Comment on Bears, budgets, farmers top Congress to-do list

“Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of being ‘out of touch’ with voters as the Labour leader promised to fix Britain’s stagnant economy and ailing public services, and the prime minister used the final televised debate to attack his poll-leading rival on taxes ahead of next week’s election,” Bloomberg reports. “In what was likely to be the last set-piece moment for Sunak to try to prevent a resounding Labour victory on July 4, a snap poll of 1,700 Britons by YouGov showed the two leaders were tied in the at-times spiky debate in Nottingham.

“Donald Trump’s top VP wannabes are making the pilgrimage to Atlanta to be close at hand during the first presidential debate — even though they can’t be in the audience,” Axios reports. “Veepstakes speculation has reached a fever pitch amid rumors that a decision could come as soon as this week, public trolling by top Trump campaign officials and a round of televised interviews with the top contenders.”

A new AP-NORC poll finds a solid majority of Americans believes Supreme Court justices are more likely to be guided by their own ideology rather than serving as neutral arbiters of government authority.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won’t be with his better-known rivals, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, when they debate Thursday in Atlanta,” the AP reports. “And aside from a livestreamed response to the debate, he also has nothing on his public schedule for the coming weeks. Nor does his running mate, philanthropist Nicole Shanahan.” “After a busy spring hopscotching the country for a mix of political rallies, fundraisers and nontraditional campaign events, Kennedy appears to be taking a breather.”

“The Republican candidate for U. S. Senate in Virginia, a decorated Navy veteran, has made repeated references to becoming disabled after he was ‘blown up’ in combat, and has stressed that he has scars from his military service while Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine got rich from the safety of Capitol Hill,” USA Today reports. “Yet the Navy service record for Hung Cao, who won the GOP primary in June, does not show a Purple Heart award, the commendation given to troops who have suffered wounds from ‘direct or indirect result of enemy action’ that required medical attention.

New York Times: “Mr. Biden sought this historically early confrontation to force into focus the stark difference of their competing visions for America. His team wants to nudge voters away from seeing 2024 as an up-or-down vote just on Mr. Biden’s leadership — the buzzwords in Bidenland are choice and contrast — and warn that a second Trump term would be more radical and vengeful than the first.” “Mr.