White House Hits Back on Student Loan Critics and How the U.S. Baby Formula Shortage Got Started

The discussions surrounding President Biden’s decision to forgive some student debt for millions of Americans continued with some opponents saying it would increase inflation and it amounts to an unfair bailout for elites and those that could not manage their loans.  The White House chose to fight back by highlighting several Republican lawmakers who had six and seven figure PPP loans forgiven which taxpayers were also in the hook for.  Julia Manchester, national political reporter at The Hill, joins us for this, more fallout from the Mar-a-Lago raid, and Democrats thinking they may have a chance in November after all.

Next, Abbott Laboratories has restarted production of Similac at their plant Michigan that was at the center of the U.S. baby formula shortage.  One thing that gets overlooked was what caused the shutdown…a lot of sloppiness coming from the factory.  By the time FDA investigators showed up for their annual inspection, it was already a year overdue because of Covid restrictions.  Despite finding evidence of cronobacter bacteria at the plant, the FDA relied on Abbot to fix its own problems and then came a whistleblower report.  By the time the plant was shut down some babies had fallen ill, and the shortage was imminent.  Anna Edney, national healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News, joins us for how the US baby formula shortage got started.

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