'Mad House' examines a 'uniquely unproductive Congress'
NYT correspondents Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater join Morning Joe to discuss their new book 'Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress'.
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CBS News
34 minutes ago
- CBS News
Bay Area solar owners could see tax credits slashed under Trump's spending bill
The budget bill being debated in Congress could have serious implications for a lot of industries, but some are saying it could be a disaster for the residential solar industry. Solar companies are already hurting from reductions in government subsidies, but a threat to eliminate the federal solar tax credit could be putting the industry on the verge of collapse. Solar power itself is a proven technology with a lot of benefits to offer as a clean, renewable source of energy. But right now, a lot of energy is going into just keeping the business alive. "I think the industry is going to go through some very hard times," said Severin Borenstein, faculty director at UC Berkeley's Haas Energy Institute. He said rooftop solar has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years, with the State reducing how much solar system owners are credited for the energy they produce. But lately things have been improving. "2024 was back to 2021 levels, so they had really recovered from a drop," said Borenstein. "But now, with what the Trump administration is doing, I think there's a lot of concern. There were already a lot of rooftop solar companies that had pretty tenuous financing and were having a hard time. And I think this is pushing some of them over the edge." He was talking about a Republican effort in the budget bill to eliminate the 30 percent federal tax credit given to people who install solar systems on their homes. That, along with the tariffs being imposed by President Trump, has solar industry insiders calling foul. "It's really sad to see solar energy being caught in partisan crosshairs," said Brad Heavner, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association. "The sun is not Republican or Democrat. The need for more electricity is not Democrat or Republican. We need more energy in America and Congress has a role to play in making that happen." But right now, the role Congress is playing is to restrict rooftop solar, along with other renewable energies, in favor of older sources like fossil fuels and coal. The effect has already been devastating, with solar companies going bankrupt across the country. On Monday, solar giant Sunnova Energy filed for protection and last week, Solar Mosaic, a major lender in the business, also went belly up. But Gordon Johnson, founder of a research firm studying the industry, said the companies may have brought it on themselves simply by the way they did business. He said some misrepresented their costs to lenders in what he compared to a Ponzi Scheme. "The solar industry in the US is in a state of significant disarray. And it's not something that could not have been predicted," said Johnson. "They perpetually issue debt. These companies are always issuing debt. As soon as they can't issue debt, and they can't plug that hole of the actual cost of the system versus what they show Wall Street, they quickly go bankrupt." Higher interest rates and equipment cost inflation have also figured into the mix. One analysis found that, nationwide, more than $14 billion in clean energy and electric vehicles have been cancelled or delayed as a result. The prospects for the industry aren't good right now, but Joe Osha, an analyst for investment banker Guggenheim Securities, said rooftop solar should not be confused with the overall solar energy market. "In megawatt terms, I can tell you that the residential solar business, as visible as it is, is only a tiny fraction of the solar generation that gets added into this country each year," said Osha. "The vast majority of it are these large utility-scale solar farms. I don't see any scenario under which that utility-scale solar business collapses." That leaves residential solar twisting in the political wind. And experts are saying small companies that have been the backbone of California's solar revolution will have a hard time staying in business.
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Immaturity': Rand Paul rips White House after being ‘uninvited' from picnic
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had harsh words for the White House on Wednesday after he said he was 'uninvited' from its annual picnic, a snub that came amid the Kentucky Republican's vocal opposition to President Trump's tax cut and spending package. Paul — who has criticized the debt limit provision in the 'big, beautiful bill,' along with its impact on the deficit — said he had planned to attend the White House picnic on Thursday with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and 6-month-old grandson, but he was informed on Wednesday that he was no longer welcome. 'I've just been told that I've been uninvited from the picnic; I think I'm the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic,' Paul told reporters. 'The White House is owned by the taxpayers, we are all members of it, every Democrat will be invited, every Republican will be invited, but I will be the only one disallowed to come on the grounds of the White House.' 'I just find this incredibly petty,' he added. 'I have been, I think nothing but polite to the president. I have been an intellectual opponent, a public policy opponent, and he's chosen now to uninvite me from the picnic and to say my grandson can't come to the picnic.' Paul continued, saying 'the level of immaturity is beyond words' before tearing into Trump himself. 'I'm arguing from a true belief and worry that our country is mired in debt and getting worse, and they choose to react by uninviting my grandson to the public,' he said. 'It really makes me lose a lot of respect I once had for Donald Trump.' The senator said he was not offered an explanation for the rescinded invitation, and he noted that he was not sure who at the White House made the decision. The Hill reached out to the White House for comment. The White House has been hosting picnics for decades — under both Democratic and Republican presidents — inviting lawmakers from both parties to mingle on the lawn. This year's confab comes as the administration is trying to muscle its sprawling agenda bill through Congress — specifically the Senate at the moment — but it has been met with some opposition. Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican, has expressed opposition to the inclusion of a $4 trillion debt limit increase in the bill, voicing concerns about the ballooning deficit. He has said on multiple occasions that he will not support the legislation if the debt limit provision remains. Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent has said Congress must raise the borrowing limit this summer to avoid an economic default. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, can only afford to lose three votes and still squeak the package through the chamber, making Paul's opposition a point of concern. On Wednesday, Paul suggested that the White House's rescinded invitation did not help move him closer to supporting the behemoth bill. 'When they tell you your grandson can't come to a picnic at the White House that all of Congress is allowed to come to, I don't know, it just shows such a pettiness,' he said when asked if the snub makes him less likely to back the bill. 'But they have shown over the last week they don't care about my vote at all … because I've told them I can and would vote for the bill if the debt ceiling were taken off of it. So conceivably, there might be some situation in which they needed my vote. Instead they have decided to try to attack my character.' 'They're afraid of what I'm saying so they think they're going to punish me; I can't go to the picnic, as if that's somehow going to make me more conciliatory,' he added. 'So it's silly in a way, but it's also just really sad that this is what it's come to. But petty vindictiveness like this, I don't know, it makes you wonder about the quality of people you're dealing with.' Paul also offered criticism of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who earlier this week attacked Paul over his criticism of the bill. Paul speculated the rescinded invitation could have come from a White House staffer, rather than Trump himself. 'It could be from lower-level staff members, but these are people that shouldn't be working over there. But I mean, you have people that are basically going around casually talking about getting rid of habeas corpus,' he said, presumably referring to Miller's proposal earlier this year. 'And the same people that are directing this campaign are the same people that casually would throw out parts of the Constitution and suspend habeas corpus. So I think what it tells that they don't like hearing me say stuff like that, and so they want to quiet me down. And it hasn't worked, and so they're going to try to attack me. They're going to try to destroy me in other ways, and then do petty little things like social occasions or whatever.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Fulbright board resigns over alleged Trump administration interference
The entire 12-person board tasked with overseeing the State Department's Fulbright Program resigned Wednesday, claiming political interference from the Trump administration. In a statement posted on the board's Substack, the congressionally mandated Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board said its members voted 'overwhelmingly' to resign from the board 'rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago.'
