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Speaker 2: Continue our conversation about the jobs report. Of course, the
Speaker 2: economy loom large in the speech last night, the President
Speaker 2: talking about how Americans are preparing to tell the greatest
Speaker 2: comeback story of all time, referring to the recovery from
Speaker 2: COVID and what he of course refers to as the
Speaker 2: expansion of the middle class. You have the jobs data
Speaker 2: today and it's interesting. Two hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 2: blows the doors off from last month. We did get
Speaker 2: some downward revisions from prior months though, and we have
Speaker 2: the jobless rate at a two year high. So, as
Speaker 2: we talked about with my this push pull exists, and
Speaker 2: that's where we want to go with Heather Bouchet, as
Speaker 2: we now get the view directly from the White House.
Speaker 2: Of course, one of the President's nearest economic advisors. Heather
Speaker 2: Bouche is on the President's Council of Economic Advisors and
Speaker 2: it's great to see you live from the North Lawn, Heather.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us as always today on Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: It looks like you've got two sides of the coin
Speaker 2: on this. Do you worry about the jobless rate at
Speaker 2: a two year high if it's caused by increased participation?
Speaker 3: Do you see that as a good thing?
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing. Let's remember that the unemployment rate
Speaker 4: has now been below four percent for a wopping twenty
Speaker 4: five months. It's a record going back half a century. Yes,
Speaker 4: it did tick up this month, but we know that
Speaker 4: there's volatility in this data. And we know that when
Speaker 4: you look at the payroll survey, which is where we
Speaker 4: get that overall job gain number, we did see the
Speaker 4: two hundred and seventy five thousand jobs far out pacing
Speaker 4: expectations and far higher than the pace that we need
Speaker 4: to sustain new entrants into the labor force, according to
Speaker 4: our analysis, Council of Economic Advisors. So I think when
Speaker 4: you look at this report, it is it continues to
Speaker 4: be a strong report for American workers and American families
Speaker 4: and showing these strong, steady job gains month after month
Speaker 4: after month. Let me add that. One of the things
Speaker 4: in that report that I think is important to note
Speaker 4: is that the job gains were very widespread. You know,
Speaker 4: sixty three percent of firms added jobs last month, and
Speaker 4: that's higher than the pace, slightly higher than the pace
Speaker 4: that we were seeing pre pandemic. So that is a good,
Speaker 4: healthy pace and a widespread dispersion of jobs being created
Speaker 4: across the economy. So I think that there's a lot
Speaker 4: to like in this report today.
Speaker 2: I thought you would point to participation, and maybe you
Speaker 2: do want to talk about that yet, but this is
Speaker 2: something that we've been asking for and hoping for, increased
Speaker 2: labor participation. If it comes at the expense of a
Speaker 2: couple points on the unemployment rate, that's a good trade
Speaker 2: in your view, is it not.
Speaker 4: Well, Certainly we saw that uptick, and particularly for prime
Speaker 4: age workers, so that is unequivocal good news. It means
Speaker 4: that people are seeing that opportunity, they're coming back into
Speaker 4: the labor force, they're seeing that opportunity to get a job,
Speaker 4: and they're searching for that work. And again, you know,
Speaker 4: what we saw on the payroll survey is that there
Speaker 4: was strong, steady hiring and there aren't indications from other
Speaker 4: reports out there from the Job Opening Survey or from
Speaker 4: the Unemployment Insurance data to indicate that there are real
Speaker 4: challenges in terms of people being you know, being able
Speaker 4: to find work. So I think that we continue to
Speaker 4: see that this is a good report, and of course
Speaker 4: that higher labor force participation number, especially among women, is
Speaker 4: something that we like to see.
Speaker 3: Well, tell me more about women.
Speaker 2: It's International Women's Day, and it's something that we're talking
Speaker 2: about throughout the day here on Bloomberg. We talked previously
Speaker 2: Heather about a potential problem at the beginning of this
Speaker 2: year that became known as the child's care Cliff, and
Speaker 2: I wonder if we're getting to the point now where
Speaker 2: we can actually see whether that has been realized.
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing. There's a few things that we now.
Speaker 4: First of all, we know that families need access to
Speaker 4: care services, to childcare and care for the aging and
Speaker 4: disabled in order to participate fully in the labor force.
Speaker 4: This is a known issue, and we saw that really
Speaker 4: bubbling up during the pandemic for so many families across
Speaker 4: the country. And of course, you know, part of what
Speaker 4: the President did and Congress did was you know, put
Speaker 4: in supports for childcare centers and for home and community
Speaker 4: based care so that those services could be available for families.
Speaker 4: Now we have seen that money pairing back, and we
Speaker 4: haven't seen Congress extend it yet. And you know, we
Speaker 4: have been watching these numbers carefully to see what that
Speaker 4: does to especially caregivers who are disproportually women, does to
Speaker 4: their labor force participation rates. So far, you know, things
Speaker 4: are looking like women continue to participate in the labor force.
Speaker 4: But as the President said last night, this care agenda
Speaker 4: remains at top of mind for him. He talked last
Speaker 4: night about needing to make sure that everyone has access
Speaker 4: to safe and enriching and affordable childcare. He talked about
Speaker 4: making sure that folks have access to home and community
Speaker 4: based services as well. So this remains a priority for him,
Speaker 4: and one of the core reasons is, you know, the
Speaker 4: care itself is important, but it also, as you noted, Joe,
Speaker 4: it has these really important labor market implications.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot to talk about here as we
Speaker 2: spend time with Heather Bouchet live from White House here
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg our analysis from Bloomberg Economics. Heather did point
Speaker 2: to some concern about the number of layoffs in this report.
Speaker 2: I'm just wondering if you're hearing from your contacts in
Speaker 2: the private sector, if companies are starting to take a
Speaker 2: second look at headcounts.
Speaker 4: Well, we are now fully into this economic recovery. As
Speaker 4: you know, you know, it was challenging to come out
Speaker 4: of the pandemic. Businesses got up and running. I think
Speaker 4: there's been questions germinating about how fast firms were hiring,
Speaker 4: were they hoarding any workers given the challenges of you know,
Speaker 4: just this re entry of so many firms. But you know,
Speaker 4: I think what we continue to see, and I mean
Speaker 4: I think that you know, when you look at this
Speaker 4: full when you look at the report in its full
Speaker 4: scope today, what you continue to see is a strong
Speaker 4: labor market and again an unemployment rate below four percent.
Speaker 5: This is this is low.
Speaker 4: It does mean that if you are out there and
Speaker 4: you're searching for a job, or you're on the sidelines
Speaker 4: and you want to get work, there's a lot of
Speaker 4: jobs that are that remain open and available to you,
Speaker 4: and we continue to create those jobs, making sure that
Speaker 4: as we pull out of you know, as we continue
Speaker 4: to see this recovery and we see that shifting from
Speaker 4: the production of goods to services. You know, we are
Speaker 4: going to see some shifting across you know, where people
Speaker 4: are working. But I think that these numbers really do
Speaker 4: indicate the strength and the ongoing foundational strength in this
Speaker 4: job market recovery.
Speaker 2: Heather of the President coming off as State of the
Speaker 2: Union address, of course, and he talked about the need
Speaker 2: for higher taxes on the wealthy and on corporation, specific
Speaker 2: to the idea of a higher corporate tax rate, which
Speaker 2: I know is something that he has been pushing for
Speaker 2: for some time and we have seen some movement. I
Speaker 2: just wonder what impact that might have on hiring, if
Speaker 2: any at all. Is that something that you're able to model.
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing. We need to make sure that
Speaker 4: the federal government has the resources that it needs to
Speaker 4: be able to do the things that it needs to do.
Speaker 4: And one of the priorities that the President has focused
Speaker 4: on is making sure that the Internal Revenue Service has
Speaker 4: the resources they need to literally enforce the laws on
Speaker 4: the books, let alone the new ideas that the President
Speaker 4: is bringing to the table. We are already seeing the
Speaker 4: success of that as the IRS has been able to
Speaker 4: get back on money from taxpayers who owed it and
Speaker 4: these are taxpayers at the very top end of the
Speaker 4: income ladder. So, you know, I think that what we
Speaker 4: have seen in the economic research, what we've seen in
Speaker 4: our lived experience over the past couple of years, is
Speaker 4: that businesses have a lot of resources. We've also given
Speaker 4: them a lot of subsidies and supports to go out
Speaker 4: there and invest. So we're seeing this investment boom at
Speaker 4: the same time that we've been focusing on making sure
Speaker 4: that we're enforcing the laws and raising tax on as
Speaker 4: the President likes to say, wealth and not work. So
Speaker 4: I remain convinced that, you know, if government has the
Speaker 4: resources that they need to do their job and businesses
Speaker 4: focus on investing in those industries that are so important
Speaker 4: to American competitiveness and American jobs and workers, we will
Speaker 4: continue to see that kind of economic growth.
Speaker 3: Did you help write that portion of the speech?
Speaker 6: Heather?
Speaker 4: You know this is a we all work on these
Speaker 4: on the president's issues and support him in every way
Speaker 4: we can.
Speaker 3: Was there a watch party last night? I need to know.
Speaker 2: I know Jared Bernstein, I saw him walk in, But
Speaker 2: were the economic advisors huddled together in the OEO B
Speaker 2: watching the address?
Speaker 4: There was a team of US. I believe I tweeted
Speaker 4: a photo about this. We were there watching together, cheering
Speaker 4: the President on, and also so excited for all of
Speaker 4: our colleagues. It was amazing last night to see the
Speaker 4: diversity of the President's cabinet there supporting him, who are
Speaker 4: every day implementing his Investing in America agenda, and quite
Speaker 4: wonderful to see Chair Prinstein out there as well.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: I'm remiss, I need to get to Twitter here obviously. Lastly,
Speaker 2: Heather Bouchet, always generous with your time. When you step back,
Speaker 2: you look at this. You have to answer questions from
Speaker 2: people like me once a month when the job's.
Speaker 3: Data is released are released, I should.
Speaker 2: Say, But when you step back, you look back a
Speaker 2: couple of years here, and you consider the historic series
Speaker 2: of interest take interest rate hikes by this Federal Reserve.
Speaker 2: Are you perplexed by the strength of this job market?
Speaker 2: They've tried to smash it with everything they have. Heather,
Speaker 2: and I don't want you to comment on the FED.
Speaker 2: Just the pure strength of the job market right now
Speaker 2: it seems historic.
Speaker 4: I think what the lesson I take from it is
Speaker 4: that fiscal policy needs to play its role. The President
Speaker 4: came out with a bold, decisive agenda to make sure
Speaker 4: that the fiscal side, not just the monetary side, did
Speaker 4: its job to get people back to work and make
Speaker 4: those investments that would create jobs all across the country.
Speaker 4: I think what this recovery is shown is that we
Speaker 4: need to focus more on making sure that those automatic
Speaker 4: stabilizers are ready to go, that we are making those
Speaker 4: investments when we need the most, when you have those
Speaker 4: economic downturns, so that communities aren't left behind, because that
Speaker 4: provides the foundational strength upon which new businesses can start.
Speaker 4: The President talked about it last night. Three years of
Speaker 4: record breaking numbers of new business startups, allowing people to
Speaker 4: upgrade their jobs over the past couple of years, allowing
Speaker 4: people to find work. And then on top of that,
Speaker 4: the Investing in America agenda that is crowding in all
Speaker 4: of these private sector investments. That's where the strength of
Speaker 4: this recovery is. The smart fiscal policy, the strategic investments,
Speaker 4: and making sure throughout all of this that we're empowering
Speaker 4: workers and that markets are fair and competitive. So the
Speaker 4: answer is to the question quite clear.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Connecting the dots here when it comes to polling is
Speaker 2: another matter that We've talked about Heather, and we'll continue
Speaker 2: that conversation. You're always kind of join us here on
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Heather Bouchet with the White House Council of Economic Advisors.
Speaker 2: It is true, although we have seen some uptick in
Speaker 2: the numbers. The Wall Street Journal survey for Joe Biden
Speaker 2: and Donald Trump that came out about a week ago
Speaker 2: showed a near fifty percent number. I have to go
Speaker 2: back and find that what was the highest we had
Speaker 2: seen up ten points from the month earlier on those
Speaker 2: who were feeling better about their economic prospects. But boy,
Speaker 2: there's a long way to go there, and it's still
Speaker 2: a big question about whether they can pull off a
Speaker 2: soft landing.
Speaker 3: I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington.
Speaker 2: Glad you're with us here on Balance of Power here
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg Radio, on the satellite and on YouTube. You
Speaker 2: can find us right now if you get to YouTube
Speaker 2: search Bloomberg Global News. As we continue to unpack the
Speaker 2: big speech from last night, we brought it to you
Speaker 2: live from Statuary Hall. Of course President was in the
Speaker 2: chamber with the members, but we had a lot of
Speaker 2: great conversations with lawmakers in the hall as they emerged,
Speaker 2: and we're still trying to gauge the impact of a
Speaker 2: lot of what we heard. I was fascinated, as a
Speaker 2: lot folks were by the order in which the President
Speaker 2: tackled topics last night. You would have thought he'd come
Speaker 2: out swinging on the economy or the border first, right,
Speaker 2: both of them waited. Presidents started on Ukraine as the
Speaker 2: Swedish Prime Minister looked down from the First Lady's box.
Speaker 2: And that's where we want to start our conversation with
Speaker 2: Jenny Welch, of course advising Bloomberg Economics on all things geopolitics.
Speaker 2: Great to see you, formerly, of course of the Biden administration,
Speaker 2: and you have a good sense of what went into
Speaker 2: that speech last night. Were you amazed that he started
Speaker 2: with geopolitics with such a raging debate over domestic policy.
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: No, I think it was a really interesting move, and
Speaker 8: I think it underscores the amount of urgency that the
Speaker 8: administration feels on Ukraine. The last shipment of US military
Speaker 8: aid was back in December. Funding since has run out.
Speaker 8: Ukraine now entering the third year of the war, is
Speaker 8: low on ammunition. Russia seems to have gained the initiative
Speaker 8: and I think that's part of the reason why he
Speaker 8: raised it first. But yes, in a speech that is
Speaker 8: normally mostly about domestic and especially economic policy, I think
Speaker 8: it was an interesting move and again underscores the priority
Speaker 8: administration's attaching to this issue.
Speaker 2: So the National security team have been high fiving. They
Speaker 2: got their priorities into that speech pretty well.
Speaker 3: In your experience, how much.
Speaker 2: Time and how many people go into whatever package you
Speaker 2: delivered to the speech writers to say, look, this is
Speaker 2: the message from our wing of the administration.
Speaker 8: So much time, so many people, so many rounds of coordination,
Speaker 8: and I think that the point to really underscore there
Speaker 8: is again this is really usually a bulk of it
Speaker 8: is a domestic policy speech, and so that's where a
Speaker 8: lot of the attention goes, and that's where a lot
Speaker 8: of the hands involved in writing it are. But it
Speaker 8: is literally getting edited right up until the moment for
Speaker 8: the President of Coerson. I think President Biden mentioned that
Speaker 8: he was still going to be making some tweaks to it,
Speaker 8: and we saw him almost improving or appliving parts of
Speaker 8: it when he diverted from I think what we're his
Speaker 8: prepared remarks to for example, have a little bit of
Speaker 8: engagement with the audience with Congress.
Speaker 2: So this doesn't move the needle. I'm guessing in terms
Speaker 2: of one speech. But if the State of the Union
Speaker 2: doesn't the Super Bowl of POI what does I saw
Speaker 2: Mike Johnson walk out of the chamber last night with
Speaker 2: his head down. He did a couple of interviews, maybe
Speaker 2: one on Fox, and then he was out. I saw
Speaker 2: him take his jacket on a hangar and walk out
Speaker 2: of the building. Does he come back to work today
Speaker 2: with any different feeling about Ukraine?
Speaker 8: I think there's two different audiences that the President was
Speaker 8: trying to reach last night, and the most important audience
Speaker 8: for him was actually American voters and in particular undecided
Speaker 8: or folks who aren't quite sure if Biden's their candidate
Speaker 8: in November. That's really who he was reaching out to.
Speaker 8: Congress was, of course the direct audience for the speech.
Speaker 8: But I think the President recognizes the odds of Congress
Speaker 8: passing major legislation on issues, especially like immigration border security,
Speaker 8: when we are already effectively in an election season, are
Speaker 8: pretty low. So I think what he was trying to
Speaker 8: do is actually more reach out to voters, convince them
Speaker 8: that his policies are working for them, and the odds
Speaker 8: of actually getting Congress to move on and needed things
Speaker 8: that he mentioned beyond the necessary government funding I think
Speaker 8: are actually.
Speaker 3: Quite low, So this is kind of a slow burn.
Speaker 2: Then he spends the next six months traveling the country
Speaker 2: getting people to call their members. I guess is the
Speaker 2: potential outcome that he's hoping for here. But boy, Ukraine
Speaker 2: doesn't have that kind of time.
Speaker 8: Is it, And Ukraine might be somewhat of a separate issue,
Speaker 8: there might be more room to move on that. Although
Speaker 8: again House Republicans are saying they want to take up
Speaker 8: border and immigration, it seems unlikely they'll want to do
Speaker 8: that when it's seen as a political victory for Biden.
Speaker 8: Perhaps they will eventually get to the point where they'd
Speaker 8: be willing to separate the two. Again, I just think
Speaker 8: that the odds that they'll move with any major way
Speaker 8: on border and immigration security are low. I'd love to
Speaker 8: be surprised on that. That, though still leaves room for
Speaker 8: the executive branch to take its own actions. There's things
Speaker 8: in particular in Ukraine that could be done, it would
Speaker 8: just be costly. For example, there's some reporting to suggest
Speaker 8: the Bid administration might consider moving additional arms out of
Speaker 8: US stocks even though it doesn't have the ability to
Speaker 8: replenish them.
Speaker 4: Right now.
Speaker 2: Wow, Well, we've talked a lot about the defense industrial base,
Speaker 2: with the and the lack of manufacturing bandwidth, that we
Speaker 2: have to not only make our own weapons but help others.
Speaker 2: That's what this sixty billion dollars would have gone for
Speaker 2: in the supplemental request for Ukraine.
Speaker 3: A lot of it at least, you.
Speaker 2: Know, it strikes me the President has called out oil
Speaker 2: companies to produce more, Go do more?
Speaker 3: Is the message? Can he not say that to defense contractors?
Speaker 2: Why does that have to involve tens of billions of
Speaker 2: dollars on Capitol Hill? It's the same argument, right, The
Speaker 2: patriotic move is to crank up the factory. We need
Speaker 2: more stuff.
Speaker 8: It's a fair question because that's how it operates in
Speaker 8: most industries. But with the defense industry, they actually don't
Speaker 8: usually start production or investment in a production line until
Speaker 8: there's an existing contract, including with the US military that's
Speaker 8: their biggest customer. But even with foreign partners.
Speaker 3: So that they need a buyer.
Speaker 8: They need a buyer in order to actually start the
Speaker 8: world oil company. You're not just going to have like
Speaker 8: stuff on the shelf today.
Speaker 2: Then again, oil we're asking oil companies to drill produce
Speaker 2: more and they just watch prices go down as right,
Speaker 2: that's kind of a double standard, isn't it.
Speaker 3: I think it's just about.
Speaker 8: The contracting process and really the historic relationship between the
Speaker 8: US government and our defense industry. Right, the defense industry
Speaker 8: really exists and revolves around the US military. Yes, they
Speaker 8: sell to other foreign buyers, but really most of their
Speaker 8: focus is on what the US military needs. This is
Speaker 8: what President Eisenhower was worried about when it comes to
Speaker 8: the military industrial complex. And we can have many conversations
Speaker 8: about all the inefficiencies in it, including this issue of
Speaker 8: they don't start production or investment in production line until contract,
Speaker 8: so we need it, and it can take years for
Speaker 8: something to get on contract.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 2: I'm fascinated by the whole thing, and I know you've
Speaker 2: spent a career on this, which is why I have
Speaker 2: to ask you about it when you come see us.
Speaker 2: There's more here, of course, with Israel and Taiwan, but
Speaker 2: I want to ask you specifically with regard to the
Speaker 2: Middle East. The President did confirm Bloomberg reporting at this
Speaker 2: port or what he referred to as a temporary peace
Speaker 2: would be put in place to deliver aid to Gaza.
Speaker 2: How do we make that work, he says, US troops
Speaker 2: will not be on the ground.
Speaker 3: How do you do it?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 8: I think there's a lot of questions and details that
Speaker 8: still remain to be fleshed out, at least publicly about
Speaker 8: what this will involve, because certainly someone needs to be
Speaker 8: on the other side of that pier operating the aid deliveries.
Speaker 8: The European Union said this morning that they're already working
Speaker 8: on sending a package of relief to Gaza that it
Speaker 8: seems like will be part of this Aid quarter, and
Speaker 8: that UAE is part of this project as well. I
Speaker 8: think one of the other things that really underscores is
Speaker 8: a Biden administration recognizing there is growing international concern about
Speaker 8: famine and Gaza, especially in the wake of last week's
Speaker 8: deadly incident where over one hundred people were killed trying
Speaker 8: to secure aid, and earlier today the news that five
Speaker 8: people were killed by a package that parachute didn't deploy.
Speaker 8: So there's a real urgent need to get aid in there,
Speaker 8: and unfortunately ground convoys have been delayed, they get robbed
Speaker 8: and the aid doesn't get to the people who need it,
Speaker 8: so I think this is somewhat of a desperate or
Speaker 8: an act of desperation to get aid into a very
Speaker 8: desperate situation.
Speaker 2: We'd love to talk to you more about that when
Speaker 2: we learn more. I must be punching today. I'm lacking
Speaker 2: sleep after last night, as I'm reminded constantly that I
Speaker 2: work with the smartest people in the business here at Bloomberg.
Speaker 3: Thank you Jenny Welch for the great analysis.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast Ken
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Speaker 9: Thirty Welcome back live from Washington on Bloomberg TV and Radio, where,
Speaker 9: of course we are all in the aftermath of the
Speaker 9: State of the Union, and there was a question last
Speaker 9: night about what was going to happen after the president's speech,
Speaker 9: not just to his campaign, but also whether or not
Speaker 9: the Senate was going to be taking a vote to
Speaker 9: avert a government shutdown that could partially start it night tonight.
Speaker 9: They still got to do that to get out of town.
Speaker 9: But it raises the question of spending. And it's worth
Speaker 9: pointing out, Joe, that we're still sorting out and trying
Speaker 9: to get across the finish line appropriation bills for this
Speaker 9: fiscal year, and on Monday the President is going to
Speaker 9: deliver to Congress his budget for the next fiscal year.
Speaker 2: Weren't they marking up at twenty twenty five bill yesterday?
Speaker 2: And that was I don't get how I look. We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk to Mora Amaya rather. McGinnis must be rolling
Speaker 2: over this whole thing. Mara, of course, will be on
Speaker 2: our panel. She's rolling too. There's just no path it
Speaker 2: seems to land this second mini bus. But we'll get there.
Speaker 2: March twenty seconds the new date on the calendar that
Speaker 2: we're looking at.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 2: We asked Dick Durbin after the speech last night, you're
Speaker 2: gonna vote on this tonight?
Speaker 3: He said, no, tomorrow. That was the end.
Speaker 9: Now tomorrow they have to get through.
Speaker 3: Some rules and get some things done.
Speaker 6: Networks, etcetera.
Speaker 2: Right, all the while on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue,
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say they're popping corks after
Speaker 2: this each last night they huddled for the weekend, a
Speaker 2: long one at Camp David. And as you've been hearing
Speaker 2: over the course, and maybe you saw it or heard
Speaker 2: it here in our special coverage on Bloomberg, the president
Speaker 2: seemed to exceed expectations. We want to bring in Josh Wingrove,
Speaker 2: a Bloomberg White House reporter who's with us right now
Speaker 2: on the North Lawn basking in the glow. I can
Speaker 2: only assume, Josh, what are you hearing from the administration,
Speaker 2: because it seemed like after the Chief of Staff, Jeff
Speaker 2: Science raised the bar, the president jumped over it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the Democrats were pretty happy with the president's performance
Speaker 5: last night, including members of Congress, and you know, this
Speaker 5: seems like it'll quell some of those really brewing questions
Speaker 5: nerves basically among Democrats about whether Joe Biden should be
Speaker 5: the standard bear. Of course, it wasn't really clear that
Speaker 5: that was ever going to make much of a difference anyway,
Speaker 5: because the process is pretty advanced right now, and there
Speaker 5: was just no sign that anyone would be looking to,
Speaker 5: you know, mount a serious challenge to him. But the
Speaker 5: question for Biden all along has really been a question
Speaker 5: of energy, his energy, but also the energy of his party.
Speaker 5: His voter base is wider than Trump's, but just not
Speaker 5: as enthusiastic. And so the whole question of this election
Speaker 5: cycle is going to be like, can Joe Biden and
Speaker 5: can Democrats get people to the polls? So, if anything,
Speaker 5: I think yesterday Biden gave Democratic voters as well as
Speaker 5: congress people who are going out to sort of, you know,
Speaker 5: drag people to the polls when they can, you know,
Speaker 5: an argument to try to do that. And that really
Speaker 5: is the whole ballgame for them. And so we'll see
Speaker 5: this sort of travel schedule key swing states Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin.
Speaker 5: You've talked about that as they go to try to
Speaker 5: shore that up, you know. Might of course, we've remissed
Speaker 5: we didn't mention the latest Bloomberg Morning Console polls showing
Speaker 5: the Joe Biden right now as an underdog Donald Trump
Speaker 5: leading in all seven swing states we're tracking.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and eight of ten voters in those swing states
Speaker 9: viewing Biden as too old, and I wonder if any
Speaker 9: of those minds changed based on the President's performance last night.
Speaker 9: But aside from the performance, Josh they're also so is
Speaker 9: the policy. And we did get some policy proposals from
Speaker 9: him that are relevant, especially to our Bloomberg television radio
Speaker 9: audiences in regard to taxes, higher taxes on billionaires on
Speaker 9: stock buybacks, twenty eight percent corporate tax rate. Should we
Speaker 9: expect all of that and more to be showing up
Speaker 9: in what he's going to deliver to Congress on Monday.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, we'll hear more about that on Monday. Also course,
Speaker 5: a note the increase in the corporate minimum tax. That
Speaker 5: was a new one from him as well. And there
Speaker 5: were some littler nuggets too, like getting rid of title
Speaker 5: insurance on federally backed mortgages. That sort of falls, I
Speaker 5: guess generally under the Biden junk fees effort, but you know,
Speaker 5: he sort of had the makings of his reelection platform there.
Speaker 5: The big one of the big stakes of the twenty
Speaker 5: twenty four election is that twenty twenty five is going
Speaker 5: to be a year where Washington's going to be talking
Speaker 5: about tax reform. Some of the provisions of those Trump
Speaker 5: tax cuts expire. The question will be does anyone want
Speaker 5: to do anything about that or not? So Joe Biden
Speaker 5: is sort of staking out his lane on that, and
Speaker 5: that lane is consistent with where they've been before, right.
Speaker 5: Biden has always said no taxes on people making no
Speaker 5: tax increases on people making under four hundred grand. Of course,
Speaker 5: then that if they want to raise more revenue, which
Speaker 5: this White House does, that means they're taxing corporations and
Speaker 5: higher earners and the wealthy instead to try to make
Speaker 5: up that gap and shrink the deficit. We'll be looking,
Speaker 5: of course at the projections in that budget as well.
Speaker 5: We reported this week that there was been a wrangling
Speaker 5: in the White House so on this question about how
Speaker 5: to set the projections, in particular the interest rate projection
Speaker 5: and the lail brainer. The NEC director pressed for a
Speaker 5: lower rate in a meeting for those rates are typically
Speaker 5: set by a group that does not include the NEC directors,
Speaker 5: So a bit of palace intrigue on that. So we'll
Speaker 5: be watching for that on Monday as well. What those
Speaker 5: numbers look like.
Speaker 2: What's the intrigue around the border right now, Josh, there
Speaker 2: was a lot of pressure for Joe Biden to do
Speaker 2: something or maybe announce it an executive action last night.
Speaker 3: Did we get his answer passed? The bill that the Senate.
Speaker 5: Passed we did. They've been batting away these questions of
Speaker 5: what you know, executive authority. Conservatives want him to use
Speaker 5: so called Section two twelve F powers. The administration says, basically,
Speaker 5: that's not a tree we want to bark up because
Speaker 5: if those powers do exist, and not a lot of
Speaker 5: people are really sure, it's sort of a surefire legal challenge.
Speaker 5: So he's saying, essentially, I'm the one that wants to
Speaker 5: pass the bill, Republicans the one that don't want to
Speaker 5: pass the bill, and he's trying to sort of do
Speaker 5: that backflip, of course, because for the last couple of
Speaker 5: years Republicans have been the ones calling for something and
Speaker 5: Democrats haven't. But one of the gaffes from last night
Speaker 5: also was on this question. It was interesting Marjorie Taylor
Speaker 5: Green was asking him to talk address the case of
Speaker 5: a woman killed by a migrant and Biden's Biden did
Speaker 5: talk about it, and then he referred to the migrant
Speaker 5: in question as an illegal. He's getting pushed back from
Speaker 5: Democratic members of Congress right now who don't like that
Speaker 5: word for describing people of undocumented status, even people who've
Speaker 5: been accused of murder.
Speaker 2: He seemed to make use of that prop pretty well,
Speaker 2: even if the language caused people to bristle.
Speaker 3: You look like Clark Kent on the North lawn. Josh
Speaker 3: growth a voice like, yeah, all.
Speaker 9: Right, Josh, thanks for joining us after what was at
Speaker 9: a very long evening from the White House. We appreciate
Speaker 9: your time. And now we want to go to someone
Speaker 9: else who I'm sure was listening to the speech. Mayam
Speaker 9: Againnis the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. President is
Speaker 9: joining us now. My first and foremost happy International Women's Day.
Speaker 9: Thank you for joining us on this day of all days.
Speaker 9: And it's worth pointing out that the President last night,
Speaker 9: when he was talking about some of his economic policy,
Speaker 9: he said he has been delivering real results in fiscally
Speaker 9: responsible ways. To what extent is that true?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 11: He made a number of claims on fiscal policy, and
Speaker 11: I guess I'll start by saying it's good.
Speaker 6: He was even talking about it.
Speaker 11: Every time we go into a State of the Union,
Speaker 11: we're sitting there wondering is someone even going to mention
Speaker 11: the near record levels of debt we have. That said,
Speaker 11: he had quite a mixed bag of how how honest?
Speaker 11: The different claims he made were the first one he
Speaker 11: talked about is something he's done before. He took credit
Speaker 11: for reducing the deficit and said that he'd reduced the
Speaker 11: deficit by more than a trillion dollars between twenty twenty
Speaker 11: one twenty twenty two when the deficit came down. That
Speaker 11: one is absolutely false in that the deficit did come
Speaker 11: down because our huge, huge amount of spending for COVID
Speaker 11: was running off, and if you look at actually the
Speaker 11: policies the President put in place, he overall made that
Speaker 11: situation worse.
Speaker 6: So no, he doesn't get credit for reducing that deficit.
Speaker 11: Second thing he said was that he had signed into
Speaker 11: law legislation that reduced the deficit by another trillion dollars.
Speaker 6: That one's true.
Speaker 11: The Fiscal Responsibility Act will bring the debt trajectory down
Speaker 11: by one to two trillion dollars if we stick with it.
Speaker 11: But it's fair to say that was really originated with
Speaker 11: Republicans and that the Bid administration kind of came along
Speaker 11: kicking and screaming. But we're seeing that that will generate
Speaker 11: real savings. Two other big things he said that the
Speaker 11: Trump administration had added huge amounts to the debt, absolutely
Speaker 11: eight point four trillion dollars. Signed into law during the
Speaker 11: Trump administration. That is a record level. And the last
Speaker 11: thing was some big accusations of Republicans on Social Security
Speaker 11: wanted to cut benefits. I don't know a single politician
Speaker 11: who's talking about cutting benefits.
Speaker 6: For current retirees.
Speaker 11: I'll tell you two politicians who are not talking about
Speaker 11: fixing the program, which we absolutely must do, are both
Speaker 11: Biden and Trump. And unfortunately, this election is shaping up
Speaker 11: to be one where nobody's talking honestly about Social Security.
Speaker 11: And hopefully that will change, and that's going to leave
Speaker 11: the people who depend on it awfully vulnerable.
Speaker 3: The lock box will stay locked for now. Maya.
Speaker 2: I hate to sound like a Brokern record because I
Speaker 2: always feel like I have to ask you this, but
Speaker 2: revenue did come up last night, a new swing at
Speaker 2: a minimum corporate tax, higher taxes on the wealthy, a
Speaker 2: minimum of billionaire's.
Speaker 3: Tax, as he called it. Is that music to the committee.
Speaker 11: Absolutely, we are sort of policy neutral and deficit pro
Speaker 11: deficit reduction. So anybody from any end of the ideological
Speaker 11: spectrum who's putting four things that would reduce the deficit
Speaker 11: at a time when we're at near record levels interest
Speaker 11: payments are bigger than defense. I could go on and
Speaker 11: on about why we have to Absolutely that's the right
Speaker 11: thing to do. What I do worry about is pretending
Speaker 11: we can fix this whole problem by taxing millionaires and billionaires.
Speaker 6: That's not how it's going to work.
Speaker 11: We have to cut spending, we have to fix social scrating, medicare.
Speaker 11: They're going to be middle class revenue increases when we
Speaker 11: finally get serious about this.
Speaker 6: So great to talk about.
Speaker 11: Things that you would do to make the difference, but
Speaker 11: you can only tax millionaires and.
Speaker 6: Billionaires so much.
Speaker 11: And I worry when people it's like police fraud abuse,
Speaker 11: like we should do it, But it's not going to
Speaker 11: fix the problem on its own.
Speaker 6: We're going to have to go a lot farther.
Speaker 11: But I think that will be the big piece of
Speaker 11: their budget that will lead to deficit reduction because of
Speaker 11: the large taxes they will put in place in the budget.
Speaker 9: Well, what else would you like to see in that budget,
Speaker 9: if not on the revenue raising side, on the actual
Speaker 9: spending side. Keeping in mind that it is today that
Speaker 9: we do expect the Senate is going to pass the
Speaker 9: first six bill megabus. We're going to megabus shoe.
Speaker 3: Yes, But you, let's do it the first bus.
Speaker 9: We're still waiting on the second bus by March twenty second,
Speaker 9: at which point will be what eight days shy of
Speaker 9: being halfway through this fiscal year, maya. So when we're
Speaker 9: thinking about spending and just a the dysfunction around getting
Speaker 9: spending bills done, but be the trajectory of spending. How
Speaker 9: dissatisfied are you with what you're seeing?
Speaker 11: Yeah, well, I guess it's a kind of a medium
Speaker 11: bus and I'm totally dissatisfied with this process. We're still
Speaker 11: working on last year's budget. The House put out a budget.
Speaker 11: It's budget committee put out a budget yesterday. The Senate
Speaker 11: Budget Committee never even put out a budget last year,
Speaker 11: but the House did it before the president did, which
Speaker 11: is the wrong order. No one takes the budget seriously.
Speaker 11: The process is a disaster. But you're asking me to
Speaker 11: lay out the hard things that our politicians aren't going
Speaker 11: to talk about.
Speaker 6: What should we actually do? And so here we go.
Speaker 11: You know, the physical responsibility at tight first step, we
Speaker 11: do have to put caps on discretionary spending. That is
Speaker 11: going to help keep the huge growth in that area
Speaker 11: the budget down. But it's really the least of our worries,
Speaker 11: so we quickly have to turn to mandatory spending so
Speaker 11: security goes insolvent in ten years. We need to look
Speaker 11: at whether we should slow the growth of benefits for
Speaker 11: people who don't need them so we can preserve them
Speaker 11: for people who do. Should we for younger workers look
Speaker 11: at raising the retirement age, Yes, the answer is yes.
Speaker 11: And should we talk about lifting the payroll tax cap
Speaker 11: so you pay higher than the cap?
Speaker 6: Right now, absolutely.
Speaker 11: All of those things are going to need to be
Speaker 11: employed to fix those Security also probably changing the way
Speaker 11: we evaluate inflation and maybe bumping up a minimum benefit.
Speaker 11: We need massive cost savings in healthcare. There are a
Speaker 11: lot of ideas of ways we can do that that
Speaker 11: before they even have to affect beneficiaries. Ways to have
Speaker 11: savings in the system. We should look through that national security.
Speaker 11: There's so many things we can do that will lead
Speaker 11: to more savings. That said, it's a rough time in
Speaker 11: the world right now, and my suspicion is that those
Speaker 11: any savements we can generate will ultimately have to be
Speaker 11: plowed back into all of the hot spots around the world, cybersecurity,
Speaker 11: all these things, and we're going to need more revenues
Speaker 11: Like I said, it's not just at the high end.
Speaker 6: It's not just corporations. We're going to have to talk.
Speaker 11: About broader taxes, whether it's a carbon tax or getting
Speaker 11: rid of the almost two trillion dollars in tax breaks
Speaker 11: we have every single year. That's a good one because
Speaker 11: you can raise a lot of revenues that actually wouldn't
Speaker 11: necessarily harm economic growth. But just my main point is
Speaker 11: with that laundry list that no politician will say. So,
Speaker 11: we've got to get real. We got to stop promising
Speaker 11: what we're not going to do. Our debt is growing
Speaker 11: faster than our economy. It leaves us really vulnerable. And
Speaker 11: I just wish we could start this discussion in earnest,
Speaker 11: because none of these things are easy, and all of
Speaker 11: them are going to have to be looked at.
Speaker 2: I can only imagine what lawmakers say when you're alone
Speaker 2: about this issue. I'm guessingly agree with everything you're saying,
Speaker 2: and then they show up for work and we kick
Speaker 2: the can again with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget,
Speaker 2: the President, of course, Maya McGuinness.
Speaker 3: We always learn something when we spend time with you, Maya.
Speaker 2: Thanks for being with us here on Bloomberg the Senate
Speaker 2: moves today, as you mentioned, Kaylee, then we do it
Speaker 2: all over again. We come back next week for the
Speaker 2: second half.
Speaker 9: The twenty second. We technically have two weeks now to
Speaker 9: figure out that you'd like to think they might work
Speaker 9: on it next week, Well, one would think they typically
Speaker 9: run it right up to the deadline in this Congress.
Speaker 9: But yes, it's going to be a fun two weeks.
Speaker 2: The medium bus, medium BUSDI so there's a minibus, medium bus, omnibus.
Speaker 9: They're all buses.
Speaker 3: On Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast,
Speaker 1: can't just live weekdays at noon Eastern on Apocarplay and
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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Junie Shanzano is with us Bloomberg Politics contributor Democratic Andalist
Speaker 2: joint today by Mara Gillespie Bluestack Strategies Republican strategists who
Speaker 2: spent time working for the Speaker of the House when
Speaker 2: John Bayner held the gavel.
Speaker 3: It's great to have you both with us.
Speaker 2: Here, Maura, your thoughts on that, because I think I
Speaker 2: know where Kaylee is going here, as the President used
Speaker 2: the word illegals illegal when he was talking about an
Speaker 2: undocumented immigrant after he was goaded in that direction by
Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Green. There were other moments as well last
Speaker 2: evening when he might not have sounded like a progressive,
Speaker 2: in fact upset some members of his own conference. I
Speaker 2: was talking about this earlier with Kaylee in the newsroom.
Speaker 2: Is that by design?
Speaker 10: I do think so. I think that when I heard
Speaker 10: those words, you know, unity, I was wondering when he
Speaker 10: reached out to the Nikki Haley voters in that moment,
Speaker 10: but also harkening back to what he ran on was
Speaker 10: bringing the country together after chaos and you know, maybe
Speaker 10: restore that kind of messaging, you know, last night. I
Speaker 10: don't know that it was as effective as maybe he
Speaker 10: had had hoped or his team had hoped, but he
Speaker 10: did hit on a couple of themes that would appeal
Speaker 10: to Nikki Haley voters, talking about and having you know,
Speaker 10: obviously Sweeden there after the news about them, Jordi Nato,
Speaker 10: having them there in the box next to the first Lady,
Speaker 10: Jill Biden. So that was an effective tool reminding people
Speaker 10: of the important role we have in a foreign policy
Speaker 10: and having a strong foreign policy and standing up against
Speaker 10: Putin and against Russia. But also the IVF conversation I
Speaker 10: thought was definitely a nod to not only his party,
Speaker 10: but also to NICKI Haley voters. She has been pretty
Speaker 10: outspoken on the outdated ways that Republicans talk about abortion
Speaker 10: and just really women's health in general, talking about taking
Speaker 10: you know, women's personal freedom away. So she really, you know,
Speaker 10: he really did hit on that, I think, and appealing
Speaker 10: to Nicky.
Speaker 2: Voters for sure.
Speaker 9: Well in Genie, he did so without actually saying the
Speaker 9: word abortion. He skipped over that. He was just talking
Speaker 9: about reproductive rights. And I guess this gets at the
Speaker 9: same question. Do you think that was by design and
Speaker 9: do you think it will prove effective?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it definitely was by design. I mean, as we
Speaker 7: all know, Joe Biden is a Catholic. He has you know,
Speaker 7: said many times that he personally is opposed to abortion,
Speaker 7: but he supports a woman's right to choose. And even
Speaker 7: beyond that, I think politically, the reality is is that Americans,
Speaker 7: whether you're conservative, liberal, or anywhere in between, liberty is
Speaker 7: critically important. Freedom is critically important, and they are right
Speaker 7: to couch this as the freedom for a woman, a
Speaker 7: person to make this decision with their doctor. And that
Speaker 7: decision doesn't just have to be about abortion. It can
Speaker 7: be about reproduction over reproductive rights overall. It can be
Speaker 7: about taking contraception, it could be about who you're going
Speaker 7: to marry. And that's the point he's trying to make
Speaker 7: about Dobbs, is that that decision opened a can of worms,
Speaker 7: according to many Americans, that the state have walked through
Speaker 7: in limiting our freedoms, and he is promising to restore
Speaker 7: those well.
Speaker 9: Even in the Republican's response delivered by a senator from Alabama,
Speaker 9: where IVF has definitely come to the forefront of thought
Speaker 9: after the Supreme Court ruling there, Senator Katie Britt did
Speaker 9: talk about IVF and the importance of protecting that. She also, though,
Speaker 9: talked about a lot of other things, and as I'm
Speaker 9: sure we have all seen on social media, her speech
Speaker 9: in its entirety has been chopped up into some remarkable pieces.
Speaker 9: But one thing she really did try to draw contrast
Speaker 9: with what President Biden said forty minutes into his speech
Speaker 9: finally getting to the issue of the border and immigration,
Speaker 9: was that very issue here is just a taste of
Speaker 9: what she had to say after the President's address.
Speaker 8: President Biden's border policies are a disgrace.
Speaker 7: This crisis is despicable, and the truth is it is
Speaker 7: almost entirely preventable.
Speaker 9: Just you could hear there and even see to some
Speaker 9: extent the degree to which she was emoting during this
Speaker 9: speech last night. And Maura, I would love to get
Speaker 9: your reaction. This is Senator Katie Britt, the youngest ever
Speaker 9: Republican woman elected to that body. She's just forty two
Speaker 9: years old. She's pretty popular, serves on McConnell's leadership team.
Speaker 9: Did the rising star rise to the occasion?
Speaker 10: No? And I'm disappointed because I had high hopes for her.
Speaker 10: And again, you know, I think that she just wasn't
Speaker 10: authentically herself. It was very theatrical and overly emotive, to
Speaker 10: the point where it's not actually helpful to not take
Speaker 10: away from the stories. Unfortunately, because what she was talking
Speaker 10: about is a real issue.
Speaker 6: And I don't think that.
Speaker 10: President Biden hit on this at all, really enough last
Speaker 10: night in his speech, not taking responsibility and giving us
Speaker 10: forward action about what's going to happen at the border.
Speaker 10: I think he really missed the mark there, and she
Speaker 10: could have capitalized on that in a more impactful way
Speaker 10: had she not been so I mean, really just a
Speaker 10: little bit all over the place, going from smiling, too sad,
Speaker 10: too angry. I mean, she really went through it in
Speaker 10: a matter of ten seconds at a time. So it
Speaker 10: was hard to not it was hard to takeet seriously.
Speaker 10: And that's disappointing considering the fact that we have really,
Speaker 10: really great concerns about the crisis of the border and
Speaker 10: families are struggling to understand how something that happened, you know,
Speaker 10: to Larkin Riley is not you know, being addressed right
Speaker 10: this second.
Speaker 2: You know, I'll tell you you think back, Jeanie went,
Speaker 2: when was the last successful response to a state of
Speaker 2: the Union, either party?
Speaker 3: You've got to go back in time. I was racking
Speaker 3: my brain.
Speaker 2: Everyone's showing images of Marco Rubio at the water bottle
Speaker 2: and Bobby Jindall and the foyer of the mansion. Maybe
Speaker 2: it was Governor Bob McDonald of Virginia. And of course
Speaker 2: he ran into some problems in his career after that,
Speaker 2: but he followed Barack Obama with pretty strong optics.
Speaker 3: What looked like him speaking to the gen Assembly.
Speaker 2: Maybe that was the I'll have to think more about it,
Speaker 2: but I need your take on this, Genie. She's sitting
Speaker 2: in the kitchen. This is clearly something that was scripted
Speaker 2: way in advance. She rehearsed it a lot of times.
Speaker 2: Did it worked for anyone?
Speaker 7: You know, I think it possibly could have worked for
Speaker 7: the base of the Republican Party. And you know, that
Speaker 7: is the challenge here, is that so many of us
Speaker 7: looked at that speech and putting aside the content of
Speaker 7: what she said, which I obviously had problems with, the
Speaker 7: way in which she presented seemed just not in keeping
Speaker 7: with who she is and who she has become politically,
Speaker 7: which is a young, vibrant, respected, smart woman who became
Speaker 7: the youngest senator in you know, the country. You know,
Speaker 7: she has really made a mark, and you didn't see
Speaker 7: that last night as they placed her in a kitchen
Speaker 7: the night before International Women's Day and had her, you know,
Speaker 7: some people described as you know, looking like a forlorn housewife,
Speaker 7: going between laughing and weeping very very quickly, and it
Speaker 7: just wasn't authentic to who she is. And to your point, Joe,
Speaker 7: it's been a really really difficult speech for people to give.
Speaker 7: I agree with you, Bob McDonald, probably the most effective.
Speaker 7: When this started in the sixties, it was, you know,
Speaker 7: people just speaking in the opposition, you know, sort of
Speaker 7: like boring old senators and members speaking out. And then
Speaker 7: in the you know, eighties, nineties, they tried to make
Speaker 7: it a little more dramatic. It is not working. They
Speaker 7: must go back to boring because they have lost their
Speaker 7: way on this speech and it is really the death
Speaker 7: knell and in many cases for young promising public officials.
Speaker 7: And that is frustrating to so many of us who
Speaker 7: want to see these people succeed.
Speaker 9: Maura, we have less than a minute left. But to
Speaker 9: Jeanie's point about the idea of her being in a kitchen,
Speaker 9: and I understand the point she's making on the housewife thing,
Speaker 9: but it also was her literally sitting at a kitchen
Speaker 9: talking about kitchen table issues.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 9: She was talking about the price of groceries, about immigration,
Speaker 9: which we know our top is top of mind for voters.
Speaker 9: This is the playbook that Republicans will be using as
Speaker 9: they are competing on the ballot in the lead up
Speaker 9: to November.
Speaker 10: Right, it did look like she was say at the
Speaker 10: kitchen table. It looked like she was placed in the kitchen,
Speaker 10: so I don't think that her team did a really
Speaker 10: good job of that aspect. They could have made that
Speaker 10: a little more clear, maybe had her background be like
Speaker 10: the living room or something, and to show that she
Speaker 10: was actually at a home in a kitchen table. You know,
Speaker 10: they could have done it differently. But yes, it does
Speaker 10: optically not make me, as a Republican woman, pretty happy
Speaker 10: to see that, because I do think that it sends
Speaker 10: the wrong message and for somebody like Katie Britt, who
Speaker 10: could be a rising star in the Republican Party, last
Speaker 10: night was just not good for her or her future
Speaker 10: quite frankly, all.
Speaker 9: Right, Mara Gillespie and Jeanie shanzay No, thank you both
Speaker 9: so much for joining us our political panel on this
Speaker 9: day after the State of the Union and International Women's Day.
Speaker 9: We appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast.
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