Morning Wire XX
[0] Amid record rent costs, President Biden announced a new effort to bring what he calls fairness to renters across the country.
[1] What steps has the president taken and why are some Democrats calling for nationwide rent control?
[2] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[3] It's Thursday, January 26th, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] As officials across the country move to further restrict tobacco, local government, governments have expanded access to marijuana.
[5] Why are we seeing these diverging approaches, and how do politics and ideology play into the debate?
[6] And over the past decade, China has exponentially increased its ownership of U .S. farmland, including recent acquisitions near a U .S. military base.
[7] We should be cutting those links with China immediately.
[8] Why are experts raising the alarm about the trend and what are leaders in Congress saying about it?
[9] Plus, President Trump's Facebook account is reinstated.
[10] stated.
[11] Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[19] After a year that saw rapid increases in housing costs, President Biden announced a new renter's bill of rights as a growing number of Democrats are pressuring the White House to impose sweeping housing reform.
[20] Here with more on what the White House is considering and what it would mean for tenants and landlords around the country is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
[21] So Cabot, we've talked on the show before about the rising cost of housing, but this is a new development.
[22] What can you tell us?
[23] Yeah, on Wednesday, President Biden rolled out what he's calling.
[24] the renters bill of rights.
[25] With a series of measures the White House says will expand tenant rights and improve rent affordability.
[26] Now, while it's not technically binding, the measure will direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal agencies to begin collecting information that will help identify practices that, in their words, unfairly keep renters and applicants from housing.
[27] One example they gave was the use of tenant background checks, which Democrats have long said disproportionately impact minority tenants.
[28] The White House also instructed the DOJ to investigate potential anti -competitive information sharing among rental companies.
[29] Now, for context, there are 44 million households in America renting right now, and rental prices have skyrocketed since 2020.
[30] They went up 17 .6 % in 2021 and another 3 .8 % last year.
[31] So both sides agree this is an issue, and this seems to be the approach Democrats are now taking.
[32] Now, that announcement from the president came as Democrat leaders are pressuring him to pass yet another reform.
[33] Yeah, we've seen growing calls from the party's far -left base to institute a nation's nationwide rent control policy.
[34] That all culminated this month when 50 Democrat Congress members, led by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez and Senator Elizabeth Warren, sent a letter to the White House calling on President Biden to use the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies to implement rent control at a federal level.
[35] The letter, quote, urges the administration to pursue all possible strategies to end corporate price gouging in the real estate sector.
[36] More specifically, it calls on Biden to lay out specific regulations defining just how much landlords are allowed to increase rent each year, which would go well beyond anything we've seen before at the federal level.
[37] Now, how prevalent are rent control laws already?
[38] Well, for those not familiar, rent control policies essentially control what landlords can charge and how much they can increase rent prices each year.
[39] We've already seen cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles implement these kind of policies, while states like Oregon have passed laws that cap rental increases at 7 % annually.
[40] So there is some precedent here, but obviously federal action would be a huge step.
[41] And what are we seeing from the opposite side of this debate?
[42] So critics, mostly those on the right, say measures like this consistently result in higher rent prices over time.
[43] It sounds paradoxical, but these policies do often disincentivize new construction and can lead to widespread inefficiencies.
[44] For example, in 2021, St. Paul, Minnesota passed a rent increase cap of 3 % annually, and in the following six months, new building permits on rental housing dropped 84%.
[45] rent.
[46] And rent in cities like San Francisco and L .A. is more expensive than nearly anywhere else, in large part because of housing scarcity.
[47] They also say that it unfairly punishes landlords, the vast majority of whom are individuals and not corporations.
[48] Republicans say landlords already suffered major financial setbacks during the pandemic when those eviction moratoriums left them losing money on many of their properties.
[49] But we've also seen some criticism from within the Democratic Party.
[50] Yeah, it's interesting.
[51] It's worth noting, not everyone on the left is in favor of the idea.
[52] To that point, numerous Biden officials have said the president does not have the legal authority to pass the nationwide rent control policy.
[53] They say such a measure would almost certainly be struck down in court as well.
[54] And another legal snag here would be the fact that housing is incredibly complicated with nearly every local government having its own zoning restrictions and other rules, which makes federal action a bit far -fetched.
[55] So now the question becomes whether those progressive lawmakers will be appeased by the move or whether they continue putting the pressure on the president.
[56] Well, something we will continue to monitor.
[57] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[58] Anytime.
[59] That was Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[60] Last month, as New York opened its first recreational marijuana store, the chief of the state's Office of Cannabis Management, Chris Alexander, displayed his newly bought bag of banana runt's flavored marijuana flour to celebrate the occasion.
[61] This at a time when menthol cigarettes are being banned in several places in the name of equity.
[62] Here to discuss the drastically different approaches officials are taking and regulating cigarettes versus marijuana is columnist David Marcus.
[63] Morning, Dave.
[64] So first of all, what do menthol cigarettes have to do with equity?
[65] Good morning.
[66] Basically, menthol cigarettes are more popular in the black community than they are among white smokers.
[67] And therefore, the FDA and researchers at Rutgers University and others have argued that banning them would increase health equity by causing fewer black Americans to smoke.
[68] Now, critics of this measure argue that, A, it'll create a black market for the product.
[69] Also, that it's a little paternalistic, since white smokers will still be given a choice to use their preferred product.
[70] And increasingly, that regulation of tobacco and marijuana are wildly divergent as the latter becomes legal and more socially acceptable in many states and cities.
[71] Is it clear why government authorities are moving in the direction of harsher restrictions on nicotine products while loosening the rules for marijuana?
[72] It's really not.
[73] I mean, when you cover this beat and you talk to PR people from Big Tobacco, the first thing they say is, look, we know we don't have a great reputation, right?
[74] It's just a bit of an understatement.
[75] For decades, this industry lied and obfuscated about its own data, showing the harms of smoking.
[76] So some of this lag is from that.
[77] The weed industry is nascent and doesn't have that kind of baggage, so we don't see as much ire directed at it.
[78] In fact, government seems to have an almost playful attitude towards it, as we saw with the official in New York.
[79] Is there any significant difference in the level of harm between smoking tobacco or marijuana or consuming THC that might explain this difference in approach?
[80] There's some debate about this.
[81] Marijuana advocates and some scientists argue that a connection between smoking grass and lung cancer has not been found.
[82] But the American Lung Association says not so fast, saying, quote, whether from burning wood, tobacco or marijuana, toxins, and carcinogens are released from the combustion of materials, end quote.
[83] Most of the cancer -causing agents from smoking are a result of this combustion, the actual setting of the product on fire.
[84] Neither nicotine or THC taken without combustion pose anywhere near these threats, which is really the point of vaping, where there is no fire or burning.
[85] What are some differences in the way that smoking tobacco and marijuana are regulated, especially in regard to less harmful delivery systems like vaping or edibles?
[86] It's entirely different.
[87] For example, the FDA has a label that tobacco companies can apply for called a modified risk tobacco product.
[88] So if the company can show that vaping or using snooos really is less harmful, they can get this MRP label, and states will tax it at a lower rate to incentivize smokers to switch.
[89] This does not apply to marijuana products, which let's remember remain illegal on the federal level.
[90] That adds a lot of complications for this emerging weed industry.
[91] Right.
[92] Now, some commentators such as Tucker Carlson have pointed to the difference in the social impact of Americans consuming nicotine versus THC.
[93] Is this the social impact, something that public policy considers?
[94] It's certainly not out loud, but yes, the effects of these two chemicals are clearly quite different.
[95] Critics like Carlson point to THC as a product that makes people lazy, sluggish, complacent, while arguing that nicotine has opposite effects, like focusing the mind or giving one energy.
[96] A recent study showed that for the first time, Americans are smoking more grass than cigarettes, and it's legitimate to wonder, if not worry, what the impact is on a workforce, for example, where a bunch of people are high all day.
[97] Last year, positive drug tests hit a two -decade high among U .S. companies, even at a time when fewer and fewer are requiring such tests.
[98] So employers have to balance the desire for a sober workforce and this increase in marijuana smoking.
[99] Aside from making smokers stand out in the cold, there are a few, if any, companies who punish employees for smoking cigarettes or consuming nicotine, which I'm personally very grateful for.
[100] The way governments are handling this issue is getting well messy.
[101] Thank you for joining us, David.
[102] Thank you for having me. That was Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[103] by Chinese entities has exponentially increased over the past decade, leading some leaders in Congress to raise flags about potential national security threats.
[104] Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presti Giacomo.
[105] So Amanda, how much American farmland do Chinese firms own?
[106] And what are the concerns with that?
[107] Hey, Georgia.
[108] Well, according to the most recent numbers from the Department of Agriculture released in 2020, China owned about 200 ,000 acres of U .S. farmland, not including other properties, and that's less than 1 % of all foreign -owned farmland.
[109] But we have to add some context here.
[110] It's increasing at an exponential rate.
[111] Chinese ownership has increased more than 20 -fold from 2010 to 2020 to nearly $1 .8 billion.
[112] A Chinese group also acquired yet another 300 acres in North Dakota just last year.
[113] So while China accounts for just a fraction of the estimated 38 million acres of foreign -owned farmland, China is adversarial with the U .S. So in a lot of respects, it just can't be compared apples to apples to places like Canada, which is a nation that owns the most U .S. farmland.
[114] There are a few concerns, but chief among them is national security.
[115] That 300 ,000 acre buy in North Dakota from the Fufung Group, while that piece of land happens to be within 12 miles of the Grand Forks Air Force Base.
[116] I asked Stanford professor and historian Gordon Chang about that.
[117] They could actually install passive listening devices because at Grand Forks, we have satellite uplinks and we also control drones.
[118] But what's even worse than just passive capture of signals is China could actually disrupt communications at Grand Forks.
[119] Chang also highlighted this issue of reciprocity.
[120] No American can buy land in China.
[121] We should not be allowing Chinese parties to own farm or ranch land in the U .S. And I don't think we should be allowing them to own businesses in the United States.
[122] Now, what about securing food production?
[123] Is that a concern?
[124] Right now, Chinese ownership of our farmland is too small to threaten food production, but I think it would be short -sighted to dismiss this concern.
[125] Some reports indicate that 40 % of farmland here in the U .S., will be transferred to new ownership over the next couple of decades due to an expected mass retirement from farmers.
[126] There are about a dozen or so states that have restrictions on foreign ownership, but a lot of this land will be up for grabs, and that includes for China.
[127] Now, is this something that lawmakers are actively discussing in Congress?
[128] It's actually somewhat of a bipartisan concern.
[129] For example, we had Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren vowed to prohibit foreign individuals or entities from purchasing farmland for the purpose of farming during her present.
[130] campaign in 2020.
[131] But overall, the GOP is more bullish on this.
[132] Some red states have already banned these purchases, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said earlier this month that he's working to ban the CCP from buying up any property in the Sunshine State.
[133] On the flip side, some Democrats reject action or investigations into China, claiming it will boost anti -Asian hate here at home.
[134] For example, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Presley made this claim earlier this month when she refused to vote for a bipartisan House Select Committee on China.
[135] Well, this is just one of many ways China's exerting influence.
[136] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[137] Anytime.
[138] That was Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Press to Giacomo.
[139] Another story we're tracking this week.
[140] Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta reinstated former President Donald Trump's accounts on Wednesday.
[141] The move comes a little more than two years after Trump's accounts were suspended over posts regarding the 2020 election in January.
[142] In a lengthy explanation, META laid out its rationale for reinstating the former president, claiming it had determined that the supposed risk from January 6 had sufficiently receded to allow the former president back on.
[143] The social media giant also specified its new, quote, guardrails for Trump to deter future violations, which include months -long and even years -long suspensions.
[144] Meta specifically cites, quote, content that delegitimizes an upcoming election or content that's related to QAnon as examples of violations.
[145] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[146] Thanks for waking up with us.
[147] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.