Tag: Joe Biden

Lawmakers say fixing border crisis is Biden’s job

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill say Congress has little role to play in fixing the border crisis, arguing the responsibility falls largely on President Biden and federal agencies.

While most members say they’ll provide more resources if the president asks, they also point out that there’s not much they can do on the legislative front.

Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), a moderate Democrat, says he doesn’t know what Congress can do immediately to address the surge of migrants at the border, many of them unaccompanied children. Continue reading.

Biden jobs plan seeks $400 billion to expand caretaking services as U.S. faces surge in aging population

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White House, lawmakers remain at odds over broader spending package.

President Biden’s jobs plan proposes a massive investment in home care for the elderly and people with disabilities, as America’s caretaking system faces strain from the nation’s looming demographic challenges.

The White House’s American Jobs Plan calls for spending about $400 billion over eight years on “home- or community-based care” for the elderly and people with disabilities. That amounts to roughly a fifth of the overall price tag of Biden’s plan, the first of two related economic proposals expected from the White House.

The push to substantially expand in-home health-care services was one of the last major provisions added to the jobs plan, according to two people with knowledge of internal White House deliberations. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters they were not authorized to disclose. Continue reading.

White House hopes to see infrastructure bill passed by summer

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President Biden hopes to see Congress pass his infrastructure and climate proposal by this summer, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, setting a slightly longer timeline than his recently enacted coronavirus relief package.

Psaki told reporters at an afternoon briefing that the extra time will allow for more White House negotiations with congressional Republicans and Democrats, particularly since the legislation does not carry the same level of urgency as the American Rescue Plan that was signed into law last month.

Still, she said Biden would like to see “progress” by the end of May. Continue reading.

Nobel Prize-winning economist: Biden’s spending plan could help US break out of a ‘bad equilibrium trap’

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A Nobel Prize-winning economist is lauding President Joe Biden’s proposed $4 trillion infrastructure spending plan as he believes the plan could revitalize the United States economy. 

During an exclusive interview with Axios, Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz offered his take on Biden’s plan. Not only is he endorsing the president’s plan but also looking forward to the positive effects and how it could help the country break out of its “bad equilibrium trap.”

“We’ve been for the last two decades in an abnormal environment, we’ve been in a bad equilibrium trap,” he said. “The inequality means people don’t have demand, a lack of demand means we don’t invest, so we’ve been in a very bad, vicious circle and I’m optimistic that this may break us out into a new period of strong growth, which is more egalitarian.” Continue reading.

White House moves to reshape role of US capitalism

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The White House is pushing an infrastructure bill that could reshape the discussion around capitalism as it seems to reestablish the federal government as a primary driver of how the economy should grow and function.

In addition to traditional infrastructure projects, Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan would make government investments in broadband, electric vehicles, climate change, elderly care, child benefits, housing and developing future technologies. 

It would redefine classic infrastructure projects to include investments in workers and families paid for by tax hikes on corporations. Continue reading.

Biden’s Big Bet: Tackling Climate Change Will Create Jobs, Not Kill Them

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WASHINGTON — In 2017, as Donald J. Trump was announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the largest global effort to attack planetary warming, he declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

On Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Pittsburgh to try to make the opposite case: that the workers Mr. Trump was appealing to have more to gain from combating climate change than to lose.

It is going to be a tough bet. To Mr. Biden, a $2 trillion infrastructure plan is about creating union jobs, hundreds of thousands of them, in wind and solar power, electric cars and road- and bridge-building. Even those more basic infrastructure projects would have a climate angle: the new roads and bridges would be built to withstand the high waters and brutal storms of a changing climate.

“I am a union guy. I support unions, unions built the middle class. It is about time you start to get a piece of the action,” Mr. Biden said in Pittsburgh. Continue reading.

White House unveils $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan, setting up giant battle over size and cost of government

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Ahead of speech in Pittsburgh, Biden administration releases sprawling effort to revamp U.S. transit, broadband, housing and more

The White House’s unveiling of a $2 trillion jobs, infrastructure and green energy proposal to reshape the U.S. economy met a chorus of opposition late Wednesday, with Republicans panning it as a partisan wish-list, some liberals challenging it as not sufficient to combat climate change and business groups rejecting its proposed tax hikes.

Under what the administration calls the American Jobs Plan, President Biden aims to tackle some of the nation’s most pressing problems — from climate change to decaying water systems to the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

In a speech Wednesday afternoon at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Pittsburgh Training Center, Biden pitched his plan as a transformative effort to overhaul the nation’s economy. He called it the most significant federal jobs investment since World War II, saying it would put hundreds of thousands of electricians and laborers to work laying miles of electrical grid and capping hundreds of oil wells. He said the plan’s research funding would make America the global leader in emerging sectors such as battery technology, biotechnology and clean energy. Continue reading.

Biden’s first slate of judicial nominees aims to quickly boost diversity in federal courts

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President Biden announced his first slate of judicial nominees on Tuesday, elevating U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the influential appeals court in Washington to succeed Merrick Garland as part of the largest and earliest batch of court picks by a new administration in decades.

Jackson, often considered a contender to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, is among Biden’s 11 nominations that include three Black women for appeals court vacancies and the first Muslim American to serve on a District Court. The group is designed to send a message about the administration’s desire for more diversity on the federal bench and how rapidly the president wants to put his mark on it.

Biden previously pledged to name the first Black woman to the high court, and his picks signal an early departure from the Trump administration, which successfully reshaped the federal courts with nominees who were overwhelmingly White and male. Continue reading.

Biden calls on states to keep mask mandates, pause reopenings

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President Biden on Monday urged state and local officials to reconsider lifting their coronavirus restrictions and to reinstate mask mandates that have lapsed as the U.S. faces an increase in cases.

“I’m reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate,” Biden said at an event intended to highlight the rapid increase in vaccine eligibility. “Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down.

Asked later if some states should pause reopening efforts, Biden said “yes.” Continue reading.

Sen. Dibble, Rep. Hornstein, and Rep. Long statement on President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment Plan

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), DFL-Lead on the Senate Transportation Committee, Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Minneapolis), Chair of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis), Chair of the House Climate and Energy Committee released the following statement this afternoon following President Biden’s announcement of a $2.2 trillion infrastructure investment plan:

“We applaud President Biden for today’s release of a bold, visionary plan to invest in America’s infrastructure. We support the President’s emphasis on improving roads, bridges, public transportation, and building a clean energy economy. As Minnesota state legislators, we strongly agree with the plan’s focus on building a strong economy and addressing the climate crisis.

Next week, House and Senate DFLers will release detailed plans to invest in Minnesota’s transportation and energy infrastructure with a focus on job creation, equity, and action to address climate change.”