Category: Joe Biden

How the right-wing media has responded to the Biden administration

Washington Post logo

If you are not a journalist, you may not be aware that there are a number of right-wing organizations that are largely or entirely focused on revealing purported left-wing bias in the media. Groups like the Media Research Center regularly produce reports that do things like skim network news broadcasts to determine how frequently coverage is positive about Democrats or negative about Republicans.

If you’ve ever seen a Fox News segment about media bias that talks about how overly generous the media is being to President Biden, for example, the odds are that the research undergirding the segment came from one of those organizations.

Recent analysis from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, though, indicates that such criticisms get the problem precisely backward. Continue reading.

‘Dreamers’ advocates turn up heat on Senate after Biden meeting

Roll Call Logo

House Democrats help in push on bill to help undocumented immigrants

House Democrats and immigrant advocates are ramping up calls for the Senate to pass legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

The measure, which passed the House in March, would grant permanent legal protections to around 3.4 million undocumented immigrants called “Dreamers,” as well as many Temporary Protected Status holders and Deferred Enforced Departure recipients. But the Senate has not indicated when, if at all, it plans to vote.

The bill would likely face steep odds in that chamber, where 10 Republican votes are needed for a filibuster-proof majority unless Democrats manage to weave immigration provisions into a possible budget reconciliation bill, an option many lawmakers are backing. Continue reading.

Biden backs Gaza ceasefire for first time in call with Netanyahu

Axios Logo

President Biden expressed support for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in a call on Thursday evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said in a statement.

Why it matters: This is the first time since the beginning of the crisis last Monday that Biden or anyone in his administration has publicly backed a ceasefire. It will increase pressure on Israel to seek an end to the conflict, which Netanyahu has insisted will continue until Hamas’ ability to attack Israel is further degraded.

Between the lines: An Israeli official said the Biden administration hadn’t given Israel a deadline for reaching a ceasefire but had been stressing on Monday that it was reaching the end of its ability to hold back international pressure on Israel over the Gaza operation. Continue reading.

IRS to start monthly payments of child tax credit July 15

The Hill logo

The Biden administration on Monday announced it will start to make monthly payments of the expanded child tax credit on July 15.

Households that account for about 65 million children, or 88 percent of children in the United States, will will receive the payments without needing to take any additional action. Payments will be made automatically to about 39 million households, the administration said.

The administration’s announcement, which coincides with Monday’s deadline for individuals to file their 2020 tax returns, provides more details about how the Treasury Department and the IRS plan to implement a key part of the coronavirus relief law President Biden enacted in March, called the American Rescue Plan Act. Continue reading.

Biden’s America: Democrats see competence, Republicans see chaos

Washington Post logo

President Biden’s administration by the middle of last week was confronted with images of long lines at gas pumps. The Middle East had erupted in violence. Headlines were warning that fears of inflation could threaten a fragile economy.

“Don’t panic,” Biden urged on Thursday afternoon. He meant it as a plea to drivers worried about filling their tanks, but it captured his message on the flurry of crises he is suddenly facing.

A president who prides himself on choreography and planning has seen in recent days a burst of unexpected events that showcase the need for political agility. The White House is approaching the problems — all politically sensitive — with a degree of calm and caution, even as some allies want Biden to be more forceful before events spiral further. Continue reading.

Biden’s jobs plan wins big support in small business survey — even on raising taxes

AlterNet Logo

President Joe Biden has proposed raising the United States corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, although he has suggested that he is willing to compromise and raise it to 25% instead if necessary. And according to a new survey by the organization Small Business for American’s Future, most small business owners in the United States are in favor of a corporate tax hike.

The survey was conducted from April 17 to May 5, and 1,052 small business owners participated. Small Business for America’s Future found that eight in ten of them supported Biden’s American Jobs Plan, and 67% of the participants favored raising corporate taxes in order to pay for it.

According to Small Business for America’s Future, “76% of small business owners think the American Jobs Plan will boost the economy, and 72% say it will help small businesses specifically; 51% of small business owners say raising taxes on Americans making more than $400,000 would not harm small businesses.” Continue reading.

A sprawling investigation: What we know so far about the Capitol riot suspects

Washington Post logo

Since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, more than 400 people who were part of the pro-Trump mob that day have been arrested — a number that could still grow substantially.

Four months after the Jan. 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol, Congress is starkly divided about how to investigate the deadly assault by supporters of President Donald Trump, many of whom were animated by his false claims that the election was stolen. House Republicans this week ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from party leadership for continuing to warn that Trump’s rhetoric led to violence, and some GOP lawmakers have echoed the former president in attempting to minimize the destruction that day.

In fact, the ongoing criminal probe has swept up at least 411 suspects in what federal officials have called an unprecedented domestic attack on a branch of the U.S. government.

“I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told senators in a hearing Wednesday. He called the assault “an attempt to interfere with the fundamental element of our democracy, a peaceful transfer of power.” Continue reading.

Trump Ignored Cyber Defense, But GOP Blames Biden For Pipeline Hack

National Memo logo

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Colonial Pipeline announced that its East Coast gas line resumed operations around 5 pm ET on Wednesday evening. But the company cautioned that operations will ramp up for a few days before the line reaches full capacity.

Gas prices are up this week after a hacker attack shut down a major East Coast gas pipeline. Congressional Republicans are blaming the increased prices on President Joe Biden.

On May 8, the Colonial Pipeline Company announced it had been the victim of a cyberattack involving ransomware. The attack forced a shutdown of most of the privately held company’s 5,500-mile East Coast pipeline, which ordinarily delivers 45% of the region’s fuel and runsfrom Houston to New York. Panic-buying since the announcement has resulted in gas stations running out of fuel and the highest gas prices in six years.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a group of hackers with ties to Russia is behind the attacks, though there is no evidence they are acting on behalf of any government. The group, DarkSide, has a history of extorting money after hacking into company computer systems in the United States and Europe. Continue reading.

Biden signs executive order designed to strengthen federal digital defenses

Washington Post logo

President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday aimed at shoring up the federal government’s digital defenses as his administration grapples with cybersecurity crises, including a ransomware strike on a major fuel pipeline that has caused gas shortages.

Less than four months into his tenure, Biden has had to respond to a Russian cyber espionage operation that affected nine federal agencies and about 100 American companies, as well as a Chinese cyber hacking campaign that compromised tens of thousands of small and midsize firms that used Microsoft Exchange email servers.

On Saturday, Colonial Pipeline acknowledged that it had fallen victim to a ransomware attack that led it to shut down — the biggest known cyberattack on the U.S. energy sector. The attack has led to long lines at the pump in some parts of the southeastern United States. Continue reading.

U.S. has entered unprecedented climate territory, EPA warns

Washington Post logo

The Trump administration delayed the report, which cites urban heat waves and permafrost loss as signs of global warming, for three years

For years, President Donald Trump and his deputies played down the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and delayed the release of an Environmental Protection Agency report detailing climate-related damage. But on Wednesday, the EPA released a detailed and disturbing account of the startling changes that Earth’s warming had on parts of the United States during Trump’s presidency.

The destruction of year-round permafrost in Alaska, loss of winter ice on the Great Lakes and spike in summer heat waves in U.S. cities all signal that climate change is intensifying, the EPA said in its report. The assessment, which languished under the Trump administration for three years, marks the first time the agency has said such changes are being driven at least in part by human-caused global warming.

As it launched an updated webpage to inform the public on how climate change is upending communities throughout the country, the Biden administration gave the agency’s imprimatur to a growing body of evidence that climate effects are happening faster and becoming more extreme than when EPA last published its “Climate Indicators” data in 2016. Continue reading.