President Biden vowed Tuesday to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after it collapsed into the water when a cargo ship rammed into it, echoing what some Maryland officials said earlier b…
President Biden vowed Tuesday to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after it collapsed into the water when a cargo ship rammed into it, echoing what some Maryland officials said earlier but adding that he expects the federal government to foot the bill.
“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “This is going to take some time, but the people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopen and the bridge is rebuilt.”
He said he spoke with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Tuesday morning, as well as Maryland officials including its congressional delegation and two U.S. senators. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg traveled to the Baltimore site.
“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “This is going to take some time, but the people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopen and the bridge is rebuilt.”
Any minute now... Just like his other "vows".
Also, crazy how the headline makes it sound sure to happen, and his actual statement is filled with weasel words.
Give politicians credit for what they do, not for they "vow" to do.
Give politicians credit for what they do, not for they “vow” to do.
Good point, and there's a lot of credit to give to Biden on the economy, judges, infrastructure, and even some steps on climate change. So yeah, I think this bridge will probably be rebuilt as he said.
But you're right- we know that because of what he's done, not what he says. Always good to keep that in mind.
It will surprise no one to know that 2/3rds of this is total factual bullshit (edit: grossly misleading). I touched elsewhere on some of the big substantive things like wage inequality or emissions reductions that have improved dramatically under his presidency, but the homelessness I don't think had been brought up. So:
Homelessness has been going down steadily, and we're nowhere near the 647,000 people record set around 2007. There was, recently, a big jump up between 2018 and 2020. I guess Biden really fucked up letting it get away from him during that time before we leveled off the growth again just recently? (Edit: This is 100% wrong -- homelessness did in fact spike to record levels in 2023 after the end of that chart, when Covid aid ran out)
2023 was, as far as I know, the biggest year for strikes in history. If Biden's a strike breaker he's doing a real shitty job at it. He did break the rail strike which would have done some amount of damage to the wider economy (you know, the inflation that some people like to blame Biden for?), but after that happened his labor department kept working the issue with the railroads and got the workers the sick days they were striking for in the first place.
Record oil production is accurate. I would balance that against the war in Ukraine, record inflation, his positive action on the emissions side which is the biggest single action a US president has ever taken on the climate... but yes there's some amount of actual nuance and judgement there. The other two bullet points are respectively purely made up and grossly unfair, though.
homelessness did in fact spike to record levels in 2023 after the end of that chart when Covid aid ran out
Hmm, surely the fact that the House went to the fascists who stopped funding COVID aid programs because they literally don't believe it exists had no effect on the homeless population, right?
Oh, yeah, I definitely 100% agree that it wasn't Biden's fault, for that among a couple of different reasons. But that's a separate topic from, did it even happen in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying you did. But there's plenty of people who would say that's Biden's fault, when the problem (as was predicted at the time) was caused by Republicans in Congress. Just like how ending COVID stimulus programs threw millions of children back into poverty.
Oh shit -- yeah, you're 100% right on homelessness, I hadn't seen that. Mostly I look at sources that haven't been updated for 2023 yet. But yeah that's 100% accurate, I edited my comment.
So your railroad story is from December 2022 -- i.e. right after the strike broke, but before there had been time for the labor department to secure sick days for the workers, including at the exact union that guy's a member of.
Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, said: “It’s a significant set of quiet victories. It shows that it really makes a difference to have a pro-labor president.”
Is that enough? Not really. I agree with Tormey's anger about how he's being treated, especially in December 2022 when the wounds would still have been fresh, and I'm sure on the whole balance he's still getting fucked. It's a goddamned shame. My point was more that Biden had the chance to break strikes on behalf of around 450,000 striking workers in 2023, and he didn't. Why do you think he didn't break any of those strikes?
Ah yes, the famous propagandist's trick of saying "Oh hey you're right, let me edit my comment to reflect the new reality I just learned about." I see them do it all the time, it's a hallmark.
Quitting while you're ahead for the moment, instead of being willing to delve into any of the other issues surrounding the claims you were making, does seem pretty wise though. I'd probably do the same in your position. Have a good one.
From what I've seen I'm guessing it's because you only half understand the saying "it's better to close your mouth and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt".
Every time I interact with them it’s a wall of text and links
Some call this supporting evidence and nuance. Complex issues don't always fit into catchy little zingers and glib sound-bites, as much as Fox News would like you to believe. One should not object to the length of a given piece of text, rather one should object to the contents. If you think what he said is a pile of crap, let's hear why.
Yeah nobody has ever died of exposure in Canada ;) But you have lots of fossil fuels to keep you warm... wait- weren't you whining about that a second ago?
I think he should be sanctioned for aiding a genocide, let alone the crime against humanity that is record oil production during a climate crisis, but much like you, my voice doesn't matter.
Yeah, but it seems pretty disingenuous to complain that Biden is simultaneously making empty promises but not actually doing anything while also wasting taxpayer money fixing a bridge.
First, you complained that Biden is nothing but empty promises.
Then you complained that taxpayers have to pay for the bridge (if it was an empty promise nobody is paying for it)
Now you're complaining that it's all a waste of money and nothing will be accomplished anyway (do you think we, as a society, are incapable of building a bridge?)
It kind of sounds like you're just going to bitch and moan no matter what.
I remember Trump shutting down the government. Do you think this situation is remotely similar? Does half the population not want this bridge in place?
If that remake does happen, you're not the one that's going to be keeping your memory. You can't even seem to remember what point you were trying to argue when you can just scroll up and read it again.
12 hours ago you randomly insulted me, deleted the comment, and now 12 hours later youre trying to start an argument again in the same thread and close it out with more insults?
So the US Government should not make money available ASAP to rebuild the bridge, but instead wait for the laughable scenario that the company pays for the damages?
The quick list is biggest single action on climate change in US history, estimated to hit a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030, $144 billion forgiveness of student loan debt, lowest unemployment in 20 years (or 50 depending on how you count) even after the Covid apocalypse which most countries haven't even dug out from yet, wage inequality going down for the first time in I have no idea how long, Amazon paying $3 billion per quarter in corporate tax instead of the negative $1.2 billion they were paying before his corporate tax reform.
He vowed / attempted to do a certain amount more than that, yes, and getting that more stuff done also would be great too, but it's not like he's just been fucking off playing golf this whole time.
For what reason the news doesn't highlight that type of stuff and instead focuses on whatever they focus on, I have no idea.
For what reason the news doesn’t highlight that type of stuff and instead focuses on whatever they focus on, I have no idea.
Easy, they want outrage. Biden following through on some mundane promise made some time ago riles up exactly no one, therefore it doesn't get a headline. Modern media is extremely predictable in their approach.
Ha, we'll see. I liked the extensive copy-paste with its sourcing, but mods apparently didn't like me copy-pasting the same huge comment into any thread where someone started up with "we all agree Biden didn't do shit, it's so well known I don't even need to go into details, it's definitely just something we all agree on...". I do kind of get the objection to doing that, so I retyped it this time but still gave a link to the places the sources are found. We'll see what the mods do with it.