JOE BIDEN’S AMERICAN RENEWAL, OVERCOMING GOP OBSTRUCTION
“Tonight, I come to talk about crisis and opportunity. About rebuilding the nation, revitalizing our democracy, and winning the future for America. Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation, America is on the move again.” Pres. Joe Biden, speaking to America and the world, on April 28.
Democratic President Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress are driving a robust recovery in America. The recovery already demonstrates many areas of healing and transformation: overcoming the once-in-a-century pandemic; getting Americans back to work and back to school; addressing the climate crisis; and fighting for justice to replace brutality.
What has been accomplished in 100 days over the fierce opposition of Republicans is remarkable.
American Rescue Plan. Signed into law by President Biden, and pushed through Congress despite tooth-and-nail opposition from the Republican Party, this transformational measure is already producing results. During Biden’s first one hundred days, Americans were given over 220 million Covid shots. When Biden took office on January 20, fewer than 1% of seniors were fully vaccinated. One hundred days later, 70% of seniors are fully immunized, and the death rate from Covid- 19 is down 80% since January.
American Families Plan. Pres. Biden and the Democrats in Congress are working to overcome GOP roadblocks and hurdles to this vitally needed measure. Democrats are working feverishly to push through the roadblocks, so that working parents will have increased access to quality affordable childcare; mothers and fathers will have up to 12 weeks of paid medical leave; and families with 65 million children will get what they need in order to help cut childhood poverty in half.
American Jobs Plan. President Biden labels this “a once in a generation investment in America itself.” Independent experts estimate the American jobs plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars economic growth in the years to come. Pres. Biden is pushing us toward that goal by advocating for raising the minimum wage for full-time workers to $15 per hour.
The members of the Republican-gerrymandered-and-controlled legislature have worked feverishly to stop the work of America’s renewal and recovery. They have voted to turn away $1.6 billion in funding from the federal government that is needed by challenged families to get economic access to healthcare. They also voted to reduce K-12 funding. And, the GOP legislators are working hard to keep open the loophole enabling those with violent histories to get around our country’s system of firearm access protections. This from a party that claims to be focused on “law and order”.
The whole world has been watching America, in dismay, as the previous president worked hard to allow ever-increasing damage to the environment. Joe Biden is changing all that. He has ordered that America rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, reengaging America with the worldwide effort to create a safe and sustainable environment.
Finally, Joe Biden has called out evil, succinctly, and powerfully. “White supremacy is terrorism”, he reminded us. Proposing concrete action, he declared “We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black Americans.”
It’s time to stop the politics of resentment, and unite behind goals that we all share: health, equity, education, and justice.