Tag Archive: infrastructure

To tout President Biden’s accomplishments, make it bite-sized

President Biden boosts high-speed trains and infrastructure

As we are now less than one year from the 2024 elections, there have been some lists of President Joe Biden‘s many accomplishments floating around online, including from the White House itself. The lists are quite long and impressive, comprising legislation (American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), executive orders (creating new national monuments, steps to curb gun violence, AI safety measures, and more. These accomplishments are important to share, because mainstream media outlets often refuse to acknowledge them. However, the comprehensive lists of what President Biden has achieved can be overwhelming, especially for anyone trying to recite these accomplishments in conversation, on video, or even in writing.

Therefore, a better method might be to pick one subject at a time, and focus on that. For example, earlier this year, the Biden team began enlisting what some call “an army” of mostly young social media influencers, and even gave them a special briefing room at the White House. These influencers use social media such at TikTok to create short pieces on topics in which they have chosen to specialize, such as financial policy, gun violence, marijuana decriminalization, electric vehicles (EVs), and more.

While these social media influencers are well-known, with large audiences and familiar platforms, there is no reason why the rest of us cannot similarly use the tools of communication at our disposal — blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, old-fashioned letters to the editor of local or national newspapers, website comments, and even face-to-face conversations with friends and family at upcoming Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners — to share all this good Biden administration news. In doing so, sticking to one topic at a time might be most palatable to those listeners and readers with short attention spans due to holiday food comas or otherwise.

Besides being able to hold people’s attention spans, a further advantage of this bite-sized approach to sharing President Biden’s accomplishments is that it lets individual Democratic voters play up the issues that are most important to them.  For instance, one who thinks climate change is the most crucial issue we face can talk about the Inflation Reduction Act, with its tax credits for EVs and solar energy installations. Another person who is most passionate about protecting abortion rights in the wake of the Republican majority U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade can bring up President Biden’s executive orders to safeguard abortion and contraception, and so on. In this manner, all of the important issues likely would get aired, no one’s eyes would glaze over with exhaustion, and President Biden would get the full credit he deserves.

Photo by Maryland GovPics, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/GaEPVS

President Biden attacks “MAGA Republicans”

MAGA Republican extremism on display

Earlier this year, we noted that President Joe Biden had started using the term “MAGA Republicans” to describe his political opponents, especially the ones who are “threatening our freedoms, by attempting to cut Social Security,” threatening women’s healthcare decisions (i.e. banning abortion), banning books in schools, etc. Now, months later, President Biden, his 2024 reelection campaign team, his White House staff and other Democrats are continuing this use of “MAGA Republicans.” We think doing so is effective.

Essentially, there are two related advantages in using the term “MAGA Republicans.” First, it’s a way of saying, “look, there are plenty of reasonable Republicans with whom I can work, but there’s an extreme wing of the Republican Party that is causing problems.” And in fact, President Biden has worked with Republicans to pass major legislation, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the Safer Communities Act of 2022 (which provides mental health assistance to reduce gun violence), the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, and others, all with Republican votes (and some of which the Biden Administration even terms “Bipartisan” when referring to these laws).

Biden Boom update — the economy continues to gain strength

Lots of this floating around the U.S. economy

Back in December 2021, we published the Biden Boom” story. At the time, we noted how, in less than one year in office, President Joe Biden had already made great strides in the U.S. economy. That included, for example, getting economic growth up and unemployment down from the 2020 Trump Recession caused in large part by Donald Trump‘s failure to act on COVID. At the time, we suggested spreading this good economic news.

Now it’s more than 18 months later, and while Trump is busy begging for donations to defend himself against a growing pile of criminal indictments, President Biden has been busy helping all of us. As a result, the U.S. economy continues to defy the predictions of the doom and gloomers, including many in the mainstream media. This continuing Biden Boom is the great untold story of 2023. For example:

–Unemployment is only 3.6 percent, near the all-time low

–The U.S. has created over 13 million jobs since President Biden took office, which shatters the job creation record for a president’s 4-year term in just two and a half years.

–Inflation, which rose sharply due to the economic rescue steps needed after Trump’s COVID failures, is now down to three percent.

–U.S. Gross Domestic Product (i.e. economic growth) is still going strong at well over 2 percent annually.

–U.S. manufacturing growth has sharply rebounded under President Biden, and according to Axios, “outpaces the rest of the world.”

While all of this good economic news is occurring, a crucial moment took place last Wednesday, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the Federal Reserve staff no longer forecasts a U.S. recession. This means the U.S. is likely headed for the much sought-after but rare “soft landing” of lowering inflation without causing a recession. Large companies like Caterpillar, reporting very high profits, agree.

What to do when the media ignore President Biden’s accomplishments?

President Joe Biden

This past Monday, President Joe Biden held an event at the White House where he unveiled a more than $42 billion investment in high-speed broadband internet around the country. According to President Biden, this funding comes from both the American Rescue Plan (signed into law in March 2021) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (signed in November 2021).  The President indicated that the legislation passed thus far included “$25 billion for high-speed Internet in places where it was out of reach, for schools and libraries to help students connect to the internet if they couldn’t do it at home.” Now, says President Biden, the new funding will “be distributed to 50 states, Washington, D.C., and territories to deliver high-speed Internet in places where there’s neither service or it’s too slow.” The breakdown of such funding includes, for example, over $3.3 billion dedicated to Texas, over $1.8 billion to California, and more than $1.1 billion for Florida.

The President’s broadband investment plan is designed to “connect every person in America to reliable high-speed Internet by 2030.” However, President Biden stated that:

[I]t’s not enough to have access. You need affordability in addition to access. That’s why we worked with internet service providers to bring down prices for Americans struggling with internet payments. It’s called the Affordable Connectivity Program. It’s helping 19 million families save around $30 a month on their internet bills, and some save a lot more.

In short, this was a very important announcement about something that improves people’s lives and helps individuals, students, businesses and others conduct their activities more efficiently. It’s great for our economy and will create jobs as well.

However, at least according to a number of people (such as Mastodon user Kailee @skykiss@sfba.social), “[n]ot a single news outlet aired President Biden’s event.” If that is the case, the fault lies in several places, including with the news media, the Biden administration, Democratic leaders in Congress and in the states, and elsewhere.

Joe Biden wants bipartisanship — on his terms

President Biden speaking at the Port of Baltimore, November 2021

In his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden talked about national unity, and called for bipartisanship between Democrats and Republicans. Biden has been making such appeals for some time. Indeed, Biden and other leading Democrats routinely call the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Biden signed into law last November, the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” as Biden did again in his SOTU address, giving credit to Republicans as well as Democrats for its passage.

Given that Republicans generally are so uncooperative that some of them boycotted President Biden’s State of the Union address, and others even heckled Biden, why is Biden calling for bipartisanship? Several reasons come to mind:

Biden White House repeats Pelosi’s “vote no and take the dough” charge against Republicans

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be the savviest Democratic elected official of the last 10 years or more. Not only has Pelosi gotten many good Democratic bills passed in the House, she also gave Donald Trump a well-deserved toddler time out more than once. But one of the best things Speaker Pelosi has done is to communicate her points in an effective way. A great example is her phrase “vote no and take the dough” which Pelosi uses to describe Republicans who vote against Democratic-sponsored federal relief and funding, but who then brag, try to take credit, and even engage in ceremonies when such funding arrives in their state or district.

Speaker Pelosi’s first use of “vote no and take the dough” seems to be from last March, when, after every U.S. House and Senate Republican voted no on President Joe Biden‘s COVID relief package and the legislation passed with only Democratic votes, many of those same Republicans went and and bragged to their constituents about the benefits they were bringing in when the money was distributed. Likewise, with the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act beginning to dole out many millions of dollars to local Congressional districts for flood relief and other crucial projects, Speaker Pelosi is keeping a list of House Republicans who voted against the legislation, but who are publicly celebrating the incoming funds. There’s a word for folks who do that, and that word is “hypocrite.”

The Republicans’ War on America

Republican attack on U.S. Capitol

In his February 2021 annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett, considered to be the most successful investor of all time, wrote:

Our unwavering conclusion: Never bet against America.

However, looking back at 2021, the Republican Party certainly failed to heed Mr. Buffett’s advice. The Republicans bet against America when they disbelieved and then tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They bet against America when they incited, supported and funded a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol that was designed to stop the certification of Electoral Votes for then President-elect Joe Biden. They bet against America when they fought, and continue to fight, against sensible COVID protections such as masks, vaccinations, school accommodations, and social distancing. And they bet against America when they side with one of our most dangerous global opponents, Russia, to hurt American democracy.

Surely, the Republicans’ War on America presents some stark campaign fodder for the 2022 elections.

It’s a Biden Boom: share the news

The Biden Boom

One of the most important stories of 2021 is one that does not get told enough: the Biden Economic Boom. Specifically, in less than 11 months, following the Trump Recession in which millions of jobs were lost, President Joe Biden has presided over a historic economic and jobs recovery. This includes:

–Extraordinary economic growth, estimated to be 7.8 percent this year.

–Income, wage and salary growth all way above the figures for 2018 and 2019.

–Unemployment falling from 6.3 percent in January 2021 (Donald Trump‘s last month in office) to just 4.2 percent last month, a historic drop in such a short time. And jobless claims just hit a new 52-year low.

Indeed, The Hill calls this “the fastest economic recovery in history.”

Moreover, the Biden Boom is no accident, but rather, a result of the Biden administration’s phenomenal efforts to vaccinate Americans against COVID; the American Rescue Plan which put money in the pockets of many Americans; and now the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (which may soon be followed by the Build Back Better Act). It turns out that Americans really do like competence in government, or what we call Good Government, and that is part of the Democratic Party’s brand.

Republicans about to fall into next political trap on infrastructure

Better roads and more jobs: a win-win for America

On the heels of  President Joe Biden‘s policy and political victory on the American Rescue Plan (ARP), and with the COVID vaccination rate well exceeding his 100-day goal, Biden and Congressional Democrats are now adding infrastructure to their agenda. That is the dry term for the crucial task of rebuilding America’s crumbling roads and bridges. And once again, just as happened with the ARP, Republicans are in danger of ending up on the wrong side of a very popular issue.

First, recall that Donald Trump, touting himself as a “builder,” had talked about rebuilding America’s infrastructure since at least 2015. After arriving at the White House, Trump even promised up to $1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending. Of course, Trump’s big plan never happened, just like Trump’s promised healthcare plan, nor anything else other than a tax cut for the wealthy and the near-destruction of our democracy.

But now the Democrats, with the White House and control of both houses of Congress, have the opportunity to deliver on rebuilding America, or what President Biden and the Democrats might call “Build Back Better.” And here’s where the Republicans may again fall into a trap of their own making:

Biden inauguration: America gets a reboot

One thing we’ll have less of in the Biden Oval Office

With a new year and the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris tomorrow, many Americans are looking forward to getting a fresh start. In modern terms, we can call it a “reboot” for America. Here are some areas where we will get a much-needed reboot with President Biden:

COVID — we hardly need to recount the Trump administration’s failures to address the COVID pandemic. Those failures continue today, with vaccine distribution woefully inadequate, and Trump officials predictably lying to cover their negligence (or worse). However, Joe Biden and his team have a plan to hit the ground running, from better vaccine distribution to a nationwide mask mandate. There can be little doubt that Biden will improve the Coronavirus situation.