On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: USA TODAY Politics Reporter Rachel Looker explains how the debt-ceiling debate carries real-life consequences for Americans and an aide for Rep. Paul Gosar has been linked to white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Plus Sarasota Herald-Tribune Politics Editor Zac Anderson has the latest as Disney cancels a major Florida project, amid an ongoing fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis, New York City is sinking and finally NFL great Jim Brown has died.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson, and this is 5 Things you need to know, Saturday, the 20th of May 2023.
Today, what does the debt ceiling fight mean for real Americans? Plus Disney cancels a new project in Florida. And we remember Jim Brown.
The fight around the debt ceiling continues this weekend. And while lawmakers are trying to find a way to avoid a default, the debate could have real-life consequences for Americans. USA Today politics reporter Rachel Looker explains. Rachel, thanks for hopping in on the podcast.
Rachel Looker:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Voters have lots of concerns in the debt ceiling debate. I want to start by talking about temporary assistance for needy families. Republicans are demanding tighter work requirements tied to this. Rachel, what did you hear about how this will affect real people?
Rachel Looker:
This is just one example of a government benefit that could be impacted because of these debt ceiling negotiations and a potential government default. My colleague, White House correspondent Michael Collins, was able to talk to a woman who is a survivor of gender-based violence. And she actually ended up in a shelter about two years ago with her four-year-old son. She’s an example. She receives nearly $500 per month in assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program. And without it, for her, it really comes down to not being able to feed her son. So these are benefits that many Americans rely on to pay their bills, keep a roof over their house, take care of their families, and would have some pretty serious impacts if these benefits were reduced or ended.
Taylor Wilson:
And Rachel’s social security came up a lot in this story. What are you hearing from Americans on how important those benefits are for them?
Rachel Looker:
I was able to talk to a father, Chris Kelly. He lives in Connecticut and he has a son who has some disabilities. His son just turned 18 and he now received some disability payments through social security. And Chris was telling me that he has some major concerns for his son, especially looking years down the line as his son would get older and as he would age himself, as to how he’d be able to care for himself without having this financial assistance. Michael talked to another woman who uses social security payments to pay for her medical bill. She suffers from fibromyalgia. And without the money she receives every month, she couldn’t afford these doctor’s appointments.
Taylor Wilson:
And tell me a little please about this person who said they hope for a default. This is obviously a bit of a surprising part of the story. Why is that?
Rachel Looker:
I was able to talk to Joshua Taylor. He lives in Indianapolis, and he was telling me how truly frustrated he is with our government for being unable to come to any kind of agreement or just get past the politics of these issues and really be able to help the American people. He said in some ways he really hopes for a default because he feels like it will open Americans’ eyes to the people who are in power, the people in Washington, DC, and show them ahead of the 2024 elections that they should be voted out of office. And that’s on both sides of the political spectrum.
Taylor Wilson:
And Rachel, what else stood out to you in these conversations?
Rachel Looker:
One of the conversations that stood out the most to me was with a small business owner, Phil Herring. He lives in Washington State and he buys and sells koi fish. He turned his garage into a place where he has tanks for these koi fish to swim, and he ships hundreds of them each week across the country. And for him, pulling back the lens, looking at the bigger picture, he really feels that the economic disparity that could come out of a possible recession if the government were to default, it would have serious consequences for his business because it’s not something that is a necessity like electric service or someone paying bills. He thinks he could lose his customers who would probably put buying koi at the bottom of their list when it comes to prioritizing how to spend their money. So to him, all of the impacts, the economic impacts from the situation happening, could have really serious consequences for his small business.
Taylor Wilson:
USA Today politics reporter Rachel Looker with some great stories for us. Thanks so much.
Rachel Looker:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
A Capitol Hill staffer who works for far right Congressman Paul Gosar has been revealed as a supporter of white supremacist and Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes. A report in Talking Points Memo this week connected Wade Searle to Fuentes. Searle is Gosar’s digital director. The report found that Searle used multiple accounts to donate money to Fuentes and a post on far right websites. After the report, a number of Jewish groups blasted Gosar, with one saying it’s not the first time he’s embraced neo-Nazis. As of Thursday, Representative Gosar had made no public comment on the accusations.
Disney is canceling a billion-dollar project that would’ve relocated thousands of jobs to Central Florida. The decision comes amid an ongoing dispute with the state’s Governor Ron DeSantis. I spoke with Sarasota Herald-Tribune politics editor Zac Anderson for more. Welcome back to 5 Things, Zac.
Zac Anderson:
Oh, good to be back.
Taylor Wilson:
So what is this project and why did Disney make this move?
Zac Anderson:
It’s remarkable that Disney’s saga just keeps getting more dramatic here as we go along. This project was something that Disney had been talking about for a few years now. They were going to relocate a significant amount of workers to Florida from California, about 2,000 people who work in designing theme parks. And they were talking about a billion-dollar investment in this community called Lake Nona, which is a development near Disney World. And they’ve been talking about this for a number of years and had negotiated some pretty big tax breaks from Florida to help incentivize it. And it had been going through the process, but it had run into some turbulence. There had been some criticism of it. Some of the employees didn’t want to leave, and the new CEO of Disney wasn’t so hot on it. And then this big feud with DeSantis really blew up and they just decided to pull the plug.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, Zac. DeSantis and Disney have obviously butted heads constantly, especially in recent months. You’ve been here on the show talking about this same issue. How prominently did those tensions play into this decision by Disney?
Zac Anderson:
The reporting that I’ve seen is that it was definitely a factor. When you have this hostile relationship with the government in the state where you’re talking about investing, it seems like it would have to be some factor in some of their business decisions. But whether it was the decisive factor, that’s hard to say. Apparently, there was some criticism of this project already, and Disney has been cutting back as they’ve had some financial issues. They’ve been paring back some of their investments and trying to streamline things. So maybe this was on the chopping block anyway, and the DeSantis feud pushed them over the edge. Who knows?
Taylor Wilson:
And you touched on this a bit, Zac, but what does this decision from Disney mean for the local economy?
Zac Anderson:
It’s a pretty big investment that Orlando area is losing. Orlando, it’s really tourism-based and they have these big theme parks and other tourism businesses, and a lot of those are fairly low-wage jobs. These would’ve been much higher-paid jobs. So some of them in the six-figure range, which for Florida in general, it’s not a state that has a real high-wage economy. So any kind of six-figure jobs are a big deal when you’re talking about thousands of jobs. A billion-dollar investment, that’s pretty significant.
Taylor Wilson:
And just bringing it back to DeSantis, what’s next for this DeSantis versus Disney battle? And Zac, is that at all possible that Disney could just leave the state altogether?
Zac Anderson:
Gosh. I know there’s been rumors and speculation about that, but I find that just impossible to believe. It’s such a fixed asset thing. How are you just going to build a theme park somewhere else? It’s just such a massive investment. And Disney has been building the theme parks there in the Orlando area for more than half a century. So to give up on that, I think that that’s pretty much impossible.
But obviously, they could pare back. They’ve talked about investing $17 billion in Disney World, so maybe they put that on hold to maybe put some pressure on DeSantis. It’s not just this $1 billion investment. There’s many, many billions of dollars that they have talked about investing to improve their product in Orlando. That could be cutting off your nose despite your face. If your business is to have the best product, why would you not want to invest? I don’t know. A lot of this is gamesmanship right now. Disney’s involved with a lawsuit with DeSantis. They’re suing to try and stop some things that the governor has done in reaction to their opposition to one of his bills. So there’s a lot at play right now.
Taylor Wilson:
When it comes to DeSantis, how does this Disney fight impact him politically?
Zac Anderson:
He has really leaned into this and made it a centerpiece of his culture war on woke-type persona as he gets prepared to run for president here. And I think that this is pretty important to that overall narrative, that he will go after the woke, as he calls it, wherever, whether it’s in schools or in the corporate world.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Zac Anderson, always great reporting from the Sunshine State. Thanks so much.
Zac Anderson:
Great to talk to you. Thanks a lot.
Taylor Wilson:
New York City is sinking. According to new research, pressure from the city’s massive buildings is making the city more vulnerable to sink lower into the ocean. Three oceanologists from the University of Rhode Island, along with a researcher from the US Geological Survey, found that New York is sinking at a rate of about one to two millimeters a year while the sea level rises. And some areas were found to be dropping even faster. A summary of the research wrote, quote, “As coastal cities grow globally, the combination of construction, densification, and sea level rise imply increasing inundation hazard.” The point of the paper is to raise awareness that every additional high-rise building constructed at coastal, river, or lakefront settings could contribute to future flood risk, and that mitigation strategies may need to be included.
Jim Brown has died. He was arguably the greatest player in the history of the NFL, and he was a champion for social activism throughout and after his football career. Brown led the Cleveland Browns to the NFL championship in 1964 before the Super Bowl even existed. He retired as the league’s all-time leading rusher, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. Off the field, he supported Muhammad Ali after he was stripped of his championship status because of his objection to joining military efforts in the Vietnam War. And in 1988, he founded Amer-I-Can, an organization that assisted former prison inmates in developing life skills. Brown also had a successful acting career spanning decades across more than 50 film and TV roles.
But Brown also faced a number of cases of alleged domestic assault. In the ’60s, he was acquitted in one case and charges were dropped in another. In 1986, rape and assault charges were dropped. And in 1999, Brown was found guilty on charges of vandalism and making terroristic threats stemming from an incident with his wife. Jim Brown died peacefully Thursday night at his home in Hollywood Hills, California. He was 87.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven days a week right here wherever you get your audio. I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA Today.
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