Category: Algonquian

Biden administration wants to ensure growth, progress

Mitch McConnell and his sycophants are at it again, blocking progress and relief for the working population while defending a recent massive tax reduction for corporations and the wealthy. That 2017 tax bill is exactly the error made by the last four Republican administrations. The repeated assertion that “trickle down” economics will work, has in every case added to significant government tax revenue loss, increasing the debt. In this instance, $2 trillion according to the CBO and several independent institutes.

Now comes President Biden with a plan that addresses the critical needs of the nation’s infrastructure and the need to supply a secure workforce.  He proposes to spend about $2 trillion. But the Biden plan puts money into the economy for the purpose of purchasing goods and services, stimulating the economy, not giving it to investors, who will hopefully finance increased productive efforts.  That is a repeatedly disproved theory.

President Biden proposes to pay for his bill by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Specifically he would increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, still lower than the 35% before the 2017 reduction. McConnell’s immediate reaction was to block any thing that invaded the tax havens Republicans have built for the upper strata of income.

The Republican Congress has as a primary interest in all things of the economy: protection of the rich and continued reluctance to support the workers of the country. Meanwhile the administration and Congressional Democrats want to ensure growth and progress by putting Americans to work doing the things they successfully did from World War II through the 1970s. I lived through that time when we built the greatest economic engine in history with corporate tax rates at 50%, individual rates as high as 90%.

John…

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Washington — President Biden on Thursday signed legislation that aims to combat the spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his side, who is the first Asian American vice president, emphasized the bipartisan nature of the measure, and insisted that hate can have no more place in America. 

“I mean this from the bottom of my heart: hate can be given no safe harbor in America,” Mr. Biden said ahead of signing the legislation into law. “… Every time we’re silent, every time we let hate flourish, we make a lie of who we are as a nation. I mean it literally. We cannot let the very foundation of this country continue to be eaten away like it has been in other moments in our history and happening again.” 

The measure, spearheaded by Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York, was approved by the House on Tuesday by a vote of 364 to 62 after passing the Senate 94 to 1 last month. When Mr. Biden and Harris took the stage at the White House, the East Room erupted in applause.

“Let me start by saying to all of the leaders here, thank you. Thank you,” Harris told the room. “To the members of our United States Congress on both sides of the aisle who helped pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, thank you. … Because of you, history will remember this day and this moment, when our nation took action to combat hate.” 

Called the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, the bill aims to expand the federal government’s efforts to address the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, including by directing the Justice Department to speed up the review of hate-crime incidents and…

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By Bob Beatty  |  Special to Gannett Kansas

As President Joe Biden approaches enters his fourth month in office, his average job approval rating sits at 54%.

From 1945 to 1981, new presidents enjoyed much better approval ratings in their first few months. Here’s their approval at the same point in their presidencies as Biden is right now: Truman, 87%; Eisenhower, 74%; Kennedy, 79%; Johnson, 80%; Nixon, 62%; Ford, 45% (though he was at 71% before he pardoned Nixon); Carter, 66%; and Reagan, 66%.

Heady numbers indeed.

Compared to those presidents, Biden’s approval doesn’t look very good. However, in the modern American political era, they’re actually pretty decent. Coinciding with the advent of talk radio (Rush Limbaugh began his syndicated political talk radio program in 1988) and cable TV attack shows, such as CNN’s “Crossfire,” American politics became more and more tribal, more and more polarized, and yes, more and more rude and nasty.

George H.W. Bush’s approval ratings at this point in 1989 were 56% and Bill Clinton’s only 48%. George W. Bush sat exactly where Biden is, at 54%. Barack Obama broke the trend a wee bit, sitting at 61% approval.

Donald Trump? Terrible. His 41% average approval after four months in office is the lowest of the 14 presidents since 1945. Trump approval ratings were also the steadiest of all the previous presidents. He never got above 46% approval and on his last day in office his average was 39%.

What does the public like about Biden? On many issues, he is a little above 50% approval, such as the economy, racial injustice, foreign policy, taxes and the environment.

But on the pandemic, Biden averages 64% approval, hitting over 70% in some individual polls. His constant pandemic focus and vaccination benchmarking, along with the popularity of the American Recovery Act, seems to have hit the mark…

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A Saudi failure to meet those demands should result in consequences, the senators wrote in a Wednesday letter to Biden that CNN has seen, “to include pending weapons sales, military cooperation, the provision of maintenance for war planes and spare parts, as well as U.S.-Saudi ties more broadly.”

“Immediate and decisive action must be taken to end the ongoing blockade of fuel imports that is exacerbating the growing humanitarian crisis,” sixteen Democratic senators wrote in a letter led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “The United States has diplomatic and economic leverage to compel Saudi Arabia to end its callous blockade of Yemen and we must use it before more lives are needlessly lost.”

A CNN investigation in March found that Saudi warships were preventing oil tankers from docking at the key rebel controlled Hudaydah port, including 14 vessels that had gained approval from a United Nations clearance mechanism to berth.A handful of those tankers were given permission to dock at the port by Yemen’s internationally recognized government — which is backed by Saudi Arabia and its military — in a move that was praised by the US State Department. However, humanitarian agencies in Yemen told CNN last month that the fuel was nowhere near enough to deliver aid to millions of people in the country’s north.

‘Cruel and senseless’

The senators wrote that the block on the “importation of commercial fuel into northern Yemen needed by nearly two-thirds of the Yemeni population … has negatively impacted food transporters and processors, hospitals, schools, and businesses.”

A State Department spokesperson told CNN last month that “there is no blockade” of Hudaydah, saying that it “remains open and commercial imports of food and other commodities are moving through the port at normal or above average rates, along with goods imported…

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed into law Thursday legislation addressing anti-Asian hate crimes, which have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, after the measure passed Congress with bipartisan support.

Biden said that the legislation was an example of how common values could unite the country and that his administration would continue to work to crack down on hate crimes.

“My message to all of those who are hurting is we see you. The Congress said we see you. And we are committed to stop the hatred and the bias,” Biden said.

The House passed the measure Tuesday in a 364-62 vote after the Senate gave its overwhelming support, 94-1, last month. Vice President Kamala Harris joined Biden, along with nearly two dozen members of Congress, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Also in the crowd were relatives of Heather Heyer, who was killed when a man intentionally drove his car into a crowd protesting white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and Khalid Jabara, a Lebanese American shot in front of his home in 2016.

President Joe Biden prepares to sign the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House on May 20, 2021.Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

The legislation directs the Justice Department to expedite the review of Covid-19-related hate crimes that were reported to law enforcement agencies, help them establish ways to report such incidents online and perform public outreach.

The Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services are also required to issue guidance that seeks to raise awareness about the spate of anti-Asian hate crimes over the last year. The bill also creates grants for states to establish reporting hotlines.

Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by nearly 150 percent across major cities last year,…

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In its first 100 days in office, the Biden administration has advanced its policy priorities, many of which have involved repealing the policy accomplishments of the previous presidential administration. The Biden administration can be expected to advance its own proposals soon.

The first part of this two-part blog series focused on the Biden administration’s first 100 days and reviewed the administration’s legislative plans. The second part of the series addresses policy developments occurring at the executive branch agencies and independent agencies.

U.S. Department of Labor

Personnel Is Policy

On March 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed former Boston mayor and union official Martin Walsh as secretary of labor. While it is still early, many in the business community remain optimistic about Walsh’s willingness to listen to their concerns. As for other leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the deputy secretary of labor nominee, Julie Su, and solicitor of labor nominee, Seema Nanda, have had their confirmation hearings but have not been voted on by the full Senate. Su runs California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency, while Nanda is an Obama-era DOL vet and former chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee. If Su and Nanda are confirmed by the Senate, they will work with Walsh as the top three officials dictating policy at the DOL.

OSHA and Workplace Safety

• Assistant secretary nominee. In early April 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Douglas L. Parker to be the assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Parker currently serves as chief of California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).
• OSHA emergency temporary standard. For months, workers’ advocates and Democrats have been calling on OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect workers from COVID-19….

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in is visiting the White House on Friday, the second foreign leader who United States President Joe Biden has welcomed to Washington since taking office. On the agenda is likely to be the global semiconductor chip shortage that’s paralysing the US auto industry as well as China’s dominance in the region.

Moon’s visit follows an April summit between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga — and if the new administration’s choice of opening acts seems stage-managed, that’s no accident, say experts.

“It’s clear that the Biden administration is focused on strategic competition with China as a primary foreign policy objective, or as a primary frame for thinking about the challenges it faces in the world,” Scott Snyder, director of the US-Korea policy programme at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera. “It was very intentional that it opened its foreign policy approach in that way.”

The two visits from Asian heads of state come on the heels of an early March virtual meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the US, India, Australia and Japan — a meeting which was also designed to present a united front to China’s growing global influence.

Later in March, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited South Korea and Japan before holding a tense meeting with Chinese officials in Alaska.

US officials brought up alleged human rights abuses against members of the Uighur Muslim minority with Chinese officials during a tense meeting in Alaska earlier this year [File: Yasin Akgul/AFP]That meeting included frank discussions on thorny issues including human rights abuses committed against the Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang, a crackdown against democratic protesters in Hong Kong, repression in Tibet, sabre-rattling against Taiwan and cyberattacks on the US.

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Biden arms waiver is ‘slap in the face’ of Armenian-Americans – Responsible Statecraft – 1; } /* Disable tracking if the opt-out cookie exists. */ if ( __gtagTrackerIsOptedOut() ) { window[disableStr] = true; } /* Opt-out function */ function __gtagTrackerOptout() { document.cookie = disableStr + ‘=true; expires=Thu, 31 Dec 2099 23:59:59 UTC; path=/’; window[disableStr] = true; } if ( ‘undefined’ === typeof gaOptout ) { function gaOptout() { __gtagTrackerOptout(); } } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if ( mi_track_user ) { function __gtagTracker() {dataLayer.push( arguments );} __gtagTracker( ‘js’, new Date() ); __gtagTracker( ‘set’, { ‘developer_id.dZGIzZG’ : true, }); __gtagTracker( ‘config’, ‘UA-143035188-2’, { forceSSL:true,anonymize_ip:true,link_attribution:true, } ); window.gtag = __gtagTracker; ( function () { /* https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/ */ /* ga and __gaTracker compatibility shim. */ var noopfn = function () { return null; }; var newtracker = function () { return new Tracker(); }; var Tracker = function () { return null; }; var p = Tracker.prototype; p.get = noopfn; p.set = noopfn; p.send = function (){ var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments); args.unshift( ‘send’ ); __gaTracker.apply(null, args); }; var __gaTracker = function () { var len = arguments.length; if ( len === 0 ) { return; } var f = arguments[len – 1]; if ( typeof f !== ‘object’ || f === null || typeof f.hitCallback !== ‘function’ ) { if ( ‘send’ === arguments[0] ) { var hitConverted, hitObject = false, action; if ( ‘event’ === arguments[1] ) { if ( ‘undefined’ !== typeof arguments[3] ) { hitObject = { ‘eventAction’: arguments[3], ‘eventCategory’: arguments[2], ‘eventLabel’: arguments[4], ‘value’: arguments[5] ? arguments[5] : 1, } } } if ( typeof arguments[2] === ‘object’ ) { hitObject = arguments[2]; } if ( typeof arguments[5] === ‘object’ ) { Object.assign( hitObject, arguments[5] ); } if ( ‘undefined’ !== typeof ( arguments[1].hitType ) ) { hitObject = arguments[1];…
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From E&C Republicans [1]:

“On the broadband deployment side, an R Street blog post details the potential hazards with the Biden infrastructure proposals. Most worrisome, the plan appears to call for a favoritism toward municipally run networks, despite significant potential problems with these networks. Further, the plan also calls for future proofing broadband networks, though this essentially means fiber networks with symmetrical 100 megabits per second (Mbps) upload and download speeds. These proposals would harm competition and innovation, leading to lower private investment in broadband infrastructure. Instead, Congress should continue the streamlining of local deployment processes, as local barriers such as access to public rights-of-way and replacing utility poles can often serve as a significant barrier to deployment. 

[..] 

“On the broadband adoption side, the Biden plan also alluded to potential price controls, with general sentiment being that broadband prices are too high. However, data suggests prices are lower and speeds are higher than ever before. To the extent that low-income consumers need additional support to afford broadband connectivity, Congress should instead look to potential reforms to the Lifeline program that would deliver the benefit directly to the consumers, as well as update the funding mechanism to bring stability to the program.” – R Street Letter [2] to the Communications and Technology Subcommittee Republican Leader Bob Latta and Chairman Mike Doyle 

“Under the American Jobs Plan, the Biden administration would allocate $100 billion to build high-speed broadband. The proposal would distribute funding with a preference for municipal broadband initiatives and the construction of “future proof” infrastructure. It also seeks to reduce the cost of broadband internet to encourage adoption, though the means for cost mitigation remain unclear. Unfortunately, this plan quickly becomes counterproductive. Municipal broadband projects often ignore the key challenge: the equilibrium number of firms. By adding an additional competitor that can cross-subsidize broadband provisions, municipal networks often disrupt the…

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