Our long national nightmare is over…
President Biden’s public schedule for Friday the 13th 2023:
| 9:00 AM | The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing Closed Press |
| 10:15 AM | In-Town Pool Call Time In-Town Pool |
| 11:15 AM | The President welcomes Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to the White House by 6:00 am] South Lawn Open Press |
| 11:20 AM | The President holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio Oval Office In-House Pool Spray |
| 11:45 AM | The President and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio participate in a working lunch Cabinet Room Closed Press |
| 12:10 PM | Out-of-Town Pool Call Time Joint Base Andrews Overhang Out-of-Town Pool |
| 12:30 PM | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Senior Advisor for Public Engagement Keisha Lance Bottoms James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
| 1:45 PM | The President departs the White House en route New Castle, Delaware South Lawn Open Press |
| 2:40 PM | The President arrives in New Castle, Delaware Out-of-Town Pool |
Friday’s press briefing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. D.C., time.
President Biden has tweeted…
He’s posted 2 tweets so far for Friday the 13th…
During yesterday’s press briefing NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby offered a previewed of President Biden’s upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan:
So, I think, tomorrow, you know, President Biden is going to be welcoming the — Prime Minister Kishida of Japan here to the White House. He’s looking ver- — very much forward to that.
The two leaders have already gotten to know each other quite well during in-depth discussions over the last year — Cambodia at the East Asia Summit and in Tokyo for their bilateral meeting and the Quad Summit in May of 2022, as well as through their work together at the G7.
Since taking office, President Biden has invested in our alliances to better equip us to collectively take on the 21st century challenges we face, whether that’s the DPRK’s pursuit of weapons of mass destructions — weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile — and their ballistic missile program; China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and globally; or, of course, Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine.
Now, on each of these challenges and on many more, Japan has proven a steadfast ally, ready to step up and do its part to advance our shared national security interests and values.
Now, just let me set a little bit of the backdrop here for this particular visit. Last month, Prime Minister Kishida released Japan’s new National Security Strategy and committed to boosting Japan’s defense spending to two percent of their GDP, in — that includes investments in new defensive capabilities. And that’s a historic commitment by Japan.
Prime Minister Kishida will arrive in Washington after a set of extensive — actually, he has arrived — after a set of extensive discussions with European partners from Italy, to the UK, to France, of course, to Canada. And he and President Biden are going to have the opportunity to debrief on those discussions as well.
And then, of course, yesterday, you saw the two foreign ministers and two defense ministers of our countries get together and announce some significant new improvements to the alliance: upgrades, in fact, to U.S. force posture in Japan, which will now include the stationing of a Marine littoral regiment in Okinawa, as well as advance capabilities from intelligence collection, to analys- — analysis, to anti-ship capabilities.
We’ll be modernizing the alliance by announcing that attacks to, from, and within space could lead to the invocation of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.
Expanding bilateral exercises between our two countries and training, which includes in Japan’s — in Japan’s Southwest Islands.
And, of course, deepening cooperation in the region to include trilateral training and exercises with Australia, and increasing cooperation with republican — Republic of Korea on ballistic missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, and maritime security.
All these moves are not only going to strengthen our combined ability to defend Japan but also will allow the United States and Japan together to provide for peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and bolster deterrence in the region and globally.
Now, I do think that tomorrow will also give President Biden an opportunity to discuss with Prime Minister Kishida progress that we’re going to be able to make together in this coming year on a range of national security and economic issues.
Japan, I think you know, holds the G7 Presidency. They’ve just taken a seat on the U.N. Security Council. And while we’re going to be hosting the APEC this year, as well as seeking to make swift progress on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, there’s a lot of overlap there, and we’re looking forward to that. We’ll discuss how we’re going to align these agendas going forward.
So, tomorrow’s program, we expect, is going to be a full one. But from our perspective, the message is absolutely clear: Japan is stepping up and doing — doing so in lockstep with the United States.
Our investment in our alliances is paying huge dividends, and we look forward to celebrating that tomorrow.
Speaking of alliances and partnerships, I’m also pleased to announce that, next week, President Biden will welcome Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands to the White House on Tuesday, the 17th, to further deepen the historic ties between our two nations.
As strong NATO Allies and global partners, these two leaders are going to reaffirm our shared efforts to strengthen transatlantic security and economic prosperity. They will discuss our steadfast support of Ukraine, and the Netherlands has been a very key supporter of security assistance in Ukraine.
In fact, they’ve already provided a bill- — a billion dollars of that and are committing more — I’m sorry, almost 3 billion committed and committing almost a billion more going forward.
They’re going to be able to discuss all that cooperation going forward on critical technologies and a shared vision for a swift end to this — to this war in Ukraine.
They also plan to talk about a range of issues that are essential to strengthening democracy, whether that’s respect for human rights, rules-based international order around the world, and including as co-hosts of the upcoming second Summit for Democracy.
So, a big week next week, too, with a very key ally and partner. We’re looking forward to that.
White House.gov. 01/12/2023.
H.R.23–To rescind certain balances made available to the Internal Revenue Service summary:
This bill rescinds certain unobligated amounts made available to the Internal Revenue Service by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 for (1) its enforcement activities and operations support, (2) the efile tax return system, and (3) funding the U.S. Tax Court and certain Department of the Treasury tax agencies.
Congress.gov. 01/09/2023.
| Date | Actions Overview |
|---|---|
| 01/09/2023 | Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 221 – 210 (Roll no. 25).(text: CR H76) |
| 01/09/2023 | Introduced in House |
And for those Congresspeople and voters alike that think by passing this bill they’ve defunded the IRS, for example;
I say…
And this…
And in case it wasn’t clear before…
New from the White House…
A Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day, 2023 and a Proclamation on Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2023.
When Halodoc posted Thursday’s Biden Bits, President Biden had tweeted 3 times. He added 6 tweets giving him a Thursday Tweeting Total of 9 tweets and 0 retweets.
Four of his tweets came from remarks he gave Thursday on the; Economy and Efforts to Tackle Inflation. The YouTube is 10 minutes and 59 seconds long.
President Biden: Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in 50 years. I’ll say that again: the lowest unemployment rate in a half a century. My first two years in office were the two strongest years for job growth on record. We created nearly 11 million jobs, including 750,000 manufacturing jobs. And they were the two of the strongest years ever for small-business creation as well.
President Biden: You know, and as inflation is coming down, take-home pay for workers is going up. Workers’ wages are higher now than they were seven months ago, adjusted for inflation. Wages for lower-income and middle-income workers have gone up even more.
The video snip is 17 seconds long.
President Biden: Come on. Is this how House Republicans are starting the new term: cutting taxes for billionaires, raising taxes for working families, and making inflation worse? Well, let me be [very] clear: If any of those bills make it to my desk, I will veto them. I will flat veto them.
The Other Tweets:
Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!
I just wanted to send my thanks to Halodoc who jumped in to cover me, as I struggled without wi-fi.
I apologize, sort of, in advance for my over use of GIFS; I missed them…
Have a great weekend.
See you in the comment section!
This is an Open Thread.
