| | | | | | | Presented By Meta | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Feb 28, 2023 | | 🧤 Hello, Tuesday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,450 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Biden's big bet | | President Biden takes a selfie after speaking about the economy Feb. 15 at a union local in Lanham, Md. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images President Biden plans a relentless focus on the economy during his re-election race, even as much of the public doubts the country's direction. - Why it matters: It's a high-risk strategy, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.
🎲 The gamble: If unemployment stays low and productivity holds steady, Biden would be set to ride a healthy economy to a second term. - But if the economy enters a deep recession before November 2024, the president would have spent precious political capital demanding credit — when voters would be more inclined to hand out blame.
Biden — who reiterated to ABC's David Muir last week that he intends to run, but hasn't made an official announcement — today takes his message of economic optimism to Virginia Beach. - He'll argue that Republicans plan to increase health care costs for millions of Americans.
- Next week, Biden releases his budget. He'll emphasize his plans to cut deficit spending by $2 trillion over 10 years — and push House Republicans to specify what programs they want to cut.
Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told Axios: "We think the underlying numbers about consumer spending and business investment are also positive ... They show that people have a lot of confidence in their financial condition and where the economy is headed." - "As we've always said, we expect there to be some bumps along the way as we transition to steady and stable growth."
🧮 By the numbers: In addition to the 12 million jobs added to Biden's economy, officials highlight the 3.4% unemployment rate — a 50-year low. - Biden takes the record 10.5 million small business applications in his first two years as individual votes of confidence.
🐘 The other side: Republicans continue to attack Biden over the cost of everyday goods and are convinced the public shares their skepticism about Biden's economic record. 🥊 Reality check: Biden doesn't control the velocity or direction of the economy. - The economy's fate is largely in the hands of the Fed — which remains concerned about inflation, and is likely to continue to raise interest rates to slow down the economy.
Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. 🗞️ WaPo editorial board has no people of color | | Jonathan Capehart. Screenshot: MSNBC Jonathan Capehart quit The Washington Post editorial board after a dispute over an editorial about 2024 politics, leaving the paper with an all-white editorial board, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer has learned. - Why it matters: Capehart left the board at a time when The Post — based in a city where nearly half the population is Black — is swirling in internal discontent over the paper's leadership.
By comparison, The New York Times editorial board has three people of color. State of play: Since joining The Post as a member of its editorial board in 2007, Capehart has become one of The Post's most visible and influential commentators. - Capehart — who remains a Post columnist, associate editor and podcaster — quit in December as a member of the board, which debates editorials that represent the views of The Post as an institution.
- He was the only Black person on the board for the past 15 years.
What happened: Capehart, a Black and gay Pulitzer winner, left the board in early December, following a disagreement over a Dec. 6 editorial about the runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Herschel Walker. - He turned in his resignation to Post editorial-page editor David Shipley shortly after the piece ran.
A Post spokesperson told Axios that The Post's Opinion section "is committed to diverse representation in all its pages," and that the section "plans to further expand the range of voices in the months to come." 📊 What we're watching: The Washington Post continues to face business pressure as The New York Times continues to add digital subscribers. - The Post didn't break even last year, with heavy investments in newsroom additions meant to expand The Post's national footprint.
Share this story ... Sign up here for Sara Fischer's weekly Axios Media Trends, out later today. | | | | | | | | 3. America's hunger cliff |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | The U.S. poverty rate is likely to rise this year, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck reports. - One of the last remaining major COVID relief programs — the expansion of SNAP benefits, a.k.a. food stamps — ends with February benefits, pushing about 32 million Americans off a "hunger cliff" in March.
Why it matters: Since 2020, massive expansions of funding for programs that serve low-income Americans have lowered poverty rates meaningfully for adults and children. That era is mostly ending. - "People are going to be hungrier," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, deputy executive director for the Center for Law and Social Policy.
🧮 By the numbers: The SNAP emergency allotments kept 4.2 million people out of poverty, reducing poverty rates for children by 14% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to an Urban Institute report published last year. - The enhancements already ended in 18 states, affecting 9 million people.
- Advocates for the poor say they've seen more people in those places struggling to buy food — at a time when food prices are high, making every dollar count.
🛒 A few new permanent benefits came out of the COVID era — including a food benefit, Summer EBT, that will provide $391 per child when school is out to help with groceries. 🔮 What's next: Federal grants to help with housing and childcare expenses are also expected to run out this year. A provision to simplify Medicaid enrollment also is ending. | | | | | | | | A message from Meta | | The metaverse will give doctors new tools to make decisions faster | | |  | | | | In the ER, every second counts. Doctors will use the metaverse to visualize scans and make decisions faster — to help patients get the specialty care they need in a timely manner. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. Explore more possibilities with the metaverse. | | | | | | 4. 📷 In photos: Fading Black history | | The Rossonian Hotel, once the heart of Black Denver's Five Point neighborhood, sits empty. It once hosted performances by Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios During Black History month, Axios went looking to see what became of sites that made it into the "Negro Motorist Green Book" — a guide that offered Black travelers tips during Jim Crow. - Reporters from Des Moines, Iowa, to Albuquerque, N.M., found that buildings that once hosted jazz legends and civil rights leaders are gone. Others found structures still standing.
This home in Fayetteville, Ark., once was a hotel called "Mebbs" for Black travelers during segregation. Resident Kirk Deffenbaugh tells Axios that Black truck drivers stayed there as they traveled up and down U.S. 71. Photo: Worth Sparkman/Axios Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe in Boston's South End. It's believed to be the first Boston restaurant that served Black customers, hosting Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr. and other jazz greats. Photo: Steph Solis/Axios See more photos ... Get Axios Local — in 26 cities, with 4 more soon. | | | | | | | | 5. 🐊 DeSantis: "Make America Florida" | Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis yesterday signs a law in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., stripping Disney of self-governing powers. Photo: Ricardo Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel via Reuters Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — out today with a campaign-style book — "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival" — makes no bones about his national plans: - The conclusion is called "Make America Florida."
"Taking strong stands will engender blowback from the left-media complex and may temporarily impact a leader's political standing," DeSantis writes. - "Florida has shown that we have the capacity to win against these elites."
DeSantis, 44, also writes about the battle with breast cancer by his wife, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, beginning in 2021: "The entire ordeal was a reminder to both of us that there are no guarantees in life." - "You never know what curveballs life may throw at you. Every day is a gift, so make the most of it — and don't look back."
Book excerpt ... Go deeper: "DeSantis readies de facto presidential campaign," by Zachary Basu. | | | | | | | | 6. 🌐 First look: Samantha Power on "How Democracy Can Win" |  | | | Cover: Foreign Affairs | | | | Samantha Power — administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. — writes optimistically in the March/April 2023 issue of Foreign Affairs that "early 2022 may prove to be a high-water mark for authoritarianism": "Putin's ambitions to dominate Ukraine failed miserably, thanks to the unwavering resolve and courage of the Ukrainian people. Putin made mistake after strategic mistake while the free people of Ukraine successfully mobilized, innovated, and adapted." "Democracy is not in decline," Power insists. "Rather, it is under attack." - "After years of democratic backsliding, the world's autocrats are finally on the defensive."
Keep reading ... Explore the issue. | | | | | | | | 7. 🎂 TIME turns 100 | | Covers from (clockwise) 1966, 1972, 1999 and 1983, courtesy TIME TIME — first published on March 3, 1923— today begins a yearlong centennial celebration of the power of its iconic red border. Images courtesy TIME The first issue of TIME ... and the 100th-anniversary issue, out today. | | | | | | | | 8. 🎞️ 1 film thing: "Cocaine Bear" roars |  | | | Keri Russell in "Cocaine Bear." Photo: Redmond/Universal Pictures via AP | | | | The gonzo R-rated horror comedy "Cocaine Bear" sniffed up a surprisingly strong $23.1 million in its opening weekend. Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" shrank unusually quickly in its second weekend, AP reports. - "Quantumania" was still No. 1, with an estimated $32.2 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
- But the "Ant-Man" sequel, hit with some of the worst reviews and audience scores of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, dropped a steep 70% in its second weekend.
Universal Pictures' "Cocaine Bear" rampaged through multiplexes, scoring notably above expectations. - Made for about $35 million, "Cocaine Bear" stirred up plenty of buzz just from its title and its made-to-go-viral trailer.
Watch the trailer ... Movie backstory. | | | | | | | | A message from Meta | | Augmented reality will help firefighters with search and rescue | | |  | | | | One day, firefighters will use the metaverse to navigate burning buildings more quickly. The result: Crucial seconds can be saved when lives are on the line. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. Explore more possibilities with the metaverse. | | | | 📬 Thanks for sharing your morning with us. Please invite your friends to join. |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it. | | | |
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