Obama’s Sucker Play for Republican Governors

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OMB Director Jack Lew, speaking for the Obama administration, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times this weekend reiterating Obama’s dedication to fiscal prudence and providing three examples of programs that Obama is willing to cut. All three are programs that benefit states, and Stan Collender thinks this isn’t a coincidence:

The proposals are going to put a lot of Republican governors and mayors on the spot. I suspect the administration wants to force these GOP officials to be seen lobbying against the spending cut proposals. Look for them to be invited to some high profile meetings at the White House with heavy media coverage.

It’s possible that Republican governors will decide not to take the bait, but Stan is certainly right that this is our first look at how the budget battles are going to unfold. Republicans are going to propose cuts to programs liberals like and Democrats are going to propose cuts to programs that include conservatives as at least part of their constituency. Then they can fight it out and decide not to cut all that much out of the federal budget after all. Should be loads of fun.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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