President Biden’s public schedule for Wednesday, 1/18/2023:
| 9:00 AM | The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing The White House Closed Press |
| 12:00 PM | In-Town Pool Call Time The White House In-Town Pool |
| 3:00 PM | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
Press briefing:
President Biden has tweeted…
He’s got 3 tweets so far for Wednesday. I’m sharing his first tweet downthread.
Wednesday’s Second Tweet:
SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman issued the following tweets on Tuesday.
President Biden issued the following statement on Tuesday:
Small businesses are the engines of our economy and the hearts of our communities. We learned today that my first two years in office have been the two greatest years for new small business applications on record, with more than 10 million total new businesses created. It’s the latest confirmation that my economic plan is working to build our economy from the bottom up and middle out.
With unemployment at a record low and the two strongest years of job creation in our history, there are reasons for economic optimism all across our country.
Rebuilding our infrastructure and supply chains here at home will help our small businesses strive for decades ahead. My law to help crack down on big corporations who are cheating on their taxes will also help level the playing field for our small businesses, which is part of why it has been so disappointing to see House Republicans make protecting wealthy tax cheats their top legislative priority.
I will continue to work with anybody from either party, in Congress or in the states, to implement my economic agenda and build our economy from the bottom up and middle out. And I am convinced America’s best days are ahead.
White House.gov. 01/17/2023.
Wednesday’s Third Tweet:
The video clip is 42 seconds long.
Senator Raphael Warnock (GA-D): Hello, everybody. Senator Warnock here. I know that many of you are wondering about the fate of the student debt relief program that was released just last year. Listen, the only thing stopping millions of Americans from receiving this student debt relief is a lawsuit that was filed by our opponents. But I feel very hopeful that we will get this resolved and student debt relief will come. But I’m not the only one feeling hopeful.
[Camera pans to President Biden]
President Biden: I want you all to hang in there and keep the faith. We’re on the right side of this. We know the law is on our side. We have a case before the United States Supreme Court and we believe that we’re going win that case. We’re not going to give up. Keep the faith. We’re going to keep doing this until we get it done.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case sometime in February.
When the post was posted for Tuesday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times. He added 8 tweets giving him a Tuesday Tweeting Total of 10 tweets and 0 retweets.
The two leaders offered remarks prior to their bilateral meeting. The YouTube is 4 minutes and 15 seconds long.
Their full remarks:
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, Mr. Prime Minister, it’s great to see you again. We’ve been in many, many meetings together, but it’s good to have you here in the Oval Office.
And you’re welcome despite — despite the World Cup match.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: Yeah, sorry. (Laughs.)
PRESIDENT BIDEN: And in spite of that, you know, you’re one of our strongest allies and personal friends, and you’ve been a great, great personal ally as well.
And together, we’re stepping up our protection for democratic values across the world. And we’re — you know, including standing strong with Ukraine.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: Yeah.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: And you’ve been very, very stalwart. And we look to you as well to make sure we have a coherent European response — all Europe — in response to Ukraine.
And Russia is just continuing to act in ways that are almost unbelievable — the brutality with which they’re acting.
Together, we’re promoting human rights and the rule of law, and we’ll be co-hosting the next summit on the — the Summit of Democracies in March, which we’ll be together again. And there’s a lot that we have to work on together.
And together, we’re working on how to keep a free and open Indo-Pacific and, quite frankly, meet the challenges of China. Simply put, our companies — our countries have been, so far, in just lockstep in what we’ve done and our vision for the future.
And so, today, I look forward to discussing how we can further deepen our relationship and securing our supply chains to strengthen our transatlantic partnership.
And thank you again, Mr. Minister. We’ve had a great relationship with both our countries and personally. And I look forward to discussing a lot more in detail.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: Thank you. Thank you so much. And also, thank you for hosting me. It’s the first time in my —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: The fire.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: — five visits that the fireplace —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: That’s right. The fireplace.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: — is on.
And typically, I would start with the economy. And then I would have told the press that we are the second biggest investor in the U.S, and the United States is the biggest investor in Europe.
But I think we should talk Ukraine. And we have seen this terrible footage coming out of Dnipro this weekend, where innocent children, men, and women, again, were under rocket fire, and this apartment building was hit and many people died. These are horrible pictures. And I think it — it strengthens even more our resolve to stay with Ukraine.
And I want to commend you personally and the United States for your leadership. I’m convinced that history will judge that in 2022, if the United States would not have stepped up like you did, that things would have been very different at the moment in this — in the fight between Ukraine and Russian aggression.And we have decided to spend another two and a half billion on —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE: — helping the Ukraine war effort. If you compare this to the size of America, it would be over $50 billion — $50 billion.
We have the intention to join what you are doing with Germany on the Patriots project, so the air defense system. I think that is important that we join that. I discussed it also, this morning, with Olaf Scholz of Germany.
And then, on accountability, we can never accept that Putin and Russia get away with this. So, accountability to take them to court to make sure that this all gets done in — also in a legal way is crucial. And I know that you and I are working on this.
But again, your leadership — United States, you personally — has been crucial. So, again, I want to thank you for that. And let’s stay closely together this year. And, hopefully, things will move — yeah — forward in a way which is acceptable for Ukraine. They have done so much. And this year will be important.
So, again, thank you.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: They have. And one of the things — if I could just add very quickly: Europe continues to step up, respond to Russian actions. There’s more to do, and we — we have to stay together. And it’s been — been really, really, really important that you’ve been there every single step of the way. So, thank you.
Thank you.
White House.gov. 01/17/2023.
The White House posted the following readout:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands at the White House. The leaders reaffirmed the historic ties and shared values that link our two nations. As strong NATO Allies, they discussed ways to further deepen our cooperation on transatlantic and global issues of mutual interest. They reviewed our steadfast political, security, economic, and humanitarian support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression, including our efforts to hold Russia accountable for its abuses and for the war crimes committed by Russian forces. The leaders also discussed our growing cooperation on other foreign policy priorities, including our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. They talked about strengthening democracy, respect for human rights, and the rules-based international order around the world, including as co-hosts of the upcoming second Summit for Democracy. Building on the deep trade and investment partnership between the United States and the Netherlands, the President and Prime Minister discussed the importance of secure supply chains and critical technologies to our national security and economic prosperity.
White House.gov. 01/17/2023.
His other Golden State Warrior Tweets:
The YouTube of the Golden State Warriors event is 18 minutes and 49 seconds long. Their full remarks can be found here.
Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and Warriors player Stephen Curry dropped by the White House press briefing. The YouTube is 48 minutes and 10 seconds long. Coach Kerr and Curry offered opening remarks.
Coach Kerr:
Thank you so much for having us today. On behalf of the Warriors, I want to thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for the invitation to come to the White House today to celebrate our championship from a year ago.
It’s a great reminder of how lucky we are to be Americans, to live in a country where we can chase our dreams and enjoy the fruits of our labor and the celebration of all those around us. And to come here today with members of the organization to — to celebrate is really something special.
It was also very fulfilling for me, just a little while ago, to take part in a roundtable on gun violence and gun safety with some senior White House staffers, along with Klay Thompson and Moses Moody. Over the last hour or so, we learned a lot about what this administration is doing to — to help create a safer environment in our country, something that’s very close to my heart. And it’s wonderful for me to learn a lot more than — than I knew.
So coming in today is — it’s a great day on many fronts.
So thanks for the invitation. And I’m going to turn it over to Mr. Curry.
White House.gov. 01/17/2023.
Stephen Curry:
Thanks, Coach. To echo what he said, I want to thank President Biden and Vice President Harris for the invitation to come here. It’s something that we don’t ever take for granted. Seven years ago, I believe, we were here last, celebrating our first championship, and now back to celebrate our fourth.
So, to have this opportunity to reflect on the accomplishment last year, to bring everybody together to celebrate that, to also acknowledge the place sports has in bringing people together from all walks of life, all backgrounds to provide inspiration, hope, love, togetherness — and that’s what our journey was last year — so to have another opportunity to celebrate that means a lot.
And a great opportunity for us from the basketball community to thank President Biden and his staff for all their hard work and diligence on getting Brittney Griner home, who is a big part of our basketball family. And it meant — it means a lot to know that she’s here and home safe with her family and all the work that went on behind the scenes to make that a reality. So I just wanted to say thank you there.
And we’re very excited to be here and celebrate the day, celebrate with our families. And I appreciate the invitation. This is truly, truly special. So thank you to everybody.
White House.gov. 01/17/2023.
They did not take questions.
I went to Ghostburger.com and found in the press tab two stories on the @POTUS order.
The last occupant of the White House was a big fan of the Big Mac. Who can forget the massive buffet of McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s spread across the State Dining Room? Donald Trump never promoted eating from a single local restaurant beyond the steakhouse in his own hotel (perhaps for the best) during his four years and office. So it’s all the more noteworthy that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris chose DC’s own Ghostburger for their cheeseburger fix yesterday.
Washingtonian.com. 01/18/2023
The Washington Post:
Brittany Spaddy has never seen “The American President,” the 1995 rom-com written by Aaron Sorkin, but she basically lived out one of the film’s most memorable scenes, the one in which a flower shop employee collapses when the president of the United States walks in and tries to order roses.
Spaddy was called into work at Ghostburger on Tuesday, her day off, ostensibly because a VIP was coming to the D.C. burger joint and the place would need extra employees to handle the crowd. But the real agenda, said Josh Phillips, co-founder of Ghostburger, was that the owners wanted Spaddy to be there when President Biden called to place an order. The White House had made the arrangements the day before with Phillips and his wife and co-founder, Kelly.
“She earned that call,” Phillips said about Spaddy, who handles practically everything in the front of the house at Ghostburger, one of the few feel-good stories of the pandemic.
Washington Post. 01/18/2023.
Kelly White Phillips posted to Instagram:
Wednesday’s First Tweet:
The 3 tweets refer to the Inflation Reduction Act.
On the 9th of January the new House Republican majority passed a bill; H.R.23–To rescind certain balances made available to the Internal Revenue Service:
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 |
This is an Open Thread.
