It’s Friday.
It’s Day 2 of the first 100 Days of the Biden administration.
President Biden’s schedule for today.
Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein is reporting that some of President Biden’s economic moves today, include telling the Treasury Department to find the folks that didn’t receive their stimulus money.
From the article he penned with Washington Post reporter Laura Reiley.
Biden is asking the Department of Agriculture to allow states to increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — commonly known as food stamps — and to increase by 15 percent benefits awarded through a school meals program for low-income studentsstarted during the pandemic, according to Biden administration officials. That could give a family of three children more than $100 in extra benefits every two months, officials said.
A separate unilateral move aims to help get previously approved stimulus checks into the hands of Americans who haven’t received them yet. And another would ask the Labor Department to make clear that workers who refuse to return to working conditions that could expose them to the coronavirus should be eligible for unemployment insurance.
Perhaps the most significant change in this executive order is a reassessment of the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan, the basis for determining SNAP benefits. Lisa Davis, senior vice president of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, said the metrics are out of date with the economic realities most struggling households face. The president will ask the USDA to consider beginning the process of revising the Thrifty Food Plan to better reflect the modern cost of a healthy basic diet.
The executive actions also include a number of measures related to U.S. federal employees. President Donald Trump had issued an executive order in October that would have stripped civil service protections from federal employees whose work involves policymaking, allowing them to be dismissed with little cause or recourse, much like the political appointees who come and go with each administration.
Civil service experts and union leaders estimated that from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of federal employees in a workforce of 2.1 million would have been swept into the new class of employees, called Schedule F. Biden will reverse that decision.
Washington Post. 01/22/2021.
Speaking of Executive Orders and Executive Actions…
On Thursday President Biden signed EO‘s relating to the U.S. coronavirus response.
He offered remarks prior to signing the EO’s.
After he signed the EO’s he was asked if his goal of having 100 million people vaccinated in his first 100’s was ambitious enough. To which he said, “when I announced it, you all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break man”.
Former President Impeached Twice, Hopefully Convicted Once, fact-checker Daniel Dale fact-checked President Biden’s speech and his claim that the media said it wasn’t possible to get 100 million people vaccinated by the end of his first 100 days in office.
Daniel Dale explains, that President Joe Biden “delivered a factually accurate Thursday speech about the coronavirus pandemic.”
That’s a good start…
But, he did misstate the coverage of his plan that was unveiled in December.
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false; it’s not true that there was an initial media consensus that the 100 million goal was impossible. Some of the early news coverage of the goal did not even question whether it was plausible. Some experts featured in the early coverage, including CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said the goal was achievable. And while some journalists and experts were more skeptical, cautioning that the goal was ambitious, they did not go so far as to say it was impossible.
CNN. 01/22/2021.
I won’t lie, these kinds of fact-checks are my favorite, because you see, the most important information was “accurate” and “factual”. Whereas the ego stroking was just that, normal ego stroking. Now some might ask how come, Dale cared enough to “fact-check” that exchange, well, it’s what he does. That’s his job, so he fact-checked the whole President Biden appearance.
For example, while Daniel Dale fact-checked President Biden, he also fact-checked Crazy Republican Q-Chick Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene has a long history of embracing baseless conspiracy theories. And she has been a serial tweeter of false claims — about the election, the Capitol insurrection and other subjects — since she won her seat in November.
Below is a fact check of 11 false claims Greene has tweeted in the last month alone, including three related claims about the integrity of the election. After CNN emailed her congressional office to offer her the opportunity to comment on any of these findings, her communications director, Nick Dyer, had only a brief response, “Here’s our comment: ‘CNN is fake news.'”
CNN. 01/21/2021.
We can only hope that President Biden continues to stick to the ego strokin’ statements, while continuing to state factual information regarding but not limited to the coronavirus.
In former Impeached Twice President News…
In more Biden administration news.
And…
Friday’s press briefing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. D.C., time, that’s earlier than yesterdays, and before President Biden signs his economic related EO’s and Executive Actions.
The live feed for the daily presser will be provided in this thread versus it’s own, thank you.
Live Feed to the daily press briefing.
NBC News.
The Hill.
USA TODAY.
In sad news…
At this time the cause of Aaron’s death has not been released.
Count alert note: I realize that people include his partial day in office as the first day, but I’m counting full days, so I started yesterday as day 1. The goal I hope is to continue providing updates on his first 100 days, this goal, might be delivered in a different article than the afternoon open thread, starting Monday, but we shall stay tuned and find out, together.
This is an Open Thread.
