It’s Wednesday.
President Biden’s public schedule for Wednesday 03/22/2023:
| 9:00 AM | The President receives the President’s Daily Briefing The White House Closed Press |
| 10:00 AM | In-Town Pool Call Time The White House In-Town Pool |
| 3:00 PM Press Briefing | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
| 5:00 PM Remarks | The President and The First Lady host a reception celebrating Women’s History Month; The Vice President and The Second Gentleman also deliver remarks East Room Pooled for TV and Pre-Credentialed Media |
Press briefing scheduled for 3:00 p.m. D.C., time.
The Women’s History Month Celebration is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. D.C., time.
President Biden has tweeted…
He’s got 3 tweets so far for Wednesday.
The Inflation Reduction Act capped insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare.
This month three big insulin drug makers announced their intent to lower the costs on insulin for those not receiving Medicare part D.
The Sanofi announcement can be found in Friday’s Biden Bits (03/17/2023).
Novo Nordisk announcement can be found in Wednesday’s Biden Bits (03/15/2023).
The Eli Lilly announcement can be found in Wednesday’s Biden Bits (03/01/2023).
It took me a few minutes longer than I’d like to figure out how the insulin cap for all failed. Finally, after adjusting my hopes and dreams I found a Newsweek article from 08/08/2022 that finally linked to the votes.
Because the inflation Reduction Act was passed through reconciliation the Senate parliamentarian determined that the for all cap violated the rules of reconciliation. The Senate then needed 60 votes to wave the rule.
From Senate.gov. 08/07/2022:
Vote Summary Question: On the Motion (Motion to Waive All Applicable Budgetary Discipline Re: Amendment No. 5194, Insulin )
Vote Number: 314 Vote Date: August 7, 2022, 10:27 AM
Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Motion Rejected
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 5194 to H.R. 5376 (No short title on file)
Statement of Purpose: In the nature of a substitute.
The vote was 57 Yea’s and 43 Nay’s.
7 Republicans joined the Democrats in support of the motion:
Newsweek listed the Seven: Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
When the post was posted for Tuesday; I totally missed posting a video feed for his early remarks.
Anyhoo…
When the post was posted, President Biden had tweeted 1 time. He added 13 tweets giving him a Tuesday Tweeting Total of 14 tweets and 0 retweets.
From the White House statement; FIVE-ALARM FIRE: The House Freedom Caucus’ Extreme Budget Proposal Endangers Public Safety: We covered the whole thing in Monday’s Biden Bits…
Snip:
- Make Our Border Less Secure The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal would eliminate funding for more than 2,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and officers and severely undermine our ability to secure the border and combat drug trafficking—allowing an additional 150,000 pounds of cocaine, nearly 900 pounds of fentanyl, nearly 2,000 pounds of heroin, and more than 17,000 pounds of methamphetamine into our country.
His 184 page searchable PDF Presidential Budget can be found here.
Tuesday morning the White House posted; FIVE-ALARM FIRE: The House Freedom Caucus’ Extreme Budget Proposal Raises Costs for Families
The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus has made their priorities clear: imposing devastating cuts to public safety and increasing costs for working- and middle-class families, all to protect and extend tax breaks skewed to the wealthy and big corporations. In fact, their tax cuts would be so expensive that their deep and harmful cuts would not reduce the deficit.
That’s in sharp contrast with the President’s Budget, which invests in America, lowers costs for families, protects and strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and reduces the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years, while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays a penny more in new taxes.
Combined with other commitments extreme MAGA House Republicans have already made, the extreme Freedom Caucus proposal will be a disaster for families in at least five key ways: endangering public safety, raising costs for families, shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and undermining American workers, weakening national security, and hurting seniors.
Last week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that Congressional Republicans’ budget math doesn’t add up. CBO found that—in order to meet Congressional Republicans’ stated commitment to balancing the budget in 10 years without raising taxes on the wealthy or corporations, and without cutting Social Security, Medicare, defense, and some veterans’ benefits—Congressional Republicans would need to eliminate everything in the rest of the Federal budget.
The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal will be a five-alarm fire for families—including by raising costs. Unlike extreme MAGA Republicans in the House who are focused on repealing the Inflation Reduction Act—which would raise costs on everything from health insurance, to prescription drugs, to utility bills—President Biden is focused on lowering everyday costs and giving working families more breathing room.
The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposals will:
White House.gov. 03/21/2023.
- Make Health Care More Expensive: Extreme MAGA Republicans in the House have signed onto a bill to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. That will increase health care premiums by an average of $800 per year for nearly 15 million Americans.
- Increase Energy Costs. The extreme MAGA House Republicans would eliminate a law that will lower utility bills for American families by hundreds of dollars per year. Their plans would deny Americans critical savings on electric vehicles, energy-efficient windows, solar panels, and more.
- Make College More Expensive. The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal would not only eliminate Pell Grants altogether for 80,000 students, it would also reduce the maximum award by nearly $1,000 for the remaining 6.6 million students who receive Pell Grants—making it harder for them to attend and afford college.
- Eliminate Preschool and Child Care Slots. The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal would mean 200,000 children lose access to Head Start slots and 100,000 children lose access to child care—undermining our children’s education and making it more difficult for parents to join the workforce and contribute to our economy.
- Strip Medicaid Coverage and Food Assistance from Millions of People. Extreme MAGA Republicans want to impose failed policies that take Medicaid coverage away from people who fail to meet bureaucratic work reporting requirements. When it was tried, this policy led to nearly 1 in 4 losing Medicaid coverage – including working people and people with disabilities, caused uninsured rates to spike and led people to go without needed care, and failed to increase employment. Their proposals also put food assistance at risk for millions of older people and parents, and would mean 1.2 million women, infants, and children would lose vital nutrition assistance through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), significantly increasing child poverty and hunger.
The YouTube is 14 minutes and 58 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
First, I’m proud to use my authority under the Antiquities Act to establish the — and I — I want you to know it’s a big deal — the — (laughter) — Havina Kwa’ May [Avi Kwa’ Ame] — I — I’m having trouble —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Kwa’ Ame!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible)!
THE PRESIDENT: I got it. (Laughter and applause.) I just know it as “Spirit Mountain” — (applause) — in Nevada.
It’s one of our most beautiful landscapes that ties together one of the largest contiguous wildlife corridors in the United States: 500,000 acres. (Applause.) It’s breathtaking. Breathtaking deserts, valleys, mountain ranges. Rich in biodiversity. Sacred lands that are central to the creation story of so many Tribes who have been here since time immemorial.
President Biden: Look, second thing we’re doing is we’re protecting the Castner Range in Texas as a national monument. (Applause.)
President Biden: The people of El Paso have fought to protect this for 50 years. Their work has finally paid off. (Applause.) And now we’ll clear the area of old munitions, create access to the outdoors for communities and parks, and we’re going to — green spaces that — they’re harder and harder to find. And importantly, Castner Range will be preserved for future generations.
President Biden: Folks, the third thing we’re doing today — I’m — I’m issuing a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of Commerce to immediately consider designating 777,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii as a new — (applause) — as a new — new national marine sanctuary.
President Biden: It would make it the largest ocean area on the planet with the highest level of protection. (Applause.) And it will help us meet our goal of conserving — the goal I set when I got elected — of protecting and conserving 30 percent of our oceans. (Applause.)
President Biden: It matters. This matters, because when we conserve our country’s natural gifts, we’re not just protecting the livelihoods of people who depend on them — like the family farms, outdoor recreation businesses, rural communities welcoming visitors across — from all across the country and around the world that matter. We’re protecting the heart and the soul of our national pride. We’re protecting pieces of history, our — telling our story that will be told for generations upon generations to come.
President Biden: Let me close with this. Our country’s natural treasures define our identity as a nation. They’re a birthright — they’re a birthright we have to pass down to generation after generation. They unite us.
The U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan PDF is 105 pages. The PDF is searchable.
From the White House 03/21/2023:
FACT SHEET: President Biden Designates Avi Kwa Ame National Monument
FACT SHEET: President Biden Designates Castner Range National Monument
A Proclamation on Establishment of the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument
A Proclamation on the Establishment of the Castner Range National Monument, 2023
The YouTube is 46 minutes and 54 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.
President Biden: And that’s what great nations do: They face reality. We’re a nation — a great nation in large part because of the power of the arts and humanities that’s stamped into the DNA of America. And today, Jill and I, Kamala and Doug, and all of you — we continue the legacy by awarding two of our nation’s highest honors to 23 extraordinary Americans: the National Medal of Arts to honor outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth support, and availability of the arts in the United States; and the National Humanities Medal to honor those who have — whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens’ engagement with history, literature, philosophy, and so many other subjects.
President Biden: General Washington wrote, and I quote, “The arts and sciences [are] essential to the prosperity of the State and…the ornament and happiness of human life.” He knew the greatness of a nation was measured not only by the strength of its army and the vastness of its geography, the size of its economy, it was also measured in the vitality of its culture — and the culture forged in the freedom of expression to speak and to think freely.
This is an Open Thread.
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