| | | | | | | Presented By Facebook | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen · Aug 11, 2022 | | Good Thursday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,117 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. | | | | | | 1 big thing — Scoop: Biden's inflation jujitsu | | In the East Room yesterday, President Biden hands a pen to Brielle Robinson, daughter of the late Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson, after signing the PACT Act expansion of veterans' health benefits. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images President Biden will go on offense against Republicans' drumbeat about rising prices by arguing the GOP has repeatedly sided with special interests — "pushing an extreme MAGA agenda that costs families," according to a White House memo shared first with Axios. - Why it matters: The GOP plans to try to make November's midterms a "gas and groceries" election — all about inflation. Biden can't undo the pain families have felt as everyday prices skyrocketed. So this is his inflation jujitsu — using Republicans' force against them.
🔭 Zoom out: Biden is expected to sign Democrats' climate-health-tax bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, soon after House passage, expected late this week. Biden, Vice President Harris and the cabinet then will fan out across the country with this message. - The White House believes the bill puts Democrats in a position of strength heading into Labor Day.
The memo — from White House communications director Kate Bedingfield and senior adviser Anita Dunn — argues that Biden's wins have dealt blows to a parade of entrenched interests. - Among the targets: the pharmaceutical industry, big corporations, the gun lobby and oil and gas companies.
- 'This is the choice before the American people," the memo concludes. "President Biden and Congressional Democrats taking on special interests for you and your family. Or Congressional Republicans' extreme, MAGA agenda that serves the wealthiest, corporations and themselves."
Between the lines: The special-interest messaging attempts to counter the narrative that Democrats are becoming the party of the economic elite, Axios' Sophia Cai points out. - It's a message that Democrats running in swing states — including Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina — are already embracing, in an effort to win back rural and working-class votes Dems lost in 2020.
Both parties are now fighting for the working-class mantel. - House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy argues: "President Biden and House Democrats' radical policies have caused inflation to soar to a 40-year high. They've pushed out-of-touch policies that have caused energy prices to rise and real wages to go down."
Read the full memo. Screenshot: MSNBC ⚡ Go deeper: Axios' Sophia Cai has a first look at a timeline of effective dates for major provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. - A majority of the provisions start to take effect after November's midterms but before the 2024 election.
|     | | | | | | 2. ⛽ Breaking: Gas price drops under $4 | | Woodman's in Menomonee Falls, Wis., was ahead of the national curve, with gas just under $4 on July 20. Photo: Morry Gash/AP Early this morning, AAA posted the national average price of a gallon of regular gas at $3.990, dropping under the psychological barrier of $4. - Why it matters: The falling gas price is a huge relief for consumers — and for Democrats, since Republicans plan to hammer rising prices in midterm campaigns.
Between the lines: Gas prices tend to peak in the summer. They usually drop as summer driving season ends around Labor Day, Reuters reports. Gas prices peaked at a record $5.02 in June. - Crude oil, the main driver of gas prices, reached $139 a barrel at one point. It was at $92 yesterday.
🔎 Zoom in: Retail gas prices have fallen almost everywhere over the past month, with the Midwest and South seeing some of the steepest drops. - Ohio had the largest fall ($1.36). Hawaii had the smallest (21¢).
🥊 Reality check: Consumer inflation is still up 8.5% over the past year. | | | | | | | | 3. 🔋 Coming scramble for clean-energy workers |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Clean-energy industries, where labor shortages are already a problem, will have trouble finding enough trained workers to support Democrats' massive new climate package, Ben Geman writes in Axios Generate. - The package — once finalized by the House and signed by President Biden — will finance more renewable power, clean-energy equipment manufacturing, installation of home heat pumps, efficiency upgrades, electric vehicles and hydrogen development.
⚠️ Threat level: The Princeton-led REPEAT Project, in an analysis of new projects the bill would spur, cautions that the ability to hire and train a clean energy workforce is among the various "difficult to model" constraints that may limit growth rates. 🔮 What's next: Philip Jordan of BW Research, which studies workforce trends, said the largest job gains will come in construction and installation of equipment (including wind turbines), energy-efficiency upgrades, transmission, battery storage and solar panels. - "A lot of those are going to be unionized," he said. "And labor unions are actually quite good at rapidly meeting needs and expanding."
Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) president Abigail Ross Hopper sees the solar and energy storage workforce quadrupling from its current 250,000. 🖼️ The big picture: UMass researchers estimate the bill's mix of tax credits, grants, and loans — and the private sector capital they enable — will create an average of over 900,000 jobs annually over 10 years. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | Facebook is taking action to keep its platform safe | | |  | | | | We spent $16 billion to enhance safety and security across our platforms over the past 6 years. That's enough to build 7 pro stadiums. And it's just one example of the work we're doing to create safer connections. Learn more about our work ahead. | | | | | | 4. 📷 1,000 words | | Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough talks with Jon Stewart on the White House lawn yesterday after the signing ceremony for the PACT Act, the biggest expansion of veterans' health benefits since the Agent Orange Act of 1991 — 31 years ago. - The PACT Act, which passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support, expands federal health care services for millions of veterans who served at military bases where toxic smoke billowed from huge "burn pits."
Fact sheet on the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act. | | | | | | | | 5. ⚖️ Trump's tally | | A Suburban carrying former President Donald Trump leaves yesterday's deposition. Photo: John Minchillo/AP Former President Trump invoked the Fifth American more than 440 times during a four-hour deposition yesterday with lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James, NBC News reports. - The only question Trump answered was his name, Trump attorney Ron Fischetti told NBC.
| | | | | | | | 6. 🥊 WSJ: FBI had Trump source | | Mar-a-Lago yesterday. Photo: Steve Helber/AP "Someone familiar with the stored papers" told the feds there might be more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes in January, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription). - "Justice Department officials had doubts that the Trump team was being truthful regarding what material remained at the property," The Journal adds.
| | | | | | | | 7. 🎞️ Disney passes Netflix |  Data: Company filings. Chart: Jared Whalen/Axios Disney now has 221 million global subscriptions across all its streaming offerings — passing Netflix, which had 220.7 million global subscribers last quarter, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer reports. | | | | | | | | 8. 🕸 1 fun thing: Spider-Man turns 60 | The first issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man" comic-book series, published in 1963, and seen here at auction in 2004. The character debuted in 1962. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images Spider-Man — the underestimated smartypants who, after a quick change into head-to-toe spandex, becomes a force for good — turned 60 this week. - Why it matters: Spider-Man's classic costume, with a wide-eyed and web-patterned mask, is a key ingredient to the character's appeal across race, gender and nationality. Almost anyone can imagine themselves behind it as this everyman, AP's Aaron Morrison writes.
Created by the late Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" appeared in comics as early as June 1962. - The canon date of his debut is Aug. 10, 1962, in Marvel's Amazing Fantasy #15.
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