Happy Tuesday! On this date 60 years ago in an event in the East Room of the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, landmark legislation that prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In a speech to the nation, Johnson called the law, which had been proposed by President John F. Kennedy, “a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country.”
Bill Moyers, who served as an aide to Johnson, said years later that while the news that night was full of coverage describing the historic and unprecedented achievement, he found Johnson “exceedingly depressed.” Asked why he was down, the president said: “I think we've just delivered the South to the Republican Party for the rest of my life, and yours.”
Here's what’s happening today.
Democratic Lawmakers Start to Publicly Back Away From Biden
Democrats have been freaking out for days about President Joe Biden’s terrible debate performance last Thursday night. The White House and the Biden campaign have sought to tamp down those concerns and keep party officials, donors and the public from bailing on Biden — and they have largely managed to keep elected Democrats from publicly turning on the president. Until Tuesday.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas today became the first elected Democratic official to publicly call for Biden to pull out of the presidential race after his dreadful debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same,” Doggett said in a statement.
A progressive who has been in Congress since 1995, Doggett thanked Biden for his service and said he had hoped the debate would swing momentum in the election toward Biden. “It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
Other elected Democrats have reportedly continued to express alarm over Biden’s performance and concern that it could hurt down-ballot candidates.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told WPRI Monday that he was “pretty horrified” by both Biden and Trump at the debate and called on the president and his campaign to make clear whether “this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days.”
Similarly, Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois told CNN Tuesday morning that Democrats have to be honest with themselves that Biden’s debate showing “wasn’t just a horrible night.” He emphasized, though, that it was Biden’s decision whether to continue or not. “He clearly has to understand,” Quigley said, “his decision not only impacts who’s going to serve in the White House the next four years, but who’s going to serve in the Senate, who’s going to serve in the House and it will have implications for decades to come.”
And Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, whose support in 2016 was instrumental to Biden’s winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency, told MSNBC that he will support Vice President Kamala Harris if the president were to “step aside.”
Other Democrats have grown frustrated by Biden campaign staff and surrogates who have pushed back aggressively on any questions about the president’s fitness for another term. “I really do criticize the campaign for a dismissive attitude towards people who are raising questions for discussion. That’s just facing the reality that we’re in,” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont told Semafor in a Monday phone interview. “But that’s the discussion we have to have. It has to be from the top levels of the Biden campaign to precinct captains in the southside of Chicago.”
In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the questions about Biden were justifiable. "I think it's a legitimate question to say, is this an episode or is this a condition?" she said. "When people ask that question, it's completely legitimate — of both candidates."
Pelosi told MSNBC that she’s been hearing mixed opinions from Democrats about Biden’s continued candidacy, but she recommended that Biden do a couple of “no holds barred” interviews with “serious journalists” to let the American people see him. “I think it is essential for them to do that,” Pelosi said.
Rep. Jared Golden, a centrist Maine Democrat who represents a district that Trump won in the past two presidential elections, wrote in an op-ed in The Bangor Daily News that Biden’s poor showing was not a surprise and that, while he does not plan to vote for him, “Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m ok with that.” Golden wrote that he rejects the idea that Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy and that lawmakers will have to work with his and hold him accountable.
The bottom line: Democratic concerns about Biden haven’t been assuaged over the past five days. The Biden camp has reportedly circulated poll results showing that the president had not lost ground after the debate, though it has also warned that a dip might be coming. The problem for Biden is that he needed to do more at the debate than just not lose ground. As pressure mounts, Biden is reportedly planning to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders on Wednesday.
Medicare Targets $3 Billion in Fraud
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has blocked about $3 billion in payments as part of an ongoing investigation into fraudulent billing at accountable care organizations, according to a report Tuesday in The Washington Post.
Accountable care organizations, known as ACOs, are groups of medical service providers including doctors and hospitals that voluntarily join together to coordinate care for patients. ACOs are meant to save money through efficiencies, and when they do so, Medicare shares part of the savings with them.
Since last year, ACOs have detected significant billing fraud focused on the provision of catheters for cancer patients — services that were never rendered — and the FBI and other agencies have reportedly been investigating. At the same time, ACOs have become increasingly alarmed that they could be punished financially for the bills that were hitting their books, due to the way the savings-sharing program is structured.
Late last week, CMS issued a rule — “Mitigating the Impact of Significant, Anomalous, and Highly Suspect Billing Activity on Medicare Shared Savings Program Financial Calculations in Calendar Year 2023” — intended to protect 11 ACOs from damages from fraudulent billing in this context.
The Post’s Dan Diamond and Rachel Roubein report that the healthcare industry is on the alert for this new kind of fraud, which involves companies using stolen patient information to bill for services never rendered. It is not yet clear how the stolen information was acquired.
Ukraine Getting Another $2.3 Billion in Military Aid
The U.S. will soon announce it is sending another $2.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday.
About $150 million of that aid will come via presidential drawdown authority, which allows the U.S. to provide weapons and supplies directly from its existing stocks. The rest will come via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which operates through contracts with arms manufacturers.
“This package under presidential drawdown authority will provide new air defense interceptors, anti-tank weapons, and other critical munitions from US inventories,” Austin said as he met with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov at the Pentagon. “It will also enable the United States to procure more Patriot and NASAMs air defense interceptors, which will be provided on an accelerated timeline by the resequencing of deliveries for some foreign military sales.”
The aid is part of a larger $61 billion package passed by Congress earlier this year. Overall, per the Associated Press, the U.S. has now provided Ukraine with $53 billion in military aid since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett Calls on Biden to Withdraw From Presidential Race – Texas Tribune
- Doggett Urges Biden to End Campaign as GOP Steps Up Pressure – Roll Call
- Democrats Go Public With Panic About Biden Amid Fears of an Electoral Debacle – New York Times
- As Biden Digs In, Some Top Democrats Want Him Out of the Race This Week – CNN
- Amid Escalating Pressure, Biden Steps Up Efforts to Reassure Democrats – Washington Post
- Trump's Campaign Reports Raising $331 Million in 2nd Quarter, Beating Biden's Haul – Associated Press
- The US Will Pay Moderna $176 Million to Develop an mRNA Pandemic Flu Vaccine – Associated Press
- Powell Welcomes Recent Data but Fed Needs More Confidence to Cut – Bloomberg
- Student Loan Borrowers Owe $1.6 Trillion. Nearly Half Aren’t Paying – New York Times
- Biden Administration Plans Major Cuts to AIDS Relief Programs in Africa – Politico
- US Job Openings Rise to 8.1 Million Despite Higher Interest Rates – Associated Press
- FDA Approves Donanemab, Eli Lilly’s Treatment for Early Alzheimer’s Disease – CNN
Views and Analysis
- Emperor Trump? Supreme Court Just Expanded the Imperial Presidency – Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
- The Supreme Court Gave Trump a Stunning Gift — and Rewrote the Constitution – Ankush Khardori, Politico
- Behind the Curtain: Trump's Imperial Presidency in Waiting – Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Axios
- The Supreme Court Creates a Lawless Presidency – Kate Shaw, New York Times
- How the Supreme Court Has Roiled U.S. Health-Care Agencies – David Ovalle, Joel Achenbach and Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
- God Save Us From This Dishonorable Court – Ruth Marcus, Washington Post
- Okay, Biden Isn’t Popular. But His Policies Sure Are – Catherine Rampell, Washington Post
- The World Is Sitting on a $91 Trillion Problem. ‘Hard Choices’ Are Coming – Hanna Ziady, CNN
- Trump’s Plan for NATO Is Emerging – Michael Hirsh, Politico
- Ancient Rome Survived High Inflation. We Can, Too – Daniel Moss, Bloomberg