Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday released an economic proposal to tackle high inflation that includes cutting government programs, the Environmental Protection Agency and President Joe Biden’s incentives aimed at curbing impacts of climate change.
In his first policy proposal as a presidential candidate, Pence’s four-part plan includes halting the “deficit spending spree,” bringing more supply chains back to the US, increasing domestic energy, and ending the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability by making the latter its sole focus.
The proposal comes as Pence has struggled to gain traction in a GOP field dominated by his former running mate, Donald Trump. Of the Republican candidates who have met the Republican National Committee’s polling threshold, Pence is the only one who says he has not reached the fundraising threshold to participate in next month’s debate.
His proposal would freeze non-defense spending, repeal new spending approved by the Biden administration, and cut government programs deemed “unnecessary” and reform “mandatory programs.”
In campaign speeches, Pence has called for the elimination of the Education Department and pushed for reforms to entitlement programs including Social Security.
His proposal unveiled Wednesday features an “initial list of major savings that have been pinpointed for reduction,” arguing that it would save American taxpayers more than $1.2 trillion.
Pence’s plan would eliminate the EPA, tax credits for electric vehicles, Biden’s “residential clean energy credit” and repeal Biden’s subsidies for automakers to make electric vehicle batteries.
He would end Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, roll back new funding for the Internal Revenue Service and shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created after the 2008 financial crisis.
Pence’s proposal would also rescind $66 billion in the bipartisan 2021 infrastructure bill that went toward passenger and freight rail transportation, most of it for Amtrak.
“Government cannot spend its way to prosperity, and yet Joe Biden is set on dismantling our once great economy and hurting families who can no longer afford food or find a good paying job,” Pence said in a statement. “My top economic priority will be to renew American prosperity by cutting wasteful government spending, restoring the value of the dollar, building resilient supply chains, and restoring American energy independence.”
“Unfortunately, many Republican presidential candidates are too busy catfighting amongst themselves to develop a plan that will bring inflation under control,” his campaign’s one-pager on his plan reads.
President Joe Biden unveiled his latest round of judicial nominees Thursday, bringing the number of people he has offered for the federal judiciary to 180 and continuing the White House’s emphasis on demographic and professional diversity.
The four newly announced nominees are being offered to fill vacancies on two federal appellate courts, as well as openings on US district courts in Minnesota and California.
“The President’s very top priority is nominating the most diverse and impressive judicial nominees and getting them confirmed,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said in a statement to CNN that pointed to the recent spree of Senate judicial confirmations that put a labor lawyer, a civil rights attorney and former public defender, and a reproductive rights lawyer on the federal bench.
“Today, the President’s nominees include a U.S. Navy Reserve Captain and Navy Reserve Lieutenant Commander, a Korean-American state court judge – and if confirmed – the first Hispanic person to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota,” Zients continued.
Judge Eumi Lee, a Korean American superior court judge in California, is being nominated for the federal trial court for the state’s Northern District. Minnesota state Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey Bryan, who is Hispanic, is Biden’s choice for Minnesota’s US district court.
For a Kansas seat on the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit – a Denver-based appeals court that covers states in the Midwest and West – Biden is nominating Rich Federico, a Kansas federal public defender who is the latest example of Biden seeking to break what was once the ex-prosecutor or corporate lawyer mold for judicial nominees.
As part of Biden’s commitment to bringing more professional diversity to the judiciary, the White House is also touting Lee’s time teaching at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly the University of California, Hastings College of the Law) where she was focused on access to justice and criminal justice reform issues.
Biden has selected for the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit – a Chicago-based appeals court covering parts of the upper Midwest – US Magistrate Judge Joshua Kolar, who also serves as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy Reserve. Federico, the 10th Circuit nominee, likewise has a military background, serving as a captain in the US Navy Reserve.
A White House official, who asked for anonymity to weigh in on the work behind the scenes, said that relevant senators were consulted in the selection process. That includes the Republican senators from Kansas whom the Biden administration worked with in picking Federico for the 10th Circuit opening in their state, the White House official said.
A change to Senate norms made by Republicans under the Trump administration abolished a tradition that required home state senators to sign off on appeals court nominees, but such approval is still needed for nominees for US district courts to advance in the Senate.
