Tag: Roe v Wade

Biden’s Call to Arms

By Ken Zino

President Biden in his third State of the Union address invoked America’s previous victories in the Civil War and Word War II and in other times of crisis, notably the covid pandemic. What initially looked to be a call for democracy over plutocracy based on the White House fact sheet released earlier turned into an aggressive attack on the former president, “my predecessor,” more than a dozen times, repeatedly taking on the elephant insurrectionist not in the room -- Trump --  without saying his name. 

He instead referred to the “previous administration,” and the Republicans who enabled him in the campaign speech, during a surprisingly pugnacious and impassioned delivery.  This shouldn’t be, well, Greek, to the average voter. Biden wants to make American leadership great again, building from his demonstrably good policies.

(Read Zino’s exquisitely detailed column on the address in The Gray Area.)

He delivered a call to action for four more years that clearly channeled the ideas of the progressive wing of the Democratic party. My take here is that Republicans are in for the fight of their political lives based on their record. Biden also took on the Supreme Court -- staring directly at that Supremely Corrupt gang -- invoking the chaos overturning Roe v. Wade is causing. “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” he asked. “Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America.”. 

“Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” Biden said in his opening salvo. “If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking … But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world. It wasn’t that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now, my predecessor, a former Republican president tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ A former American president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. … I say this to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill.”

In his 68-minute speech, Biden addressed:

•January 6th: “We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. But they failed. …. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th. I will not do that. … And here’s the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when you win. … Political violence has absolutely no place in America!”

•Reproductive rights: Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama was in the audience. “Fourteen months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of (in-vitro fertilization). She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF … unleashed by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. She was told her dream would have to wait. …To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide.”

•The economy: “I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. … America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot.”

•Infrastructure: “Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities -- modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems.”

•Pandemic and public health: “The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer. Turning setback into comeback. … With a law I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally beat Big Pharma. Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a month.” 

•Tax reform: “I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a million bucks, great! Just pay your fair share in taxes. A fair tax code is how we invest in the things … that make a country great, health care, education, defense … The last administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and exploded the federal deficit. They added more to the national debt than in any presidential term in American history. …. Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax breaks? … Thanks to the law I wrote and signed big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%. … It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21%.”

•Social Security: “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them. … Republicans will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. I will protect and strengthen Social Security.”

•Border Security: “In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. … That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers. One-hundred more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases. Forty-three hundred more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years. One-hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl …  I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him or me. It’d be a winner for America. My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. … We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. Send me the border bill now.”

•Climate Change: “I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030. Creating tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs, like the (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) building and installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.”

•Crime: “The year before I took office, murders went up 30% nationwide the biggest increase in history. Now, through my American Rescue Plan, which every Republican voted against, I’ve made the largest investment in public safety ever. Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years. But we have more to do. Help cities and towns invest in more community police officers, more mental health workers, and more community violence intervention.”

•Middle East: “I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America … Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. … As we look to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution. There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy. There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live with peace and dignity. … no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.”

Inspiring Conclusion 

“The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I won’t walk away from it now. My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are it’s how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be. ...

“I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it. …

“I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away. …

“I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes. I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence. …

“Above all, I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all Americans. And I will always be a president for all Americans. Because I believe in America. I believe in you, the American people. You’re the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. … So let’s build that future together. Let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together. 

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

FRIDAY 4/21/23

UPDATE: SCOTUS Friday evening retained full access to mifespristone -- for now. It placed on-hold U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's earlier ruling that the Food and Drug Administration was wrong in 2000 to make the abortion drug more accessible. The legal battle over whether to permanently reimpose restrictions, which could extend to the entire U.S., will continue. The only noted dissents were Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., who say they would not have granted the Biden administration's request for a stay on the lower court decision, according to The Washington Post.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the banning of mifepristone by a Texas-based federal judge was due by Midnight Friday. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk put the pill in play when he reversed the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of the drug used to induce abortions.

U.S. Response to Violence in Sudan – More than 400 people have been killed in a conflict in Sudan between its army and a powerful paramilitary force, The Washington Post reports, and the White House Thursday announced the U.S. is moving in troops nearby in case U.S. diplomats and other personnel need to be safely evacuated. Airstrikes, gunfire and artillery have struck the capital, Khartoum, though the violence is spreading through other parts of Sudan. At least 3,500 have been injured in the last six days, according to the World Health Organization, and at least one of the 400-plus killed was an American. 

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On Thursday’s SpaceX Starship Explosion – The unmanned Starship’s crash succeeded as a test-launch, SpaceX said Thursday – it was a “rapid, unplanned disassembly.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Biden Negotiates Budget in SOTU

By Todd Lassa

In the buildup to his sucker-punch of MAGA Republicans, President Biden in his State of the Union address repeated recent Democratic talking points of how he has cut the federal deficit after Congress raised the debt ceiling for his “predecessor.” Even without mentioning Donald J. Trump by name, Biden riled up those Republicans in the House of Representatives who remain resolute in support of said predecessor by describing the last administration’s budget battle in a manner few would have expected from the longtime politician.

“For the last two years my administration has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion. The largest deficit reduction in American history.” Biden’s fellow Democrats began applauding. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), sitting behind the president and next to Vice President Kamala Harris, appeared to be looking in the direction of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) while he silently mouthed appeals to shut up. 

“In the previous administration, the deficit went up four years in a row,” Biden continued. “Because those deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years of my predecessor. Nearly 25% of the entire national debt that took over 200 years to accumulate was added by just one administration alone … the last one.”

GOP grumbling began to build. 

“That’s a fact,” Biden dug in. “Check it out.” 

Boos from the MAGA wing rose to a crescendo when Biden said “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset … some Republicans. … I’m politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed.”

From the Republican side of the gallery, MTG rose to call out “Liar!” She took Biden’s bait.

“So, folks,” Biden responded, “as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the table.” 

Biden Tuesday evening gave his most loyal supporters reason to feel good about his deft balance of pugilistic politics and bipartisan comity. But it’s hard to tell whether the most progressive Democrats were sufficiently impressed with the considerable dose of anti-supply-side reverse-Reaganomics that Biden served up.

“Let’s sit down and discuss our mutual plans together” for raising the debt ceiling, Biden continued. He wants to cut the deficit by another $2 trillion. This will entail Biden’s decidedly un-bipartisan plan to impose a minimum 15% tax on billion-dollar businesses and raise taxes for rich individuals (while funding better IRS enforcement) but with no tax increases for anyone making less than $400,000 per year.

Continuing with his theme of a more blue-collar, less limousine-liberal Democratic Party, Biden outlined his new Junk Fee Protection Act, which would reduce exorbitant bank overdrafts and credit card late fees, and force airlines to return payments for cancelled flights.

Biden called for restoration of the full Child Tax Credit and proposed a public education package that would make pre-school available to all 3- and 4-year-olds, increase public school teacher pay, increase Pell Grants and expand two-year colleges. 

With Row Vaughn and Rodney Wells, parents of Tyre Nichols, in the audience as guests of first lady Jill Biden, the president voiced support for police, but said, “when police violate the public trust, they must be held accountable.” He called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Calling out Brandon Tsay, another guest of the first lady, who in January disarmed a shooter at a Monterey Park, California, Lunar New Year celebration, Biden demanded a ban on assault weapons. 

He called on Congress to “restore the right” taken away by the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

“If Congress passes a national ban [on abortion], I will veto it,” Biden said.

And Biden expressed continued support of Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. Some hard-conservative Republicans want to limit U.S. spending on military aide, while a few MAGA Republicans are more blatantly sympathetic to Vladimir Putin.

“Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages,” Biden said. “Would we stand for the defense of democracy?”

For at least the two-plus hours of his State of the Union address Tuesday night, it was hard to objectively avoid the conclusion that President Biden was owning the MAGAs. But as Capitol Hill returns to the cold, hard reality of a politically split 118thCongress, much of Biden’s agenda still faces likely opposition in the House, as well as four more months of arguments against raising the debt ceiling.

-30-

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Progs Retract Call to Negotiate with Putin

Letter Was Drafted Last Summer – The Progressive Congressional Caucus has retracted a letter sent to President Biden Monday urging him to engage in direct diplomatic relations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announced the retraction and took responsibility for the letter, which she said was drafted June 30, before Ukrainian soldiers began taking back land claimed by Russian military forces. 

Thirty Democratic lawmakers signed the letter June 30, and several wondered out loud Tuesday why it was sent out, according to Jayapal, “without vetting.” She said the letter was being conflated with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) statement last week to Punchbowl News that House Republicans “would not write a blank check” to Ukraine if the GOP retakes the lower chamber after the midterms.

John Kirby, White House coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council responded to the letter, saying “Mr. Putin is in no mood to negotiate.”

Upshot: If Progressive Congressional Caucus members thought a letter urging negotiations with Putin was more reasonable and realistic last June than McCarthy’s statement last week, they were not paying attention to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskyy.

--TL

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Momentum on the Left has Left (MON 10/24/22)

Democrats Peak Early – There is “growing angst” among Democratic leaders that concerns over inflation and the economy have overtaken the negative reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade last summer in driving voters to the midterm polls, The Hill reports, echoing analyses at other mainstream news outlets. Consensus is that the assumption held before SCOTUS’ late-June 5-4 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that the traditional flip of the House and Senate majorities against the president’s party would indeed be the result of the November 8 elections.

The Polls: According to NBC News’ latest poll, 70% of voters show “high interest” in the midterms. However, that breaks down to 78% of Republicans expressing “high interest” versus 69% of Democrats, compared with 68% of Republicans and 66% Democrats in August telling pollsters they are highly interested in the elections. FiveThirtyEight reports a “dead heat” in the race for majority in the Senate, and a three-in-four chance Republicans will take over the House of Representatives. 

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