The Presidential Events: February 2021

February was the first full month of Joe Biden's Presidency. Like most presidents, Biden spent it resolving crises of the past administration. These past four years offered plenty of opportunity for criticism. The next four will offer them as well. Hopefully readers realize that Biden has policies worth criticizing. Not that everything in this article is a criticism. It is a collection of noteworthy items of the new administration.

There exist media outlets eager for a Biden administration. Some will veer into obsequiousness. Like this article; Biden’s secret weapon for criminal justice reform. The headline seems to congratulate Biden for implementing criminal justice reform. Instead, the article explains how Biden could expand the pardon power to restore justice (The article does rightly mention that many of the policies that unjustly incarcerated Americans were written, or voted for, by Biden).

The Presidential Events of February 2021 are here.

Foreign Policy:

During its four year term, the Trump administration increased support for Saudi Arabia's brutal war in Yemen, vetoed Congress when they revoked support, and labeled Houthi Yemenis as terrorists. Biden partially extricated itself from those policies. He revoked the terrorism label, but still offered limited support to Saudi Arabia in their devastating bombing. It's a humanitarian crisis, and Biden isn't doing enough to halt it.

Biden has to decide how to proceed with the Afghanistan debacle of the past three administrations. Multiple pundits claim he has three options; withdraw, wait, or remain. In reality there are only two choices; leave now as arraigned with the Taliban, or stay for an indefinite period of time. Any attempt to spin a third option as distinct and viable (remaining for a limited time until the United States signs an agreement) isn't a lie exactly, but a wish that may never come true. Biden has yet to deal with international criticism of our actions in Afghanistan. During the Trump administration, the White House sanctioned the International Criminal Court, because it investigated war crimes of the United States in Afghanistan. Despite being a month into his term of office, Biden has yet to revoke those sanctions.

The Biden administration tried to return to the nuclear agreement with Iran, but they have refused to engage in negotiations until the White House removes sanctions implemented by the Trump administration.

Biden did renew his commitment to the belligerent foreign policy of Bush, Obama, and Trump by bombing Syria. Democrats questioned whether this was an illegal use of presidential power (All presidents use the power of the state to justify their crimes after the fact with legal tricks). The Biden administration said the purpose of killing twenty-two people was to “send a message”.

It isn't any surprise when the Biden administration is filled with staff who worked for a think tank aligned with weapon manufacturers.

Staff:

The Senate reviewed and confirmed more of President Biden's appointees. Senators confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (56-43), Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary (86-13), Tom Vilsack as Agriculture Secretary (97-7), and Miguel Cardona as Education Secretary (64-33). After the last four years watching the Republican party, bipartisan support seems suspect. Buttigieg has no experience in transportation, a strange choice for a Cabinet member. But Vilsack is especially concerning. During his tenure as Secretary of Agriculture under Obama, Thomas sided with corporations, undercutting independent farmers. After Obama he used the revolving door of politics and business to work as a wealthy consultant for dairy interests.

Some of Biden's appointees suffered delays, like Neera Tanden. Senators criticized her for insulting Bernie Sanders and Republicans on Twitter. Deb Haaland, nominated for Secretary of the Interior, was criticized by Republicans for her record of protecting natural resources and the environment.

Biden considered naming Republicans Cindy McCain and Jeff Flake as ambassadors.

Immigration:

Biden rolled back parts of Trump's immigration policy. He raised refugee resettlement admissions from 15,000 people in 2020, to 120,000 (slightly more than Obama's 110,000). Globally, more people are seeking refuge than ever before, and the United States isn't top ten in accepting them. Biden ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers to stay in Mexico, pending their proceedings. He also overturned a ban that prevented some forms of immigration.

Regarding ICE, opinions were mixed about new policies. NPR and Vox claimed new guidelines limited arrests and deportations by ICE. ICE agents said limitations were preventing them from doing their jobs. And the ACLU, which approved of some measures, criticized the memo outlining the decision as “a disappointing step backward from the Biden administration’s earlier commitments to fully break from the harmful deportation policies of both the Trump and Obama presidencies.”

As a surge of unaccompanied migrant children crossed the border, Biden reopened a facility for migrant children. A federal judge temporarily, again, blocked Biden from pausing deportations. The new DHS Secretary, Mayorkas, pledged to reunite hundreds of families still separated by Trump's immigration policies.

And local environmental and immigration advocates in Arizona reported seeing border wall construction as late as February. The US department of Customs and Border Protection claimed contractors were only working to safely secure the areas.

Climate and the Environment:

After shutting down the Keystone pipeline, Biden environmental advocates pressured him to end the Dakota Access pipeline as well. The builders are operating illegally without a permit. Texas, which suffered a disastrous winter storm, and devastatingly low temperatures, was declared a national disaster. With support from the Biden administration, the House passed a public lands bill to protect three million acres in Colorado, California, Washington, and Arizona. Will the Senate pass it?

Domestic Policy:

The Justice Department withdrew from its prior position, under Trump, that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would extend discrimination laws to protect LGBTQ Americans.

Biden publicly supported efforts of Amazon workers in Alabama to organize.

Saudi Arabia, MBS, and Khashoggi:

When Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, assassinated dissident and US resident Jamal Khashoggi, Trump brushed the facts aside. The Biden administration released the intelligence report, which concluded MBS ordered the murder. The White House decided not to sanction him. Democrats called for sanctions against MBS, but the White House said that it must “be able to leave room to work with Saudis … where there are interests for the United States.” Translation; Saudi Arabia can murder Khashoggi without punishment because Biden needs them. The Washington Post said Biden was offering MBS “one free murder pass”; the power to kill occasionally, as long as it doesn't cross an indiscernible line.

The Coronavirus, the Virus:

The coronavirus killed 500,000 Americans over the course of a year. That's 86% of the population of Wyoming (It will probably pass 100% before it's under control). It's 72% of Boston. It's nearly two Anchorages, Newarks, or Madisons, or Buffalos. It's more than two Richmonds, Birminghams or Tallahassees. It's five Billings, Green Bays, or South Bends.

The good news: there is a vaccine and Biden's White House rapidly expanded their vaccine deployment. They purchased an additional 200 million doses, claiming they would have enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of July. The FDA approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, twenty percent of U.S. adults received the first dose of one of the vaccines, and new daily cases were down to 65,000 (from December's 300,000 peak). Many states took the good news as a sign to roll back containment measures. That is absurd, considering 65,000 is still more daily cases than from July of last year, while the United States is still averaging 2,000 deaths a day (down from a peak of 4,500 in January). The CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, warned that “now is not the time” to abandon policies that contain the coronavirus.

But this is odd, because …

The Coronavirus, Schools:

The White House seemed exceptionally eager to abandon policies if they can reopen schools. Biden pledged to reopen schools in his first 100 days. That gives him until the end of April to fulfill his promise. The success with vaccinations may allow that, and yet the White House seemed intent to rush into schools as quickly as possible. Biden said, “It is a national emergency,” but didn't prioritize vaccines for teachers. Later, the administration downplayed the 100 day goal. The CDC released non-binding, advisory guidelines to encourage schools reopening. The memo recommended masking, physical distance, hand washing, cleaning facilities, and testing. The CDC director explicitly said, vaccinating teachers wasn't necessary.

The Biden administration mandated that schools resume standardized testing. Trump waived testing requirements in 2020.

The Coronavirus, Relief:

Biden's initial $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan was met with a $600 billion counteroffer from ten Republicans. Democrats added to their relief bill, with direct cash for families with children. The bill included $1,400 stimulus checks, additional funding for unemployment insurance, aid for states, money for schools to reopen during the pandemic, money for insurance companies to cover more people, funds for small businesses, money for better testing and vaccines, and other funding. Democratic Senators, like Jeff Merkley of Oregon insisted they pass a bill to fulfill their campaign promise of $2,000 stimulus checks and a $15 minimum wage. Progressive pundits, like David Sirota, accused Biden of breaking the promise, saying the new President couldn't include the $600 checks, sent out in December, as part of his $2,000 pledge, since the promise was made after the $600 checks were already sent.

The House passed the relief bill, but the Senate bill, passed in early March (getting a bit ahead of ourselves here), was trimmed. Even before the parliamentarian ruled that the fifteen dollar minimum wage couldn't be in a reconciliation bill, Biden was already backing away from his promise to enact it. Progressives, like Bernie Sanders, pressured the White House to have Vice President Harris overrule the parliamentarian. They refused. Democrats chose to further reduce their own bill, cutting who could receive stimulus checks. Of the millions of citizens who received two stimulus checks under Trump, seventeen million people, five million of them children, won't see any relief from Biden's bill. When Sanders tried to amend the bill to add in the fifteen dollar minimum wage, Biden didn't publicly support the measure, and eight Democratic Senators voted against it.