Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 1
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Thursday, June 1.
Once again there's a chance for rain in the forecast, but we'll see if it actually arrives. According to the National Weather Service it will become increasingly cloudy during the day in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 89 degrees. There will be somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of a chance for showers and thunderstorms between 3 and 9 p.m. Thursday night, it is predicted to be partly cloudy, with a low of around 66 degrees.
You might not have to hear about the debt ceiling on the news for a while, assuming this passes in the Senate.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, the House approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package late Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assembled enough Democrats and Republicans to pass the bill, while more conservative and liberal members of both parties still voted no in protest for various reasons.
The hard-fought deal pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act. Tensions ran high throughout the day as hard-right Republicans refused the deal, while Democrats said “extremist” GOP views were risking a debt default as soon as next week.
The package makes some inroads in curbing the nation’s debt as Republicans demanded, without rolling back Trump-era tax breaks as Biden wanted. To pass it, Biden and McCarthy counted on support from the political center, a rarity these days in Washington.
With an overwhelming House vote, 314-117, the bill now heads to the Senate with passage expected by the end of the week.
In his first visit to Iowa as a declared presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly framed Iowa and Florida as partners in a Republican battle to “restore sanity.”
To DeSantis, that includes laws prohibiting instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, banning gender-affirming care for minors, and making abortions illegal after six weeks of pregnancy.
“Iowa has really set a great standard,” DeSantis told a crowd of about 500 people gathered Wednesday at Hawkeye Downs Speedway & Expo Center.
“People have said that all of the success in Iowa with these great conservative policies makes Iowa the Florida of the North. I don’t know … maybe we’re the Iowa of the South,” he said to loud applause.
He vowed to send Biden “back to his basement,” and said the nation is “careening toward bankruptcy” in the wake of Biden’s debt ceiling deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence will launch his presidential campaign during a Des Moines rally on June 7, a source familiar with Pence’s plans confirmed.
The former vice president has made frequent visits to Iowa as he explored a bid for president. He will join several other presidential contenders at Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual Roast and Ride fundraiser on Saturday, days before the planned campaign launch.
He plans to campaign in all 99 counties, according to multiple reports. CNN will host a town hall with Pence at Grand View University at 8 p.m. June 7, the same day his campaign is set to launch.
Pence has made education, LGBTQ issues and civility in politics a focus of his early campaigning, taking particular aim at a gender support policy the Linn-Mar school district adopted last year.
