Fox cable hosts are doing the job of the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Jared Bernstein, by admitting that the economy under President Biden is strong. Bernstein joins MSNBC’s Ali Velshi to discuss the latest “expectation-busting” jobs report.
He can do some things. He can’t do others.
For example one of the big checks on corporate greed is the FTC, which is independent of the executive branch’s direct control. All he can do is nominate people to the FTC, which has to go through the legislature. At the moment, the FTC has a majority Democrat leadership, which has resulted in things like the blocking of Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot, the attempted blocking of the Albertsons-Krogers merger, the upcoming ban on noncompete clauses, and other reining in of corporate greed.
Biden can’t tell the FTC “you have to impose fines on x corporation”. All he can do is appoint the kinds of people he thinks would support fines on x corporation. And like I said, even that is subject to the legislature’s approval.
Biden can modify student loan programs, but (according to the courts) he does not have the power to wholesale forgive student loans. He’s doing what he can, but he’s not a dictator. We have 3 branches of government for a reason.
But there are things in his control where he doesn’t put up a fight at all. A great example of this is where he not only didn’t fight against border wall funding, he actually went out of his way to waive federal laws to accelerate the border wall construction: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/biden-administration-waives-federal-laws-allow-border-wall-constructio-rcna118959
Biden just doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight, whereas Trump was pushing ahead with ridiculous actions like his Muslim ban, whether or not a court would uphold it. Biden’s inaction in a number of areas are excused with “if he tried then it would be stopped.” At least try. And again, if Biden is so powerless, how can he take credit for the economy?
Did you see the headline on your own link?? “BIDEN ON BORDER WALL: ‘I HAD NO CHOICE’”
Yes. Why the fuck do you want him to bang his head against a brick wall? That’s stupid and if you want it, you’re stupid. Things he can do, he should do. Things he can’t do, he shouldn’t waste time on.
Well, two things. First, like I said, he does have some measure of control over some things, and he has popular influence. But second, and more importantly, presidents always get praise or blame for the economy under them regardless of how incredibly stupid it is to believe that the president can personally make the economy good or bad. So, political reality is, if he has a good economy, he has to claim it, since if there’s a bad economy, he’ll be blamed for it.
There is nothing that forces Biden to waive federal laws. Biden had a choice, he just decided to make this one for whatever reason. Republicans can obstruct all they want, but apparently democrats are incapable of even inaction to stop or slow down dumb republican shit like the border wall. Tell me how this makes any sense.
Biden slapping his name onto the economy by calling it “bidenomics” is a risky bet when the market is so fickle and people can feel wildly different depending on their individual circumstances. Broad numbers can hide very real problems that aren’t being addressed.
It’s not “for whatever reason”.
Why delay the inevitable? Do it, gain some political points, move on. It’s gonna happen anyway, and he needed he points he got from moderates more than he needed the points from people like you.
So you admit that he had a choice in the matter, but now you claim it was needed to score points with the supposed “moderates” that love republican policy. If “moderates” want a wall, they will simply vote republican. This dumb stunt does not change that at all. I am curious what you mean by “people like you”.
I meant “far leftists who make irrational demands of Democrats”
He had no choice in stopping the wall from being built.
He could claim points for not delaying it.
Both of these are true.
And do you really believe moderate Democrats don’t exist?
Ah, okay, sorry for making the irrational request of a president with a spine. I should just be happy with the slide into fascism as democrats bend over backwards for supposed “moderates” while republicans go mask-off fascist and democrats insist that we need a strong republican party and that we can work with them (meanwhile republicans are free to pull every dirty trick in the book).
Let me know when your temper tantrum is finished and you actually want to advance policy that helps people.