Episode 144 Show Notes- An Examination of the President Biden Agenda One Week In
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Episode Description
President Biden has been in office for one week, and it is now time to examine his first-week agenda setting the tone for how the administration intends to govern. Throughout the campaign and on inauguration day, President Biden pushed the message of unity. In this episode, Professor Giordano will focus on some key Executive Orders and recently introduced legislation. This episode is extremely informative and provides an in-depth analysis of the actions President Biden has taken in regard to the economy, climate change, healthcare, immigration, and more.
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Show Transcript- An Examination of the President Biden Agenda One Week In
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Intro
Welcome everyone to another episode of The PAS Report Podcast.
We are now one week into the President Biden administration, and so this episode is going to analyze some of the policies we have seen so far. It was a busy week for President Biden.
What many don’t realize is that the actions an administration takes from the start usually sets the tone for the next four years. Former President Clinton was the exception as he had to have a reset when Republicans gained control of the House and Senate and it ultimately benefited him in the end.
But from the start, the Biden agenda seems much different than previous administrations. President Biden has been pushing the message of unity, and we have to examine if the policies measure up to this message or do the policies tell a different story.
I am not surprised at some of the executive actions we have seen so far, and I’m going to get into several of the executive actions to determine their impact on the United States, as well as We the People.
Regardless of what side of the political spectrum you fall on, this will be an extremely informative episode focusing on the facts of the policy, and I wonder if those that supported President Biden if this is what they signed up for?
It appears that if people care more about what someone says rather than actual policies or issues.
Before I break this all down, go to The P.A.S. Report website. Sign up for The P.A.S. Report Newsletter and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.
Executive Orders
If you listen to this podcast regularly, you’ll know that I am not the biggest fan of governing through executive orders, and I don’t blame President Biden for this problem because this has been a problem for the last several administrations.
Executive orders are not designed to create, modify or overturn laws. They are not designed to be a legislative tool. But that’s exactly what they’ve become. We are supposed to have three co-equal branches of government, and when I read Article 1, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, it clearly states that all legislative powers shall be vested in a House of Representatives and a Senate.
You would think that Congress would have cracked down on executive powers considering that as the executive branch becomes stronger, the legislative branch becomes weaker. But the idiots in Congress have actually encouraged the use of governing through executive orders and they are complicit in weakening their own institution. Whatever political party is in control of the White House, the legislative members of the party encourage President’s to take executive actions.
See most members of Congress are cowards. They are always worried about reelection. And when it comes to controversial issues, they don’t really want to craft legislation and actually vote on that legislation. See, in order to get anything done legislatively, it requires compromise, and without it, very little will pass. Members of Congress don’t want to compromise because they feel it will be used against them, and they may be primaried and lose their seats. So instead, they have abdicated their responsibility as a legislative body, and President’s have resorted to governing through executive orders more and more.
However, there is good and bad news. When a President governs through executive order, whenever a new President comes into office, they can easily undo what the previous administration did in many areas. It’s good news when it’s your party in power, but it’s bad news once you lose that power.
There were many that cheered President Trump undoing President Obama’s executive actions, and most of President Trump’s critics screamed and complained. Now the situation is reversed and those that supported President Trump aren’t happy, as President Biden’s cheerleaders encourage President Biden to undo President Trump’s executive orders.
It shows the clear hypocrisy of politics, but that’s a lot of what politics is.
The First Week
At last count, I believe that President Biden signed over 30-something executive orders in a one-week span. That’s an extraordinary amount. Just to put it into context, President Obama signed 5 executive orders when he came into office. President Trump signed 4 executive orders when he came into office. President Biden has signed over 30 executive orders. That’s insane.
And while a few of these executive orders are innocuous, most of them do have a significant impact on our country.
Mexico City Policy
One of the things President Biden has moved to do is to end what’s known as the Mexico City Policy. This was a policy first instituted by the Reagan administration. Basically, this policy blocks federal funding for foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) unless they certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.”
This is important. I want you to think about this. A few weeks ago, I went through the horrible omnibus spending package where we transfer taxpayers’ dollars overseas. The Mexico City policy is designed to prevent U.S. tax dollars from going to foreign, not American, but foreign organizations that promote abortion.
Now I want to ask every normal person out there. I don’t care where you stand politically. I don’t care whether you’re a progressive, a Democrat, a Republican, or a conservative. I don’t even care where you stand on the abortion issue. I just want to ask a simple question. Even if you support the idea of abortion. Why should our taxpayer dollars fund overseas organizations that promote abortion? Why? Don’t you think we could use that money here to improve the lives of America and Americans? We have enormous debt. Our economy is in shambles. Millions of Americans are unemployed. Our infrastructure is dilapidated, falling apart, and is based on 1950’s technology. How’s about we start taking care of some of those things before funding foreign abortions.
Just ask yourself, how does this benefit America? Now in fairness to the Biden administration, both President Clinton and Obama also rescinded the Mexico City policy when they held office, and Republican Presidents reinstitute it. But we have to ask, is this necessary and why now? Is this such a pressing issue, that President Biden had to rush to do this his first week in office?
Dr. Fauci announced this last week, and stated, “It will be our policy to support women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in the United States, as well as globally.” (The Hill) I love how they try to sugarcoat it by saying reproductive rights. Just have the cojones to call it what it is, abortion. Sorry, but I don’t see the pressing need to rush this policy through as it does nothing to benefit the United States.
The Paris Climate Accords
Another executive action by President Biden was rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, and to all my progressive friends out there, it’s not because I don’t care about the environment. I am someone who believes that God provided us with all we have and it’s incumbent on us to be stewards of this earth. I don’t like the Paris Climate Accord because it’s a BS agreement that does nothing to improve the environment. It was largely a symbolic agreement where leaders patted themselves on the back for doing absolutely nothing.
Just like abortion, it doesn’t matter where you stand on the issue of climate change. The agreement is a joke, and if you don’t believe me, read the accord yourself. I have the link up in the show transcript. (Paris Climate Agreement) It’s only 27-pages. All this agreement does is hurt the United States. Remember one thing when it comes to international politics. The United States is like the one country that actually complies with these stupid agreements. Most other countries sign the agreements and never follow through on the commitments.
When reading the document, one of the first things you will notice is that there are no enforcement mechanisms. So, if a country doesn’t comply with reducing their emissions, there are no punishments to force compliance. I mean, if you really cared about the environment, wouldn’t you put in enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance?
A second problem I have is that countries get to self-report. You heard that right. Each country gets to report whether they are complying or not. It pretty much works by the honor system where we trust what countries report. A country would never lie or manipulate data, right? Given my understanding of world politics, human nature, and history, I’m not the most trusting person. You know, we kind of have a recent example. It didn’t work out too well when we trusted the communist government of China and the WHO when it came to the coronavirus. Remember, they try to hide the virus from the world. When we figured out something was going on, they said, it wasn’t a big deal and it wasn’t transmissible from human to human. They said it was contained. They said it came from a bat in an illegal food market. Yeah, that all turned out to be lies.
And while we are on the topic of China, under the Paris Climate accord, China gets to increase its emissions every year up to 2030. Then once 2030 comes, their emissions are capped at that 2030 level. China is a major emerging power. They are challenging us for dominance at every level. They want to replace us as the sole superpower, and so why should we be part of an agreement that helps them, and hurts us? Does that make sense?
Well, for a country like ours and other first world countries, we have to reduce emissions. Even worse, we have to transfer billions of our taxpayer dollars to the third world and developing nations as long as these countries self-report that they are complying. When they say just about every country signed onto the Paris Climate Accord except for Syria, North Korea, and the United States, why do you think nearly every country signed on? Do you think it had something to do with the fact that they would be getting tons of money?
Think about this from a logical perspective regardless of where you stand on the issue of climate. Let’s say this agreement applied to your block. How would you feel if you had to pay a couple of hundred dollars to your neighbors because they said they are using less energy? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be too happy about that especially if your neighbors are wealthy.
Even if you are a climate warrior, you should recognize this is a BS agreement and ask why no enforcement mechanisms were put into place. At least if we are going to join an agreement like this, we should make sure that every country is complying, and they are penalized for noncompliance.
It actually goes against our strategic interests. It hurts our economy while strengthening the economies of our adversaries. Some of you may be thinking I’m exaggerating, but I challenge you to explain to me how this agreement benefits us in any way. Send an email to podcast@pasreport.com. If you come up with solid arguments and provide specific examples within the accord itself, I’ll give you a shout out on the podcast.
But we are now part of this Accord once again, and I’m not sure why we had to rush back into this agreement. (NPR)
Keystone Pipeline
While we are on the topic of the environment, President Biden signed an executive order terminating the Keystone pipeline transporting oil from Canada to here in the United States where it can be refined. (CBS News) Estimates are that this will cost the United States $1.6-billion in our economy at a time when we don’t need any more economic losses. In addition, there are estimates as high as 10,000 people that will be laid off. Now the Biden administration counters and says that some of those jobs were only temporary anyway. Why does that even matter? Once again, the coronavirus decimated the economy so now is not the time to get rid of permanent and temporary jobs.
Also, what many people don’t take into consideration is the ancillary businesses that provide support to those working on the pipeline. The deli’s, restaurants, nearby shopping outlets, those that supply parts to the pipeline, as well as once the pipeline is built, it still needs to be serviced.
The logic the Biden administration is using to justify terminating the Keystone pipeline is to reduce our dependency on oil and gas in a move toward green energy. However, this has nothing to do with our dependency in oil and natural gas. IN fact, it’s going to have a devastating consequence. What do I mean? No matter what you think of the Trump administration, he created policies that allowed us to become the largest energy producer in the world. We ended out reliance on Middle Eastern oil.
Unfortunately, the new administration is now challenging that. The demand for gas and oil isn’t dropping with the end of the Keystone pipeline. So, the question becomes, will we return to a dependency on Middle Eastern oil, and is that in our strategic interest? Not for nothing, if you want to move to green energy, you need to find a source that’s a viable, cheap, and efficient alternative. Find that and the energy industry will naturally evolve. Instead, we put dumb government bureaucrats in charge, and it leads to a disaster.
One thing I have to say about the Trump administration, it was nice not to be so focused on the Middle East, and I believe that our energy independence had a lot to do with that, as well as a realignment of Middle Eastern politics particularly peace agreements with Israel.
Halting Deportations
Unfortunately, these aren’t the only areas where President Biden forced executive action. The President made sweeping changes to legal and illegal immigration as well. We’ll start with illegal immigration. President Biden suspended deportations for the next 100-days in order to review deportation policies. Now, mind you, that these illegal immigrants being detained for deportation have been ordered to be removed by an immigration court. So, they already had their hearings. (USA Today)
Now the order does grant an exception to certain cases. If the person was involved in espionage or terrorism, they can still be removed. Let’s just think about that for a minute. The exceptions to this new executive order are espionage and terrorism. That means those guilty of murder, rape, assault, battery, drug trafficking and just about every other crime, who were ordered to be removed will now be granted at least a 100-day reprieve.
The new Homeland Security Secretary, David Pekoske, stated, “In light of those unique circumstances, the Department must surge resources to the border in order to ensure safe, legal and orderly processing, to rebuild fair and effective asylum procedures that respect human rights and due process, to adopt appropriate public health guidelines and protocols, and to prioritize responding to threats to national security, public safety, and border security.”
No matter where you stand on the ideological spectrum, I’d like to know how does this benefit our society in any way? I’m talking about violent offenders. What does this have to do with human rights? What about the human rights of those that were victimized by those who engaged in violent crimes?
Remain in Mexico Policy
President Biden also ended the “Remain in Mexico” program. President Trump worked with the Mexican government where the two sides were able to come to an agreement that asylum seekers would remain in Mexico until their asylum hearings. As of right now, there are 70,000 asylum seekers that are in Mexico waiting to have their hearings. (USA Today)
Well, upon further review of the program, they ultimately will no longer have to wait in Mexico. Once again, why the need to rush out this executive order, and how does this executive order benefit us in any way? Now many of these people will be able to enter the United States as they await their court dates. It will be interesting to see how many actually show up to their asylum hearings.
It’s policies like these that just don’t make any sense no matter where you stand on the issue. And it’s policies like these that go directly against our strategic interests.
This will certainly have a negative impact on the United States and encourage more people to travel to the United States to claim asylum. We are already seeing new caravans form in South America to head up north. Insanity.
Big Pharma is Back
Another area of executive action is healthcare and it shows that Big Pharma is back. President Biden’s Health and Human Services Department froze a drug policy that requires community health centers to pass on all their insulin and epinephrine discount savings to patients. If community health centers failed to do this, they wouldn’t qualify for federal grants. (Bloomberg Law)
The Biden administration says it froze the policy because it wants to scrutinize the Trump administration’s health policies.
Former Health and Human Services leaders argue that the drug rule that was enacted under the Trump administration benefits patients who struggle to pay for insulin and allergy medications. The community health centers argue that this rule should be suspended because they already pass on the savings and the rule is burdensome.
Regardless of whether that’s true or not, why freeze this policy. You can easily study the policy and its benefits or drawbacks while the policy is in effect, and if it’s determined the policy has no impact, then you can terminate it. It amazes me how we have so many BS programs at the federal level that never get reviewed and are completely ineffective, yet this is the program that we want to review and scrutinize.
Once again, this freeze makes absolutely no sense, especially considering the potential negative impacts to the most vulnerable Americans who now will have to pay more for these life-saving drugs. It’s no secret that Big Pharma was one of President Biden’s largest contributors and they were rooting for a Biden victory.
And the military-industrial complex may also be back. I say may also be back because a military convoy entered Syria and included 40 trucks and armored vehicles, with air support being provided as well. (I24) Now, I have no idea if we are deploying these troops to Syria, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.
Trans and Girls’ Sports
Another executive action pertained to transgendered boys who now identify as girls. What the hell is the point of the executive order and why do it now? (NY Post)
I am someone that believes in science and the basics of biology. I believe there are only two genders- male and female. I know this because I learned the basics about chromosomes. Isn’t funny how those who constantly scream believe in science are the same ones that reject the very basics? It’s like believe in science except for that chromosome stuff. That stuff is BS.
Now, if you are over the age of 18 and you want to transition, you do you. You want me to call you by a different name, I have no problems with that. I treat everyone with dignity and respect until they prove otherwise. What I do have a problem with is boys and men that transition to girls and women, then end up dominating girls’ sports. It’s very simple science. Men are stronger, bigger, and more aggressive. Are there exceptions to the rule? Sure. But the very basics remain.
I also have a problem with parents that encourage children to determine their own gender. This is just stupidity. Kids are impressionable and don’t have the ability to fully grasp reality. Their brains aren’t fully developed, and they don’t fully grasp the consequences of actions. The idea that your going to start given children and teenagers medications to begin the transitioning process is completely ridiculous, and to me, I believe it’s abuse.
Where are all the so-called feminists? They should be outraged. It’s unfair to all the girls and women that worked their butts off only to have a bunch of boys and men come in and dominate. How does this benefit our society?
Disbanding the 1776 Project
Moving from trans issues to education, President Biden disbands the 1776 Commission. (The Hill) President Trump created the commission so that we can teach patriotism and celebrate American history. Unfortunately, for the last 20 years or so, students in elementary and secondary schools have been taught that America is an unjust country. That our country is responsible for many evils. That there is nothing exceptional, nor great about this country.
I reject that, but the problem has gotten worse since the release of the 1619 project that’s been incorporated in schools throughout the country and is nothing more than a made-up version of history.
It’s clear that we have a crisis when it comes to education, particularly American government and politics. I’ve touched on this topic many times in the podcast. Students can’t pass a basic citizenship exam, and most can’t even identify the U.S Constitution. It’s a big problem I’ve witnessed firsthand.
And if you don’t know about the country you live in, how can you love that country or be loyal to that country? If you don’t know how our country was founded, and the tenets of the American Creed, how can you have an appreciation for core American values like liberty and freedom?
Now I’ve read through the 1776 Report, and I think it’s a worthwhile read. (Whitehouse Archives) I have the link up in the transcript. Sadly, the report will only exist in the archives now allowing those who despise America to decide what we teach to students. It’s sad and pathetic. While America certainly has its flaws, history shows that the United States is the greatest country in the world. We’ve committed sins and we are still paying for those sins. But make no mistake about it, we are a country that has always acknowledged our shortcomings, pledged to do better, and advanced as a nation.
Now, these are just some of the executive actions we’ve seen. I dare anyone to try and justify these executive actions and explain to me how these actions are in the best interest of our country, and while the far-left may support these actions, I bet the majority of Americans would disagree regardless of whether they are Democrat or Republican.
And there are some on the right saying that these executive orders aren’t real. That the pages are blank in the picture. Understand, these executive actions are listed on the Federal Register.
Potential Legislative Actions
The executive orders have come in fast and furious bringing significant changes that don’t really seem to benefit America or American society in any way. There are more executive orders. For God’s sake, he’s signed over 30 in his first week, and like I said, putting that into perspective, President Obama signed 5 and President Trump signed 4. It seems the Biden administration will try to do whatever he can to circumvent the legislative branch, which is always a danger and dramatically increases executive power.
However, we cannot ignore legislation through Congress because there are a number of bills that have been introduced that are extremely concerning, and this administration and Congress show no willingness to extend an olive branch and actually create unity.
Impeachment Trial
They are moving full steam ahead with having a trial for the impeachment of President Trump. As the new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated this trial will focus on the “erection” insurrection. That’s his words, not mine.
This obviously will do nothing but increase divisions. It’s completely unproductive and it is unconstitutional as I’ve stated before. Article 1, Section 3 is clear. The Senate will try impeachment cases. As stated in subsection 7, judgments “shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold or enjoy any office of honor.”
Well, you can’t have an impeachment trial if the person no longer holds public office. But it shows how much they fear President Trump returning and running for office again because all they care about is barring him from running again even though they have no idea whether he would run again.
Also, there is no chance of 17 Republicans joining the Democrat effort and they vote to convict the former President. So, this whole show is moot and pointless. You now have a number of Congress members debating to invoke the 14th Amendment.
Again, these idiots never read the Constitution. The 14th Amendment states that if any official “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” shall not be able to hold public office. This would require a vote by an overwhelming majority of 2/3rds of Congress. Once again, no chance of this succeeding especially considering what we saw on January 6th was horrendous, but it was anything but an insurrection.
They can scream insurrection all they want, but that doesn’t change reality.
Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act
But let’s actually look at some proposed legislation. The first bill that is extraordinarily concerning is the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021. This act really concerns me because it sounds legitimate in theory. I mean who would want domestic terrorism, right? It’s something we should all be concerned with, and it can impact every one of us.
However, what concerns me is the extraordinary power it grants to the government and the vagueness of the bill. I have a linkup at the P.A.S. Report website in the show notes. The bill is only 17-pages, so I encourage you to read it. (DTPA Bill)
This bill authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to monitor, analyze, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism. One concerning aspect is on page 6. Twice a year, DHS will be responsible to provide Congress a report of the threat posed by white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
Now I have no problem with that. I abhor white supremacy, and as an Italian, we have had a history of being targeted by these groups. They don’t consider Italians’ white. What’s concerning is that it limits it to these types of groups. It doesn’t list any other groups like Antifa, By Any Means Necessary, or any other group.
Far more concerning is on page 10 where they begin to redefine hate crimes as domestic terrorism. Hate crimes are very subjective and open to interpretation. At a time when the far-left calls any disagreement on the issue’s offensive and hateful, this opens the door to target political opponents.
And under this bill, there are many that believe the tools to combat international terrorism will now be allowed to be used in the war on domestic terrorism. Understand that this goes directly against the Bill of Rights, and Americans cannot be treated as if they are enemy combatants. The Supreme Court already ruled on that during the Jose Padilla case.
And considering many are trying to label anyone who voted for or supported the President as a white supremacist, yeah, I’m not really comfortable with the language in this bill. I’m also uncomfortable knowing how these powers can be abused. Remember the Patriot Act? It was supposed to be used to combat terrorism. Well, plenty have been arrested and/or charged under the Patriot Act even when they had nothing to do with terrorism, including a 16-year old kid.
Just think about how powers were abused when investigated Russian collusion and a duly elected President and think about how power can be abused here.
We should all care about civil rights and liberties regardless of political ideology and we should all pushback against the increasing powers of government.
Other Legislation
And this isn’t the only controversial bill out there. H.R. 40 discusses reparations. H.J Resolution 14 calls to abolish the Electoral College. H.R. 127 calls for the registration of firearms, and banning certain ammunition. H.R. 1- giving complete control and authority over elections to the federal government. H.R. 345 would allow the Department of Veteran’s Affairs to provide abortion counseling. H.R. 325 would increase the national minimum wage to $15 an hour without taking a state’s cost of living into consideration or the student working population.
And there are plenty more. It doesn’t mean these bills will pass or that these bills have no merit. However, we need to pay attention to the legislation that’s being introduced. Remember, the vast majority of bills don’t get passed, but I will focus on the bills that are controversial and have a serious chance of passing.
Closing
I just scratched the surface here, and I will continue to highlight the policies of the new administration.
The executive actions that have been proposed and signed do nothing to advance the interests of America or the American people. It appears that we went from America First to putting America and American’s last. The needs of ordinary Americans are being completely ignored. Once again, the middle class, the backbone of this country, continues to get shafted, but I hear you, and I’ll keep speaking up.
I don’t care where you stand politically. I highlighted how these executive orders do nothing to advance an agenda that strengthens the United States. I will always advocate for policies that benefit the United States and ordinary Americans.
We are in a strange time where people care more about the superficial BS words someone says as opposed to the actual policies. From what I highlighted in this episode, please show me where there is any speck of unity in what we’ve seen so far.
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Many of the political leaders calling for unity really want submission. They want people to obey and comply, and they believe that’s unity. It’s unity when you shut-up.
If week one is any indication, we are about to witness a very radical, perhaps the most radical, administration in the history of the United States. They want to drive this country so far to the left. I don’t believe that most of those who voted for President Biden actually support that. I wonder when buyer’s remorse may kick in.
Those who thought we would return to a period of normalcy are in for a rude awakening.
The good news is that you can always rely on The P.A.S. Report providing an honest analysis. I don’t hide the fact that I’m a conservative, but that doesn’t mean I can’t provide an objective analysis of the policies we face. When it comes to the Biden administration, I will call out the good and criticize the bad. That’s why my audience consists of all sides of the political spectrum, probably with the exception of the far-left. They don’t like me very much.
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