Biden has made significant progress for the average person during his presidency, which is disheartening given the potential for even greater impact. It seems he knows that simply meeting basic expectations will be enough to outdo previous leaders.
Significant progress is disheartening. Ok.
Tough room.
Lemmy is full of those childish people I met in college.
I suspect it's also full of foreign agents acting on bad motives. That and children for whom this is their first election, who are caught up on ideals instead of slow and steady progress.
I wawnt ever thang I wawnt. If it isint all I wawnt it isint gud enuff.
Now give me single payer healthcare/Medicare for All, and I'll be a happy camper.
We need more Democrats in Congress for that. A third of the Senate and all of the House are up for election in November. Attendance at the polls is crucial for down-ballot candidates just the same as presidential.
Vote in November, or be ready to accept what a Republican President, Congress, and SCOTUS decide for you.
He can't do that.
People keep saying the things Biden have been doing are weak, half measures, but they have no idea what he's actually capable of doing without Congress.
He literally tried to wipe away a significant amount of student debt. He tried to fulfill that promise without Congress. The Supreme Court stopped it.
which is disheartening given the potential for even greater impact
What potential? Without Congress or the Supreme Court, what potential things could Biden be doing that would have "greater" impact that he isn't doing?
Something that doesn't require a new law, and won't be shot down by a hostile conservative court?
Please give me examples.
They can't give you any examples and neither can the dorkuses downvoting you. Biden has accomplished a lot with the maggats playing the "I don't wanna" game whenever a dem is in office. He not only had to dig us out of the hole the orange menace left us in, he also has to cure cancer, be the first human to step on Mars, etc and even then people will find something to bitch about.
With any luck (and a lot of hard work) we will have Biden for a second term and then a dem to replace him in 2028 so at least 12 years of the adults running things. Then maybe we can get some shit done and stop trying to tread water at best.
Without Congress or the Supreme Court
Pretty sure the potential lies in changing this.
Vote. Not just for president, but for every office you're able to. Because this shit isn't just "Trump did it!" or "Biden didn't do enough!" It's also the legislators, and a lot of the judiciary they approved (and probably pushed during the Trump administration). Not to mention all the state and local reps that initiate most of the policies that affect people.
Maybe we could start by not aiding a genocide? Just spitballing here...
All of these things definitely were in the news, of course. They just don't STAY in the news, and the public memory hole works fast.
Because they're fucking bread crumbs. What you want us to hold a parade over credit card fees while housing, education, healthcare and food continue to become more expensive and Biden's cabinet works to suppress wages? Neato.
Ya, basically Biden is only able to solve minor first world problems instead of any sort of meaningful attempt on any of the several huge issues.
This isn't all his fault, he's not a king and can't do whatever he wants, but I also don't often find my own managers all that happy with me when all I can say I've accomplished is minor, non-critical tasks and haven't even started on the major work they want accomplished. Making a report look nicer and fixing the break room coffee machine isn't going to cover for failing to launch our latest product. Americans are right to be disappointed in their government and we should be disappointed in our media for failing to stick to larger issues.
I'm more disappointed in the people who keep voting conservative blockers into the senate and house than I am that biden won't circumvent them.
But they did make headlines, that's how we know about these. The FTC and FCC doing their job more is good and makes headlines.
It's good, don't get me wrong. But man it feels like table scraps compared to a lot on what Biden ran on in 2020.
Not really. The average person knows more about trump's bowel movements than these accomplishments. The average undecided voter is lazy and needs information spoon-fed to them. That's why it matters what is reported in the media.
And also, the people who run the media have very fucked up priorities. Biden's NLRB can make historic strides in bringing unions back into American working life and they every so often run a story about it if there happens to be something they can say that has the word "Starbucks" in it.
But, if either Biden or Trump ever farted on camera, it would be all we heard about for a month.
But man it feels like table scraps compared to a lot on what Biden ran on in 2020.
Given that the republiQans retook the house in 2022, what did Biden run on that he hasn’t delivered?
- Freeing Mexican citizens locked in cages at the border, but has in fact increased the numbers according to the ACLU, and now limiting the numbers of who can come in like fascist Trump wanted
- The COVID pandemic is still ongoing, we're just ignoring it while I've had friends die from it after it was "over" according to the CDC. Also removing the 14 day expected leave for it to improve ~~companies fucking over sick and healthy workers alike~~ the economy
- Roe v Wade being reinstated, for the party that "cares about women's rights".
- Minimum Wage increases (Yes Congress is in charge of the purse, but can he say "please fucking do it so everyone has better income?")
- Ran on trying to stop cops from shooting innocent civilians, but in his first State of the Union said "We don't need to defund the police, we need to fund the police!" to bipartisan roaring applause. I know he has a fucking cop as a VP, but god damn.
- And he's not doing anything to stop Project 2025 from getting into place if Trump wins.
- Could maybe consider giving new arms to Ukraine and stop funding explicit genocide in Palestine.
- Didn't help the unions during the rail strikes give into the demands for better worker safety and benefits, blocking it like how Reagan blocked the FAA from striking for safety and benefits
- Still allows Trump-era expansions of spying agencies, that was made public under "constitutional lawyer and defender" Obama, and instated under Dubya.
But we don't have the President saying stupid shit on Twitter every day, so I guess that means we're back to a sane normal, or whatever white cishet liberals need to say to sleep well at night. Ignore the bloodshed of BIPOC and queers, women and their doctors fleeing red states over being arrested for bodily autonomy, and that white nationalists just goosestep freely because its not respectable to tell fascists to fuck off and die, it doesn't impact you, so it's all sane politics and electable!
Moderates:
Biden has no power, he's just a president!
Also moderates:
Look at these good things that happened while Biden was in office, he did this!
Biden:
Fuck congress, I'll go around them if it's something I want like supporting a genocide or violating human rights at our borders
Are you serious?
When Dem Congress goes his way, the common parlance is that the president, as leader of the Dems, gets the credit as "he did it". If you want to be pedantic, no he didn't directly do it. It's just common parlance to give the president credit for the things he pushes for.
He can ask the Dem House of Reps and Dem senators to do things, but that is not the same. If Congress says no, there's very little he can do. The President does not have absolute control - to pass legislation takes Congress.
Or things like banning Non-Compete clauses. That was a government agency, which gets appointments. Biden didn't directly make that decision, it came from his (or other presidents) appointments.
Then you have Executive Action (EA) which can be used for some things. You can't use EA for all things. But EAs are not laws, they can be undone by the next president lickity split.
You're responding to either a troll or "progressive" who will find any reason to be disappointed and abstain from voting for a Dem. Don't bother.
Expanding internet access in rural areas with the Build Back Better plan. That alone was a massive investment into our infrastructure.
I'm not voting for genocide.
Genocide will happen no matter how you vote. One option will lead to more genocide than the other. The rest of the options are not options under our current political system. If you do not vote for less genocide, including by not voting at all, you are voting for genocide.
If choosing the lesser evil still ends up at the most evil act someone can commit, was it ever really lesser evil? Or just slower, easier to ignore evil?
There is no "most evil act". There is ALWAYS a way to make it worse. We need to take every possible step to make things better. And "better" doesn't always mean "good". Sometimes it just means "slightly slower slide to horrifically bad.
Negotiating drug prices? How about making price gouging ILLEGAL? How about a world market price for drugs instead of a monopoly market in America?
I can go through the entire list like this. Trying to cheer for these crumbs is contortion at it's most contorting.
Most governments negotiate the drug prices around the world. This is standard practice. They have buying power so they can get far better pricing than anyone else. Just because it's a new concept to you, doesn't make it stupid.
Meanwhile: "Good isn't perfect, so fuck that and fuck you."
Too many people are all too ready to say that improvement isn't enough, it has to be a perfect and complete solution or else what was the point.
Banning medical debt from credit reports
Negotiating drug prices
He's only able to do these because he opposes universal healthcare. He wants people to die of lack of access to healthcare (70,000 per year) or lack of insurance (45,000 per year). What do dead people, or people who can't afford to be diagnosed, or people who can't afford necessary procedures care about their credit reports or drugs they can't get prescribed? Why would anyone cheer a horribly policy?
As if the media aren't congratulating him enough on his "tough red line" for Israel's genocide that they somehow never break. Ever the victims, Democrats in power are.
Let's not bash progress in pursuit of perfection. These policies are directly impacting me in the positive, which is more than we could say for the previous president.
Let's not celebrate inaction on matters that mean life or death to people. None of the above have helped me, or anyone less fortunate than me.
None of the above have helped me, or anyone less fortunate than me.
What? This is completely stupid. Of course lowered drug and removing medical debt will help people poorer than you. Those are exactly the people most harmed by medical debt and high drug prices.
Starting to think accounts online that prominently advertise themselves as communists might not actually be commenting in good faith.
What an incredibly self-centered and damaging thing to say.
These policies may not be helping you right now. But they are helping millions. And they aren't making future change harder to enact than before. On the contrary, it sets the status quo a little bit more positive, making future improvements look like less of a drastic change.
Don't EVER bash progress. Bash inaction and bash negative side effects.
Wait... no medical debt goes to your credit report? Is this a thing now or is it something he's working on?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a rule that would remove medical bills from credit reports, a ban that would prevent lenders from considering those debts when making decisions about whether to issue loans.
The proposed rule change, announced Tuesday, would also increase privacy protections, help raise credit scores and prevent debt collectors from using the credit reporting system to coerce people to pay.
. . . The proposed rule is open for public comment through Aug. 12, with the bureau working toward a final rule that would take effect next year.
United States | News & Politics
Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.
If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.
Rules
Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.
Post anything related to the United States.