Category: Joe Biden

Mayors decry partisanship over covid relief, saying city needs are real

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Few provisions in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan have drawn as much partisan opposition as the $350 billion designated for state and local governments. Republicans denounced the funding as a giveaway to mismanaged blue states and cities. But many mayors strongly disagree with that criticism.

“I am a Republican,” said John Giles, mayor of Mesa, Ariz. “I hear what people are saying about the wisdom of borrowing money to finance the relief act. But I can tell you that the consequences of not doing that would be extreme and painful. So I’m disappointed to see this turn into a partisan conversation.”

Giles was speaking by telephone from Mesa and said he could see from his window a long line of cars waiting to receive a 50-pound package of food to help feed their families. He said this has been a weekly scene every Friday for most of the past year. Continue reading.

GOP goes on the attack against Biden relief bill

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Republicans are going on the attack against the newly signed $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill as they scramble to find a messaging foothold against Democrats’ first big win heading into 2022.

GOP lawmakers, who voted in unison against the legislation, are gambling that they’ll be able to tamp down the bill’s popularity in the long run, even as polls have shown it garners broad approval, including from their own voters.

The focus among congressional Republicans is twofold: highlighting provisions they hope will be damaging to Democrats and accusing their political opponents of trying to take credit for an economic recovery Republicans say was set in motion by the Trump administration. Continue reading.

Biden in TV speech tells Americans, only we together can defeat the virus

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President Biden’s task Thursday night was daunting as he marked the first anniversary of the week when the coronavirus forced America to shut down. He needed to acknowledge the loss of more than 529,000 lives to the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic suffering, while offering a sense of optimism that the future can and will be brighter.

The first 50 days of Biden’s presidency have offered examples of his leadership style — and how it differs so dramatically from that of former president Donald Trump. Thursday’s speech from the White House provided another revealing glimpse. Instead of a president saying, “I alone can fix it,” Biden said he can only succeed with the help of others.

Leaning against the lectern and looking directly into the camera, he said, “I will not relent until we beat this virus. But I need you, the American people. I need you. I need every American to do their part.” That contrast in leadership styles underscored what the transition from the 45th president to the 46th has meant. Continue reading.

The $1,400 stimulus payments are already posting to some bank accounts, but others could face delays

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Some taxpayers reported a pending-payment notice in their bank accounts on Friday, saying the funds would be available on March 17. Look for ‘IRS TREAS 310 – TAXEIP3.’

Now that President Biden has signed the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill into law, millions of desperate Americans are wondering the same thing: When will I get my money?

Some people got their answer Friday. Just one day after Biden signed the legislation into law, a reader in Alexandria, Va., found a pending post in his bank account labeled “IRS TREAS 310 – TAXEIP3” for $6,892.90 for his family of five.

The IRS refers to the stimulus money as an economic impact payment, or EIP. Continue reading.

Fox & Friends whines about Biden ‘kicking’ Trump over COVID: ‘We don’t need to go over the 500,000 dead’

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“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday bitterly complained that President Joe Biden didn’t give enough credit to former President Donald Trump for his response to the novel coronavirus.

While reviewing Biden’s address to the nation, Kilmeade said that the president should have credited Trump for the Operation Warp Speed program aimed at speeding up vaccine development.

Kilmeade also seemed upset that Biden mentioned the horrific toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the United States, as so far the disease has killed more than 525,000 Americans. Continue reading.

Companies are scaling back layoffs because of Biden’s stimulus package

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Airlines, Amtrak, New York’s MTA cancel or delay thousands of layoffs after passage

Two airline giants said that they would cancel tens of thousands of planned layoffs because of aid earmarked for them in the $1.9 trillion stimulus measure passed by Congress this week, an early sign of job losses averted by the landmark package.

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, which had warned employees about 14,000 layoffs last month, said in a social media post that Congress’s new funding for airlines would allow the workers to receive their paychecks and health care through September.

American Airlines said it planned to rescind notices it sent last month to 13,000 employees about coming layoffs. Continue reading.

While Republicans Vote No, Their States Win Big In Rescue Plan

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As President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill into law Thursday afternoon, Republicans falsely claimed the bill only serves to bail out “blue states” at the expense of “red states” — but the landmark legislation will deliver massive funding and relief to many deep-red states in need during the pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan will send more than $195 billion in aid to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., as well as $130.2 billion in aid to local governments throughout the country, benefiting red and blue states alike. In fact, according to a recent Reuters analysis, traditionally Republican states will receive a slightly disproportionate amount of federal aid from the package as compared to traditionally Democratic states — $3,192 per state resident as opposed to $3,160. And the bill levies no extra taxes on red states.

But on Thursday afternoon, Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) took to social media to criticize the legislation, tweeting, “It’s red states like Georgia who will have to bail out the deep blue states who recklessly spent taxpayer $ on irresponsible decisions over the past year. They need to face the consequences of their actions rather than lean on the red states & the stimulus to bail them out!” Continue reading.

Biden Tells Nation There Is Hope After a Devastating Year

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In his first prime-time address from the White House, the president said that he would order states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1 and that a return to normalcy was possible by July 4.

WASHINGTON — Seeking to comfort Americans bound together by a year of suffering but also by “hope and the possibilities,” President Biden made a case to the nation Thursday night that it could soon put the worst of the pandemic behind it and promised that all adults would be eligible for the vaccine by May 1.

During a 24-minute speech from the East Room, Mr. Biden laced his somber script with references to Hemingway and personal ruminations on loss as he reflected on a “collective suffering, a collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life, and the loss of living, for all of us.”

Speaking on the anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic and the moment at which the virus began tightening its grip, the president offered a turning point of sorts after one of the darkest years in recent history, one that would lead to more than half a million deaths in the country, the loss of millions of jobs and disruptions to nearly every aspect of society and politics. Continue reading.

Stimulus checks could hit some bank accounts as soon as this weekend, White House says

A year into the pandemic, more than 18 million people are still receiving some form of unemployment benefit.

The next batch of stimulus checks will be deposited into some bank accounts this weekend, the White House said Thursday.

“People can expect to start seeing direct deposits hit their bank accounts as early as this weekend,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news briefing after President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law on Thursday afternoon.

Psaki said that the checks are “the first wave” and they will continue to flow over “the next several weeks.” Continue reading.

Biden urges national unity to reach normalcy

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President Biden on Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of pandemic restrictions, urging Americans to come together and do their part to remain vigilant against the coronavirus in order to return to a semblance of normalcy by summer.

In his first prime-time address as president, Biden made an emotional appeal to Americans who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 and those grappling with economic and personal hardships after a year of isolation.

The president balanced his look back at the grim year by offering a sense of optimism. He outlined steps his administration is taking to ramp up vaccine distribution, including a call for states to make all adults eligible to receive a shot by May 1. Continue reading.