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Monday, May 9, 2022
Biden’s bread line crisis? Anatomy of the American baby formula shortage By John Solomon JustTheNews.com EDITOR’S NOTE—This section is reserved as an editorial and may not necessarily reflect the policy of this publication.
The movie “2000 Mules” came out last week. It was quite the eye-opener and jawdropper. We would invite those from all walks of life to take a look at this film because no matter who you are and what side of the isle you may be on, this is damning evidence. I don’t ever want to hear again that there is ‘no evidence of widespread fraud.’ This was a well-oiled heist of an election pulled off by some of the smartest criminals to ever walk the face of the earth. They were successful in not only stealing the 2020 Presidential Election, but also even more successful at covering it up by using the media to shut down voices of opposition. Who knows if anything will ever be done about it, but at some point the people that are supposed to be in charge of this country are going to have to wake up and take it back over. This country was not founded by tea-sipping Oligarchs. This country was founded by rebellious men that were willing to through the tea in the water and stand up for themselves. Unfortunately, their descendants have become weak and docile. Maybe record-setting inflation would wake everyone up? Maybe if everyone’s property tax went through the roof and their gas prices became unaffordable? Maybe if they had rolling blackouts in energy? Maybe if there was a food shortage? Maybe if they were told by the government what they could and couldn’t say? What would Jefferson and his constituents say about all this?
At the outset of his presidency, Joe Biden promised competence by a bigger, better government. A few days ago, one of his loyal allies exposed a gross incompetence by federal officials on Biden’s watch that defied that promise and inflamed a baby formula shortage now panicking parents nationwide. Rep. Rose DeLauro, DConn., a reliable liberal ally, unveiled documents showing the Biden Food and Drug Administration was alerted by a whistleblower last fall about potential contamination issues at the Abbott Nutrition baby formula factory in Michigan and failed for months to act aggressively. “The FDA reacted far too slowly to this report,” DeLauro said in releasing a letter to the Health and Human Services inspector general demanding an immediate investigation to an incident that has led to babies being sickened and dying and a belated recall that has emptied shelves of formula nationwide. The congresswoman, the chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, laid out a four-month-long trail of federal bumbles and stumbles: the report came in Oct. 20, the whistleblower didn’t even get interviewed for
two months, the plant didn’t get inspected until Jan. 31 and the recall didn’t get issued until Feb. 17. “Why did the FDA not spring into action?” she implored during a congressional hearing. “Why did it take four months to pull this formula off store shelves? How many infants were fed contaminated formula during this time, by parents who trusted that the formula they were buying was safe? How many additional illnesses and deaths were there due to FDA’s slow response?” Now the bureaucratic stumbling has escalated into a national crisis, as video of bare shelves and panicked parents harken in America some of the same fears and images as the bread lines and rationing that befell the Soviet Union in the early 1990s just before its collapse. The problems began even before the recall as inflation, labor shortages and supply chain slowdowns began putting pressure on the baby food staple last fall. In November, baby formula was already substantially more expensive and supply shortages had already risen to 11%. By the first week of April, the shortages had soared to 31%, and last week the number stood at a stunning 40%, according to statistics kept by Datasembly.
The escalating shortages have prompted major stores such as Target, CVS and Walgreens to ration supplies with purchase limits. "This is a shocking number that you don't see for other categories," Datasembly CEO Ben Reich told CBS MoneyWatch on Friday. The crisis has both political and personal consequences. Many millennial and Gen Z child-bearing parents were part of the coalition that propelled Biden to his election win. And some parents are now facing life-anddeath consequences, especially for children with rare digestive disorders. "If this doesn’t get fixed soon, I don’t know how my son will survive," Phoebe Carter, whose 5year-old son suffers from a rare digestive and immune system disease, told Politico on Saturday. "I just can’t stress that enough." The poor and working class – whom Biden promised hope in his inaugural speech – are also disproportionately affected. A food bank in Seattle was so desperate to get some baby formula it recently held an emergency drive. Alfredo Ortiz, president of the small business group Job Creators Net(Continued on page 16)
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U.S. senator says Biden administration disinformation board likely illegal By Bethany Blankley JustTheNews.com Sen. Bill Hagerty, RTenn., says the creation of a board within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tasked with combating "disinformation" is likely illegal. Creating the board and hiring its new director without Congressional authorization violates several federal laws, Hagerty, R-Tenn., said. Knowingly and willfully violating one of them carries a $5,000 fine and up to two years in prison, he adds. Hagerty sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying his “actions merit review by Congress, both as a general matter, as well as under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) and because the actions may be in violation of provisions of the Antideficiency Act.” He told Mayorkas that “you will comply with the requirements” of the CRA when it comes to the creation of DHS’ disinformation board because the law requires “any agency action that falls within the definition of a ‘rule’ must be submitted to Congress for review before it can take effect.” Creating the board and hiring its new director, Nina Jankowicz, “may also be a direct violation of provisions of the Antideficiency Act,” Hagerty wrote. The law prohibits “making or authorizing an expenditure from, or creating or authorizing an obligation under, any appropriation or fund in excess of the amount available in the appropriation or fund unless authorized by law.” Federal funding available for the board and for Jankowicz’s salary “is ‘none,’” he said, because “Congress explicitly defunded it, just weeks ago.”
Citing a section of the fiscal 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Act, Hagerty said the law “specifically prohibits the Secretary of Homeland Security from using any funds provided by Congress to carry out Section 872 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which means it defunded any action to ‘allocate or reallocate functions among the officers of the Department of Homeland Security or to establish, consolidate, or alter organizational units within the Department of Homeland Security.’” Hagerty also put Mayorkas on notice, writing: “As you know, an officer or employee, including you, who violates the Antideficiency Act ‘shall be subject to appropriate administrative discipline,’ and, for willful violations, faces a criminal fine, imprisonment, or both.” A federal employee who willfully violates the Antideficiency Act “shall be subject to appropriate administrative discipline including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay or removal from office.” A federal employee who “knowingly and willfully” violates it “shall be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both.” After receiving a wide range of criticism about the DHS’s disinformation board, Mayorkas hit the television circuit last weekend and testified before the Senate on Wednesday. DHS also published a fact sheet about its disinformation initiative, calling it an internal working group. Initially, Mayorkas said DHS had been talking with secretaries of state and the new board’s focus would be on the upcoming midterm elections. But the fact sheet states its focus is on “disinformation spread by foreign states such as (Continued on page 16)
