Biden cuts short trip to focus on debt ceiling, housing market silver lining: 5 Things podcast

 On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Biden cuts short trip to focus on debt ceiling President Joe Biden will cancel part of his trip, as debt ceiling talks inch toward a resolution. Plus, an IRS whistleblower claims retaliation in the Hunter Biden investigation, USA TODAY Opinion Columnist Rex Huppke criticizes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for banning DEI funding at public universities, there's a silver lining to the housing market, and USA TODAY Health Reporter Adrianna Rodriguez talks about a mental health crisis, as students increasingly refuse to go to school.

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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 Wednesday, the 17th of May 2023. Today, Biden will shorten an overseas trip to focus on debt ceiling talks. Plus, we look at a Florida bill banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the state's public universities, and why are more and more students refusing to go to school?

President Joe Biden will shorten a planned trip overseas this week as debt ceiling talks continue. He'll travel to Japan today for a Group of Seven Summit, but will cancel the second half of his trip, including stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea. White House aides have been optimistic about Biden's ability to finalize a deal, but Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy previously said there needs to be a deal by the end of the week for approval in Congress before a possible default, which would bring economic chaos. Biden met yesterday with McCarthy and other congressional leaders. A previous meeting between them failed to produce a breakthrough, but McCarthy said after the Tuesday meeting that it is still possible to get a deal by the end of the week. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to McCarthy on Monday that the US is still on track to run out of money by early June.

A whistleblower at the IRS, which is investigating Hunter Biden for potential tax violations, told lawmakers Monday that his entire team was removed from the probe, according to a letter from his lawyers obtained by USA TODAY. IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel testified last month that no one at the agency would be retaliated against, but lawyers for the whistleblower disagreed, calling the move clearly retaliatory and that it might also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry. Hunter Biden announced in late 2020 that he was under investigation for tax issues. Meanwhile, House Republicans have been investigating him for alleged influence pedaling from lucrative business deals in Ukraine, Romania, and China. Biden's lawyers and the White House have dismissed the accusations as baseless innuendo.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill pulling all state funding from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the state's public universities. That's drawn criticisms from many, including USA TODAY Columnist Rex Huppke in a recent opinion piece. Rex, thanks for coming on 5 Things.

Rex Huppke: 

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson: 

Rex, what does this bill do, specifically?

Rex Huppke: 

It basically defunds any state money that was going to state-run universities in Florida to fund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. There's also other language in the bill that impacts the way that professors can teach issues relating to race and gender and that sort of thing, as well. It all ties in a lot with the general push that we've been seeing from DeSantis in Florida to go after any discussion of race, slavery, gender, these sorts of things. They all tie it in with critical race theory, which often is not exactly what it is, but they're basically trying to reset the way they allow professors at the college level, in regard to this bill, and then high school teachers also, relating to other legislation that they've used, restrict the way they can teach stuff, basically.

Taylor Wilson: 

And what do advocates criticize about this move?

Rex Huppke: 

Well, a lot of people say that you are trying to erase people, effectively. One argument that they make and that I made in a recent column is that, whether you, for some reason, don't like it or whatever, diversity, equity, and inclusion is an important part of the world that we live in, not just domestically, but globally, for that matter. And if you look at just most corporations, virtually everyone has a diversity, equity, and inclusion program in place or an office or what have you.

So the idea that this is a bad thing, first of all, raises all kinds of red flags. If you are someone who cares about seeing basically anyone who isn't white, effectively, included in the conversation, this seems like a bad thing. But also it's just putting college students in Florida in a position where, what are they going to do? They're going to come out and go into a corporation that has a very strong focus on DEI and say, "What's that?" or when they're asked questions in an interview process, they're going to say, "Well, no, I went to school in Florida, so we don't really care about that sort of thing." It's a really bizarre approach to the modern world that we live in.

Taylor Wilson: 

And Rex, do you have any sense of how supporters of this kind of legislation and these kind of bans, how they defend it?

Rex Huppke: 

Well, they try to simplify it. Ron DeSantis actually said this after he signed the bill this week. He said, "We just want to focus on the basics," which I thought was an interesting ... That's a great slogan for Florida State University to say, "Hey, we've taught the basics."

But I think that's the root of the problem, is that they are using the idea of reading, writing, and arithmetic to defend, "Okay. So we're not going to talk about slavery, we're going to talk about people who were in forced labor." They're going to start trying to get away from words that they feel are going to be somehow upsetting to white people. At the end of the day, that's what this all comes down to. And I say this as a white guy, myself, but that's really what's happening, in my opinion, if you cut away all the noise. It's a changing world, it has been for some time, and changing for the better, I would certainly say. And so this is a pushback against things that bring more people together, that give more consideration to people who have historically not been given consideration.

Taylor Wilson: 

Rex, do you see this as something specific to Florida or are there similar bans for DEI programs in other states? And if so, how have those played out?

Rex Huppke: 

Florida has been the most aggressive on the education front, but you are also seeing similar things or variations on a theme happening in a number of red states. Obviously, the big thing that many states have already targeted is critical race theory, particularly in K through 12 schools, which is, in and of itself, it's a bit ludicrous because critical race theory is college level, really legal theory. It's not something that is generally being taught in any capacity in K through 12 schools. But again, it's this idea that systemic racism in America exists. That's really what is at the heart if you take that whole controversy and boil it down. It's people saying that, "No, there's no systemic racism," when all evidence certainly points to the contrary.

Taylor Wilson: 

All right. USA TODAY Columnist Rex Huppke, thanks so much.

Rex Huppke: 

Absolutely. Great to be here.

♦ 

Taylor Wilson: 

Home buyers continue to be frustrated this spring with a limited inventory of existing homes. But at least one part of the housing market is seeing a silver lining, new home builders. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in May rose five points up to 50, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released yesterday. This marks the fifth straight month that builder confidence has increase, and it's the first time that sentiment levels have reached the midpoint mark of 50 since July of last year. Scores over 50 indicate that builders view market conditions as good instead of fair or poor. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

School avoidance. Students are increasingly refusing to go to school and it's becoming a mental health crisis. I spoke with USA TODAY Health Reporter Adrianna Rodriguez to learn more. Hello, Adrianna.

Adrianna Rodriguez: 

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson: 

So let's start here. What is school avoidant behavior?

Adrianna Rodriguez: 

Yeah. So school avoidant behavior is when a student refuses to go to school or can't stay in school for the entire day. And this is mostly motivated by some sort of anxiety, but maybe the source of anxiety might be different. It might be anxiety induced by social situations, it may be anxiety from academic reasons, or maybe they have an anxiety-based attachment style where they don't want to leave their parents for an entire day.

Taylor Wilson: 

And what are you hearing from some of the students that you spoke with?

Adrianna Rodriguez: 

One of the things, a prominent theme that I hear from students or parents of students, is that this is not talked about enough, that this is something that is happening, but it seems to be happening behind closed doors. There's a lot of shame and guilt that comes along with it. And while parents try to seek help, oftentimes they're met with judgment, things like that. And so while it's hard to really understand how prevalent this is, because it's not a diagnosed condition, it seems to be more prevalent than maybe we previously had thought.

Taylor Wilson: 

And obviously, you're a health reporter. You've covered the COVID-19 pandemic for years. You know how this pandemic upended schools in America. Is this related to the pandemic?

Adrianna Rodriguez: 

Experts tell me that this has been something that they've been dealing with before the pandemic, but that the pandemic, like it's done with so many other things in our society and in health, has definitely exacerbated the issue. Some students who maybe were showing signs of school avoidance and then that sped up that process so that, when they were home from school, they didn't go back, or it stunted some students' progress where maybe they were school avoidant, and they were starting to seek help and some treatment, and they were starting to make progress in coming back to school, and then the pandemic had halted that when people were told to stay home and they were doing remote learning.

Taylor Wilson: 

And Adrianna, what's the solution here?

Adrianna Rodriguez: 

What I hear from experts is that it really takes a team effort from parents, from schools and from mental health experts. They all need to work together to help the child, the student. What I hear a lot from students is that they really do want to return to school, they wish they didn't have this sort of anxiety towards school, but that they just don't know how to get there. And so with all the support system working together, that could mean cognitive behavioral therapy on the mental health expert side, that could mean support from the parent side, and that could also mean on the teacher side, maybe have some leniency towards the students who are trying to work back into the school. The Biden Administration has also just recently put money towards school-based mental health programs and so people are hoping for that, as well.

Taylor Wilson: 

USA TODAY Health Reporter Adrianna Rodriguez, great info as always. Thanks so much.

Adrianna Rodriguez: 

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson: 

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your audio. If you have any comments, be sure to email us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.