Category: Joe Biden

“Enough prayers”: Biden issues 6 executive orders to curb gun violence

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Calling America’s longstanding addiction to firearms, and the innumerable bodies left in its wake, an “epidemic,” President Biden on Thursday unveiled his administration’s first steps toward curbing gun violence, describing it as an “international embarrassment.” 

“It has to stop,” he declared in a Rose Garden address, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

During his remarks, the president also took a swipe at the perpetual inaction of Congress in the wake of each successive incident of gun violence. “They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers,” he said. “But they have passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence.” Continue reading.

Biden-GOP infrastructure talks off to rocky start

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President Biden’s bid to secure bipartisan support for his $2.25 infrastructure package is off to a rocky start.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, says there will be only one month set aside to hammer out a deal with Republicans and right now it’s nowhere near to happening.

Biden is already sniping with key moderates such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Continue reading.

Economist Paul Krugman: Republicans have no meaningful objections to Biden’s infrastructure plan — they simply ‘want him to fail’

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Having recently signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief/economic stimulus package — President Joe Biden is now promoting an ambitious infrastructure plan. Many Republicans, not surprisingly, are railing against the plan. Liberal economist Paul Krugman discusses their opposition this week in his Times column, stressing that Republicans have no meaningful objections to it — they simply want to see Biden fail as president.

“Republicans have been having a hard time explaining why they oppose President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan,” Krugman explains. “Their real motives aren’t a mystery. They want Biden to fail, just as they wanted President Barack Obama to fail, and will once again offer scorched-earth opposition to anything a Democratic president proposes. And they’re especially opposed to public programs that might prove popular, and thereby help legitimize activist government in voters’ minds.”

Because “laying out those true motives” would not “play well with the electorate, Krugman writes, Republicans are “looking for alternative attack lines”—for example, arguing that “most of the proposed spending isn’t really infrastructure.” Continue reading.

CDC director says racism is ‘serious public health threat’

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday declared racism a “serious public health threat,” becoming the largest federal agency to do so.

“A growing body of research shows that centuries of racism in this country has had a profound and negative impact on communities of color,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement published on the agency’s website.

Walensky noted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt most severely in communities of color, which have experienced disproportionate case counts and deaths. Continue reading.

How Biden stimulus bill will target homelessness

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The president wants to get 130,000 people off the street in the next 12 to 18 months.

Housing Secretary Marcia L. Fudge on Thursday unveiled nearly $5 billion in new grants to states and local governments across the country for rental assistance, the development of affordable housing and other services to help people experiencing or on the verge of homelessness.

The infusion of money to reduce homelessness, part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that President Biden signed last month, is the latest example of how the administration is using the American Rescue Plan to enact a sweeping anti-poverty agenda amid the pandemic.

“Let me be clear,” Fudge said. “These funds could not come at a more critical time.” Continue reading.

More than a half million Americans gain coverage under Biden

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WASHINGTON — More than a half million Americans have taken advantage of the Biden administration’s special health insurance sign-up window keyed to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced Wednesday in anticipation that even more consumers will gain coverage in the coming months.

The reason officials expect sign-ups to keep growing is that millions of people became eligible effective Apr. 1 for pumped-up subsidies toward their premiums under President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief legislation. The special sign-up opportunity for Affordable Care Act plans will be available until Aug. 15.

Biden campaigned on a strategy of building on the Obama-era health law to push the United States toward coverage for all. As president, he’s wasted no time. Continue reading.

US gun violence ‘an international embarrassment,’ says Biden

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President Biden on Thursday decried the epidemic of gun violence in America as an “international embarrassment” as he rolled out a series of executive actions intended to address the issue.

“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment,” Biden said in the Rose Garden. “They’re phony arguments suggesting these are Second Amendment rights at stake with what we’re talking about. But no amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute.”

“So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution,” he added. “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic. And it’s an international embarrassment.” Continue reading.

The $50 billion race to save America’s renters from eviction

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With judges ruling against a federal eviction ban, pressure mounts on the Biden administration to distribute billions in aid to renters

The Biden administration again extended a federal moratorium on evictions last week, but conflicting court rulings on whether the ban is legal, plus the difficulty of rolling out nearly $50 billion in federal aid, mean the country’s reckoning with its eviction crisis may come sooner than expected.

The year-old federal moratorium — which has now been extended through June 30 — has probably kept hundreds of thousands or millions of people from being evicted from their apartments and homes. More than 10 million Americans are behind on rent, according to Moody’s, easily topping the 7 million who lost their homes to foreclosure in the 2008 housing bust.

Despite the unprecedented federal effort to protect tenants, landlords have been chipping away at the moratorium in court. Six lawsuits have made their way before federal judges — with three ruling in support of the ban and three calling it illegal. Continue reading.

New Poll: Biden Jobs Plan Favored By 73 Percent Of Voters

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The vast majority of Americans back President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, according to a new poll from Data for Progress and the pro-infrastructure group Invest in America.

But that has not stopped congressional Republicans and their corporate funders from attacking the infrastructure plan.

The April survey of likely voters found 73 percent support the $2.25 trillion investment plan, compared to just 21 percent who oppose it. Even among Republicans, 57 percent said they back Biden’s proposal, while 38 percent oppose it. Continue reading.

Biden’s Tax Plan Aims to Raise $2.5 Trillion and End Profit-Shifting

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The plan detailed by the Treasury Department would make it harder for companies to avoid paying taxes on both U.S. income and profits stashed abroad.

WASHINGTON — Large companies like Apple and Bristol Myers Squibb have long employed complicated maneuvers to reduce or eliminate their tax bills by shifting income on paper between countries. The strategy has enriched accountants and shareholders, while driving down corporate tax receipts for the federal government.

President Biden sees ending that practice as central to his $2 trillion infrastructure package, pushing changes to the tax code that his administration says will ensure American companies are contributing tax dollars to help invest in the country’s roads, bridges, water pipes and in other parts of his economic agenda.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department released the details of Mr. Biden’s tax plan, which aims to raise as much as $2.5 trillion over 15 years to help finance the infrastructure proposal. That includes bumping the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, imposing a strict new minimum tax on global profits and cracking down on companies that try to move profits offshore. Continue reading.