U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

President Biden @POTUS

I know that too often we’ve had an economy where the wealthy do better and better and the middle class gets left behind.
 
So, we went to work to change that.

It started with the American Rescue Plan. That law helped 41 million people put food on the table.
 
It put money in the pockets of hardworking Americans who were in trouble through no fault of their own.
 
It gave them what my dad called “just a little bit of breathing room.”

The next step was the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
 
And now, not only has ‘Infrastructure Week’ finally arrived, we’re looking forward to an ‘Infrastructure Decade.’
 
What this all means is jobs. Good-paying union jobs. Jobs you can raise a family on.

Congressional Republicans have it all backwards.

Their plan literally calls for increasing taxes on middle class and working people – and cutting taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans

I’m not talking about punishing anyone. Just pay your fair share.

Together, we've made extraordinary progress in laying a new foundation for our economy.
 
But there's still so much at stake.



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1538922127306407936

[Rick Plant]

Greitens says violent video about hunting people was meant to be humorous



JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens hit the conservative talk radio circuit Tuesday, arguing that a campaign video showing him storming a house with soldiers in search of “Republicans in name only” was intended to be a humorous metaphor.

“I don’t think there is a real person in Missouri who thinks about it literally. Not one,” Greitens said in an interview on KFTK radio. “What you’re seeing is a tremendous amount of faux outrage from leftists and RINOs.”

The video, released Monday, shows Greitens holding a shotgun and accompanying a team armed with assault rifles and flash grenades as they rush into a house in search of RINOs.

“Join the MAGA crew,” Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, says. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”

Later Tuesday, on Kansas City’s KCMO talk radio, the Republican candidate for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat said the controversial video was “clearly a metaphor.”

“Every normal person around the state of Missouri saw that,” said Greitens, who is attempting a political comeback after he quit as governor in 2018.

Greitens’ campaign did not respond to requests for comment from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. During his abbreviated and rocky tenure as governor, and in his run for Senate, Greitens has parroted former President Donald Trump’s complaints about the “mainstream media.”

The 38-second video was panned by fellow Republicans and Democrats, as well as by outside groups.

The Eagle Forum PAC, the political action committee launched by the late Phyllis Schlafly, denounced the video as “deeply disturbing.”

“Advocating violence is a disqualifier for public office,” said chairwoman Anne Schlafly Cori. “Eric Greitens is not fit to serve the voters of Missouri.”

The Missouri State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, which has endorsed Attorney General Eric Schmitt in the crowded GOP primary, also criticized the ad.

“This deplorable video has no place in our political system and sends a dangerous message that it is somehow acceptable to kill those who have differing political beliefs,” the statement said.

Others denouncing the video were some of his GOP opponents, including U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler and Missouri Senate President Dave Schatz.

Schmitt’s campaign tweeted an eye-roll emoji.

Amid a rise in political violence, ranging from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the arrest of a man who threatened to kill U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Facebook took the video down and Twitter pasted a warning over the link.

© St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[Rick Plant]

What President Biden has done for job creation and unemployment is truly remarkable.

Check out the unemployment map of each state before Biden took over and the current map for May 2022. What a huge difference. President Biden is fixing the Trump economic disaster in record time!   

President Biden @POTUS

"Fifteen states are now at their lowest unemployment rates on record, and last month, the unemployment rate broke new records in nine states.

That's huge.

Our nation's hard-fought, historic economic recovery was just the beginning of lasting change – we are moving to steady and stable growth that works for working people.

Since my Administration began, our economy has added more than 8 million jobs — more on average per month than under any other President in history.

We've come a long way but still have more work to do before our economy serves every last American."



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1539258093711785984

[Rick Plant]

FACT SHEET: President Biden Calls for a Three-Month Federal Gas Tax Holiday

JUNE 22, 2022 • STATEMENTS AND RELEASES

The price of gas is up dramatically around the world, and by almost $2 per gallon in America, since Putin began amassing troops on the border of Ukraine. President Biden understands that high gas prices pose a significant challenge for working families. That’s why he has taken action in recent months to boost the supply of oil and gas, including an historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and encouraging oil companies and refiners to boost capacity and output to get more supply on the market.

Today, he is calling on Congress and states to take additional legislative action to provide direct relief to American consumers who have been hit with Putin’s Price Hike. Specifically, he is calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months, through September, without taking any money away from the Highway Trust Fund. And he is calling on states to take similar action to provide some direct relief, whether suspending their own gas taxes or helping consumers in other ways.
 
Federal Gas Tax Holiday

Right now, the federal government charges an 18 cent tax per gallon of gasoline and a 24 cent tax per gallon of diesel. Those taxes fund critical highways and public transportation, through the Highway Trust Fund. But in this unique moment, with gas prices near $5 a gallon on average across the country, President Biden is calling on Congress to suspend the gas tax for three months – until the end of September – to give Americans a little extra breathing room as they deal with the effects of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
 
The President is also calling on Congress to make sure that a gas tax holiday has no negative effect on the Highway Trust Fund. With our deficit already down by a historic $1.6 trillion this year, the President believes that we can afford to suspend the gas tax to help consumers while using other revenues to make the Highway Trust Fund whole for the roughly $10 billion cost. This is consistent with legislation proposed in the Senate and the House to advance a responsible gas tax holiday.

President Biden understands that a gas tax holiday alone will not, on its own, relieve the run up in costs that we’ve seen. But the President believes that at this unique moment when the war in Ukraine is imposing costs on American families, Congress should do what it can to provide working families breathing room.

State and Local Action

In addition to federal gas tax relief, the President is calling on state and local governments to provide additional consumer relief. Already, some states and local governments have acted: for example, in Connecticut and New York, governors temporarily suspended their gas taxes, and in Illinois and Colorado, governors delayed planned tax and fee increases. And, around the country, in states like Michigan and Minnesota, states and local leaders are considering a number of forms of consumer relief – from temporary suspensions and pauses on state sales tax on gas to consumer rebates and relief payments. The President believes more states and local governments should do so.

Ongoing Actions to Blunt the Impact of the Putin Price Hike
 
Today’s announcements follow a series of actions the President has taken to lower gas prices for American families.

- The President announced the release of a record 1 million barrels per day from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which just last week a leading oil market analyst confirmed has been critical to keeping prices from rising even more.

- He rallied international partners to join us, releasing a combined 240 million barrels of oil on the market.

- He expanded access to biofuels like E15—gasoline that uses a 15 percent ethanol blend—to increase supply and lower prices at thousands of gas stations across the country.

- He and his Administration are engaging with oil and refining companies to ask them to work with the Administration to bring forward concrete solutions that increase refinery capacity and output. Secretary Granholm is meeting with these CEOs this week.

Already, the United States produced more oil under the first year of this Administration than it did under the first two years of the prior Administration, and is on track to set new records next year. At the same time, the President understands that our efforts to increase energy production in the near-term must be coupled with medium- and long-term efforts to transition our economy away from fossil fuels produced by autocrats and to clean energy.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-calls-for-a-three-month-federal-gas-tax-holiday/

[Rick Plant]

'He must resign': Staff texts over fake elector slates implicate Ron Johnson



Wisconsin Democrats on Tuesday led calls for U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson's resignation after the House January 6 committee revealed texts indicating that the Republican's office wanted to hand-deliver certificates of fake electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence in service of former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"Ron Johnson actively tried to undermine this democracy. He literally tried to hand Mike Pence fake ballots."

The bipartisan congressional panel probing the deadly 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol showed an exchange of text messages initiated by Johnson's chief of staff Sean Riley to Pence legislative director Chris Hodgson that the Republican senator wanted to advance an "alternate slate of electors" for Wisconsin and Michigan, both of which Biden won.

"Do not give that to him," Hodgson texted back.

In response to the presentation during Tuesday's hearing state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-76) tweeted that "Sen. Ron Johnson should resign, effective immediately."

While Johnson is not among the 147 congressional Republicans who voted to overturn President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, he did host a December 2020 hearing at which supporters of Trump's "Big Lie" that the election was "stolen" spent hours promoting conspiracy theories about the contest.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) called Johnson's action "direct support for for Trump's conspiracy to overturn the will of the people in Wisconsin."

Four Democratic candidates for Johnson's Senate seat also called on him to resign.

"Ron Johnson actively tried to undermine this democracy. He literally tried to hand Mike Pence fake ballots," Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said in a statement. "Once again, Ron Johnson has proven he's a danger to our country and our fundamental rights. I'm calling for him to resign immediately."

State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski argued that "it is clear Ron Johnson is a threat to our democracy and is unfit to continue serving in the United States Senate."

Former state lawmaker Tom Nelson called Johnson "a criminal and a traitor" who should "be prosecuted."

"He must resign," Nelson added.

Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, also running in the primary to oust Johnson, tweeted that "Trump and his MAGA allies planned, promoted, and paid for a seditious conspiracy to overturn an election they lost. And Ron Johnson attempted to deliver it to D.C. on a silver platter."

Responding to the congressional committee's revelation, Johnson spokesperson Alexa Henning tweeted that "the senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office."

"This was a staff-to-staff exchange," she added. "His new chief of staff contacted the vice president’s office," which "said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story."

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

"apparently fake Michigan electors who said they were working with the Trump campaign planned to hide out in the Michigan Capitol overnight"

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1539309328246591491

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

"wow. The committee's investigation uncovered that a staffer for Ron Johnson wanted to hand deliver Wisconsin's fake slate of electors to Pence just before the proceedings began on January 6"

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1539309879185137665

[Rick Plant]

Republicans turn on Mitch McConnell after bipartisan gun reform bill clears first hurdle in Senate



Republicans are bashing their own caucus in the Senate as more members of the party sign onto a bipartisan gun reform package in the wake of a devastating school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left nineteen children and two adults dead.

The right-wing outrage stems largely from a Tuesday Senate vote in which 14 Republicans and 50 Democrats approved modest legislation, dubbed the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," designed to crack down on America's epidemic of gun violence.

The 80-page bill would be the first gun legislation of its size in decades. It would, among other provisions, expand mental health support; require broader background checks for buyers under 21; enhance punishments associated with straw purchases; and add incentives for states to enact red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to confiscate firearms from any gun owners who present a danger to themselves or their community.

With the support of fourteen senators, the bill is highly likely to overcome a Republican filibuster, allowing the Senate to cast a final vote on the legislation this week.

But while the measure has significant bipartisan backing, the possibility of its passage has sparked the ire of numerous Republicans in both the House and Senate, leaving the party in a rare state of disunity on an issue that is sacrosanct.

This week, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, the U.S. Senate candidate accused of physically abusing his ex-wife and children, called the legislation a "gun confiscation bill."

"They didn't want anyone to actually review the text because this will be one of the most anti-2A laws ever passed," he tweeted. "We need new Senate leadership instead of these weak RINOs who cave to liberals every time."

Sen. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., meanwhile tried his hand at media criticism, attacking various outlets for suggesting that the bill was designed to address gun safety.

"Call it what it is," he wrote over Twitter. "GUN CONTROL, specifically: an infringement on the rights protected by the 2nd and 4th amendments."

Other Republicans, like Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., claimed that the bill's backers ran roughshod of Senate conventions by giving the Republican caucus insufficient time to review the bill. "Process matters," Massie said in a statement. "The American people deserve better from the world's 'greatest deliberative body.'"

The House GOP, for its part, is also expected to mount significant opposition to the bill. According to Punchbowl News, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., have already told the party that they will vote against the measure.

Still, as The Washington Post reported, the party does expect to see some defections.

One among them will no doubt be Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-Tex., a Trump supporter whose district includes Uvalde. On Tuesday, Gonzalez called it his "duty to pass laws that never infringe on the Constitution while protecting the lives of the innocent."

"In the coming days I look forward to voting YES on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," he tweeted.

https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-turn-on-mitch-mcconnell-after-bipartisan-gun-reform-bill-clears-first-hurdle-in-senate/

[Rick Plant]

The GOP has become a 'toxic waste dump' of 'autocracy and denialism': Bush strategist

On Wednesday's edition of MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," former George W. Bush campaign strategist Matt Dowd tore into the current state of the Republican Party.

The problem, he argued, is that notwithstanding the recent losses of Trump-endorsed candidates in Georgia, the former president still has a strong command of the party — and even getting rid of him at this point is not going to course-correct the GOP.

"I think we have to stop looking at the environment through the prism of whether or not Donald Trump wins or loses and how that defines the Republican Party," said Dowd. "Georgia is an outlier in this. 94 percent of people that Donald Trump endorsed have won. That's a pretty good record for Donald Trump. I think the worst thing is — which I actually think is far more dangerous — nearly every Republican candidate who has won a primary, a Republican whether endorsed by Donald Trump or not, either pushes the Big Lie, is an election denier, or doesn't have a problem with the move towards autocracy."

The current state of the Republican Party, continued Dowd, is "a little bit like Chernobyl."

"What led to Chernobyl was bad design, misinformation and bad decision-making by people there," continued Dowd. "Just because you remove a person that hit a wrong switch and contributed to the meltdown doesn't mean you don't have nuclear disaster that spreads. Even if you take that person out, Donald Trump, the Republican Party has become a toxic waste dump of this Big Lie autocracy and denialism. That's, I think, the fundamental problem. There is not Republicans winning who don't buy into a problem that the January 6th Committee is investigating."

This comes as that committee is revealing new details of Trump allies' complicity in the illegal plot to overturn the election, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

President Biden @POTUS

I understand that a gas tax holiday alone won’t fix the pain Americans are feeling at the pump. 

But it will provide families some immediate relief – what my dad would call, "just a little bit of breathing room.”

Earlier today, I called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months and for states to provide similar relief.

I’m also urging oil companies to increase refining capacity and gas stations to pass along the decrease in oil prices to lower gas prices.



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1539752007677919233