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--:-- Georgia Howe: Congressional Democrats are scrambling for votes to keep their agenda alive, as several deadlines over the debt ceiling, the infrastructure bills, and government funding all come due this week.
--:-- John Bickley: Will Democrats be able to push through their agenda without any Republican support? We've got the latest from Capitol Hill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, September 28th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A health care shortage in New York state looms as tens of thousands of hospital and nursing home workers will lose their jobs if they don't comply with the state's vaccine mandate.
--:-- John Bickley: What is the state requiring and what impact might it have on a health care system already dealing with a staffing shortage?
--:-- Georgia Howe: And social media giant Facebook has finally disclosed its new content guidelines, revealing which stories the platform suppresses.
--:-- John Bickley: How will the new rules affect which posts you see and don't see in your feed? And did politics play a role in the new policies?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help. Protect your IRA or 401k with a precious metals IRA.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Congress has begun a marathon week of consequential decisions about the amount of government borrowing and spending.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The House of Representatives will vote on raising the debt ceiling, keeping the government open, and approving $4.5 trillion in new spending by Friday.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Here to walk us through what's to come is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So Ben, can you first help us untangle some of the separate components on this week's agenda?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Sure, there's a lot to digest here. This week's legislative calendar contains four big items. Two of them have to do with the way the government functions and two are major spending bills that could define President Biden's legacy.
--:-- Ben Johnson: First, government spending authorization is scheduled to expire at 12.01 Friday morning. If that happens, non-essential parts of the government will shut down until Congress authorizes new spending.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And how is that different from the debt ceiling?
--:-- Ben Johnson: The continuing resolution deals with what the federal government can spend. The debt ceiling determines how much you can borrow.
--:-- Ben Johnson: A debt ceiling of $28.5 trillion went into effect on August 1st. Since then, the government's been funding federal programs through what it calls extraordinary measures.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said that money will run out sometime in October.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Congressional Republicans have said they would support a clean bill to fund the government. But Democrats paired government funding with a provision to raise the debt ceiling.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So on Monday, Senate Republicans caused that bill to fail on a party-line vote, 48 to 50.
--:-- Ben Johnson: What happens if the debt ceiling isn't raised this week?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Nothing, at least for a little while. After the Treasury runs out of cash on hand, the federal government would still collect more than enough tax receipts to make the interest payments on the national debt, as well as Social Security, Medicare, and many other government programs.
--:-- Ben Johnson: But the government would have to prioritize which bills are paid, and something would have to be excluded.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That would probably mean freezing the salaries of some federal employees and putting others on furlough.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Well in addition to these measures Congress is also weighing two historic spending bills.
--:-- Ben Johnson: How are those related?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Well, that the controversy Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to advance two bills this week.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The first is the president's trillion Build Back Better Act, which contains things like government-funded preschool and community college.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The first piece fundamentally changed the structure and the nature of the economy in this country.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The second is the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is mostly traditional infrastructure.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Now, we've seen a lot of debate over the price of this bill and even which of these bills the House should vote on first.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Can you tell us a little bit about some of the objections?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Those have mostly come from members of the House Progressive Caucus.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Its chair, Representative Pramila Jayapal, said its members will vote against the infrastructure bill unless the House votes on the president's bill to expand government programs first.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Try us.
--:-- Ben Johnson: I got more than half of the caucus who feels very strongly we're going to deliver the entirety of the president's agenda to the president.
--:-- Ben Johnson: On the other hand, nine more centrist House Democrats have said they will not vote for the $3.5 trillion bill until the infrastructure bill has been signed into law.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And the president's bill has run into Democratic opposition in the Senate.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Senator Joe Manchin says $3.5 trillion is too much money.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And Senator Kyrsten Sinema opposes the income and corporate tax hikes the bill will likely contain.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Unless the Democrats win almost all of these votes. The bill can't become law.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And does Speaker Pelosi believe she can reconcile all of that by Friday?
--:-- Ben Johnson: She said she's optimistic that the two sides will inevitably negotiate and pass a slightly less costly version of the Build Back Better Act.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Regardless, this week shaping up to be a defining moment for the Biden presidency.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Right. Thanks for reporting, Ben.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, Ben. That's Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, New York prepares to fire health care workers who won't comply with vaccine mandates and may use the National Guard to fill staffing shortages.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Tens of thousands of health care workers in New York are expected to lose their jobs this week as the state's vaccine mandate for health care workers goes into effect.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What is the state requiring and what impact might it have on a health care system already dealing with a staffing shortage?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: And social media giant Facebook has finally disclosed its new content guidelines, revealing which stories the platform suppresses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How will the new rules affect which posts you see and don't see in your feed? And did politics play a role in the new policies?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help. Protect your IRA or 401k with a precious metals IRA.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Tens of thousands of health care workers in New York are expected to lose their jobs this week as the state's vaccine mandate for health care workers goes into effect.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: New York's governor said she may combat the worker shortage by replacing unvaccinated health workers with the National Guard.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Maraida, the governor is considering bringing in the military to deal with this potential staffing crisis.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Yes, it sounds like an extreme step, but that's exactly what Governor Kathy Hochul said she may do if the worker shortage is bad enough.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So the vaccine mandate for health care workers was announced last month by former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: As of Monday, health workers at all hospitals and nursing homes in New York must have at least one dose of a COVID vaccine in order to avoid losing their jobs.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: However, tens of thousands of workers still haven't gotten vaccinated, meaning New York could be dealing with mass firings that leave health care facilities severely understaffed.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: And they're already dealing with staffing issues, right?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: They are.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: But last week, Hochul told unvaccinated workers that they have no excuses.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: What is looming for Monday is completely avoidable. And there's no excuses.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: On Saturday, the governor tried to prepare for a staffing emergency by releasing a plan that includes potentially deploying medically trained National Guard members to replace the unvaccinated workers.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So do we have exact numbers on how many health workers are still unvaccinated?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Well as of last week a good chunk of the workforce had still not gotten the shot with 85% of hospital workers in New York being fully vaccinated and about 15% not fully vaccinated.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Then among nursing home and adult care facility staff, they had 77% and 81% that were fully vaccinated.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So more than 20% not fully vaccinated in some cases.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Estimates as of last week said that amounts to as many as 95,000 workers.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: 95,000.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So has there been any pushback among health workers to the vaccine mandate?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Yes, there has, just as we've seen with many of these vaccine mandates that offer no option to test out.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Some say they already have natural immunity. Some say they're worried about potential side effects, and others say that the mandate is a violation of their medical autonomy.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: In New York City, a vaccine mandate for all public school workers, and there are more than 150,000 in the city, was blocked by a legal challenge before it went into effect.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So we may see something similar happen with this statewide health worker vaccine mandate.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Okay, but in the meantime, health workers who don't want or can't get the vaccine have only one real option, right?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Leaving their jobs?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: That's exactly right.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: But one incredible detail from all of this is that the state labor department is saying that health workers who are fired because they refuse to get the shot will not be able to collect unemployment insurance unless they had a medical exemption.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: No unemployment insurance.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: It's also worth noting National Guard members are not the only ones who could be called in to replace unvaccinated workers.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Hochul said she may also call in recent medical graduates and retirees to help.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: The governor also said she might ask for help from out-of-state health workers and even workers from out of the country.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So one could argue that this is essentially a manufactured emergency.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: The state created a potential staffing shortage crisis by refusing to budge on the vaccine mandate.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: The health implications here are massive.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Definitely.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: In fact, some centers are already planning to suspend both elective inpatient surgeries and turn away intensive care patients.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Thanks for the reporting, Maraid.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Of course. Investigative reporter Maraid Alordi.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Last week, Facebook released its new content guidelines for suppressing posts on its platform, sparking more controversy over big tech censorship.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Here to discuss Facebook's latest moves and how it fits into the broader political battle is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So, Ian, first, what did Facebook just announce?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, last week, Facebook made their content distribution guidelines public. These guidelines are a list of policies which explain, at least according to Facebook, how they downrank content.
--:-- Ian Howarth: In other words, while Facebook's community guidelines explain what is and is not deleted from Facebook, their content distribution guidelines explain what is and is not suppressed on Facebook.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And what kind of criteria are they using to make those decisions?
--:-- Ian Howarth: The guidelines are very, very broad, which is part of the problem for a lot of people.
--:-- Ian Howarth: There are almost 30 items split into three categories.
--:-- Ian Howarth: The first category focuses on reacting to supposed user feedback.
--:-- Ian Howarth: The second claims to incentivize the spread of so-called high-quality and accurate content.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And the third seeks to provide users with a safer community.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And while this might all seem pretty boring on the surface, it's the second category in particular, incentivizing high-quality and accurate content, which is triggering alarm bells for critics of big tech.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And explain a little bit about what people are concerned about here.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Sure. So the type of content that is suppressed based on these guidelines, guidelines which have been enforced for some time by the way and not revealed is defined in a pretty subjective way.
--:-- Ian Howarth: For example deep down in the fact misinformation section the following line is hidden.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Content predicted to be a misinformation is sent to third fact and may be temporarily shown lower in newsfeed before it is reviewed.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So posts can be downranked before they're even confirmed as misinformation.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yes, and this is one example of why these guidelines are worrying those who are already concerned about anti-conservative bias on social media platforms.
--:-- Ian Howarth: This line is effectively retroactively justifying the move by Facebook and other big tech companies, by the way, during the run up to the 2020 election.
--:-- Ian Howarth: As you'll remember, last October, Facebook's comms director and former press secretary for a Democratic senator, Andy Stone, announced that a New York Post story involving the alleged business dealings of Hunter Biden and now President Biden was eligible to be fact-checked and would be downranked in the meantime.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Why is this important?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, not only was the story never debunked, it's likely true, 45% of Biden voters in seven swing states knew nothing about the story.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And over 9% said they would have changed their vote for president had they known.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So this is just one example among many of how powerful these sorts of control levers can be for social media companies and why many conservatives are sounding the alarm over these guidelines.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, in this case, Facebook is imposing these guidelines independently, but there's also talk about government regulation.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yeah, this really falls into the attempt by some the Democratic Party to impose certain levels of control over big tech.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And these Facebook guidelines are arguably an example of this strategy in action.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Back in July, for example, President Biden's Surgeon General called on big tech to impose consequences for users who violate platform policies.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And more recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren has pushed Amazon to use this algorithm to throttle the sale of books, which she characterizes as spreading so-called COVID-19 misinformation.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So when we put all of these stories together, it's clear that big tech is still at the center of an ongoing fight for what many are seeing as a battle for freedom of speech, both online and elsewhere.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Right. Ian, thanks for the update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: My pleasure. That's Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Other stories we're tracking this week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dozens of brawls and public disturbances broke out in Norway on Sunday as bars and restaurants filled with Norwegians celebrating the end of COVID restrictions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In an unexpected announcement, outgoing Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Friday, quote, it has been 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The FBI has reportedly asked for some of Brian Laundrie's personal belongings to help them with DNA matching efforts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the Laundrie family lawyer, his relatives have complied with agency requests.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The search for laundry continues after the remains of his fiancee, Gabby Petito, were discovered and her death was declared a homicide.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And a new report shows that more migrants may be making their way to the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to Reuters, two Panamanian government sources said that up to 4,000 migrants, the majority of whom are Haitians, have gone through Panama heading to the U.S.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Use code Morning Wire to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
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