Tag: Joe Biden

White House press gets blowback for ignoring major issues in Biden’s first press

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Although Joe Biden has been speaking to members of the media during his two months in the White House, he didn’t hold his first formal press conference as president until Thursday. Biden, during the conference, discussed subjects including the legislative filibuster, voting rights, his re-election plans, foreign policy toward China and North Korea, and migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

But White House reporters are receiving some criticism for the important things that they didn’t ask Biden about.

The Washington Post’s Karen Attiah listed some of the issues that White House reporters either ignored or downplayed: Continue reading.

Biden warns GOP he could back gutting filibuster

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President Biden on Thursday signaled he is open to making significant changes to the legislative filibuster in the Senate if it continues to be a roadblock to passing legislation on key agenda items like voting rights.

Biden, in his first formal press conference since taking office, reiterated his belief that the Senate should go back to the talking filibuster, which requires senators to hold the floor in order to block legislation.

He acknowledged the current system is being “abused in a gigantic way,” and indicated he may be willing to support exceptions to the filibuster or changing the rule entirely.  Continue reading.

Biden’s new goal is 200 million COVID-19 vaccinations in first 100 days

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President Biden on Thursday announced an updated goal to administer 200 million COVID-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days in office during his first press conference.

During his first official press briefing, Biden laid out his new target after the U.S. reached his original goal of 100 million vaccinations on Friday, the president’s 59th day in office. 

“That’s right: 200 million shots in 100 days,” Biden said. “I know it’s ambitious, twice our original goal. But no other country in the world has even come close, not even close to what we are doing. I believe we can do it. Continue reading.

Polls Show Massive Support For Biden’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Plan

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President Joe Biden is reportedly preparing a plan for somewhere between $3- and $4 trillion in American infrastructure improvements. While Congressional Republicans are again making noise about opposing it, a new poll finds wide support for many of its likely components.

A survey by Data for Progress and the pro-infrastructure group Invest in America, released Tuesday, found that 57 percent of American likely voters believe now is the time for a big investment, while just 35 percent believe it is not.

When told of the basics of a $4 trillion infrastructure plan, voters backed it 69 percent to 22 percent. Even Republicans supported it 50 percent to 42 percent. Continue reading.

Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis

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President Biden is putting Vice President Harris in charge of addressing the migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border, senior administration officials announced on Wednesday.

Why it matters: Just as President Obama tasked Biden with fixing the U.S. economy after he assumed office in 2009, Biden is putting his own vice president in charge of a problem threatening to overshadow the new administration’s successful launch.

  • Harris will lead efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) to manage the flow of unaccompanied children and migrant families arriving at the border in numbers not seen since a surge in 2019.

Biden allies eye two-step strategy on infrastructure

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Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a key ally of President Biden, and several White House advisers want Congress to first move a smaller infrastructure bill in hopes of securing a bipartisan win before trying to address more ambitious goals on climate change and health care in a subsequent measure.

They are aiming to secure at least one big bipartisan accomplishment before Democratic and Republican lawmakers return to their trenches to battle over elements of Biden’s agenda that energize progressives and anger conservatives.

However, it remains to be seen if GOP legislators will join forces with Democrats and give Biden a bipartisan victory knowing the next step is to pass a massive partisan bill with a simple majority vote under the budget reconciliation process. Continue reading.

New shootings plunge Biden, Congress into gun control debate

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President Biden on Tuesday urged Congress to enact meaningful gun reforms after the second mass shooting in under a week, plunging Washington back into a familiar debate where lawmakers have stalemated in recent years.

Eight people in the Atlanta area and 10 people in Boulder, Colo., were killed in the most recent shootings, but there was little sign it would move the needle in Congress — even as political leaders who back gun reforms noted the United States is the only country in the world that continually suffers from mass shooting events.

There had been no mass shooting in a year as much of the country stayed home from work and school during the pandemic, a fact noted ruefully by former President Obama. Continue reading.

Biden urges Congress to pass assault weapon ban

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President Biden on Tuesday called on Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and to close loopholes in the background check system after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo.

“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said in remarks at the White House following Monday’s shooting. “We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. … We should do it again.”

Biden called on the Senate to “immediately pass” two House-passed bills that would expand background checks for firearm sales, noting that both passed the Democratic-controlled lower chamber with some Republican support. One of the bills would close the so-called Charleston loophole by extending the initial background check review period from three to 10 days. The bill is linked to the 2015 shooting in Charleston, S.C., in which a white supremacist killed nine Black Americans at the Mother Emanuel AME Church. Continue reading.

White House prepares massive infrastructure bill with universal pre-K, free community college, climate measures

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White House officials are preparing to present President Biden with a roughly $3 trillion infrastructure and jobs package that includes high-profile domestic policy priorities such as free community college and universal prekindergarten, according to three people familiar with internal discussions.

After completing the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package this month, Biden administration officials are piecing together the next major legislative priority. Although no final announcement has been made, the White House is expected to push a multitrillion-dollar jobs and infrastructure plan as the centerpiece of the president’s “Build Back Better” agenda.

That effort is expected to be broken into two parts — one focused on infrastructure, and the other focused on other domestic priorities such as growing the newly expanded child tax credit for several years. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, stressed that planning was preliminary and subject to change. Some aides said that the package’s final price tag remains unclear. Continue reading.

GOP picks fight over states’ rights in coronavirus relief

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Republicans are aiming to stir up a legal battle over Biden’s pandemic relief bill, targeting a provision in the American Rescue Plan they say is an unconstitutional infringement on states’ ability to devise their own tax policies.

A provision in the bill that forbids states from using billions in aid to offset any tax cuts they might implement has sparked a backlash from Republican lawmakers and state attorneys general. Their criticisms could lay the groundwork for a court battle over states’ rights and government overreach akin to the Supreme Court case over the fate of ObamaCare.

This time, the GOP appears to be framing the issue as the Biden administration getting in the way of state and local leaders cutting taxes for their own residents. Continue reading.