From the death penalty to gender identity to abortion, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has cemented himself as a conservative standard-bearer in the lead-up to his 2024 presidential announcement.

With the help of GOP supermajorities in the statehouse, the Republican has been able to push through an aggressive agenda that forms the base of his White House run, which he made official in a Federal Election Commission filing Wednesday.

Heres a look at some of the policies:

ABORTION

DeSantis signed a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, but it wont take effect unless the states current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge that is before the state Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservatives.

A six-week ban in Florida would strike a devastating blow to abortion access in the South, since the nearby states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned the procedure at all stages of pregnancy. Georgia and South Carolina forbade it after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks.

Critics, including some Republicans, have slammed the six-week law as extreme, given that most women do not even realize they are pregnant in that timeframe.

DONT SAY GAY

The DeSantis administration expanded the controversial law that critics call Dont Say Gay to cover all grades, banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

The move came after DeSantis signed a bill last year that prohibited such lessons through the third grade, a policy he has championed as a means to protect children from sexualization.

This year, the DeSantis administration put forward a proposal before the state Board of Education to expand the policy to grades 4-12, unless required by existing state standards or as part of reproductive health instruction that students can choose not to take. The board, which is appointed by DeSantis, approved the proposal and the Legislature put it in law.

DeSantis education officials have said the policy is intended to make clear that teachers should adhere to the state education curriculum.

PRONOUNS

DeSantis signed a bill that prevents school staffers or students from being required to refer to people by pronouns that dont correspond to the persons sex.

The law also bars school employees from asking students what pronoun they use and bans staffers from sharing their pronouns with students if they do not correspond with the staffers sex.

Additionally, the law makes it the policy of every public school that a persons sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such persons sex.

DEATH PENALTY

DeSantis has signed two major death penalty bills this year.

The first ends a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing, allowing capital punishment with jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favor of execution. Only three states out of the 27 that impose the death penalty do not require unanimity. Alabama allows a 10-2 decision, and Missouri and Indiana let a judge decide when there is a divided jury.

The change came in response to a verdict that spared the life of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter, who killed 17 people in 2018.

The other death penalty bill DeSantis signed allows the death penalty in child rape convictions, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned capital punishment in such cases.

The law is intended to get the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a 2008 ruling that found it unconstitutional to use capital punishment in child sexual battery cases.

Florida is among a handful of states with existing laws that allow for capital punishment on child rape convictions but has not used the punishment. given the high court ruling. The Florida Supreme Court has also ruled against the use of capital punishment in sexual battery convictions.

DeSantis said he believed the Supreme Courts decision was wrong.

GUNS

Floridians will be able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill DeSantis signed this session.

The new law will allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one without a permit. It means training and a background check will not be required to carry concealed guns in public. It takes effect July 1.

Nearly 3 million Floridians have a concealed weapons permit. While a background check and three-day waiting period will still be required to purchase a gun from a licensed dealer, they are not required for private transactions or exchanges of weapons.

DeSantis has said he thinks Florida should go even further and allow people to openly carry guns. While some lawmakers have pushed for open carry, it doesnt appear the Legislature will pass such legislation this session.

Still, the governor has boosted the law, releasing a statement that read Constitutional Carry is in the books after he signed it into law.

DIVERSITY

Another new law bans colleges from using state or federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a consistent target of DeSantis.

Such initiatives, sometimes referred to as DEI, have come under increasing criticism from Republicans who argue the programs are racially divisive.

The law comes a year after he signed legislation dubbed the Stop WOKE Act, which restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. Last years law bars instruction that says members of one race are inherently racist or should feel guilt for past actions committed by others of the same race, among other things.

DISNEY

DeSantis also continued his long-running feud with Disney this year.

The company came into his crosshairs for criticizing the so-called Dont Say Gay law last year.

As punishment, DeSantis dissolved Disney Worlds self-governing district and appointed a new board of supervisors that would oversee municipal services in the sprawling theme parks. But before the new board came in, the company pushed though an eleventh-hour agreement that stripped the new supervisors of much of their authority.

Disney sued DeSantis in federal court in a case that said the governor waged a targeted campaign of government retaliation after the company opposed the sexual orientation and gender identity law.

DeSantis has since signed bills to enhance state oversight of the resorts monorail as well as undo agreements made by the Disney board before the state took it over.

The headlines are wrong. The no deal they refer to is only one between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. There is a different deal, a bipartisan debt-ceiling deal in the Houseif they vote. 

The House already passed the bill Republicans preferlets call that Option 1. Option 2 might be a compromise bill co-sponsored by a group of bipartisan representatives, perhaps one put forward by the Problem Solvers Caucus that raises the debt ceiling and includes more moderate cost cutting. And Option 3 should rationally be the bill the president prefersa clean debt ceiling bill addressing only that immediate need. If these additional options were to reach the House floor, there would be some measure of bipartisan support, and one or more would attain the magic 218 yeas to pass.

Once Congress is freed to participate in the process of solving this problemor, viewed more cynically, once they are robbed of the shield the President and the Speaker are currently providing themthe question may yet become how many, on both sides, dare to go on record that they do prefer disaster? A clean debt ceiling bill needs only five Republicans to join all the House Democrats to pass. As the clock ticks down, it seems like that thered be at least five Republicans, motivated by principles or electoral prospects, who choose averting global financial disaster over going down with the ship. Or perhaps, were Congress to reclaim its rightful power as the legislative branch, the Option 2 compromise bill would pass, as many Democrats would also like to see some fiscal sanity.

If either of these passed the Republican House with bipartisan votes, its doubtful that the Senate would stand in the way with default looming.

This is not to minimize the complexity of partisanship created by our divisive election system, which drives both sides to rationally prioritize their most intransigent voices because thats what it takes to win party primaries. That difficulty is no excuse to not demand that Congress do its jobvote, negotiate and vote again until they succeed. It took 15 votes for this Congress to elect a Speaker, but they didnt stop voting until they succeeded. As we saw then, the transparency and accountability of casting a public vote has a motivating effect, absent from the current machinations, that is desperately needed.

So why dont they vote? Because look behind the scenes on Capitol Hill and youll find that another deals already been made, and its a raw one for the American public. Its an arrangementone of many in our political systemdesigned to make sure that legislative bodies work for partisan benefit rather than problem-solving.

That little-known arrangement is called the Hastert Rule (named after a disgraced former Speaker of the House), and its consequences are playing out now in a high-stakes political battle that could well lead to the United States first default on its debt paymentsan eventuality that should strike fear in all of us. But while the brinkmanship over the debt ceiling is causing appropriate panic among economists, business leaders, and responsible citizens of all stripes, the reasons for itthat deal I mentionedought to spark outrage among all voters across the political spectrum.

Heres why: Under the Hastert rule, the Speaker will not allow a floor vote on any bill unless a majority of the majority party (i.e., the Speakers party) supports it. And thats true even if a majority of the entire House would vote to pass it. Whats worse: A newer version of the Hastert rule now in vogue decries that the Speaker should not allow a vote on any bill unless it can be passed with only majority-party votes. 

While in this case, the Speaker is a Republican, it should be noted that the Hastert Rule has become a well-accepted practice for every Speaker of the House, Republicans and Democrats alike. And the Senate, now controlled by the Democrats, has its own version toobut more on that in a bit.

The rule, to be sure, isnt an official piece of legislation or a well-preserved point of order from Americas earliest Congresses. Its a new cynical tradition, adopted by ruling parties, and intendedyes, intendedto frustrate bipartisanship if that crossing of party lines erodes the power of the majority in any way.

The consequences of this unfortunate norm boggle the mind. Consider that many potential bipartisan deals on important issues are not even worth negotiating, because unless Speakers ignore the Hastert Rule (which they do from time to time, but rarely), bipartisan legislation supported by a majority of the country or by a majority of the House (but not by a majority of the majority party) has no chance of passingbecause there will never even be a vote. Thats worth repeating: There will never even be a vote on bills that could pass with bipartisan supportin our democracy. 

Article One of the Constitution grants Congress the power to set the rules of how they operate, and they do at the opening of every Congress at the same time that they elect the Speaker. Those official rules combined with the other customary norms and practices of how laws are made combine to create what I call the legislative machinery. Our legislative machinery has been egregiously co-opted by both parties and designed, not to support bipartisan problem solving, but to entrench and divide the spoils of power. It allows each partys naked electoral calculus to suffocate the legislatures ability to work collectivelyeven when constituents want compromise and collaboration, and even when a majority of representatives themselves want it.

Crazy. Think about it. In your firms, companies, and organizations, if you wanted to solve your biggest problems, I suspect that one thing you probably would not do is bring everybody together, and say: Hey, before we get to work, lets count off here, and divide into two warring teams. But thats how it is every single day in Washington, D.C., not because its broken, but rather because its working exactly as its designed.

To be clear, although the focus at this point in the current crisis is on the Republican-held House, Democrats employ the same tools with equal enthusiasm. Note that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already guaranteed that hell never allow a vote on the Republican debt ceiling bill that already passed the House. If there were no more Hastert Rule, no more unnamed mirror in the Senate nor other practices like them, it would be far easier to solve challenges such as the one before us now. 

The good news for this crisis is that the Hastert Rule is not a rule at all. Its a wink-and-a-nod agreementa shady practice perfected in the proverbial smoke-filled rooms of the Capitol. It can be discarded far more quickly than it was conceived and in time to avoid the catastrophe of default.

How? The American people have to demand it. The call of the public and united business voices must be clear to both Speaker McCarthy and Majority Leader Schumer: Let Congress vote.

Katherine Gehl is the co-author of The Politics IndustryHow Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save our Democracy.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Advocates of stronger regulation of artificial intelligence have a long list of concerns and possible dangers backing up their argument, from short-term threats such as spreading believable misinformation to more existential far-off risks of superintelligent A.I. taking over humanity (or going Terminator, in Elon Musks words). A more medium-term fear is that A.I. will be one of the biggest job disrupters in recent history, with Goldman Sachs calculating in March the technology could soon replace the equivalent of 300 million jobs in the U.S. and Europe. But the peril of losing our jobs to A.I. could be undermined by another existential risk afflicting society, says former Google CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt: the developed worlds rapidly declining birth rate.

Here are the facts. We are not having enough children, and we have not been having enough children for long enough that there is a demographic crisis where people who are my age are going to be taken care of by younger generations, Schmidt said at the Wall Street Journals CEO Council Summit in London Wednesday.

Schmidt pushed back against the narrative that new technologies are inevitably going to cause disruption and lead to widespread job loss, saying that when it comes to A.I., the net benefit will likely be positive because of enhanced efficiency and the technologys ability to replace professions that are already getting harder to fill in a shrinking labor market.

In the U.S., a historically tight labor market could become even tighter in the coming decades as a result of fewer children being born. Aside from a pandemic-induced baby bump in 2021, U.S. fertility ratesthe number of children each woman would be expected to have in her lifetimehas been on a mostly steady decline since the mid-2000s, including a record-breaking 4% drop in 2020. 

Couples concerns about their finances, crushing student loan and credit card debt, and a greater focus on career are some of the reasons Americans are having fewer kids (another is that in more developed countries, the birth rate seems to be lower just out of choice alone). Similar shifts are happening in developed economies in Europe and East Asia, but the trend might have serious economic consequences in the years ahead. With baby boomers retiring in higher numbers every year, the dearth of young people to replace an aging workforce could lead to a demographic and labor crisis within the next few decades.

In aggregate, all the demographics say theres going to be a shortage of humans for jobs. Literally too many jobs and not enough people for at least the next 30 years, Schmidt said.

Countries have proposed a number of policies to stave off the worst effects of a demographic crisis. China recently announced sweeping measures and incentives to reverse its population decline, including enhancing maternal health care services, granting 30 days of paid marriage leave in some provinces, and even discouraging abortions. Many countries are also looking overseas for workers, such as Japanhistorically opposed to mixing up its labor force with too many foreign staffwhich has in recent years loosened its entry requirements.

In the U.S., the population grew last year after almost flatlining in 2021, largely because of increased immigration. Several business leadersincluding Google and Alphabets current CEO, India-born Sundar Pichaihave long argued that the U.S. should welcome more migrants to fill out its labor ranks.

A.I. might also have a crucial part to play in the countrys labor force struggles, especially for jobs that workers were already walking away from during the early pandemics Great Resignation owing to burnout and unsafe working conditions. History shows that technology tends to automatically fill the gaps created by worker shortages. A 2021 MIT study found that aging accounted for 35% of the adoption of robots and automation in different countries. The authors also argued that fast-aging countries that also invested heavily in their robotics industries such as Germany, South Korea, and Japan were seeing better labor market outcomes than the U.S.

Companies started tapping A.I. and automation technology years ago for jobs like truck driving and bartending, professions that many workers willingly walked away from during the pandemic. However, the recent pace of A.I. growth threatens to be far more immediate and pervasive, as a March study by ChatGPT creator OpenAI found that 80% of U.S. workers could have at least 10% of their jobs impacted by A.I. The risk A.I. poses to jobs was one of the reasons OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urged Congress to regulate A.I. during his testimony earlier this month.

Schmidt argued that A.I. would eventually become a tool for efficiency in the workforce, but while it may end up as a net-positive for the labor force, job losses in the near term might be inevitable.

What really happens is that people like yourselves, in the business community and so forth, youre about efficiency. Ultimately there will be lots of job conflagration, right? Some jobs are created, some jobs are lost.

In the words of the genius with uncombed hair and tongue stuck out, everything is relative. The speed of light, gravity, and laws of physics in space all mean that different forces work differently in different places, according to Albert Einsteins famous Theory of Relativity. Raking in more money after his life than during it, Einsteins existence itself proves his theory. Taking Einsteins teachings and applying them to money instead of space, youll find that it tracks the amount of wealth you have depends on where you are and when you are alive. Thats all to say, its all relative. Knight Frank, the real estate agency and consultancy group, issues an annual report on the 1% worldwide. Looking at billionaires in more than 200 territories and 100 cities, Knight Frank also measured current attitudes towards wealth by surveying 500 wealth advisors and bankers as well as 500 high net worth individuals across the globe. Making the 1% has its own theory of relativity, it turns out.

Monaco, the small country where Grace Kelly became the Princess, is perhaps unsurprisingly the hardest place to be wealthy. (Come on, its Monaco.) It takes $12.4 million to be considered part of the 1% in the land known for luxury, real estate agency Knight Frank, found in its annual wealth report. 

In a time of pervasive financial anxiety, many in the U.S. think the benchmark for comfort or security while living in the nation is quite high. People generally think that you need an average net worth of $774,000 to be financially comfortable and $2.2 million to be wealthy, according to a 2022 survey of 1,000 Americans by Charles Schwab. Both numbers are higher than what respondents said it would take to be wealthy in 2021 ($624,000 and $1.9 million respectively). Some of it is based on uncertainty, as even rich individuals reportedly feel some anxiety about their status, but its also about the current cost to comfortably retire which is slowly creeping up to more than $1 million. 

That being said, the pandemic allowed for some record-breaking wealth building for the U.S. middle class, but while their golden era faded, the rich made out very well indeed. Billionaires wealth now accounts for an inordinate amount of the prosperity in the world, equal to 13.9% of global GDP, per Oxfam. And catching up to the 1% takes more during an age where CEOs are compensated at a greater rate than everyone else, averaging a salary of $27.8 million a year.

Wealth inequality is especially high in the U.S., though across the world the growing number of ultra-rich account for most of the worlds wealth. Over the past two years, a new billionaire was made every 30 hours, according to Oxfam. Since 2020 the richest 1% have accounted for almost double the wealth as the rest of the world, the charitable organization finds.

Below is the shakedown of what it takes to be in the elusive 1% for the following 10 countries. 

  1. Monaco: $12.4 million
  2. Switzerland: $6.6 million 
  3. Australia: $5.5 million
  4. New Zealand: $5.2 million
  5. United States: $5.1 million
  6. Ireland: $4.3 million
  7. Singapore: $3.5 million
  8. France: $3.5 million 
  9. Hong Kong SAR: $3.4 million
  10. United Kingdom: $3.3 million 

Now the bottom half of the global population would have to toil for an estimated 112 years to earn what the top 1% now rake in over just 12 months, wrote Fortunes Christiaan Hetzner. While the millionaires enjoy the rest of their days building a nest egg, the rest of us can keep dreaming of Monaco. Its all relative.

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Tyler Perry is one of Black Entertainment Televisions most prolific creators   and just one name in a constellation of stars circling the storied but struggling cable channel.

Rapper Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, and basketball legend Shaquille ONeal are said to be part of a group that is weighing a bid for BET Media Group, in which current owner Paramount Global has been considering selling a majority stake. Music mogul Sean Diddy Combs has also been reported to be considering making an offer.

The business, which includes the BET and VH1 networks, could be worth about $3 billion, based on annual cash flow. Bids are expected in the coming days, according to people close to the process. A Paramount Global spokesperson declined to comment on any potential sale.

When this came up, I thought wow, this is meant to be, Perry said in an interview. The star, who portrays the grandmotherly Madea character on stage and in films, produced eight scripted series and about 100 original episodes for BET properties last year. 

What I can tell you is its worth a lot more with me than it is without me, he said. 

BET debuted at the dawn of an era that redefined television. Launched by entrepreneur Robert L. Johnson in 1980, it became one of the most successful Black-owned businesses in history, and made Johnson a billionaire. In 2001, he sold BET to Paramount predecessor Viacom for $3 billion.

Now, with TV going through another technologically driven metamorphosis, BETs business has waned as more viewers decamp to streaming services, adding to the drag on its parent. In the quarter ended March 31, Paramount Global posted an operating loss of $1.2 billion. 

As a result of a 2019 production deal with Paramount, Perry owns 25% of BET+, the networks streaming channel. He said he discussed expanding his involvement in the business with Paramount Chairman Shari Redstone. 

Im pretty sure Im going to give it a hell of an effort, Perry said, discussing his plans to bid. 

Perrys office declined to confirm reports that he is working with Ariel Investments, the Chicago-based investment firm with close ties to former President Barack Obama and Perrys longtime friend, Oprah Winfrey. 

An Ariel spokesperson didnt respond to a request for comment.

Cables Erosion

Paramount Global has been hard-hit by the continuing atrophy of traditional TV. This month, the company said it was letting go of 25% of the workers in its US cable business and shutting down MTV News, which like BET is an iconic but declining fixture of cables glory days.

Miami-based media investment firm Group Black, another interested BET suitor, has assembled a collection of partners that includes Kenya Barris, another accomplished TV producer. Barris, whose credits include hit ABC show Blackish, has a stake in a BET production venture. 

Also among the Group Black partners are rap star Jackson, who helped create the urban gangster drama Power for Starz Inc., and National Basketball Association Hall-of-Famer and TV commentator ONeal, whose expanding business interests include a stake in Authentic Brands Group, which owns and licenses formidable yet sometimes fading retail brands such as Forever 21, Eddie Bauer and Barneys New York. 

A Group Black spokesperson declined to comment on a potential BET bid, calling it rumors and speculation. The spokesperson said Group Black was formed to dramatically transform the face of media ownership and investment. 

Combs, whose assets include the music-centric cable and digital network Revolt Media, is also considering submitting a bid for BET, according to media reports. A combination could give 10-year-old Revolt broader reach in Black households. 

Black Ownership

Byron Allen, the onetime stand-up comedian who owns television, production and film properties including The Weather Channel, confirmed that he too has his eyes on BET. 

There is a process and were involved, Allen said on Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. He emphasized what he has said in the past that he thinks BET should be controlled by Black owners. 

Im rooting for Tyler, Im rooting for P. Diddy, and anybody else who may be in the process, 50 Cent, Shaquille ONeal, Allen said. Im rooting for Black ownership when it comes to BET and VH1. Thats nothing but a win-win whoever gets it. 

Allen said that potential bids are forthcoming. Everybodys moving quickly. I think they will have a new owner pretty soon, he said. 

BETs financial results have suffered in the face of cables decline. In May 2020, BET had 74.7 million subscribers. By the beginning of May this year, that number had dropped to 69.7 million, according to Nielsen Cable Universe. 

At the same time, BET had net operating revenue of $463 million and cash flow of $192 million in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. By 2022, operating revenue was down to $432 million and cash flow had dropped to $188 million. 

Scott Robson, a senior research analyst at S&P, said that BETs subscribers peaked in 2012 at 91.6 million. He estimates that the network has since lost over 28 million subscribers, a rate of attrition comparable to other Paramount Global cable outlets such as MTV and VH1.

Cultural Beacon

Despite the challenges, BET stands as a beacon for those seeking to own it, a formidable brand with the ability to reach an important demographic across digital platforms. 

The reality is BET is still a golden brand. This is a chance for a new owner to reconnect with Black consumers with content and experiences that say, Hey, you can come back home. Were Black-owned, said Roland Martin, who owns the Black Star Network streaming channel and regularly discusses the topic of Black-owned media on his Unfiltered program. 

Perry thinks his contributions to BET put him in an ideal position to carry it into the future. He said he has written hundreds of episodes for the channel and delivered them at a number that is so cost-effective that it gives a great return. All of that is more and more reason for it to be mine.

Four of the top five scripted shows on cable for Black consumers age 18 to 49 according to Nielsen data are produced by Perry, including Sistas and Assisted Living. 

Perry said under the terms of his current Paramount deal, he will be free later this year to explore deals with other media outlets. In a recent interview, BET Chief Executive Officer Scott Mills called Perry an absolute singularity in film and television. 

There is no one in the business who is like him, said Mills.

Investors are worried about the debt ceiling debate in Washington. Stocks have wobbled all week, halting their recent A.I.-induced rally, and yields on one-month Treasury billswhich mature around the time the government could default on its debts in Junetopped 5.6% Wednesday, the highest level since before the Global Financial Crisis in 2007.

Its a sign that traders are shunning government bonds owing to serious concerns about a potential U.S. debt default. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that as soon as June 1, the so-called X date, the U.S. government could run out of money and economic catastrophe may follow. But Libby Cantrill, a managing director and head of public policy at Pimco, still believes lawmakers will make a deal and avoid that worst-case scenario.

It is our viewwith high convictionthat the recent on-and-off and now on-again negotiations will result in a debt ceiling deal ahead of the U.S. Treasurys X date on June 1, she wrote in a Tuesday article, the Financial Times first reported.

Cantrill argued that making concessions for an agreement might not be politically advantageous for lawmakers, and could lead to a last-minute agreement, but neither side has any political incentive to default. That means even if there is last-minute drama, eventually a debt ceiling deal will pass.

To use an apt, albeit graphic analogy: Passing the debt ceiling is like passing a kidney stonewe know it will pass, it is just a question of how painful it will be. We would assert we are in the painful period right now, she wrote.

Cantrills view is a common one on Wall Street and among the worlds top economists, despite recent signs of investors default fears in the stock and bond markets. Jeremy Siegel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School, even argued in his WisdomTree commentary this week that there is zero chance the debt issue will not get resolved, even though there will be posturing and debate right up to the last minute. 

Still, lawmakers are butting heads over a number of issues and havent made much progress. On Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters at a news conference that negotiations with the Biden administration had stalled owing to disagreements over the GOPs proposed spending cuts. 

Im sending our negotiation team down to the White House to try to finish up the negotiations, he said. The off ramp here is to solve the problemspend less than we spent last year. Thats not that difficult.

Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican from Louisiana who is a negotiator in the talks, said the White House wants to maintain its current spending levels, but Republicans have made it clear that thats a nonstarter.

Democrats, who had previously objected to Republicans push for work requirements for federal assistance programs, shot back after the press conference Wednesday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued the GOPs spending cuts were draconian, the Wall Street Journal reported. And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added that there are multiple extreme proposalsincluding more under-the-radar issues like energy-permitting reform for both traditional and clean energy and changes to how Medicare reimburses providersthat the administration feels would hurt every single part of the country. 

Despite the conflict, McCarthy said that he still hopes to make progress in negotiations this week, adding: Were not going to default.

Kenneth Anger, the shocking and influential avant-garde artist who defied sexual and religious taboos in such short films as Scorpio Rising and Fireworks and dished the most lurid movie star gossip in his underground classic Hollywood Babylon, has died. He was 96.

Anger died of natural causes on May 11 in Yucca Valley, California, his artist liaison, Spencer Glesby, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Few so boldly and imaginatively mined the forbidden depths of culture and consciousness as Anger, whose admirers ranged from filmmakers Martin Scorsese and David Lynch to rock stars such as the Clash and the Rolling Stones.

He was among the first openly gay filmmakers and a pioneer in using soundtracks as counterpoints to moving pictures. Well before the rise of punk and heavy metal, Anger was juxtaposing music with bikers, sadomasochism, occultism and Nazi imagery. When the Sex Pistols and the Clash appeared on the same bill at a 1976 concert, clips from Angers movies were screened behind them.

Anger had his greatest commercial success, and notoriety, as the author of Hollywood Babylon. Scandal and Hollywood practically grew up together, and Anger assembled an extraordinary and often apocryphal family album, whether pictures from the fatal car crash of Jayne Mansfield or such widely disputed allegations as actor Clara Bow having sex with the University of Southern California football team.

Completed in the late 1950s and originally published in French, Hollywood Babylon was banned for years in the U.S. and was still adult fare upon formal release in 1975, when New York Times reviewer Peter Andrews labeled it a 306-page box of poisoned bon bons written as if a sex maniac had taken over the Readers Digest Condensed Book Club.

If a book such as this can be said to have charm, it lies in the fact that here is a book without one single redeeming merit, Andrews concluded.

Like a studio head trying to build a franchise, Anger released a sequel, the less popular Hollywood Babylon II, in 1984. He had said he was working on a third book in recent years, with a chapter dedicated to Tom Cruise and Scientology.

A balding, dark-eyed man with a frozen stare and a Lucifer tattoo across his chest, Anger made films for much of his life and knew everyone from the poet Jean Cocteau to sexologist Alfred Kinsey. He was close enough to Keith Richards that the Rolling Stone would claim that Anger called him his right hand man. Mick Jagger and Led Zeppelins Jimmy Page wrote soundtrack music for Anger, who in turn helped bring about a Rolling Stones classic by lending a copy of Mikhail Bulgakovs satanic satire The Master and Margarita to Marianne Faithfull. Faithfull passed the novel along to her boyfriend, Jagger, who cited it as the basis for Sympathy for the Devil.

Anger himself rejected Christianity in childhood, saying he preferred reading comics on Sunday. He later joined Thelema, an occult society which urges members to Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will, and for a time he lived in the house of Thelema founder Aleister Crowley, a friend and mentor.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Anger was the son of aircraft engineer Wilbur Anglemeyer and cited his grandmother, a costume designer, as an early source for prime Hollywood dirt. He was a child actor who, to much skepticism, claimed to have played the Changeling Prince in a 1935 adaptation of A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Anger also began making movies as a boy and was a teenager when he completed Fireworks, a noirish 13-minute silent starring Anger as a young man who fantasizes in sexually graphic detail that he has been beaten by a pack of sailors. By this time, the filmmaker had shortened his last name to Anger.

I knew it would be like a label, a logo. Its easy to remember, Anger told The Guardian in 2011.

Among the films early viewers was Kinsey, who liked it enough to purchase a copy for $100 and ask Anger to help with his landmark research on sexual behavior.

Angers best known works included the surreal occult short Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and Scorpio Rising, a 28-minute production from 1963 in which footage of motorcyclists is accompanied by such hits as Bobby Vintons Blue Velvet and Elvis Presleys (Youre the) Devil in Disguise. In one especially provocative sequence, the Crystals hit Hes a Rebel is played to images of Jesus and his disciples from Cecil B. DeMilles silent epic King of Kings.

Like many people, I was astonished when I saw Kenneth Angers Scorpio Rising for the first time, Scorsese once wrote. Every cut, every camera movement, every color, and every texture seemed, somehow, inevitable, in the same way that images of the Virgin in Renaissance painting seem inevitable.

Scorsese would emulate Angers style in Mean Streets, Goodfellas and other movies, and Lynch featured Vintons drowsy ballad in the 1986 cult favorite Blue Velvet. John Waters would praise Anger as one of the directors who dirtied his mind.

Death preoccupied Anger and he was a frequent visitor to Hollywood Forever, the burial site for everyone from Judy Garland to Johnny Ramone. Actor Vincent Gallo, a friend of Angers, told the filmmaker that he had purchased a plot for him next to Ramones.

Theyre peaceful, Anger said during a 2014 interview with Esquire when asked about his affinity for cemeteries. Theyd better be

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