House Committee Votes 50-0 to Ban TikTok Unless Ownership Changes

by
Sharing is Caring!

via Mike Shedlock

Millennials and Zoomers are in tears over a TikTok ban that Biden says he will sign unless China gives up ownership. A protest move backfired, firming support for the ban.

TikTok Stunt Motivates Lawmakers to Take On the App

The Wall Street Journal reports TikTok Stunt Motivates Lawmakers to Take On the App

U.S. lawmakers are mounting their most serious attempt to effectively either ban popular video app TikTok or separate it from its Chinese owner, advancing a bill that has more political momentum than previous attempts.

As lawmakers prepared to consider the legislation on Thursday, users of the app, which is accessed by more than 170 million Americans, saw notifications urging them to complain to their House representative about the bill. Then the app let people call their representative with a few presses of buttons, fueling congressional concerns about TikTok.

TikTok’s campaign quickly overwhelmed the phone lines of some congressional offices, which were bombarded with hang-ups and questions. It also illustrated how TikTok could mobilize an army of people and gather data to push user behavior, which some lawmakers say is the exact reason they don’t want the company to have ties back to China.

“I think TikTok made our case for us today,” said Rep. Bob Latta (R., Ohio), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce’s panel on communications and technology.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously, 50-0, to advance the bill Thursday. It would essentially require TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to an American owner or effectively face a ban.

Trump Reversal

Trump wants to pick up more youth votes. So his switch is unsurprising.

Former President Donald Trump criticized the TikTok measure late Thursday on his social network Truth Social. He wrote that banning TikTok would only help Facebook, which he described as an “enemy of the people.”

That marks a shift from when Trump was president. Then, he sought to shut down TikTok in the U.S. if the company wasn’t put under control of U.S. owners. Federal court rulings blocked Trump’s orders from taking effect. Biden later revoked the Trump-era effort, substituting an executive order mandating a broad review of apps controlled by foreign adversaries.

Biden administration officials concluded that TikTok represented a national-security threat but were uncertain they had the legal authority to effectively ban the app or separate it from its Chinese owner. The new TikTok bill aims to give the White House clear authority to do so.

Sen. Rand Paul opposed a previous effort to ban downloading the app but he did not respond today.

Distraught Zoomers and Millennials

Biggest Congressional call-in since 2008. I organized that one and am proud of it.

Flashback September 22, 2008: Senator Email Blast List Simplified: Flood Them With Emails With One Click

In response to the proposed bailout of financial institutions in 2008, I wrote a series of articles listing all the Senators and Congressmen and their phone numbers.

The switchboards were flooded for days. This went on for a week. I achieved a one-day victory.

The first vote failed. Then Paulson and or Tim Geithner appeared before Congress saying there would be Armageddon unless Congress approved the bailout vote. It passed the next day.

My Message of the Day

Congress will not listen. Anyway, I was proud of my effort. It seems a lot easier to flood the switchboards today.

See also  The Omnibus bill has been pulled from the House floor following pressure from Elon Musk

Here’s a flashback hoot that I forgot about. Bill Gross bet the farm on a Fannie Mae bailout that I also protested. Gross won the bet. September 11, 2008: Slope Of Bailouts Is Slippery And Expensive

Intentional or not, another consequence of the structure of the Paulson bailout was a $1.7 billion payday for PIMCO. Given that Bill Gross bet the farm (62% of his $132 billion fund was riding on agency bonds) a very good case can be made that the bailout was purposely structured to protect PIMCO.

Well, that was fun.

Apparently TikTok is far more serious stuff. People are in tears now.

I agree with this comment

But it’s too late for that. Biden stated he would sign the bill.

Trump Meets TikTok Investor

Quartz reports Donald Trump Says Don’t Ban TikTok — a Big Reversal

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Trump wrote on Thursday night.

It’s unclear why Trump called Facebook an “enemy of the people,” a phrase that he usually saves for mainstream media outlets not named Fox News. And it doesn’t appear Trump has ever used the nickname “Zuckerschmuck” for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg before, which, according to a simple Google search, looks like the name of a real online store centered around diabetes.

Trump’s opposition to a TikTok ban would be a reversal of policy for the former president, who signed an executive order in the summer of 2020 that would have forced TikTok’s parent company in China, ByteDance, to completely divest of the social media site or face a ban on U.S. soil.

Trump’s executive order, which was held up in federal court before being reversed when Biden took office in 2021, called TikTok’s existence a “national emergency” for the U.S. that could threaten the country’s security and economy.

Why is Trump reversing course on TikTok? Maybe he’s making the calculation that it helps his own social media platform in some way. Or maybe it’s because Trump reportedly saw at least $5.5 million flowing to his businesses from Chinese sources while he was president. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Republican mega-donor Jeff Yass, a billionaire with a big investment in ByteDance, recently had a friendly phone call with Trump, according to Politico?

Maybe Trump wants to delay a ban until he hypothetically returns to the White House, a tactic he’s already deployed to sink a bipartisan immigration reform deal because he wants to campaign on the issue of a “broken border.”

It’s the Votes Stupid!

My take stands. It’s the votes stupid.

Trump does not give a damn about TiKTok one way or another. He sees an opportunity to pick up youth votes.

Polls Show Biden is Losing Black, Hispanic, and Young Voters to Trump

A claim by Biden’s campaign spokesperson caught my eye today for being ass backward. Let’s discuss the claim.

Yesterday, I commented Polls Show Biden is Losing Black, Hispanic, and Young Voters to Trump

Biden made the claim Trump is hemorrhaging voters. I did a quick fact check and showed it was Biden who was hemorrhaging voters.

Understanding the Youth Vote Economically

On average, the economy looks OK. But averages are misleading. Several large groups of people are struggling. They all have one thing in common.

See also  Government funding bill fails in House vote; Massie calls for separating the bills and voting on them individually.
Case-Shiller home price index, CPI rent index, and the index of hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers.

Who’s Unhappy?

Those looking to buy a home but cannot afford the record high prices, are not faring well in this economy.

The last great time to buy a home was in 2012. Over the next eight years, home prices moved further and further away from wages.

When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, we had record QE, record fiscal stimulus, mortgage rates hit record lows, and inflation hit the highest levels in 40 years.

In response, home prices soared out of sight. Worse yet, the price of rent rose at least 0.4 percent for 29 straight months.

30-year mortgage Rates

Mortgage rates courtesy of Mortgage News Daily, annotations by Mish

When the Fed slashed interest rates to zero, mortgage rates fell below 3.0% for an extended period allowing everyone to refinance at 3.0 percent or below. Most did.

Winners and Losers

  • The homeowners are generally doing OK. The home ownership rate is 65.7 percent.
  • The 34.3 percent who rent are generally not doing OK.

Whereas home owners have a fixed payment, likely refinanced lower than their initial mortgage, renters faces huge increases, not every month, but once a year, big bang.

For discussion please see Another Hotter Than Expected CPI Led by Shelter, Up Another 0.6 Percent

The stress is easy to spot by demographics.

Credit Card and Auto Delinquencies Soar

Credit card debt surged to a record high in the fourth quarter. Even more troubling is a steep climb in 90 day or longer delinquencies.

Record High Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt rose to a new record high of $1.13 trillion, up $50 billion in the quarter. Even more troubling is the surge in serious delinquencies, defined as 90 days or more past due.

For nearly all age groups, serious delinquencies are the highest since 2011 at best.

Auto Loan Delinquencies

Serious delinquencies on auto loans have jumped from under 3 percent in mid-2021 to to 5 percent at the end of 2023 for age group 18-29.

Age group 30-39 is also troubling. Serious delinquencies for age groups 18-29 and 30-39 are at the highest levels since 2010.

For further discussion please see Credit Card and Auto Delinquencies Soar, Especially Age Group 18 to 39

Generational Homeownership Rates

Home ownership rates courtesy of Apartment List

The above chart is from the Apartment List’s 2023 Millennial Homeownership Report

Those struggling with rent are more likely to Millennials and Zoomers than Generation X, Baby Boomers, or members of the Silent Generation.

The same age groups struggling with credit card and auto delinquencies.

Also note Big Explosion of Government and Social Assistance Jobs in 2023 to Help Migrants

There are plenty of reasons for voters under the age of 44 to be upset, blacks to be upset, and Hispanics to be upset.

Biden’s Disapproval Rating Soars to 59 Percent

For discussion of the lead image, please see Biden’s Disapproval Rating Soars to 59 Percent, Trump’s Lead Biggest Yet

Polls show they are upset. Biden is too senile to understand why. And mainstream media dismisses the polls as inaccurate.

But my economic charts above fully explain the polls. So, don’t expect record turnout in 2024. That alone makes it an very uphill climb for Biden.

And now Trump sees an opportunity to pick up more young voters who won’t recall that Trump is the one who initially proposed the ban.

Even if Trump does not pick up a single vote, Biden will lose them. Enthusiasm for Biden is nonexistent. Many will sit this election out.

Every young person who sits the election out is a vote more likely to be a Biden vote lost than a Trump vote lost.