It’s Thursday.
For Thursday, May 27th, 2021, President Biden will have received his daily brief. This afternoon he will travel to Cleveland, Ohio, where he will tour Cuyahoga Community College. After his tour, President Biden will offer remarks on the economy.
When Wednesday’s Open Thread was published, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added another 3 tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting total of 5 tweets and 0 retweets.
He surprising nobody hard sells the American Jobs Plan, again.
As the News Blender mentioned on Monday, on Friday, during a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that President Biden had reduced the American Jobs Plan price tag from $2.25 trillion to $1.7 trillion in a counter offer to Republicans.
Today, CNBC News reported that the Senate Republicans have unveiled their counter offer.
Senate Republicans unveiled their $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer to President Joe Biden on Thursday, as the sides see whether they can bridge an ideological gulf to strike a bipartisan deal.
CNBC News. 05/27/2021.
- $506 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, including $4 billion for electric vehicles
- $98 billion for public transit
- $72 billion for water systems
- $65 billion for broadband
- $56 billion for airports
- $46 billion for passenger and freight rail systems
- $22 billion for ports and waterways
- $22 billion for water storage
- $21 billion for safety efforts
- $20 billion for infrastructure financing
Bloomberg Senate Reporter, Steven Dennis was the only source I found this morning showing how the Republicans intend to pay for the deal. CNBC News noted: Republicans again rejected Biden’s call to raise corporate taxes, contending they could cover infrastructure costs with funds already allocated by Congress or with *transportation user fees.
The break-down according to Dennis:
Note: $928B GOP offer over 8 years is mostly already in the baseline. New money is much, much less.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) May 27, 2021
Rs list $257B in new money in their fact sheet. WH pegged their last offer as $225B in new money.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) May 27, 2021
Biden’s proposals are much, much, much larger. His latest is $1.7T over 8 years, and he has trillions more he wants in his Families plan, his base budget and so on.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) May 27, 2021
~$30-40B in new money a year is about 1% of the federal budget. Rs want to pay for it by rescinding other spending from previous COVID relief bills.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) May 27, 2021
(Biden had said he would have been willing to have a smaller, bipartisan COVID package)
*transportation fees seem to include increasing the gas tax, a proposal so far rejected by the White House.*
Speaking of budgets, the Washington Post reported this morning that President Biden’s budget, that’s scheduled to be released on Friday comes in at $6 tillion. That’s according to two people briefed on the proposal and an internal summary document.
The budget contains no new major policies from the White House and instead reflects the plans it has already introduced, including a $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, $1.8 trillion education and families plan, and $1.5 trillion in proposed discretionary spending. It projects budget deficits above $1 trillion for the rest of the decade, as Washington’s spending imbalance remains at elevated levels. Even without new additional spending proposals, the annual federal budget is projected to include $5.8 trillion in spending in fiscal year 2021
Washington Post. 05/27/2021.
CNN reported similar citing a senior administration official as their source.
He next tweeted out a statement regarding his asking the Intelligence Agencies to continue to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.
Back in early 2020, when COVID-19 emerged, I called for the CDC to get access to China to learn about the virus so we could fight it more effectively. The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
Nevertheless, shortly after I became President, in March, I had my National Security Advisor task the Intelligence Community to prepare a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of COVID-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident. I received that report earlier this month, and asked for additional follow-up. As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has “coalesced around two likely scenarios” but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question. Here is their current position: “while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”
I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days. As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China. I have also asked that this effort include work by our National Labs and other agencies of our government to augment the Intelligence Community’s efforts. And I have asked the Intelligence Community to keep Congress fully apprised of its work.
The United States will also keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence.
White House.gov. 05/26/2021.
The agencies have 90 days to complete their investigations.
It’s being reported that prior to departing D.C., he committed to releasing the completed reported “unless there is something I’m unaware of.”
For his last tweet on Wednesday President Biden offered remarks on the shooting in San Jose, California, that left 9 people dead.
The White House published the following statement:
Vice President Harris and I have been briefed on the horrific tragedy that took place this morning in San Jose, where a lone gunman murdered at least eight people and wounded several others at a county rail yard.
We are still awaiting many of the details of this latest mass shooting, but there are some things we know for sure. There are at least eight families who will never be whole again. There are children, parents, and spouses who are waiting to hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters – good, honest, hardworking people – who are mourning their own.
I have the solemn duty of yet again of ordering the flag to be lowered at half-staff, just weeks after doing so following the mass shootings at spas in and around Atlanta; in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado; at a home in Rock Hill, South Carolina; and at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Enough.
Once again, I urge Congress to take immediate action and heed the call of the American people, including the vast majority of gun owners, to help end this epidemic of gun violence in America.
Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We can, and we must, do more.
God bless all those whose lives were lost today, and all those who loved them.
White House.gov. 05/26/2021.
The White House published the following proclamation to honor the victims.
As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on May 26, 2021, in San Jose, California, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, May 30, 2021. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
White House.gov. 05/26/2021.
A 9th victim has died in the San Jose VTA mass shooting. The attacker used two semi-automatic handguns, the weapon most commonly used by mass shooters, often with high-capacity ammunition devices. (AR-15 style rifles are also common, but handguns more so.) https://t.co/38XUfWZP1u
— Mark Follman (@markfollman) May 27, 2021
The 9th victim was Alex Ward Fritch who dead hours after being rushed to the hospital. He was 49 years old.
President Biden has tweeted 1 time so far for Thursday.
For no reason other than I like this song and needs something uplifting…
Around noon D.C., time White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will hold a press gaggle aboard Air Force One. The White House YouTube feed has posted a video of the event. This is an audio only stream.
President Biden is expected to offer remarks on the economy at 2:20 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
