By Stephen Macaulay
According to the Biden Administration, the alliterative “Build Back Better Agenda” is meant to:
- Lower Child Care Costs
- Lower Higher Education Costs
- Lower Prescription Drug Costs
- Lower Health Care Costs
- Lower Housing Costs
- Cut Taxes for Families with Children
- Cut Taxes for Workers Without Children
- Create Workforce Training
- Create Clean Energy Jobs
- Invest in Teachers and Schools
While it seems that lower costs for teaching kids would be popular with the young who have families and the older cohort can appreciate the reductions in costs for picking up pills, while it is hard to imagine that people — whatever political color they are on the spectrum — would be against tax cuts, and while everyone knows that better paying jobs that can benefit the infrastructure are good, it seems that so far the agenda is just that.
A list.
It seems that people in Biden’s own party in the House are not prepared to start checking off items on the list. They have their own priorities.
So there’s that. Or we could say: So there’s not that. Not an approved, funded action plan.
Then there’s COVID. According to the CDC, as of the week of August 13, 2021, “The current seven-day moving average of daily new cases (114,190) increased 18.4% compared with the previous seven-day moving average (96,454).” High and going higher.
This should have the opposite effect and stopping someone in their track and actually propel them to a vaccination center: the current seven-day moving average is “882.8% higher than the lowest value observed on June 19, 2021 (11,619).”
While the Biden Administration has certainly been more proactive in promoting masks and vaccines rather than bleach and internal lighting, it seems as though it is still somewhat leery of bruising the tender sensibilities of those who are in the anti-vax community.
This is a public health emergency. If you’re worried about tracking devices, don’t concern yourself with an mRNA vaccine. Throw away your cellphone.
Why isn’t the Administration making this a requirement rather than a choice? Last I checked, I can’t drive my car in the state of Michigan without having insurance.
And now there is Afghanistan.
Whether or not ending the “endless war” is the right move is up for debate.
What isn’t up for debate is the debacle that the Biden administration orchestrated by not doing its job when it comes to having a plan and a method to get Americans and those people who have supported the Americans out of Afghanistan.
Everyone talks about getting people out of Kabul.
Here’s something to think about: Afghanistan is approximately the size of Texas.
What if you lived in San Antonio, Austin or Houston and were told that the only way you could evacuate would be getting to Dallas? And by the way, there are people who would be shooting at you.
Do we ignore the Afghanis who don’t live in Kabul?
Biden simply is not getting the job done, and the pictures of people jam-packed into C-17s like so many Amazon Prime boxes or, more horrifically, those people who were hanging on to the fuselages makes his inability to follow through all the more obvious.
Infrastructure. COVID. Afghanistan. We’re waiting.
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Stephen Macaulay is pundit-at-large. See about thehustings.news
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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news
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The U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan -- MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021
Joe Biden ran for president last year promising to end the endless war in Afghanistan.
“I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan – two Republicans, two Democrats,” David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper noted in their News Analysis piece in The New York Times Sunday. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”
Donald Trump’s administration last year had negotiated a May 1, 2021, withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban, but without involving the Afghanistan government, Biden’s defenders note.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, tweeted this over the weekend, Newsweek reports: “The Trump/Biden calamity unfolding in Afghanistan began with the Trump administration negotiating with terrorists and pretending they were partners for peace, and is ending with American surrender as Biden abandons the country to terrorist enemies.”
But Twitter users “promptly criticized” Cheney for failing to note her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s responsibility for starting the war in Afghanistan, Newsweek notes.
Critics say President George W. Bush’s efforts there suffered when his administration diverted attention and resources to war with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, despite the fact that the country was not involved in the 9/11 attacks.
What do you think? Leave your comments by clicking the “comment” tab, or email us at editors@thehustings.news
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>>>Craig Fahle comments on increased funding proposals for the Internal Revenue Service in "Enforce the Tax Laws We Have -- by Giving the IRS the Tools to Do It."
>>>>Fahle, again, on Texas Democratic state legislators walking out on a quorum, in "Worthwhile Symbolism to Fight Voter Suppression."