Tag: Joe Biden

Biden to say he won’t pass along ‘responsibility’ of Afghanistan War

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President Biden on Wednesday will say that he is refusing to pass the responsibility of America’s longest war to a fifth president as he lays out his plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

Biden will call for an end to the 19-year war while pledging continued U.S. assistance to Afghanistan and support for peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” Biden will say, according to excerpts of prepared remarks released by the White House. Continue reading.

A pair of misleading GOP attacks on Biden’s infrastructure plan

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President Biden has proposed a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, to be financed mainly by increases in corporate taxes. Here’s a guide to two misleading talking points that have already emerged.

“This is a massive social welfare spending program combined with a massive tax increase on small-business job creators.”

— Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” April 11

Politicians on both sides of the aisle often sing the praises of small businesses. But we were rather surprised to see Wicker claim that increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent would be a burden on small businesses. (Before the 2017 tax law, the corporate rate was 35 percent. Biden argues that the reduction was too steep.)

Wicker’s staff noted that Biden’s tax plan does not include a carve-out for small businesses, so “any business, including a small business, that files as a C-corporation would see their tax rate increase from 21 percent to 28 percent,” an aide said. The aide pointed to a National Federation of Independent Business report that cites “federal taxes on business income” as the third most severe issue facing small-business owners, with 20 percent of respondents finding federal taxes on income to be a “critical” issue in operating their businesses.

Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021

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President Biden will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan over the coming months, U.S. officials said, completing the military exit by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that drew the United States into its longest war.

The decision, which Biden is expected to announce Wednesday, will keep thousands of U.S. forces in the country beyond the May 1 exit deadline that the Trump administration negotiated last year with the Taliban, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters Tuesday under rules of anonymity set by the White House.

While the Taliban has promised to renew attacks on U.S. and NATO personnel if foreign troops are not out by the deadline — and said in a statement it would not continue to participate in “any conference” about Afghanistan’s future until all “foreign forces” have departed — it is not clear whether the militants will follow through with the earlier threats given Biden’s plan for a phased withdrawal between now and September. The Taliban has conducted sputtering talks with the Afghan government, begun under the Trump deal, since last fall. It was also invited to an additional high-level inter-Afghan discussion in Turkey later this month. Continue reading.

Biden proposes summit, raises Ukraine escalation in call with Putin

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President Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and proposed that they meet for a summit “in a third country in the coming months,” according to the White House.

Why it matters: The call comes amid a Russian build-up on Ukraine’s borders, and after Putin reacted furiously to an interview in which Biden agreed that the Russian president was a “killer.”

  • Biden expressed U.S. support for Ukraine, raised “concerns over the sudden Russian military build-up,” and called on Russia to reduce tensions, per a White House readout. Continue reading.

Senate GOP Memo On Biden Jobs Plan Is Replete With Lies

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A new messaging memo from the Senate Republican Conference to its members’ communications teams frames President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan as a “job-crushing slush fund.”

According to Politico, the memo, dated April 11, dismisses the $2.25 trillion infrastructure package as a “partisan plan to kill jobs and create slush funds on the taxpayer dime.”

The memo is the latest in a series of attempts by Congressional Republicans to dent the bipartisan popularity of Biden’s plan. Recent polling has shown that the vast majority of likely American voters, including 57 percent of Republicans, back the plan to invest trillions of dollars in roads, bridges, broadband, transit, water systems, clean energy, and human infrastructure like child care. Continue reading.

Is broadband infrastructure? Republicans used to think so

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Republicans less sure that providing the service to all Americans is infrastructure, or at least at Biden’s price tag

The debate in Congress over President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan has featured a clean, simple attack line from Republicans: Most of the money wouldn’t really go to infrastructure.

Of course, that depends entirely on how you define infrastructure. For their purposes, Republicans are opting for a classic definition, seeking to limit the scope to things like roads and bridges. Russell Vought, who led the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, asserted in a recent Fox News appearance that “only 5 to 7 percent” of the plan is actual infrastructure.

And although that assertion was awarded “Three Pinocchios” by a Washington Post fact-checker, one can make an argument that funding in the plan for things like home-care services and electric vehicle purchases isn’t exactly infrastructure. But Republicans’ objection to one piece of the plan, broadband expansion so that households in all parts of the country have access to fast internet service, seems the result of a particularly curious case of political amnesia. Continue reading.

In a Bipartisan Meeting, Biden Makes the Case for His Infrastructure Plan

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The president met with lawmakers from both parties in an effort to show some flexibility on the size of his $2 trillion proposal and how to pay for it.

WASHINGTON — Facing opposition from Republicans and some centrist Democrats to parts of his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, President Biden on Monday convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House, hoping to make progress toward a deal that can pass a bitterly divided Congress.

Sitting in the Oval Office with the group, Mr. Biden said he was “prepared to negotiate as to the extent of the infrastructure project, as well as how we pay for it.”

The meeting was an effort by the White House to show that it was willing to at least consider proposals to scale back or reshape the package and listen to alternatives to its own plan to pay for it by raising taxes on corporations. Continue reading.

Kristen Clarke faced abuse for taking on Trump. Now she’s poised to lead Justice Department’s civil rights team.

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President Donald Trump was waging his baseless assault on the presidential election results last fall when Kristen Clarke, head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, opened her inbox to a stream of vicious threats over her efforts to fight back and protect the rights of voters.

Openly misogynistic, littered with racial epithets, the messages were of the variety that seeks to debase and intimidate prominent minority women. “May you be found guilty by military tribunal and executed by hanging,” one email read.

Clarke, who is Black, posted it on Twitter. Continue reading.

American Jobs Plan: The Need for Action in Minnesota

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For decades, infrastructure in Minnesota has suffered from a systemic lack of investment. The need for action is clear:

Minnesota’s infrastructure received a C grade on its Infrastructure Report Card. The American Jobs Plan will make a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure.

  • ROADS AND BRIDGES: In Minnesota there are 661 bridges and over 4,986 miles of highway in poor condition. Since 2011, commute times have increased by 8.6% in Minnesota and on average, each driver pays $543 per year in costs due to driving on roads in need of repair. The American Jobs Plan will devote more than $600 billion to transform our nations’ transportation infrastructure and make it more resilient, including $115 billion repairing roads and bridges.
Continue reading “American Jobs Plan: The Need for Action in Minnesota”

Biden picks Tucson police chief to run U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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President Biden is preparing to nominate Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus to be commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, selecting a critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies to run the country’s largest federal law enforcement agency as it contends with the biggest increase in migrants arriving at the southwest border in two decades.

Magnus has led the Tucson police department since 2016 and has prominently associated himself with the movement favored by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that emphasizes a less-aggressive, community-based policing model.

Magnus opposed efforts to make Tucson a “sanctuary city,” but he generally eschewed cooperation with federal immigration authorities, placing him at odds with the Border Patrol union — and many of the agents and officials who will potentially be under his command. Continue reading.