The Daly Weekly (7/18)

Obama's debt history, Marco Rubio, Stephen Colbert, and more!

Hi everyone.

Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw my way.

Before we start, a quick programming note: Next week on the Daly Express podcast, I’ll be talking to New York Times columnist, David French. If you have a question you’d like me to ask David, please put it in the comment section below. I’ll choose some of them for the interview. Thanks!

Now, let’s get to this week’s questions… and my answers.

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Sir John: I’ve been hearing about this story for a couple weeks and I’m wondering what your take on it is. Apparently Carnival Cruise Lines is being accused of (GASP!)—-RACISM! Here’s a brief video commentary. Your thoughts? — “Cruising’ For Bruisin’ on Carnival” regards from The Emperor

It’s a made-up story, Emperor.

John, Has anyone asked MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, why he is holding the All Star game in Atlanta, 4 years after cancelling it over GA voting Laws. Laws that are the exact same, and were referred to by Biden as “Jim Crow laws”. Incidentally, Black voter turnout actually increased. Haven’t heard one word politically. No protests. Please make sense of this!!!! — Rob O.

Has anyone asked him that question? I don’t know. But your point is a valid one, Rob. The Democratic kerfuffle over Georgia’s voting laws was obscene (to say the least), and those who bought into the hysteria should feel embarrassed. Maybe Manfred does. As you said, the laws that that crowd insisted would suppress voter turnout actually led to record-high voter turnout. And because the “Jim Crow” stuff was 110% wrong, those who perpetuated the narrative are now, of course, totally silent on the matter. Embarrassing.

Obama was hamstrung by the Republican legislature from the beginning on his initiatives and for the first time the legislature used the debt ceiling as a weapon to curb his success. Trump then spent more in his 4 years than Obama in his 8 years. Biden spent his share and now Trump adds trillions to the debt over 10 years. Looking at the country's output, Democrats do not start recessions, they end up cleaning up afterwards. This both sides do it narrative is not accurate. — Andre M.

Hi Andre. For some context (for the sake of others reading this), your’e referring to my points in last week’s Daly Weekly about both parties being responsible for our runaway national-debt problem.

A few things: By curbing Obama’s success, I believe you’re referring the Budget Control Act of 2011, which later triggered automatic budget sequestration. Contrary to popular belief, that legislation was actually proposed by the Obama White House, not Republicans. Republicans did agree to it, however. Its intent was to move past stalled debt-ceiling negotiations, and secure a mutual commitment to future negotiations (which ultimately failed and triggered the aforementioned automatic spending cuts). Once that happened, Obama and the Democrats cried foul.

If we are indeed talking about the same thing, Andre (which I believe we are), I don’t understand how it helps your argument. Obama, while in office, was the biggest spending president in U.S. history. He presided over around $8 trillion in new national debt (almost twice as much as his predecessor, George W. Bush, during the same amount of time). And Obama would have added even more to the debt (his proposed budgets were insane), had the sequestration not been triggered. Ironically, the sequestration, which Obama loudly opposed once enacted, was largely responsible for shrinking annual deficits during his second term (something he’s been more than happy to take credit for).

As for Trump: Yes, he was (and still is) an insane spender too! He was on-track to exceed Obama’s first-term debt-contribution even before the pandemic struck. Trump presided over almost as much new debt in a single term as Obama did in two terms, and — as you say — it’s going to get much, much worse under him.

Regarding Biden, you say, almost dismissively, that he “spent his share.” Yes, and it was an enormous share: over $8 trillion!

So… I’m not sure how my argument that both parties are responsible isn’t 100% accurate.

As for recessions, Bush didn’t cause the Great Recession (which was already over a few months after he left office), though him being in office when it happened helped Obama win the presidency. Likewise, Trump didn’t cause the COVID-19 recession, but him being in office when it happened helped Biden win the presidency. So, I’m not really seeing your point there either.

What do you think about Trump’s alleged birthday drawing and note to Jeffrey Epstein? News dropped tonight. — Ben G.

Hi Ben. I’m just learning about this story a few hours before this Q&A goes live, so I’m not going to comment on it right now. I’ll just reiterate what I said last week: Trump and Epstein, by both men’s accounts, were once good friends.

Are you surprised than Stephen Colbert’s show was cancelled? — Alex D.

Only in the sense that CBS retired “The Late Show” franchise altogether, instead of just replacing the host. Then again, the network may have deemed the era of late-night network comedy to be over. If so, I think they’re right. The ratings across the board have been abysmal for a long time.

Personally, I’ve never cared for Colbert, Fallon, or Kimmel. It would have been interesting to see if someone else could have built a strong, sustainable audience in this genre and era. I have my doubts. I guess I’ll just consider myself fortunate to have gotten to enjoy Johnny Carson and David Letterman (before he turned sour) for all those years. They were amazing.

John: In January I shook my head at most Trump cabinet appointees. However, I do think we have two adults in the room; serious, qualified people who are statesmen and good for the country - Scott Bessent (Secretary of the Treasury) and Marco Rubio (Secretary of State). Apparently Democratic senators agreed. The Senate approved Bessent 68-29 and Rubio 99-0. Do you agree about Bessent and Rubio? Are there any more cabinet appointees you would add to the "serious and qualified" list? — Steve R.

I think those two are probably the best of the bunch, Steve, though — at times — both are put in the very unfortunate position of having to advocate for some very bad ideas (that they clearly know are bad). I can’t emphasize enough just how abysmal most of the rest of Trump’s cabinet picks are: a collection of grossly unqualified pundits, grifters, suck-ups, and worse. We’re only six months into this administration, and many of these people’s defects have already been on full display. It’s unfortunate.

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Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.