Tag: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Don’t Say His Name

(FRI 3/8/24)

By Todd Lassa

The State of the Union address did not begin with the economy and President Biden’s success with GDP, employment and lowering the Consumer Price Index from 9% to 3% (OK, that was Federal Reserve handling inflation by raising interest rates). Instead, Biden went straight to saving world democracy and saving our own.

Evoking FDR’s January 1941 State of the Union address, Biden said “my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either.

“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.

“What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both home and overseas, at the very same time.”

Reaganesque

In a speech in which he mentioned his predecessor many times, but never by name, he also recalled President Reagan’s demand that Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall,” and connected that notorious predecessor with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), seated, as tradition, behind the president and next to the vice president gave relatively subtle facial clues throughout the address; frowning and shaking his head at Biden’s not-so-subtle suggestion that MAGA Republicans on the Hill are empowering the Russian dictator. 

“I say this to Congress,” Biden said, “we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill. …

The Insurrection

Biden then made the easy pivot to January 6, 2021, saying political violence has “no place in America.”

“The insurrectionists were not patriots. They were here to stop the peaceful transfer of power. … Here’s the simple truth. You can’t love your country only when you win.”

Border Bill

The president touted the $118-billion border protection bill that Johnson refused to bring to the House floor. When heckled about it, Biden ad-libbed, “Oh, you don’t like that bill, do you? That conservatives got together and said was a good bill?”

Ramping up his re-election campaign, Biden warned of the power of women voters vs. the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ticked off his contributions to the improving economy, including “the lowest” inflation rate in the world, the CHIPS act shifting computer microprocessor production from China to the U.S. and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which he said many Congressional Republicans voted against, but then touted money brought to their districts. 

“If any of you don’t want it in your district, just let me know.”

Gaza

With a large contingent of Gaza-Israel ceasefire protestors outside the Capitol and silent protests by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), holding up “ceasefire now” signs inside, Biden announced an emergency military mission establishing a temporary pier on the Gaza coast of the Mediterranean “that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters” for Palestinians under siege from Israeli military forces. 

The White House had announced the plan earlier Thursday and late in his address. 

Generally, Biden came off as lively and relatively sharp, and only got tongue-tied a few times well into the address. He again spoke of chipping away at the federal deficit in part by raising taxes on billionaires (while raising salaries for public school teachers). His predecessor’s tax cuts, mostly for the rich, expire next year and if Biden loses in November, they certainly will be renewed under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

Other takeaways (via smartphone notifications): “Defiant Biden.” (AP). “Biden draws sharp contrasts with Trump in fiery State of the Union address.” (The Washington Post). “President Biden delivered a feisty, confrontational speech, engaging in a vigorous back-and-forth with Republicans.” (The New York Times). “Biden shifted into campaign mode, targeting Trump and the GOP on reproductive rights and immigration.” (The Wall Street Journal). “Biden didn’t mention Trump once. But his speech tonight was an open salvo ahead of a long, ugly match.” (Politico).

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

A New Hat For America

By Jim McCraw

While it is maddening to know that President-elect Biden couldn’t get a really good start on 2021 between President Trump’s recalcitrance and COVID-19, there will eventually be a Biden administration, and it will be in trouble up to its hips from Day One.

Herewith, a suggestion for Biden/Harris I believe is important, and eminently doable. As Congress fights over both short- and long-term follow-up bills to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES), which ends the day after Christmas, I think it might be time for something as ambitious (though relatively easy, considering the big funding levels already proposed) and quick to do as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), circa 1933. Let’s call the new one the American Reconstruction Corps (ARC).

Lord knows there are plenty of skilled and unskilled people out of work.  And there are plenty of American infrastructure projects, largely ignored by the previous administration, that need doing.

Biden is not FDR, and we do not have a modern Robert Moses, the mid-20th Century “master builder” of New York, Long Island, Rochester and Westchester counties (it’s certainly not Donald J. Trump).

We are not Frank Lloyd Wright, the Ford Motor Company Whiz Kids, nor the first seven astronauts. We are just Americans who recognize a need to get a lot of things done by a mass of people willing to work. There has got to be a way to do this.

With widespread distribution of COVID-19 vaccines likely coming with warmer weather next summer, why couldn’t we dispatch squadrons of out-of-work Americans to do road, tunnel and bridge repairs that have been waiting years for funding and final approvals?  And not just men, which is how the original CCC operated. Skilled and unskilled women need work, too. At, say, $20 per hour.

Why not send platoons of the willing into every one of the national parks to do repairs and cleaning?

While the original CCC troops had uniforms, meals and housing, I humbly suggest self-provided work clothing, bring-your-own meals, work near home, and ARC baseball caps in red, white and blue.

There will be periodic need for FEMA supplies and equipment after summer storms, so why not divert some FEMA funding, vehicles and materiel to help Americans fix the things that are already broken?

Yes, men and women working and sweating in close quarters for eight-hour days may be problematic from a health standpoint, but with masks, distancing and frequent washing and spraying, I think it could work. Let’s get some guys from Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Ford, Google and Tesla to volunteer, put them in a room and see if they can figure this out while Biden and Harris get on with the rest of the recovery.

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Biden’s Short Coattails Predict Two More Years of Split Government

By Todd Lassa

As of Monday morning, 97-percent of the presidential election vote is in and Democrat Joe Biden leads Republican incumbent Donald Trump, 50.9 percent to 47.3 percent, according to the latest count by NBC News. The pertinent number, of course, is 306 to 232, the Electoral College advantage for former Vice President Biden, who has matched the count President Trump had when he beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 race. 

Biden’s 50.9-percent most certainly is not a “mandate,” though historians say it is the highest share against an incumbent candidate since Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Republican Herbert Hoover in 1932.

What’s certain about the first half, at least, of Biden’s term as president is that he will not have much success pushing an aggressive, potentially progressive agenda through the 117th Congress. Though Democrats hold on to the House of Representatives, retaining Nancy Pelosi as speaker, the margin has shrunk by eight seats to 224 Democratic to 211 Republican. In the Senate, Democrats must win both January runoffs in Georgia to acquire a 50-50 split and take the majority vote from Republicans, with Vice President-elect Harris providing the tie-breaker.

If Georgia doesn't chose both Democratic candidates over the Republicans in January's Senate race runoffs, Senate Majority Leader McConnell will potentially have as much power in Washington as the president. Followers of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and The Squad are not likely to gain much legislative traction in this scenario.

The “blue wave” many expected this year has been largely restricted to the presidential race, with Republicans making many down-ballot gains, including in state governments. 

It is appropriate, then, that left-column pundit Jim McCraw, a centrist living in The Villages, Florida who supported Biden in the Nov. 3 election provides a recommended agenda for the president-elect. Equally appropriate that right-column pundit Bryan Williams, a former GOP operative in Southern California counters McCraw’s proposals without much serious disagreement. While Williams supported the populist-nationalist Trump in the 2020 election (though not the 2016 election), his own pro-business, laissez-fair agenda is more reminiscent of old-fashioned Mitt Romney conservatism. 

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