “Jaclyn Corin saying, “Thank you for standing up — we are on the right side of history.”

In one of the strongest statements, she also said, “. . .  because we have nothing to lose, we don't have an election to lose,  we don’t have a job to lose,” to The New York Times, that probably spoke for all of her cohorts.

To effect the change that is needed, we have acknowledged, before, and will continue to say, again, that we, as a society, cannot afford to fail to understand that mental illness is real and is not just “crazy people scripted for the camera, and not real life; as easy to dismiss as leaving a darkened movie theater. . . . and as palpable, as the days are long;” indeed, our failure fail to grasp the enormity of these unaddressed problems, and failure to find solutions,” has led us to this point where our young daughters,and sons, are begging us to change.

Part of that change is going to occur, as promised by the youth, and that change is going to be in the ballot box,  and sure to be seen in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, and, “In Parkland on Saturday, Sari Kaufman, a Stoneman Douglas sophomore, urged people to “turn this moment into a movement” that would push out of office any politician who took money from the National Rifle Association.

“They think we’re all talk and no action,” she said to loud applause and cheers, and urged the crowd to prove politicians wrong by voting in huge numbers.

“Remember that policy change is not nearly as difficult as losing a loved one,” she said. “Don’t just go out and vote: Get 17 other people to go out and vote.” the Times also reported.

Perhaps the most memorable take-away was this: ““To the leaders, skeptics and cynics who told us to sit down and stay silent: Wait your turn,” said the first speaker Cameron Kasky, 17, a junior at Stoneman Douglas who last month challenged Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican, to stop accepting donations from the National Rifle Association.

“Welcome to the revolution,” Kasky said.

U.S. youth protest on need to end gun violence

In the one month since the Parkland school shootings in South Florida, students across the nation protested on Wednesday in mass walkouts for 17 minutes, one for each victim that was shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

These events, billed by youth organizers as National Walkout Day, underscored a united push for political action to address the seemingly “relentless outbreak of mass shootings in the U.S.” said HuffPost Politics in their coverage, and also reported that, “Participants in the National School Walkout, a massive protest organized by Youth EMPOWER, a branch of young activists affiliated with the Women’s March, called on Congress to pass stricter gun laws.”

Soon after the shootings, last month, a youth response began from the surviving students and has quickly spread across the country, calling for change in gun laws, to help protect students from gunman like Florida shooter, Nicholas Cruz, who was able to buy a gun under the age of 21, a change that students want along with expanded background checks.

From coast to coast, this movement has garnered not only national attention but an increasing grassroots movement that hopes to effect change in  what many see as an inadequate response from President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association, which is opposed to additional measures such as the banning of bump stocks; a device that was used by the Las Vegas shooter to “bump” up his ability to fire round after round of ammunition into concert goers at a country music event this past summer.

Some students may face disciplinary issues for the walkout -- and some are being told that they will be marked absent in response, but they have also been advised by the ACLU that being given punitive discipline for the walkout beyond, being marked absent, would be wrong..

Support has also come from Black Lives Matter leaders who tweeted: “Salute to students walking out today despite consequences imposed by educators who failed Civics Class! Salute to Black and Brown students reminding folks today that they want to be safe as well and want all students to be safe, just not in ways that criminalize them.”

They are referring to those student protests that have been expanded to those black and brown students whose lives are endangered every day, living and studying in urban areas, such as Chicago, New York City and Baltimore.

In response, students in Wisconsin marched to their capital, Madison in protest. And in Chicago, students marched in solidarity with the others and in a statement by organizers, said: “A new collective of Baltimore and Chicago students who call themselves GoodKidsMaddCity and use the hashtag #BmoreChi. 

Over 1,500 students and teachers from schools across Baltimore and Chicago, who have lost loved ones to gun violence . . . recently met with Parkland students," and it seemed that the intersection of class and privilege is also being crossed.  Acknowledging the lived reality of these students, organizers also said: “Students of color from cities that have been impacted by gun violence will be adding their voices to the national call to action to address root causes of gun violence that impact their lives on a daily basis”

Noting that there have longstanding calls “for increased investment in health, education, youth employment, and other community resources as proactive solutions to decrease gun violence, yet these demands have largely fallen on deaf ears the local, state, and national levels” the organizers expanded their concerns.

When Parkland students survivors met last week with Chicago youth, Emma Gonzalez acknowledged, “Those who face gun violence on a level that we have only just glimpsed from our gated communities have never had their voices heard in their entire lives the way that we have in these few weeks alone.”

Much of the continuing disinvestment has seemed to have increased under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the result is that  “. . .  over the past 8 years communities which have been impacted by high unemployment and violence have only seen divestment of critical resources; for example during his first term, “Chicago saw the closing of almost half the city’s mental health clinics, in addition to ongoing cuts to social services and after school programming as a result of a lack of State budget for almost three years,” not to mention closing 50 schools in mostly black neighborhoods.

The recent school closings in the Englewood neighborhood have also faced mounting criticism, to the seeming gentrification and the change in an award winning elementary school, the National Teachers Academy, on the city’s near South Side, transitioning to a high school seems to underscore the point of  anger. And, as many sociologists have emphasized schools anchor a neighborhood, in addition to their dedicated task of educating and training a new generation.

Some glaring statistics: “In Chicago, the unemployment rate for African-American youth was at 43 percent in 2017, and according to data from the Chicago Tribune, 1,619 young people under the age of 17 have been shot since 2011.”
  

Student-led demonstrations around the country and the dozens of separate events at Episcopal cathedrals and churches coincided March 14 to mark one month since the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“This is the only nation in the world that has a gun death problem at the rate we do,” New Jersey Bishop Chip Stokes said in his sermon at Eucharist held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Trenton. “Those of us who oppose it need to get in the face of the problem and cry out in the name of the Lord.”

On the religious front, “Episcopalians gathered in Springfield, Massachusetts, outside a Smith & Wesson facility to rally behind protest signs that asked the gun manufacturer to “Stop Selling Assault Weapons, noted Episcopalian News Service, who also reported that, “Students of Episcopal schools from New York to Florida walked out of class to participate in a nationwide call to action.”

The largest, or at least the most visible, of the protests was the one that took place in Washington, D.C where a student said: “Their right to own an assault rifle does not outweigh our right to live. The adults have failed us. This is in our hands now, and if any elected official gets in our way, we will vote them out.”

Returning to Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported “Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday he and his aides were “working feverishly” to study the gun dealer licensing bill before he decided to veto it because “it was going to create a big layer of burden and bureaucracy, and really not keep our communities safer.”

Belying his critics that said the decision had to do mostly with political posturing, the governor said in defense while,” Speaking after a campaign stop in Naperville, the governor insisted his decision had nothing to do with trying to shore up conservative support a week before the primary.

“Not at all,” Rauner told the Chicago Sun-Times. “What we are focused on is winning in November against Pritzker and Madigan, and our message is a unifying message. It’s the right policy that everybody wants.”

Going even further Rauner stated, “Our team has been working feverishly, studying, talking, doing our due diligence on what other states have done, what’s the law here, and what it would do to our small shop owners,” further expanding on a campaign stop, to say: “And we just decided it was going to create a big layer of burden and bureaucracy, and really not keep our communities safer. And so we decided let’s go ahead and veto the bill.”

With the powerful National Rifle Association fighting hard against proposed changes, “One of the bill’s chief sponsors, State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, on Tuesday accused Rauner of being a “lap dog” for the National Rifle Association “rather than listen to the people he represents.”

Utilizing their age-old defense “the NRA in turn said the bill created “dramatic overreaches specifically designed to close as many Illinois federally licensed firearm dealers as possible.”

Ramping up the rhetoric was NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide, who said, in another statement: “Now it’s up to the law-abiding gun owners of Illinois to let their lawmakers know this type of infringement on their Second Amendment Rights is completely unacceptable,” and “Punishing legitimate businesses for the criminal actions of others is a prime example of why communities continue to suffer as their elected officials focus on headlines instead of the real problem; actual criminals.”

Backing up these claims the Illinois Rifle Association said, partly, in a statement, that “Bloomberg and his henchmen have now enlisted an army of impressionable children to do his anti-constitutional dirty work.  Too old and tired for trench warfare themselves, the likes of Schumer, Harmon, and Pelosi are exploiting the energy of our young people to fulfill the aging anti-gunners’ bucket list.

Using the fear that gun owners would lose their guns, under any changes, they said: “Cynically titled the “March for Our Lives,” Saturday’s events would be more properly dubbed, “March for Your Guns.”  Organizers of these events are demanding legislation that would ban and confiscate nearly every gun you own, repeal concealed carry, and leave you with nothing in your safe but your grandma’s silverware.”

They then urged supporters to attend any, all local rallies to counter protest to the threat to Second Amendment Rights.

In response, State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) defended the protests and said,  in a statement from her office: “I strongly condemn the incendiary, misleading rhetoric of the Illinois State Rifle Association regarding the March for Our Lives this weekend. As anyone following the news over the last several weeks knows, these nationwide marches are a result of high school kids after Parkland being unwilling to sit back and watch politicians do nothing when their schools are shot up by battlefield weaponry.”

“It is ridiculous bordering on disturbingly paranoid to pretend that Michael Bloomberg and Nancy Pelosi are somehow behind these actions. The kids are not trying to repeal concealed carry. They’re not trying to raid anyone’s gun safe. They just want to go to school without fear that a disturbed teenager can buy a weapon designed for war at the corner gun shop and commence the kind of slaughter we’ve seen repeatedly.”

Cassidy also called for a retraction, saying that “They must retract their statement and issue another reminding [their] members that if they attend a march, their actions must be confined to speech alone.”

In a related move, north suburban Deerfield, Ill, recently passed legislation approving a unanimous “ban on certain types of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, amending a 2013 ordinance that regulated the storage of those items,” the Tribune also reported.

“The new ordinance prohibits the possession, sale and manufacturing of certain types of assault weapons and large capacity magazines within the village, according to the ordinance,” and “Violations carry a fine of between $250 and $1,000 per day, according to Matthew Rose, the village attorney. He said the fine is levied each day until there is compliance.”

Echoing the sentiments of her national peers, “Ariella Kharasch, a Deerfield High School senior who favors the legislation, said she wants more action both on a local and national level. “This is our fight,” Kharasch said. “This is our generation’s fight. We’re going to keep fighting and this is part of it. Change happens gradually step by step. The fight does not end at the borders of our village.”

February Jobs Report beats odds, still problematic

The February Jobs Report released on Friday has given wild hope to many with the addition of 3130,000 jobs added to the economy and most observers have been jubilant and The New York Times proclaimed “healthy job creation” and “swelling workforce” in its coverage, and all that was missing was the blare of trumpets as the soundtrack soared in the background.

Estimates had been that there would only be 205,000.

Certainly, the banner unemployment rate holding at 4.1 percent represented a good number to work form especially from the White House, where President Trump tweeted: “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”

The brightest spot in this mixed report - was that wages increases to 0.1 percent, a long held hope as wages had stagnated or flattened over the previous months and many were hoping to see more. While this is not in the “much more” category, any movement upwards was welcome news.

“A strong jobs report with less wage inflation tells the market that the current concern about the wage issue is overblown,” said Jonathan Golub, chief United States equity strategist for Credit Suisse.

For the other eager beavers out there, it also suggested that there might be a fourth increase by the Federal Reserve  in the benchmark rate; but that is still speculative at this point.

Golub was quick to point out to the Times that this increase was not attributable to the tax cuts bill, but yet instead to the “synchronized” global economic expansion since 2016.

For some the news is useful in establishing a baseline to monitor the impact of the trade deficits proposed by Trump,and the resulting restriction and retaliation that will occur, if his proposal continuing as planned.

It may also help, say others, for flexibility and accommodation, as time goes by

Even others, further still, see that a more sustained progress is what is needed to see real progress; but with most looking for any silver lining the cloud of the Great Recession.

Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, which tracks average worker pay, said the hourly increase in February’s report was “relatively disappointing,” compared to monthly wage bumps before the last downturn,” to the Washington Post, where she also said: “Year-over-year wage growth, she said in an email, “needs to exceed 3.5 percent for a substantial amount of time for workers to begin to claw back losses in the labor share of income they’ve felt during and since the Great Recession.”

Consumer spending did rise by .4 percent giving some impetus to optimism, yet there is also a real challenge, wages, for once, but also labor force participation, which did increase to 6.27 percent, after the needle barely moved from 6.1, at its highest, for months preceding February.

Growth was seen in hospitality and tourism and in that catch-all, but ill defined category, of business services, and retail which boomed at 50,000, but a closer look shows that these are lower level jobs. In fact, such retailers as Walmart, Target, CVS Health and Starbucks have increased their wages, as well as states such as Ohio, Washington, and Maine.

As the old game show show said: “What is the $64,000 question?” regarding the low rate of labor force participation, and the answer is complicated, there are some employers who have openings but can’t fill them, despite offering higher wages, less strictures about pot smoking, etc. is that many employers cannot find workers with the required skills. This was as true for February, as it was in the last quarter.

Quoted both in the Post and the Times was “Brian Krenke, president of KI Inc, a furniture maker in Green Bay, Wisc., said his firm has raised wages and expanded its recruiting efforts into high schools but still struggles to fill vacancies.”

“In the next 90 days, we need to identify and train 390 employees to do skilled positions,” Krenke said. “But individuals are failing drug tests and that, combined with low unemployment, makes it hard to find people.”

“Economists point out that Baby Boomers are retiring faster than young people are entering the workforce to replace them, but they still don’t know why so many workers appear to be stuck on the sidelines. Some blame the opioid epidemic, which, studies show, has knocked a chunk of potential hires out of the workforce.

One alarming example: “the number of truck drivers, commercial pilots, railroad operators and pipeline workers who failed drug tests in 2017 has spiked 77 percent since 2006, according to federal data,” continued the Post.

Another angle says “Economist Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said the rising price of childcare, combined with a decade of slow wage growth, keeps some workers from seeking jobs.

“If they can’t afford childcare, they’re not going to work,” she said. “If they can't make enough to pay for a car or the bus fare, they’re not going to work.”

Others cite that while growth has been seen on the coasts there has not been as much in central parts of the country, or south central and that moving to a high growth area necessitates paying higher housing costs for a salary that may not cover the new salary, and for even more, the costs of transferring government program like Medicaid may prove to be burdensome.

A group of national economists see this as a hardening of the economy with little wiggle room for other areas that see less growth, yet even others see February as being hugely important and that “Two of the most important household surveys were at their best level in almost ten years,” said Jed Kolko chief economist at Indeed, an online recruiting tool.

We can accept these numbers as more indicative of growth in some geographic areas, and in some jobs, but the outliers are too great for us to ignore, and this pockmarked growth needs to see, as Gould states, a more sustained pattern, before a total recovery from the Great Recession can be fully recognized.

Trump and NRA complicate response to Florida shootings

After the recent high school shootings in Parkland, Florida, there have been renewed calls for stricter gun laws and several of the surviving students have been in the forefront of that effort, often, eloquently, and always passionately, calling for ways to save the lives of students across the nation, which seemed to first sear the nation with the Columbine school killings in 1999.

Awaiting the signature of the Florida governor, there is legislation pending, which supporters state, that “If passed, the bill would raise the legal age for buying rifles from 18 to 21, impose a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales and allow qualified school personnel to be armed on campus,” reported National Public Radio on Wednesday.

This has been directly attributable to loud and vocal dissent from existing law by the parents, and surviving students of the school and which famously confronted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in a by now much viewed CNN special, where he was pressed to say that he would not accept donations from the National Rifle Association, but in turn, he avoided a response, saying instead that the NRA "buys into my agenda, I don’t buy into theirs," which . . . evoked jeers,” from the crowd.

Each time there is a mass shooting - and they are growing more frequent -  American reformers,and some lawmakers, try to write better gun control legislation, and each time their voices are diminished by slogans such as “People kill people,not guns,” and an effective lobbying effort directed at senators like Rubio, by the NRA, and others across the nation, and eventually, the voices are silent, or silenced.

An example: “Rubio was on the Senate floor to unveil his gun plan. He announced he would be introducing legislation focused on background checks. One of these is called the “Lie and Try” legislation, which requires the FBI to notify local law enforcement when someone who is prohibited from buying a gun tries to purchase one. Rubio is also backing a “gun violence restraining order,” which would allow the police to confiscate weapons from known threats and require schools to report potentially dangerous children to the police as well.

But none of these proposals are what the families of victims or survivors of the Parkland shooting want. They’ve rallied around banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and raising the minimum age to purchase a gun. These policies are not supported by the National Rifle Association and therefore, will not be supported by Sen. Rubio, who has advanced in his career will the help of $3,303,355 in NRA campaign spending.” 

Leadership from the  White House has been another source of of dissatisfaction, and President Trump’s statement at the recent meeting of the nation’s governor’s, following the shootings, where he said, ““I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.”

This was only marginally better than what really riled the parents, and the surviving students, and much of the country, with his initial tweet: "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

President Trump is deeply entwined with the NRA, as they were largely responsible for helping him get elected. Spending more than three times the amount that they gave to Mitt Romney, when he was the GOP candidate running against Barack Obama, they spent $30 million, of a total of $55 million for the entire 2016 election, from the NRA, in their effort to defeat the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

This figure does not include the “above and beyond dollars” that were spent on voter mobilization and advocacy, or even the $176,350 given to the Republican Governors Association, or the $110,675 to the Republican Attorneys General Association..

Further muddying the waters are the durable allegations that Russia might have gone even further than previously thought, by directly contributing money to the NRA, to help defeat Clinton, whom they feared because of her strong support, among other things, for the sanctions against Ukraine.

The person accused of funneling the funds  is Alexander Turshin, a deputy general of Russia’s Central Bank, and who some say has mobster ties in the former Soviet Union. He is also a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also has been accused by other foreign governments as a money launderer, giving weight to some allegations that the Trump family has obtained much of their wealth by this route.

When the NRA recently met at their annual meeting, in Louisville, Ky, Donald Trump, Jr. met with Turshin, but Trump Jr’s lawyer, says that this was just small talk.

Or is it? In a January McClatchy Report these allegations have been the target of an FBI investigation. There has been no response by the NRA.

Collusion may be, if proven, a polite term for deeply treasonous behavior on the part of Trump and his family members, as evidenced by the loss of the security clearance of son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also met with Russian officials to form a back channel communications network outside of the existing structure, and knowledge of the U.S. government.

In an amazing statement the Republican commitee, on Monday, said that there was absolutely no evidence of collusion on the part of Trump, or his family.

Taking this even further throughout these allegations, is the way that American elections are handled, across the nation, who supporters are allowed to meet with, and who they aren’t, how much money is contributed, and by what means, and under what cover; from the well-known to those less well-known, and seemingly extended to those with dubious connections.

The Special Counsel Robert Mueller is working at a faster pace than previously thought possible, but also gives further pause when there was the recent discovery that Russia prevented the nomination of Romney as Secretary  of State, because of negative remarks that he made about Russia during his contest with Obama, for the presidency.

This fits too neatly, some say, with the now well established Intel that showed Russian opposition to Clinton, and her vast knowledge of Western European leaders and their wives, and a possible U.S. policy reaction to Russian economic hectoring, and bullying, with their provisions of gas to nearby countries.

Circling back to the NRA, their opposition to Clinton was vociferous due to her proposals to increase background checks on those purchasing guns, and preventing the mentally ill from buying them, among other safeguards she announced.

Again, on Monday, after a Washington Post reporter questioned the president's earlier segue from established NRA positions, he asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders whether he had “chickened out” in the face of pressure from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Sanders said Trump “hasn’t backed away” from his support for expanding background checks or raising the age limit on gun purchases, although neither was addressed in a plan the administration rolled out Sunday night.

According to the Hill, "Sanders made the case that Trump is focusing first on proposals that have “broad bipartisan support” or that could be accomplished “immediately” through the regulatory process or federal action.

She insisted that the president still supports raising age limits on gun purchases and expanding background checks, but said both would require more political pressure and further review before action can be taken.

“He can’t make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen,” Sanders said. “You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things, and without that support, it's not as possible.”

As Sanders became exasperated at the questioning she fell back on the old canard of beating up President Obama and his record, when she said: "“Let's not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years and didn't do anything."

Adding to the criticism that the White House has backed down under pressure from the NRA to change things that many want, such as banning bump stocks (used by the Las Vegas shooter) and expansion of background checks, Trump has asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to create a blur ribbon panel - an act that he has said in the past, as the Hill states, ". . . they are used by bureaucrats to kick the can down the road."

Updated 03.13.18

New Fed Chair handles himself well on Capital Hill

The newly sworn in Federal Reserve Board chair, Jerome Powell, barely had time to move into his new office, before it was off to Capitol Hill to address the respective Congressional committees that expected to question him after submitting his prepared address.

In both the House Financial Services Committee, on Tuesday, and at the Senate Banking Committee, on Thursday, he emphasized the economy was not overheating, and that he fully expected that it would continue to make gains.

Some observers felt that there was nothing remarkable in his comments, while others being thus assured, felt the familiar echoes of his recent predecessor, Janet Yellen, In fact the 65-year-old former banker has built a quiet, but significant, reputation as being a consensus builder. And, if part of his remarks seemed as if he was giving a primer on Econ 101 to a group of undergrads, then he seemed to do just that, if required.

One of the issues that has been at stake is the number and amount of increased rate hikes, after years of near zero rates. In fact, while describing the process of how they are developed, some interpreted his words, to mean that there would be a fourth one.

This happened on Tuesday, when noting in some detail, that process, and after the strength that they saw In December after meeting Fed officials “penciled in three hikes in 2018. They meet again later this month,” reported Bloomberg Markets.

“Powell made it clear that the Fed could find reason to raise interest rates more than the three times it forecast for this year, based on the economy and inflation. Powell made the comments when he delivered the first half of his semi-annual economic testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday,” causing some concern, sending the stock market down 300 points, and an abundance of sell orders.

Some called it a “rookie mistake” -- and those might be the ones critical of his selection, since he lacks the seemingly credential of a Ph.D. in economics that his predecessor had.

“But others doubt that the comment itself was unintentional, noting it echoed the statement and the minutes from the last meeting headed by his predecessor, Yellen. In those minutes, the Fed gave a nod to the improving economy and said it could be that "further gradual policy firming would be appropriate."

Taking it even further, Grant Thornton chief economist Diane Swonk said the Fed chief's comments were measured and he followed the progression of Fed speakers and releases.” And, again, in teaching mode, citing the data necessary for any moves, he said that it would not be  appropriate to “prejudge” what the Federal Open Markets would do at their meeting in March.

Moreover, in his address, he wrote that “The robust job market should continue to support growth in household incomes and consumer spending, solid economic growth among our trading partners should lead to further gains in U.S. exports, and upbeat business sentiment and strong sales growth will likely continue to boost business investment. Moreover, fiscal policy is becoming more stimulative. In this environment, we anticipate that inflation on a 12-month basis will move up this year and stabilize around the FOMC's 2 percent objective over the medium term. Wages should increase at a faster pace as well. The Committee views the near-term risks to the economic outlook as roughly balanced but will continue to monitor inflation developments closely<’ and entirely consistent with the data driven work by Yellen, considered an economist’s economist.

Helping to support this view is the banner rate of unemployment of 4.1 percent, the lowest since 207, and inflation under the FOMC target rate of 2 percent.

Powell’s position is not enviable as he has an unreliable partner in the White House, who seems to have a weak grasp of the guiding principles of American economics, plus the fourth goal of keeping Wall Street happy.

President Trump wants to see the economy grow at a rate of 3 percent, a figure that some economists, and even lawmakers question, but that is more of a political goal that the president has set, than one based on data.

Adding to Powell’s challenge is that the recent tax cut and jobs bill cuts revenue and increases spending, especially on the military, and now the announcements of high tariffs on imported steel, affecting even long hell allies increases the global challenges that have now had their ante upped.

Adroitly, he also remarked,“As Chairman Bernanke said, the tariff approach is not the best approach, the best approach is to deal directly with the people who are directly affected, rather than falling back on tariffs,” Powell said. “But again, these are not issues that are consigned to us, they’re really for you and for the administration.”

With that in the background Powell also had to answer the question that House chair Jeb Hensarling, previously of Yellen,  almost becoming incivil at times; with Powell he was gracious, but insistent on determining the wind down of the balance sheet, reserves that the Feds had increased as a bulwark during the Great Recession.

CNBC reported him giving Powell high marks, but also said,  "If there is ever a time to unwind the balance sheet, it's in a good economy,"  and "Now is a good time to do it."

In Hensarling's opening statement Tuesday he said, "The Fed must commit to a credible, orderly and well-communicated normalization policy," all of which impacts interest rates and the Fed's balance sheet.

The congressman said Powell did achieve that in his remarks "in part," but Hensarling still had "concern" over the flexibility of caps on the Fed's balance sheet.

"I don't think I got a really credible answer on the composition of the balance sheet," Hensarling said, and pointed out that right now it's roughly two-thirds Treasury, one-third mortgage-backed securities.”

The Fed chair proved to be nimble in his responses, and also with both the Republicans and the Democrats as they respectively wanted him to say that the new tax bill was creating jobs, and with the letter, that it was causing inflation.

Seeing this dance, it’s easier to assume that Powell may have polished his crystal ball, or watched tapes of Hensarling sparring with Yellen. In either case, coming out ahead, at least in this maiden appearance counts for a lot in partisan Washington.

Complicating matters even more is that some economists are predicting at least a 70 percent chance of a recession heading down the line.

Powell himself has identified four key areas that he sees as primary: the labor market, inflation, global markets and fiscal procedures and oversight. And, seasoned veterans of the Hill noted that his supply side is showing itself, in abundance.

Additionally, he also showed great sensitivity with Rep. Maxine Waters asking, after a letter from her, was sent to the Board, that they consider diversity - racial diversity in their selection for a replacement for the New York governor, vacated by William C. Dudley, and Powell assured her that they would always do just that, with a follow up to her office.

He also was concerned about the amount of student debt that many carry and its deleterious effect on the national economy, currently being held at $1.38 trillion dollars and that is not eligible for bankruptcy filing.

While the issue is primarily one for Congress to tackle, Powell said it could become an economic question.

"You do stand to see longer-term negative effects on people who can't pay off their student loans," he said. "It hurts their credit rating, it impacts the entire half of their economic life."

Powell said he generally supports the idea of a vibrant education loan climate, but added that borrowers need to be informed of the risks they're taking. He also wondered why student debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy.

"I'd be at a loss to explain why that should be the case," he said, while acknowledging that the issue is one for Congress to tackle.

For a first time appearance on the Hill before congressional committees, Powell, in most estimates, did an excellent job in traversing what could have been a minefield of misquotes and frayed nerves, yet kept an enviable cool, in what was the hottest seat in a town known for placing the highest at their mercy.