President Biden is back to asking what Republicans are for. “What's Mitch [McConnell] for? What's he for on immigration?”
Securing the southern border, and fully enforcing all of the laws on the books, for starters.
Biden: “My presidential report card will look pretty good.”
Once again, to use one of Biden's favorite phrases, “come on, man!”
Reporter asks if the time has come to begin lifting some of the tariffs on Chinese imports or if China must make due on some of its commitments in the phase one agreement.
“My trade rep is working on that right now,” Biden says. “The answer is uncertain.”
“I’d like to be in a position to say they are meeting the commitments, but we’re not there yet.”
I guess if Biden thinks “Inflation has everything to do with the supply chain” he is now a supply-side economist.
There is no doubt in my mind that had they broken up BBB to begin with, they would have gotten something from Manchin. It is unclear to me that doing so is still on the table at this point. Also, there is a limit to how many reconciliation bills they will be able to pass.
“It’s clear to me that we’re going to have to probably break it up,” Biden says of his Build Back Better plan. “I think that we can get — and I’ve been talking to a number of my colleagues on the Hill – we would be able to get support for the $500 billion plus for energy and the environmental issues.”
Cites Senator Joe Manchin's support for early education and says, “I think we can break the package up get as much as we can now and fight for the rest later.”
“Inflation has everything to do with the supply chain.”
Everything? There are no other factors at work here?
Biden predicts Vladimir Putin will in fact “move in” on Ukraine and that it “will hurt him badly.”
There it is. Biden on BBB: “It's clear to me we're going to have to break it up.”
That “minor incursion” thing is almost exactly how U.S. diplomats accidentally encouraged the Korean War and the Gulf War.