#46 President Joe Biden

Ledbetterman10 · April 2021

gvn2fly1421 said:

The Juggler said:
I've done it myself. I can assure you, people use bicycles.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pete-buttigieg-bike-suv/

I can't imagine more stupid things to get worked up over than Biden talking about his son, and Biden's transpiration secretary riding a bike to work.

Ahh, there we go. The media has fact checked it. My apologies.

One thing though, the media would never lie or deceive would they?

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1379107540475248647

While I couldn't give a crap about Hunter Biden or Mayor Pete on a bike, I'm with you on this DeSantis thing. Even some prominent Florida democrats (like the mayor of Palm Beach) have been defending him saying the 60 Minutes thing was "intentionally false." DeSantis was a Trump lapdog bozo this time last year, but as far as rolling out the vaccine now, he seems to be doing a good job. And I'm not buying the pay-to-play allegations after hearing Florida Democrats defend him, watching that 60 Minutes edit, and hearing him defend himself and explain that CVS, Walgreens, and a church were all rolling out the vaccine before Publix.

The Juggler · April 2021

gvn2fly1421 said:

The Juggler said:
I've done it myself. I can assure you, people use bicycles.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pete-buttigieg-bike-suv/

I can't imagine more stupid things to get worked up over than Biden talking about his son, and Biden's transpiration secretary riding a bike to work.

Ahh, there we go. The media has fact checked it. My apologies.

One thing though, the media would never lie or deceive would they?

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1379107540475248647

Dude....you're posts this morning are deceiving and factually incorrect. Hahaha. You're blaming the media for something you are literally doing right now. lol

Are we on candid camera? Who the fuck is this guy?!?! lol

Merkin Baller · April 2021

tbergs said:

Conspiracy theorists don't concede, they move in and double dog dare you to meet the next challenge. It's exhausting.

That's the whole point.

It's best to not engage & starve them of oxygen, or in this case, attention.

The Juggler · April 2021

Merkin Baller said:

tbergs said:

Conspiracy theorists don't concede, they move in and double dog dare you to meet the next challenge. It's exhausting.

That's the whole point.

It's best to not engage & starve them of oxygen, or in this case, attention.

I have a bad habit of engaging. Gotta stop that. You're right. It's like a disease that festers with more attention given to it.

gvn2fly1421 · April 2021

Merkin Baller said:

tbergs said:

Conspiracy theorists don't concede, they move in and double dog dare you to meet the next challenge. It's exhausting.

That's the whole point.

It's best to not engage & starve them of oxygen, or in this case, attention.

I have learned recently there is an ignore button. Don't worry though, this stint will be brief... Until next time! Or not?

HughFreakingDillon · April 2021

gvn2fly1421 said:

The smartest man Joe knows... BTW, I realize there are a whole lot of left leaning folks here and that's fine, but if you watch this video below and do not laugh, you are too far gone. Wake up and realize our WHOLE system is fucked.

https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1379091828385910784

addiction has zero to do with intelligence.

I can see how one might think so, you know, Don Jr and all.

HughFreakingDillon · April 2021

gvn2fly1421 said:

Merkin Baller said:

The Juggler said:

gvn2fly1421 said:

Merkin Baller said:

I can't imagine anything more pathetic than talking about Hunter Biden right now.

Really? Couldn't imagine talking about the guy who had all the press on Easter Sunday right now. An interview that was conducted in the past couple of days.

I also shouldn't be surprised, first two responses are those who are too far gone. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

What was the point of your post? What is so egregious about a father loving his son despite his problems with addiction?

I guess addiction issues are only lip service for republicans?

We're supposed to be talking about Hunter Biden to distract us from GOP fuckery. It's as transparent as it is pathetic and classless. It's been a part of the GOP playbook since at least as far back as 2019.

Matt Gaetz is under investigation for sex trafficking of a minor (among other things), but we're supposed to be bothered by something someone who doesn't hold any elected office did while addicted to crack?

Please.

Honestly, I do not know what you are supposed to be talking about. I just find it really funny that on the day Jesus left the tomb, the son of God, the MEDIA chose to give us the story on the son of Joe. Who was on his hands and knees snorting parmesan freakin cheese out of the carpet. Dear. Lord. And nobody finds that funny?

Matt Gaetz? If he is found guilty of what he is accused of, he should have the book thrown at him. I have never defended the guy but nice deflection from my post.

Did any of y'all see Charles Barkley's comments over the weekend about division? I will post video below. ALL of the establishment hates us and wants us divided. What is so hard to understand about that? My video, was nothing more than a funny video, and if you do not laugh about that, again, you are too far gone.

https://twitter.com/runBMC57/status/1378435984707133445

this, we all know. this is not some deep state revelation.

static111 · April 2021

mickeyrat said:

Joe Biden Bills
Biden boosted by Senate rules as GOP bucks infrastructure
By LISA MASCARO and JOSH BOAK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — With an appeal to think big, President Joe Biden is promoting his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan directly to Americans, summoning public support to push past the Republicans lining up against the massive effort they sum up as big taxes, big spending and big government.
Republicans in Congress are making the politically brazen bet that it’s more advantageous to oppose the costly American Jobs Plan, saddling the Democrats with ownership of the sweeping proposal and the corporate tax hike Biden says is needed to pay for it. He wants the investments in roads, schools, broadband and clean energy approved by summer.
On Monday, Biden received a boost from an unexpected source. The Senate parliamentarian greenlighted a strategy that would allow Democrats in the evenly split 50-50 chamber to rely on a 51-vote threshold to advance some bills, rather than the typical 60 votes typically needed. The so-called budget reconciliation rules can now be used more often than expected — giving Democrats a fresh new path around the GOP blockade.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's spokesman welcomed the parliamentarian's opinion as “an important step forward.” Spokesman Justin Goodman said no decisions have been made on the process ahead, but “this key pathway is available to Democrats if needed.”
The prospects for a massive infrastructure investment, once a bipartisan source of unity on Capitol Hill, have cracked and groaned under the weight of political polarization. Where Biden sees an urgency in going big, Republicans want a narrow plan that focuses on roads and bridges, and warn that any corporate tax increase would crush economic growth.
“They know we need it,” Biden said of the Republicans as he returned to Washington on Monday. “Everybody around the world is investing billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we’re going to do it here.”
The standoff almost ensures a months-long slog as Congress hunkers down to begin drafting legislation and the White House keeps the door open to working across the aisle with Republicans, hoping that continued public attention will drum up support.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared plainly on Monday that Biden’s plan is “something we’re not going to do.”
Speaking to reporters in Kentucky, McConnell said Republicans could support a “much more modest” approach, and one that doesn’t rely on corporate tax hikes to pay for it.
A core dividing line is Biden's effort to pay for infrastructure by undoing Donald Trump's tax break for corporations, a signature achievement of the Trump White House and its partners in Congress.
The 2017 GOP tax bill, which all the Republicans voted for, slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. It was supposed to usher in a new era of American investment and job creation, yet growth never came close to the promised levels and the economy fell into a recession because of the pandemic.
Biden proposes raising the rate to 28% and instituting a global minimum rate to dissuade companies from relocating in lower-tax havens. Democratic senators led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, unveiled their own framework for an international taxation overhaul Monday that could provide an opening to Biden's approach.
“We desperately need reform,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of those involved in the effort.
Shepherding Biden's proposal through Congress remains a work in progress, particularly in the evenly-divided 50-50 Senate, where Democrats have the majority because the vice president from their party, Kamala Harris, can cast a tie-breaking vote.
But a single senator can break ranks to influence the size and shape of the package. On Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., indicated he would prefer a corporate tax rate at 25%, lower than what Biden is proposing.
Seizing on Democratic divisions, Republicans have signaled zero interest in undoing the tax cuts they approved with Trump, and instead prefer a smaller infrastructure package paid for by user fees on drivers or other public-private partnerships that share the costs.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of Senate GOP leadership, said Sunday a smaller infrastructure package of about $615 billion, or 30% of what Biden is proposing, could draw bipartisan support.
Administration officials have encouraged Republicans to talk more fully about what they dislike and would do instead, under the opinion that a battle of ideas will only help Biden gain support with voters.
The president has already met twice with bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the Oval Office, and members of Biden’s Cabinet leading the charge on infrastructure have also have placed dozens of calls to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Yet the White House has a fundamental disagreement with Republicans on the definition of infrastructure, such that any outreach is unlikely to yield an agreement.
"Infrastructure is not just the roads we get a horse and buggy across,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a Monday briefing. “Infrastructure is about broadband. It’s about replacing lead pipes so people have water. It’s about rebuilding our schools.”
That leaves Biden and congressional Republicans on a collision course, the outcome of which could define the parties and his presidency.
The GOP strategy is reminiscent of its Obama-era stance more than a decade ago, when the Republicans opposed the 2009 rescue after the economic crisis, framing it as government overreach that piled on debt — an argument they used in 2010 to win back control of Congress.
But it’s not at all certain the GOP playbook that worked more than a decade ago will produce the same political gains this time. Biden is banking on polling that suggests his infrastructure package is popular among voters of both parties, making it easier to bypass any GOP blockade on Capitol Hill.
Touring a water treatment plant Monday in California, Harris said access to clean water was about a broader issue of fairness.
With the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, Harris noted that families in Iowa and parts of the Midwest needed federal help to upgrade the wells on their properties, while parts of California needed reliable access to fight wildfires.
“We must understand the equities and inequities of distribution and access to clean water, especially clean drinking water,” Harris said.
___
Associated Press writer Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.

I love how the GOP calls it a tax hike, when it will still be lower than anytime in history besides under Trump. Not too mention the fallacy of lower corporate taxes helping the economy. Ask the average American how their paychecks have faired as corporate tax rates fell and executive bonuses went up. Give me a break. And don’t these people want to go back to when america was great again, you know when the corporate tax rates were 70-90% and the middle class was booming. How can these people even breathe?

The Juggler · April 2021

static111 said:

mickeyrat said:

Joe Biden Bills
Biden boosted by Senate rules as GOP bucks infrastructure
By LISA MASCARO and JOSH BOAK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — With an appeal to think big, President Joe Biden is promoting his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan directly to Americans, summoning public support to push past the Republicans lining up against the massive effort they sum up as big taxes, big spending and big government.
Republicans in Congress are making the politically brazen bet that it’s more advantageous to oppose the costly American Jobs Plan, saddling the Democrats with ownership of the sweeping proposal and the corporate tax hike Biden says is needed to pay for it. He wants the investments in roads, schools, broadband and clean energy approved by summer.
On Monday, Biden received a boost from an unexpected source. The Senate parliamentarian greenlighted a strategy that would allow Democrats in the evenly split 50-50 chamber to rely on a 51-vote threshold to advance some bills, rather than the typical 60 votes typically needed. The so-called budget reconciliation rules can now be used more often than expected — giving Democrats a fresh new path around the GOP blockade.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's spokesman welcomed the parliamentarian's opinion as “an important step forward.” Spokesman Justin Goodman said no decisions have been made on the process ahead, but “this key pathway is available to Democrats if needed.”
The prospects for a massive infrastructure investment, once a bipartisan source of unity on Capitol Hill, have cracked and groaned under the weight of political polarization. Where Biden sees an urgency in going big, Republicans want a narrow plan that focuses on roads and bridges, and warn that any corporate tax increase would crush economic growth.
“They know we need it,” Biden said of the Republicans as he returned to Washington on Monday. “Everybody around the world is investing billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we’re going to do it here.”
The standoff almost ensures a months-long slog as Congress hunkers down to begin drafting legislation and the White House keeps the door open to working across the aisle with Republicans, hoping that continued public attention will drum up support.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared plainly on Monday that Biden’s plan is “something we’re not going to do.”
Speaking to reporters in Kentucky, McConnell said Republicans could support a “much more modest” approach, and one that doesn’t rely on corporate tax hikes to pay for it.
A core dividing line is Biden's effort to pay for infrastructure by undoing Donald Trump's tax break for corporations, a signature achievement of the Trump White House and its partners in Congress.
The 2017 GOP tax bill, which all the Republicans voted for, slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. It was supposed to usher in a new era of American investment and job creation, yet growth never came close to the promised levels and the economy fell into a recession because of the pandemic.
Biden proposes raising the rate to 28% and instituting a global minimum rate to dissuade companies from relocating in lower-tax havens. Democratic senators led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, unveiled their own framework for an international taxation overhaul Monday that could provide an opening to Biden's approach.
“We desperately need reform,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of those involved in the effort.
Shepherding Biden's proposal through Congress remains a work in progress, particularly in the evenly-divided 50-50 Senate, where Democrats have the majority because the vice president from their party, Kamala Harris, can cast a tie-breaking vote.
But a single senator can break ranks to influence the size and shape of the package. On Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., indicated he would prefer a corporate tax rate at 25%, lower than what Biden is proposing.
Seizing on Democratic divisions, Republicans have signaled zero interest in undoing the tax cuts they approved with Trump, and instead prefer a smaller infrastructure package paid for by user fees on drivers or other public-private partnerships that share the costs.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of Senate GOP leadership, said Sunday a smaller infrastructure package of about $615 billion, or 30% of what Biden is proposing, could draw bipartisan support.
Administration officials have encouraged Republicans to talk more fully about what they dislike and would do instead, under the opinion that a battle of ideas will only help Biden gain support with voters.
The president has already met twice with bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the Oval Office, and members of Biden’s Cabinet leading the charge on infrastructure have also have placed dozens of calls to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Yet the White House has a fundamental disagreement with Republicans on the definition of infrastructure, such that any outreach is unlikely to yield an agreement.
"Infrastructure is not just the roads we get a horse and buggy across,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a Monday briefing. “Infrastructure is about broadband. It’s about replacing lead pipes so people have water. It’s about rebuilding our schools.”
That leaves Biden and congressional Republicans on a collision course, the outcome of which could define the parties and his presidency.
The GOP strategy is reminiscent of its Obama-era stance more than a decade ago, when the Republicans opposed the 2009 rescue after the economic crisis, framing it as government overreach that piled on debt — an argument they used in 2010 to win back control of Congress.
But it’s not at all certain the GOP playbook that worked more than a decade ago will produce the same political gains this time. Biden is banking on polling that suggests his infrastructure package is popular among voters of both parties, making it easier to bypass any GOP blockade on Capitol Hill.
Touring a water treatment plant Monday in California, Harris said access to clean water was about a broader issue of fairness.
With the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, Harris noted that families in Iowa and parts of the Midwest needed federal help to upgrade the wells on their properties, while parts of California needed reliable access to fight wildfires.
“We must understand the equities and inequities of distribution and access to clean water, especially clean drinking water,” Harris said.
___
Associated Press writer Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.

I love how the GOP calls it a tax hike, when it will still be lower than anytime in history besides under Trump. Not too mention the fallacy of lower corporate taxes helping the economy. Ask the average American how their paychecks have faired as corporate tax rates fell and executive bonuses went up. Give me a break. And don’t these people want to go back to when america was great again, you know when the corporate tax rates were 70-90% and the middle class was booming. How can these people even breathe?

In fairness, they want to go back to the era of the Great Depression. Corporate taxes were rock bottom and America was never greater!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021252/uploads/editor/4w/vxdvq9sz52rx.png

Kat · April 2021

It's a partial reversal, isn't it? That makes it *not* a tax hike.

mrussel1 · April 2021

Kat said:

It's a partial reversal, isn't it? That makes it *not* a tax hike.

Yes, and a lot of people don't realize that the personal tax reduction rates of 2017 actually expire in 2024, whereas teh corporate cuts were permanent.

gimmesometruth27 · April 2021

how many presidential golf outings have we paid for this quarter?

none?

shit we are already winning, haha

nicknyr15 · April 2021

Ledbetterman10 said:

gvn2fly1421 said:

The Juggler said:
I've done it myself. I can assure you, people use bicycles.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pete-buttigieg-bike-suv/

I can't imagine more stupid things to get worked up over than Biden talking about his son, and Biden's transpiration secretary riding a bike to work.

Ahh, there we go. The media has fact checked it. My apologies.

One thing though, the media would never lie or deceive would they?

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1379107540475248647

While I couldn't give a crap about Hunter Biden or Mayor Pete on a bike, I'm with you on this DeSantis thing. Even some prominent Florida democrats (like the mayor of Palm Beach) have been defending him saying the 60 Minutes thing was "intentionally false." DeSantis was a Trump lapdog bozo this time last year, but as far as rolling out the vaccine now, he seems to be doing a good job. And I'm not buying the pay-to-play allegations after hearing Florida Democrats defend him, watching that 60 Minutes edit, and hearing him defend himself and explain that CVS, Walgreens, and a church were all rolling out the vaccine before Publix.

60 minutes edit was ridiculous.

josevolution · April 2021

mace1229 said:

The Juggler said:

The media is silent about this?

Good grief, Mace.....what the fuck, man?

Other than multiple mass shootings, it is all they've been talking about since the covid relief bill passed.

I should have said outrage, not silent. They cover it, but they aren't outraged over it.
Compared to the coverage it got a few years ago. I don't see nearly as many saying the conditions are poor, or calling it cages, even though that hasn't really changed. The media is told they can't see inside and they say ok and walk away. Would they have done that a year ago? They would have found a way in and report what is happening. So yes, compared to what was going on with the coverage the last 4 years, this is pretty much a nothingburger to them. They ask a couple questions, they as the press sec if she'll call it a crisis, and when she says "no its not a crisis, its a challenge" they accept that answer. If Trump was president this would be a bigger story than it is, with a lot more humanitarian accusations being thrown around that what we're seeing. I see more media outrage over the upsets of March Madness that what is going on at the border.

lol you just moved your goal post back 20yards , I didn’t mean this but I meant that lol

mace1229 · April 2021

josevolution said:

mace1229 said:

The Juggler said:

The media is silent about this?

Good grief, Mace.....what the fuck, man?

Other than multiple mass shootings, it is all they've been talking about since the covid relief bill passed.

I should have said outrage, not silent. They cover it, but they aren't outraged over it.
Compared to the coverage it got a few years ago. I don't see nearly as many saying the conditions are poor, or calling it cages, even though that hasn't really changed. The media is told they can't see inside and they say ok and walk away. Would they have done that a year ago? They would have found a way in and report what is happening. So yes, compared to what was going on with the coverage the last 4 years, this is pretty much a nothingburger to them. They ask a couple questions, they as the press sec if she'll call it a crisis, and when she says "no its not a crisis, its a challenge" they accept that answer. If Trump was president this would be a bigger story than it is, with a lot more humanitarian accusations being thrown around that what we're seeing. I see more media outrage over the upsets of March Madness that what is going on at the border.

lol you just moved your goal post back 20yards , I didn’t mean this but I meant that lol

We can't let go of something that was literally weeks ago? Clarifying is not moving the goal posts 20 yards. I admitted my use of "silent" wasn't accurate. But those shelters were described as "concentration camps" a year ago. They are even worse now, but no one is calling them that anymore.
Lets move on to a topic not 3 weeks old now,

mickeyrat · April 2021

Joe Biden United States

Biden open to compromise on infrastructure, but not inaction

By JOSH BOAK

Today

President Joe Biden drew a red line on his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday, saying he is open to compromise on how to pay for the package but inaction is unacceptable.

The president turned fiery in an afternoon speech, saying that the United States is failing to build, invest and research for the future and adding that failure to do so amounts to giving up on “leading the world.”

“Compromise is inevitable,” Biden said. “We’ll be open to good ideas in good faith negotiations. But here’s what we won’t be open to: We will not be open to doing nothing. Inaction, simply, is not an option.”

Biden challenged the idea that low tax rates would do more for growth than investing in care workers, roads, bridges, clean water, broadband, school buildings, the power grid, electric vehicles and veterans hospitals.

The president has taken heat from Republican lawmakers and business groups for proposing that corporate tax increases should finance an infrastructure package that goes far beyond the traditional focus on roads and bridges.

“What the president proposed this week is not an infrastructure bill,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said on NBC's “Meet the Press,” one of many quotes that Republican congressional aides emailed to reporters before Biden's speech. “It’s a huge tax increase, for one thing. And it’s a tax increase on small businesses, on job creators in the United States of America."

Biden last week proposed funding his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan largely through an increase in the corporate tax rate to 28% and an expanded global minimum tax set at 21%. But he said Wednesday he was willing to accept a rate below 28% so long as the projects are financed and taxes are not increased on people making less than $400,000.

“I’m willing to listen to that," Biden said. "But we gotta pay for this. We gotta pay for this. There’s many other ways we can do it. But I am willing to negotiate. I’ve come forward with the best, most rational way, in my view the fairest way, to pay for it, but there are many other ways as well. And I’m open.”

He stressed that he had been open to compromise on his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, but Republicans never budged beyond their $600 billion counteroffer.

“If they'd come forward with a plan that did the bulk of it and it was $1.3 billion or four ... that allowed me to have pieces of all that was in there, I would have been prepared to compromise,” Biden said. “But they didn’t. They didn’t move an inch. Not an inch.”

The president added that America's position in the world was incumbent on taking aggressive action on modern infrastructure that serves a computerized age. Otherwise, the county would lose out to China in what he believes is a fundamental test of democracy. Republican lawmakers counter that higher taxes would make the country less competitive globally.

“You think China is waiting around to invest in this digital infrastructure or on research and development? I promise you. They are not waiting. But they’re counting on American democracy, to be too slow, too limited and too divided to keep pace."

His administration on Wednesday was pressing the case for tax increases. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it was “self-defeating” for then-President Donald Trump to assume that cutting the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% in 2017 would make the economy more competitive and unleash growth. Yellen said that competing on tax rates came at the expense of investing in workers.

“Tax reform is not a zero-sum game,” she told reporters on a call. “Win-win is an overused phrase, but we have a win-win in front of us now.”

Yellen said the tax increases would produce roughly $2.5 trillion in revenues over 15 years, enough to cover the eight years' worth of infrastructure investments being proposed.

The roughly $200 billion gap between how much the taxes would raise and how much the administration wants to spend suggests there is space to address critics, such as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a key Democratic vote, who would prefer a 25% rate.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said businesses and lawmakers should come to the bargaining table, noting that there could be room to negotiate on the rate and timeline.

“There is room for compromise,” Raimondo said at a White House briefing. “What we cannot do, and what I am imploring the business community not to do, is to say, ‘We don’t like 28. We're walking away. We're not discussing.'"

Key to the Biden administration's pitch is bringing corporate tax revenues closer to their historic levels, rather than raising them to new highs that could make U.S. businesses less competitive globally.

Trump's 2017 tax cuts halved corporate tax revenues to 1% of gross domestic product, which is a measure of the total income in the economy. Revenues had previously equaled 2% of GDP. That higher figure is still below the 3% average of peer nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Treasury Department said in its summary of the plan.

Still, some say the administration's claim is misleading.

“The administration should use statistics that directly measure the burden on the corporate sector,” said Kyle Pomerleau, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “In fact, many measures of effective tax rates show that the U.S.’s burden is pretty close to middle of the road. Biden’s plan would certainly push up to the high end among our major trading partners.”

Business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable argue that higher taxes would hurt U.S. companies operating worldwide and the wider economy.

The Penn-Wharton Budget Model issued a report Wednesday saying the combined spending and taxes would cause government debt to rise by 2031 and then decrease by 2050. But following the plan, GDP would be lower by 0.8% in 2050.

mickeyrat · April 2021

Joe Biden Public health Epidemics Violence Shootings Gun politics Gun violence

Biden making new moves on guns, including naming ATF boss

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE, AAMER MADHANI and MICHAEL BALSAMO

5 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, in his first gun control measures since taking office, announced a half-dozen executive actions Thursday aimed at addressing a proliferation of gun violence across the nation that he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment."

“It is actually a public health crisis,” Biden said during remarks at the White House.

Greeting the families of gun violence victims and activists, he assured them: “We’re absolutely determined to make change."

His Thursday announcement delivers on a pledge Biden made last month to take what he termed immediate “common-sense steps” to address gun violence, after a series of mass shootings drew renewed attention to the issue. His announcement came the same day as yet another shooting, this one in South Carolina, where five people were killed.

But Thursday's announcement underscores the limitations of Biden's executive power to act on guns. They include moves to tighten regulations on homemade guns and provide more resources for gun-violence prevention, but fall far short of the sweeping gun-control agenda Biden laid out on the campaign trail.

Indeed, the White House has repeatedly emphasized the need for legislative action to tackle the issue. But while the House passed a background-check bill last month, gun control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate, where Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals.

Biden is tightening regulations of buyers of “ghost guns” — homemade firearms that usually are assembled from parts and milled with a metal-cutting machine and often lack serial numbers used to trace them. It’s legal to build a gun in a home or a workshop and there is no federal requirement for a background check. The goal is to “help stop the proliferation of these firearms,” according to the White House.

The Justice Department will issue a proposed rule aimed at reining in ghost guns within 30 days, though details of the rule weren't immediately issued.

A second proposed rule, expected within 60 days, will tighten regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces, like the one used by the Boulder, Colorado, shooter in a rampage last month that left 10 dead. The rule will designate pistols used with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles, which require a federal license to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $200 tax.

The department also is publishing model legislation within 60 days that is intended to make it easier for states to adopt their own “red flag” laws. Such laws allow for individuals to petition a court to allow the police to confiscate weapons from a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

The department also will begin to provide more data on firearms trafficking, starting with a new comprehensive report on the issue. The administration says that hasn’t been done in more than two decades.

Biden is also nominating David Chipman, a former federal agent and adviser at the gun control group Giffords, to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Biden administration will also make investments in community violence intervention programs, which are aimed at reducing gun violence in urban communities, across five federal agencies.

Officials said the executive actions were “initial steps” completed during Garland’s first weeks on the job and more may be coming.

The ATF is currently run by an acting director, Regina Lombardo. Gun-control advocates have emphasized the significance of this position in enforcing gun laws, and Chipman is certain to win praise from this group. During his time as a senior policy adviser with Giffords, he spent considerable effort pushing for greater regulation and enforcement on ghost guns, changes to the background check system and measures to reduce the trafficking of illegal firearms.

Chipman spent 25 years as an agent at the ATF, where he worked on stopping a trafficking ring that sent illegal firearms from Virginia to New York, and served on the ATF’s SWAT team. Chipman is a gun owner.

He is an explosives expert and was among the team involved in investigating the Oklahoma City bombing and the first World Trade Center bombing. He also was involved in investigating a series of church bombings in Alabama in the 1990s. He retired from the ATF in 2012.

The White House fact sheet said Chipman has worked “to advance common-sense gun safety laws.”

During his campaign, Biden promised to prioritize new gun control measures as president, including enacting universal background check legislation, banning online sales of firearms and the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. But gun-control advocates have said that while they were heartened by signs from the White House that they took the issue seriously, they've been disappointed by the lack of early action.

With the announcement of the new measures, however, advocates lauded Biden's first moves to combat gun violence.

“Each of these executive actions will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic, and begin to make good on President Biden’s promise to be the strongest gun safety president in history,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Feinblatt in particular praised the move to regulate ghost guns, which he said “will undoubtedly save countless lives,” and lauded Chipman as an “invaluable point person” in the fight against illegal gun trafficking. He also said the group is looking forward to continuing to work with the Biden administration on further gun control measures, but it's unclear what next moves the White House, or lawmakers on Capitol Hill, will be able to take.

Biden himself expressed uncertainty late last month when asked if he had the political capital to pass new gun control proposals, telling reporters, “I haven’t done any counting yet."

For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about an increasing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. Ghost guns have increasingly turned up at crime scenes and in recent years have been turning up more and more when federal agents are purchasing guns in undercover operations from gang members and other criminals.

It is hard to say how many are circulating on the streets, in part because in many cases police departments don’t even contact the federal government about the guns because they can’t be traced.

Some states, like California, have enacted laws in recent years to require serial numbers be stamped on ghost guns.

The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver — sometimes referred to as an “80-percent receiver” — can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required.

A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 had been prohibited from owning firearms, but he built his own to skirt the court order before his rampage. And in 2019, a teenager used a homemade handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and wound three others at a school in suburban Los Angeles.

___

Associated Press writer Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.

Ledbetterman10 · April 2021

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1382002188654886921?s=20

gvn2fly1421 · April 2021

Whoops...

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1299184932384768001

mrussel1 · April 2021

gvn2fly1421 said:

Whoops...

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1299184932384768001

Whoops? Are you interpreting this to mean Biden was predicting a crime free country under his presidency?

#46 President Joe Biden

Comments

Categories