It’s Thursday…
As always I give my thanks to Halodoc for covering while I went to the Happiest Place on Earth.
When Biden Bits was posted on Wednesday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added 7 tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting Total of 9 tweets and 0 retweets.
The YouTube is 36 minutes and 56 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
The above tweet came from a statement he issued on Wednesday; Extending the Pause on Student Loan Repayment Through August 31st, 2022
Today, America is stronger than we were a year ago—and we will be stronger a year from now than we are today. Thanks to our plan to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, the economy has created 7.9 million jobs since I took office—the greatest year of job growth on record. We’ve seen the fastest economic growth in nearly 40 years. More than 217 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, and 2 out of 3 eligible adults are boosted. We have the tools we need to move forward safely and return to more normal routines.
However, as I recognized in recently extending the COVID-19 national emergency, we are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused. If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten Americans’ financial stability.
I’m asking all student loan borrowers to work with the Department of Education to prepare for a return to repayment, look into Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and explore other options to lower their payments. Vice President Harris and I are focused on supporting borrowers in need, and believe that this pause will provide a continued lifeline as we recover and rebuild from the pandemic.
White House.gov. 04/06/2022.
On Tuesday President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former President Barack Obama offered remarks on the Affordable Care Act. The YouTube is 37 minutes and 14 seconds long. President Biden’s remarks begin at the 23 minute and 01 second mark. Their full remarks can be found here.
The video snip is 59 seconds long.
President Biden: So, pay very close attention, folks: If Republicans have their way, it means 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions can once again be denied healthcare coverage by their insurance companies. That’s what the law was before Obamacare. In addition, tens of millions of Americans could lose their coverage, including young people who will no longer be able to stay on their parents’ insurance policy to age 26. Premiums are going to go through the roof. Well, I got a better idea: Instead of destroying the Affordable Care Act, let’s keep building on it. (Applause.) Let’s extend it. Extend. (Applause.)
President Biden: Look, close the Medicaid coverage gap that locks nearly 4 million Americans out of coverage just because their state has refused to expand Medicaid. Lower prescription drug costs, which was mentioned already, by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for drugs that are on the market. We can do this. We should do this. We have to do this.
The YouTube is 12 minutes and 24 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
The only line from the tweet in his remarks is; setting the Postal Service on more stable financial footing…
President Biden: With this bill, we’re repealing the pre-funding mandate and setting the Postal Service on a more sustainable and stable financial footing. We’re guaranteeing that the mail will continue to be delivered six days a week.
H.R. 3076 summary:
This bill addresses the finances and operations of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
The bill requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to establish the Postal Service Health Benefits Program within the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program under which OPM may contract with carriers to offer health benefits plans for USPS employees and retirees.
The bill provides for coordinated enrollment of retirees under this program and Medicare.
The bill repeals the requirement that the USPS annually prepay future retirement health benefits.
Additionally, the USPS may establish a program to enter into agreements with an agency of any state government, local government, or tribal government, and with other government agencies, to provide certain nonpostal products and services that reasonably contribute to the costs of the USPS and meet other specified criteria.
The USPS must develop and maintain a publicly available dashboard to track service performance and must report regularly on its operations and financial condition.
The Postal Regulatory Commission must annually submit to the USPS a budget of its expenses. It must also conduct a study to identify the causes and effects of postal inefficiencies relating to flats (e.g., large envelopes).
The USPS Office of Inspector General shall perform oversight of the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Congress.gov.
The bill passed the House on February 8th, 2022; Yea’s 342, Nay’s 92, and shockingly everyone voted on the bill.
The bill passed the Senate on March 8th, 2022; Yea’s 79, Nay’s 19, and 2 Senators did not vote.
President Biden: And this bill — this bill recognizes the Postal Service is a public service, and we’re ensuring that it can continue to serve all Americans for generations to come.
The White House posted; Bill Signed: H.R. 3076
On Wednesday, April 6, 2022, the President signed into law:
H.R. 3076, the “Postal Service Reform Act of 2022,” which establishes the Postal Service Health Benefits Program, repeals the prefunding requirement related to Postal retirement benefits, makes reforms to nonpostal and postal services, among other things.
Thank you to Representatives Carolyn Maloney, James Comer, Virginia Foxx, Gerry Connolly, and Brenda Lawrence and Senators Gary Peters, Rob Portman, Tom Carper, Thom Tillis, and many others, for their leadership.
White House.gov. 04/06/2022.
For Thursday, April 7th, 2022, President Biden has received his daily brief. That concludes President Biden’s public schedule for Thursday.
President Biden has tweeted 1 time so far for Thursday…
His full statement:
Americans are getting back to work at a historic pace, with fewer America is back to work. Over the last four weeks, fewer Americans filed initial claims for unemployment insurance than at any time in our nation’s recorded history. Our economy added 7.9 million jobs since I took office – more jobs created on average per month than under any other President in history. That’s millions of families with a little more breathing room and the dignity a job provides. This historic job growth is a direct result of the American Rescue Plan, which funded our vaccination strategy, re-opened schools, and helped grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out. While we have more work to do to combat Putin’s Price Hike and lower costs for families, today’s data demonstrate that America is on the move again and the economy is uniquely well-positioned to overcome the global challenges brought on by the pandemic and Putin’s War of Choice.
White House.gov. 04/07/2022.
On Thursday the Labor Department reported; In the week ending April 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 166,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 31,000 from 202,000 to 171,000. The 4-week moving average was 170,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 30,500 from 208,500 to 178,000.
The Labor Department also announced on page 1 of the PDF a change to their methodology:
Beginning with the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Weekly Claims News Release issued Thursday, April 7, 2022, the methodology used to seasonally adjust the national initial claims and continued claims reflects a change in the estimation of the models.
Seasonal adjustment factors can be either multiplicative or additive. A multiplicative seasonal effect is assumed to be proportional to the level of the series. A sudden large increase in the level of the series will be accompanied by a proportionally large seasonal effect. In contrast, an additive seasonal effect is assumed to be unaffected by the level of the series. In times of relative economic stability, the multiplicative option is generally preferred over the additive option. However, in the presence of a large level shift in a time series, multiplicative seasonal adjustment factors can result in systematic over- or under-adjustment of the series; in such cases, additive seasonal adjustment factors are preferred since they tend to track seasonal fluctuations more accurately in the series and have smaller revisions.
Prior to the pandemic, the unemployment insurance claims series used multiplicative models to seasonally adjust the claims. Starting in March 2020, Bureau of Labor Statistics staff, who provide the seasonal adjustment factors, specified these series as additive. Now that most of the large effects of the pandemic on the UI series have lessened, the seasonal adjustment models are once again specified as multiplicative models. Statistical tests show that the UI series should, in normal times, be estimated multiplicatively.
While the pandemic period remains within the five-year revision period, the UI series will use a hybrid adjustment approach. For the most volatile economic periods of the pandemic, the series will continue to be additively adjusted for the revised series. Before and after these periods, the series will be adjusted multiplicatively. For consistency, all seasonal factors on our website are now shown as multiplicative where any additive factors were converted to implicit multiplicative factors. Note that in recent weeks, beyond the most volatile period of the series, any changes from additive to multiplicative can result in one-time larger revisions to the seasonally adjusted estimates than usual.
For further questions on the seasonal adjustment methodology, please see the official release page for the UI claims seasonal adjustment factors or contact BLS directly through the Local Area Unemployment Statistics web contact form.
DOL.gov. 04/07/2022.
The daily press briefing is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
