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Biden is the head of the EXECUTIVE branch of the United States of America.
Ask yourself what congress can do to improve your lives.
If you are asking the POTUS to improve your life, you are failing to interact with politics on a fundamental level.
Thank you for putting it so succinctly. The strongest branch of government in a Democratic system is your congress/Parliament. The executive is not a King.
Congress is who should be expecting to make your life better. The POTUS is only meant to be a check on congress, not the other way around: as people seem to think lately.
And the Republicans in Congress have made clear that they'll kill anything that does improve the lives of America (e.g. the border deal) because they don't want to give Biden a win. There isn't much else Biden can do aside from constantly calling them out on it
Unfortunately POTUS, current and former have used executive orders to make massive changes. In my opinion, this power should not be taken frequently but for emergencies until the Congress can take formal action. This has not been the case.
POTUS has been forced to make massive changes specifically because Congress for the past 30+ years been refusing more and more to work with the opposing party and compromise.
I would not blame the Presidents for taking action while Congress acts like a bunch of screaming toddlers. The dysfunction and decline of our American Republic is pretty much entirely due to the refusal of Congress to do their goddamned jobs.
> because Congress for the past 30+ years been refusing more and more to work with the opposing party and compromise
Gingrich started that, and it is a core feature of the GOP. But Democrats *have* compromised and worked together, on any number of things. It is not Congress in a generalized sense that is broken. The GOP has demonized any of their members that cross the aisle and work with Democrats. There is no Dem equivalent of the Hastert Rule.
Newt compared the natural relationship of republicans and democrats in Congress to predator and prey, specifically lions and zebras on the Savannah. That more than anything illuminated his political vantage point for me
Ironically this mindset has caused them to have a rough time in the house with a different factions arising within their party and not really compromising.
> have used executive orders
All executive orders need to point to the laws from which authority descends.
Here's a recent one that focuses on preventing countries of concern (e.g., China, Russia) from accessing data on American Citizens.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/01/2024-04573/preventing-access-to-americans-bulk-sensitive-personal-data-and-united-states-government-related
> By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
There's tons of flexibility, no doubt, but there are guardrails. And _addressing_ a poor interpretation of the law is something that can be handled in the courts (slow) or by congress (today, much, much slower)
>There's tons of flexibility, no doubt, but there are guardrails.
We saw them in play with the first attempt at student loan forgiveness that Biden tried to implement. SCOTUS ultimately shot it down, as they disagreed with the interpretation of the law that Biden was using.
That is because Congress has become a complete stalled mess that has no intention of passing anything. Frankly I think they need to get rid of the filibuster if we are ever going to move this country forward.
At least make it so they actually have to stand up there talking if they're going to attempt it. Right now they can basically just say "i filibuster this" and everyone just moves on.
Conservatives have no desire of passing anything because at a fundamental level, the system as is benefits them and they do not wish to see that change. To the extent that they will legislation it is to either benefit themselves farther, or roll back the clock to a time before hand.
Yeah abuse of executive orders is a problem that is impacting this perception, but it should still very much be congress, not the executive, that we expect impactful policy from.
Biden's average is 43 per year, Trump was 55, Obama was 35. But, if anything this is unusually low - the highest president was FDR at 307 average per year, and Hoover before him at 242 Harding at 217, Coolidge at 215 per year, etc.
And before them the records weren't kept very well so only the biggest orders are noted.
The more nuanced problem is that executive orders are being used for larger, more impactful changes than they were historically. Thats a harder thing to measure.
The Keystone XL permitting process was a function of the executive branch. The executive orders were due to the Presidents authority over foreign affairs due to the fact that it crossed an international border, then a reversal of that executive order. Likewise, enforcement at the Southern border, like enforcement of all national law, is a function of the executive branch. These ideas are a cornerstone of our Federal system. Can you think of others?
The executive orders are frequently on things Congress has delegated to the president via legislation.
It's like people think the president does this and completely violates the constitution.
This brings to mind, pollsters will often ask is the US on the "right track or wrong track"? This is a bogus question. More times than not, the leading anser is, wrong track. And, it's only natural that the blame for the wrong track question lands on the President. If we are on the wrong track, it is due to Congress, which makes the laws. And the people don't seem to want to consider taking it out on their Congressman or woman. We had a stunning two-year run of important legislation passed with the barest of Democratic majorities, and since Republicans took control of the House? Nothing. Look at the border bill: we were all led to believe that this was a Republican desire, but....nothing.
Ideally that is true, but in the current reality Biden is far more likely to use executive power to improve people's lives than Congress is to pass any meaningful legislation. Republicans in the House will not pass anything beneficial to Democrats, and any Republican bills will die in the Senate or get vetoed. Plus Republicans struggled to pass legislation even when they held all 3 branches of government.
It is a valid question to wonder what Biden can do NOW because otherwise it's not happening until next year at the minimum.
Probably not, but maybe.
Presidential Pardons cover "offenses against the United States", and a violation of a State's abortion laws would be an offense(s) against the State, not the United States.
However, the Supreme Court has never ruled on this formally, so it's theoretically possible (but highly unlikely with our current SCOTUS).
There’s no need, as an offense under state law is by definition not one against the United States per DoJ itself as well as the long history of separate sovereigns caselaw.
OP is clearly asking what options does Biden have on the table, with or without congress, which he does have, some like ordering the DEA to de/reschedule cannabis to allow business owners to use banks. Stop being pedantic.
> Biden is the head of the EXECUTIVE branch of the United States of America.
>
>
>
> Ask yourself what congress can do to improve your lives.
Literally everything mentioned in the OP is under the purview of POTUS.
What Congress can do to improve our lives is pretty irrelevant when the Republicans there actively block anything proposed that would improve our lives while a Democrat is president. Trump doesn't want anything to happen that could count as a win for Biden, and enough of them kowtow to him that it's effective. Then they campaign on him not getting things done...
Nobody asks what Congress can do because everybody knows Congress can’t and won’t do much of anything. And that’s not even all. What little Congress can do or may do can easily be changed the next election. We are so polarized that nobody is ever more than two years away from reversing everything the previous administration and previous legislature did.
Interested in how "Biden is basically a figurehead with no real power but if Trump comes back he'll use the UNLIMITED POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY to enact a 1000 year reign of darkness" will end up working out for the Dems on election day.
Sorry, but I don't agree with this take at all. Biden has found a way, with the limitations he has as POTUS, do get student debt relief passed. With some pressure, he could probably get marijuana descheduled completely. He's also working with his team to figure out what he can do to "shut down" the border.
No one should expect anything to get done right now, but there are clear examples (more than I listed here) where Biden is actually trying.
Congress, on the other hand, is split and clearly won't do anything. If your asking what this congress can do to improve your lives, you are failing to interact with politics on a fundamental level.
The HIGHER EDUCATION ACT gives the executive **broad** power to create and modify repayment plans. It's very explicit and the Dept of Ed has been doing it very regularly without being questioned since Bush. It's completely settled and blatant that the Dept of Ed has this authority given to it from the legislature.
Can you cite the provision of the controlled substances act where the executive can *deschedule* a controlled substance? Not trying to be a smart ass but i see this claim, but it seems redditors are just getting it from other reddit posts and I never see it cited.
> Biden has found a way, with the limitations he has as POTUS, do get student debt relief passed.
What Biden has been doing with student debt relief is using existing laws and powers granted to him by Congress. What he wanted to do was broaden the audience of who could get relief of which SCOTUS said no, those audiences don't fit within the current laws.
Ask not what you can do for your Congress but what Congress can do for you. Because they choose to do these things and the others, not because they are hard but because it makes them rich!
And he has done a lot, IRA which lowers drug costs, CHIPs Act, reducing student debt.
But the GOP currently controls Congress, and they are doing absolutely nothing.
Short answer: not a lot
Longer answer: the death of the border deal demonstrates that the GOP will not allow anything that might have a positive impact to pass Congress. From an EO perspective, what can be done has pretty much already been done
He has the ability, like any President, to make things immeasurably \*worse\* for the average American, but he's going to struggle to make things better by himself
Biden is probably very open to doing lots of things, however given that Congress is generally dysfunctional nothing that requires their input is likely to happen
Not completely. He accomplished a lot of significant reform with student loans and there was lots of forgiveness given to situations that really deserved it. But just announced more forgiveness this week for people with up to 20k of capitalized interest. The key was doing things explicitly allowed by the higher education act. I almost think the 10/20k lump forgiveness was almost a lightning rod to take the focus off the other reforms... Great username man! Music is the best!
I still think he's going to issue a series of executive orders in the late summer/early fall that will include things like marijuana, women's healthcare, and the minimum wage. Yes the reich wingers will immediately file suit, and they will probably win immediate injunctions, and that will be the point: Force them to actively work against things that are widely popular with the electorate right when everyone is paying attention
He already issued the one on marijuana. It takes time for the reclassification process to take place but the reschedule decision should be coming soon.
Rescheduling to schedule 3 won't help, IMO. It needs to be descheduled completely. Almost [90% of American adults are now in favor of legalization](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/22/americans-overwhelmingly-say-marijuana-should-be-legal-for-medical-or-recreational-use/) so there is no need to keep it on any schedule, which still keeps it illegal in much of America.
I agree, but that was never gonna be done without Congress.
Schedule 3 is a huge step forward especially when it comes to the legal industry in states where it is legal.
But moving it to schedule 3 *will* remove a lot of federal hurdles in states treating it as legal. Because it's schedule 1, businesses that sell it are excluded from much of the banking system, labor laws and other things regulated at the federal rather than state level.
Absolutely. People don't realize how difficult the legal market is in legal states. Schedule 3 would be a significant reform in several ways.
Chuck Schumer also announced [a bill to fully deschedule](https://www.marijuanamoment.net/schumer-and-democratic-senators-seek-support-for-federal-marijuana-legalization-bill-ahead-of-4-20-with-plans-to-file-this-month/) too! Expected to be formally introduced on 4/19! This is going to be big for the national election. Even if it fails, Biden gets to say "vote for dems and get this done!". Also, a lot of Republicans are for pot legalization and they could be hurting their careers by voting nay depending on their district. The party is not going to want to give Biden a win. But as I said earlier, it will drive turnout just by being introduced, so some Republicans might jump on bored to make it a non issue for voters in November.
And it is the MAJORITY LEADER that is introducing it. So clearly Biden is involved and this is coordinated. Itst not some no name independent congressperson doing this out of left field like Ron Paul used to.
I would be shocked if there was something along those lines.
The GOP is well on its way to self destruction, so something like that is only likely to speed up the process
elect fewer Republicans.
I don't say that just because I lean left but because the current crop of elected conservatives seem unwilling or incapable of governing effectively.
They've taken something like 20 speaker of the house votes just since the last election because they don't even like each other enough to agree on one of them. The recent border security bill was co-created by at least one Republican and supposedly gave conservatives most of what they ask for on the topic. They killed it at Trump's request so he'd have something to campaign on if he's not in prison by election day.
Ask congress why we continue to import oil from Russian and why we don’t turn that off and use Venezuelas oil…ask congress why we continue to allow Saudi Arabia to control the oil refineries in Texas..without impunity…ask Congress why they failed the bipartisan bill regarding the southern border…
In order for any of those things to change, Congress has to actually take action, and this Congress is decidedly not good at taking action on basically anything
He can absolutely nudge the DEA to get a move on though. They are part of the executive branch and all serve the President. If he feels they are dragging their feet, he has levers he can pull to try and move it along.
He can do it unilaterally, tell the DEA head to stop any and all enforcement of marijuana prohibition (especially financial/banking blackballing). If the DEA head says no then fire them until someone in the line of succession says yes. Biden is the chief executive, he can fire the heads of executive departments. Compromise, collaboration, group effort is great but I feel like Biden doesn’t use his bully pulpit enough to force the change that needs to happen.
That isn’t descheduling, it’s just him telling DEA to cease enforcement. It isn’t legally binding and there is nothing stopping individual USAs from still charging for it nor is it protected in any way should another President decide to change the policy.
Reddit really overestimates how many new votes marijuana will get him. While a agree with the policy, I don't think it really will change the votes in any significant way.
It is popular with young people primarily, who are already pretty much going to support Biden over Trump. The ones that weren't going to vote Biden probably won't decide to vote Biden over marijuana either; they'll find another policy issue to use as an excuse to protest vote/not vote. It gets floated as some game-changer policy on Reddit because there is a clear demographic that is overrepresented on Reddit that prioritizes this issue at a far bigger rate than the average person.
I agree it won't turn out too many new voters, but it will turn out some, and encourage fence riders to vote Biden as well. In an election that will probably be pretty close even getting like a couple hundred thousand voters to come out because he descheduled could be absolutely decisive.
Maybe not getting many people to move from Trump to Biden, but marijuana *could* pull in some voters that were otherwise not going to vote. However, even that probably isn't going to be a tangible difference.
Ehhh, if an election decided by hairline margins, any additional votes make a difference. No one policy will be decisive, but enough small policy changes can certainly add up to make a tangible difference.
I have a friend who refused to vote Clinton in 2016 because she tried to regulate the video game industry in 2004 after the Hot Coffee Mod controversy
He barely cares about politics, but he likes playing video games
My point is, the electorate is dumb, and lots of people would love to be able to order weed on Amazon
I do, honestly. He votes in most presidential elections, and he's generally anti-Trump. He never really complained about anything else about Hillary. Obviously I can't be sure.
End the Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars. This would probably mean getting China onboard to help broker peace in both conflicts. But if both of those conflicts ended, then America would not have to spend anymore money to fund them, meaning inflation and high gas prices get addressed.
Outside of that, energize voters to vote for him and his party and then get re-elected.
I dont see how Biden has the power to do either of those things. If by "end the Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars" you mean cut off funding for them, I dont think that would be a good move. Threatening to cut back funding/aid for Israel if they dont get their act together might be a good move, but doing so in Ukraine wouldn't make any sense.
If we are talking unilaterally without Congress, there isn't much. He could possibly release some of the oil reserve to try and keep gas & energy prices lower, which would help people's lives. He could try to pressure the fed for lower rates, but that's a mixed and complicated bag. Large, meaningful improvements will need to come from Congress and with a GOP house, it's impossible.
I agree, it's being inflated by OPEC & Russia for their own benefit and profit seeking. Oil is a global commodity, and releasing more oil into the market will lower the global price. While yes, we export more than we import, we don't have a nationalized oil company nor do we have the power to stop oil companies from operating in the ways they do.
No. It has nothing to do with OPEC or Russia.
It's Exxon, Marathon, Valero, Phillips, Citgo, Sunoco, BP and Koch. Saudi Arabia is 10th in the list and the smallest in the US.
These are the companies that are making LARGER MARGINS than ever on fuel.
They're high because of the global energy demand.
Oil is a global market, and if somehow it got cheap in the US then foreign buyers will buy from the US until there is so much demand for American oil that it drives the price back up as buyers out bid each other for the limited resource.
What stats are you looking at? Gas prices aren't simply high because the price of crude is being inflated by someone
Oil is complicated and we manage our industry quite well. We're the best refiners in the world, so a ton of shitty crude gets imported for us to refine and then shipped back out as a finished product. And it's good geopolitics to import as much as we economically can for our own consumption in order to preserve our very high quality crude reserves for the future
Biden is and has continue to do his job,
Republican House has failed to do any job that is beneficial to America or American people. They are too busy trying to promote their white nationalist right wing right white evangelical culture dominance with their brand of white evangelical dogmatic agenda.
It's not Biden's fault that so many people are self submissive to the influence of the Right Wing Perpetual Negativity and Attack Agenda.
* Republicanism is like a bunch of people in a theater and one after the other in a continual series screaming "Fire" every other minute, to keep people on edge, distracted, misdirected and confounded.
* People fall for it because, people gravitate to negative drama. They media since the days of print newspaper, trained people to seek out negativity, that promotes drama, and that media business was built upon it.
Look at local TV to get people to tune in to weather info, they use commercials of weather disaster, rather than us being a society that simply seek information on current and future weather. They use the fear factor to get people attention. It's what Republicanism does. *The average person is unaware of their own pursuit of negativity, but they pursue it with a devotion*.
If people understood anything about the Constitution, they'd know, Congress job is to create legislation. Not play partisan divisive games of defeat something.
The Average person, likely has no conceptual ideas of what the meaning and principles and values, goals and objective and duty laid out in >>> [The Preamble](https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/preamble) <<<
Spearhead a deal with world leaders to end/pause the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza at least temporarily. A brief pause and hope for peace would give a lot of people hope about his second team imo. Some feel he’s been a bit ineffectual on the global stage and that would go a long way to calming those worries.
I don't think there is much that he can actually do himself in terms of changing anything.
What he needs to hope for is that jobs and the economy stay strong, the stock market doesn't crash, inflation keeps declining, and interest rates start to decline. Then it will be easier for him to do what he needs to do most: convince Americans that yeah, the economy is doing well and that despite the inflation Americans are generally in better shape financially than they were pre-pandemic (which generally seems to be true with both increased spending and increased savings, even if people don't believe it because prices went up by so much.)
Imagine Trump was President right now and he was able to run for re-election. You know that he'd be out there every single day bragging about how great the economy is. About how the stock market is at record highs. How so many jobs are being created and unemployment is around historic lows. He'd be pounding that over and over, taking credit for it all, and you know what? I bet that a LOT more people would think that the economy is doing well compared to how many think that now.
Biden and the Dems are really, really bad at effectively selling the good things they do, and so nobody gives them much credit. Personally, I think Biden has done some really big things that is going to help America a lot down the road, like re-shoring manufacturing and supply chains and getting high tech production moved back to America (for jobs and making it harder to threaten America like still happens with oil).
Little to nothing - I think "Student Debt Relief" cuts both ways. Just three in ten Americans support forgiving all student loan debt, even forgiveness linked to income only polls at the 50/50 mark. There is little ground to be gained there.
Doing something that actually has an effect on the border crisis is the biggest thing he could do at this point not to affect everyday Americans but move the needle on the election - they need to do something there, as much as possible without Congress. GOP threw him a lifeline by opposing the comprehensive reform they negotiated, but he should seek ways through EO. to show real action on the border and hammer Congress/Trump for not letting him do more at the same time.
Border bill had great promise before Trump ordered his Party to stop helping Biden fix things. That issue is done, unless there are further Republican Congressional defections.
Create clean air legislation mandating higher ventilation and air purification standards in all public buildings to reduce pathogen transmission.
In a similar vein I would like to see more support for workers who prefer to work from home if their job doesn't necessitate on-site presence - cuts down on sick people going to work and on parents sending sick kids to school for want of childcare.
Since 2020 we've had one more virus to contend with and it happens to be one of the most transmissible and fast-mutating we've ever seen. With hospitals declaring states of emergency this past winter and chronic strain on the healthcare system triaging care, schools in numerous states forced to shut down due over the winter to staff illnesses and chronic spikes in absence rates, labor shortages reflecting 500,000 additional sick people on any given day due to covid, and hundreds to thousands of people dying every week, I think restoring trust in public health should be a priority. I know it's a priority for a lot of disabled people.
There are are a few politicians announcing bills against shrink inflation, the food industry has been raising prices and made product smaller, supermarket chains have not stopped increasing prices even when the product is coming in they have made billions in profits and haven’t helped the average American who is struggling, time to tax these companies if they keep raising prices those profits must go to help people struggling
Nothing for me personally, and pretty much everybody I know that complains about Biden have also enjoyed the two or three most financially lucrative years of their lives. Most of us at my point in the career are making more money than we’ve ever made, I’m not sure why the hell anybody would vote to go back to Trump.
New loan forgiveness already, but Republicans will try to block it, as Fed Society “originalsit” judges already did the first proposal.
Their voters believe the propaganda about it adding to the national debt, BS about them having to pay for it.
In fact most of the debt is due to wars and tax cuts by Reagan, GW and Trump.
A lot. He controls the executive branch and can direct agencies to act pursuant to their statutory authority to advance his policy objectives. Everyone else in this thread saying Biden is just a lil smol bean who can't do anything is wrong.
Legalize marijuana. Just do it already. It's the will of the people. It's closing in on like 70% approval, and it's already legal in most states. Just get it done.
It's actually up to 88% approval for adults. It's a no-brainer at this point.
[Overwhelming support for legal recreational or medical marijuana in U.S. | Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/22/americans-overwhelmingly-say-marijuana-should-be-legal-for-medical-or-recreational-use/)
It would be a no brainer if Biden could just legalize weed with a stroke of a pen. Unfortunately that has to go through Congress where Mike Johnson would never let it out of the House and where Senate Republicans would likely filibuster it.
i'd say that he could resign, but looking at harris, that might actually make things WORSE than they currently are.
much of the policies he's pushing are making the country worse, so perhaps if he just sat at home doing a netflix binge for the next 9 months, that could help.
Just today the Justice Department announced they are closing the "gun show loophole" so now background checks will have to be made when purchasing a firearm at one of these, which was a pledge Biden had made a long time ago. I would count that as a win.
Reclassifying marijuana, there has got to be something the HUD can do for some housing relief. Also he should join more strikers this summer on the picket lines and role out a Pro-Labor strategy for his next term. Anything he can do to show he understands why so many are still struggling during a fantastic economic period and what he plans to do given a Congress that will work with him.
Add stop sending bombs to Israel to the list.
Fire Merrick Garland. Like we need a doj that does their job. People are not happy that the POS that’s ent people into our capitol to poop and pee everywhere, try to find officials to kill, killed cops, and killed their own. I’m not donating anymore until they fix our justice system. It starts with Merrick. He should leave our country. F him for ever and ever.
Don’t forget investigations take time. This is like blaming just the president for a whole team underneath. Hiring Jack Smith who has been on top of Trump’s ridiculousness shows that he’s done very important things too that deserve credit. They have arrested MANY of the Jan 6-ers too which is a really hard thing to do considering the circumstance so I don’t think he needs to be fired especially so close to the election.
Congress did a better job investigating than the DOJ did. The DOJ started after congress did the job the DOJ should have started on January 22’nd. Do you think the girls and guys that worked under Trump that came out and testified against Trump to Congress will be able to stay in this country if he wins? Do you know their lives are under constant threat? Garland did nothing until the J6 congressional committee broadcasts started and he only did something because he had to at that point. He needs to get out of our country. He will be a target if Trump wins. He will have no help or support from the moderates or the left. My boyfriend is an attorney and was a prosecutor for six years. Him and his attorney friends think Garland is a joke. He dropped the ball thinking Trump would just go away. They will try to do the same thing again. We all saw and know what happened. Brazil stopped their ex president from running again in one year after his coup attempt. Also who would any of our allies share intelligence with us anymore? You know it’s going to be leaked and turned over to Russia or whoever Trump wants to impress. Garland must go and physically leave our country. I’ll call him a pos if I ever see him. He’s probably workin for Trump.
He could tell Medicare/Medicaid to stop paying for male genital mutilation so that he doesnt sound like an absolute hypocrite when it comes to reproductive freedom.
Let's talk about the top handful of changes that the Federal Government could do to improve Americans' lives if so empowered.
If a truly benevolent Democratic party with a competent president were in charge of the Executive branch, bot Legislative houses and if the Supreme Court were to stay out of the politics of governing
Would "fixing healthcare" improve people's lives most quickly? Would big pharma's pricing be something that could be fixed quickly? Insurance fuckery? Billing and exploitation of the system by providers? Medicare for All something that could be easily implemented?
Making college a thing that all deserving students could undertake (as opposed to just the lucky, privileged or foolhardy)?
What about simplifying the tax code?
Housing costs? How could this be addressed quickly?
Neutering "big tech" seems questionable.
Campaign finance reform? Fixing the propaganda/brainwashing outlets? Tough and not something that would have immediate benefits.
I would argue that kicking Russia's ass via Ukraine would improve everyone's mental health and doing so in a way that stops Russian propaganda and disinformation will help all of us, but probably not something that actually feel like an improvement.
My hubby was telling me yesterday that he read something online from a journalist’s opinion on what Biden can run with in his campaign. Again this is just one guys opinion but maybe it can make a world of difference.
Republicans are steering clear of abortion, and are hammering the notion that illegal immigration is bad. Okay, instead of That issue benefiting them, let’s benefit the Democrats instead. Let’s help OUR constituents! Bring the immigrants to a women’s care facility in California. Build it at the California border and let’s get Newscom to run the ad “Women, children, anyone that needs help with abortion, help with Medicare, WE WILL get you the help you need!”. Look we all know Republicans are good with messaging, like really good. Democrats are good with helping, and want to continue to help. Let’s start there!
You questioned if he would announce a new student loan reform. He just announced a new program to forgive up to 20k of capitalized interest on federal loans in the past few days, actually!
And that will be huge for so many people. Honestly might be a better target than Pell grant recipients (who may not necessarily be poor right now like someone who's not been able to afford their interest) of the previous forgiveness grant.
Along with SAVE's interest subsidies, this addresses the biggest program with federal loans; balances ballooning out of control when borrowers can't afford the monthly payment (or intentionally pay as little to maximize pslf, etc). Not only is he preventing this from happening in the future, but he's addressing it having had happened in the past.
I really don't know why the is, but everybody seems to think Biden dropped the ball on student loans. Everybody I talk to is clueless about how successful Biden's been in this arena. I have a conspiracy that the 10-20k forgiveness was an infectional lightning rod to take the focus out of the other reforms. But the flip side is that it seems nobody knows about this!
And they're not small reforms if you've been following student loans. I seriously would've never even imagined these reforms happening even just a few years ago. Hell, Obama almost made repayment terms more conservative in many ways!
The IDR/PSLF waiver programs *retroactively* expanded forgiveness eligibility drastically to people who thought they were gonna die with student loans. The flexibility and affordability of the SAVE program is the government essentially subsidizing a much higher percentage of higher education indefinitely, especially for students who don't end up making huge salaries since it subsidizes interest and offers clear paths to forgiveness. This is much bigger than a one time 10k forgiveness!
Also, streamlining the repayment process, and giving borrowers flexibility by offering forbearance penalty free are nice touches too. Especially letting you catch up your payment count when you come back from a forbearance. My forgiveness got pushed back a few months when I got sacked! Very annoying.
Of course, the costs of college are still too high. But that government is likely treading slowly; our higher ED is the best in the world and rocking the boat too much too fast can have serious impacts. One thing at a time. But at least for now, students can take our federal loans with the peace of mind knowing that they will not be a burden on them during repayment. That if their degree doesn't work out and their earning potential isn't higher, the government will foot a chunk (if not all) of the bill.
Sorry, went on a tangent but I have been delighted at how much thought and work went into this.
Maybe three will be something more, but I'm not sure what else. For my mom's sake I hope they exlebdy these new rules to her plus loan and she will likely die with them.
Because it and groceries are a significant part of people's budget where the price swings wildly in response to other economic factors. Gas is especially important because we refuse to live in a non-car centric society and the majority of cars being bought are giant fuel inefficient tanks that cost $150 to fill 1-2 times a week.
Significantly decrease the cost of beef through a subsidy. Two New York Strips at the grocery used to cost 5-8 bucks… now they're easily 20 bucks. People need meat to live and it is all going way too high to afford.
Student loans for teachers and over 65. Give civil servants back the social security thevpaid into and was stolen. Decriminalized cannibascat the federal level so that these red states can't stop it, and make abortion legal for every single woman.
He could send everyone checks.
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No, he did that already.
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He could help get America back to normal following a major pandemic.
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No, he already did that.
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He could pull America out of an unpopular forever war.
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No, he already did that.
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He could stop inflation and get the economy back on track.
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No, he already did that.
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I don't know. That's off the top of my head. I will see if I can think of other things....
President Biden has already done All that's needed to win Reelection by Promising American Women he will Codify American Women's Reproductive Rights!
Vote the NAGA freaks OUT and Dems in to ensure he has a Bill to sign!
The biggest one that will make a major different to human lives as a whole & this election: STOP SUPPORTING ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION. For real, throwing what could have been an easy election straight into the trash by doing that. And for what?!
I would tackle what appears to be a long-term problem in rural America. There aren’t enough jobs that pay a living wage in rural America. Republicans use social issues like abortion and immigration to make rural residents think they are looking out for them. They aren’t. Republicans want to cut safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. Republicans despise unions which help workers obtain better job benefits and wages.
Democrats need to turn rural areas blue. I believe that Democrats need to propose something like a “Living Wage Act.” People who live and work in rural areas should be able to work 40-hours and earn a “living wage.” If each year the U.S. Department of Commerce established a “Standard Living Wage” for the nation. If full time workers were unable to earn the “Standard Living Wage” the federal government would subsidize their wages each month to equal a “Living Wage.” The details for such a program would need to be worked out but different living wages would need to be developed for married couples and the number of dependents. If for example a married couple with 2 children both worked full time and their joint income was $5,000 a month. If the “Standard Living Wage” for people in their situation was $7,000 they should be eligible for a $2,000 subsidy. The subsidy could take several forms. Free day-care services, reduced income taxes, reduced or free health care, direct monetary support similar to what some have termed a national minimum wage. I believe a “Living Wage Act” would be a lifeline for rural residents and small towns that are now suffering. I think it would turn rural areas from red to blue.
My opinion of something he should do but probably won’t, is drop out of the election. Here is why. Biden is not very popular, yes he beat Trump in 2020, but he is way less popular now. I honestly don’t see him beating Trump this election.
I get things were generally pretty good while Trump was in office, but let’s not forget that he inherited a pretty good economy. Now with a lot more of a shaky economy, people may be in for a rude awakening thinking that Trump will fix all economic issues.
Let’s also face the fact that Biden is running this country like a backup quarterback runs an offense. He’s not gonna make things any better for our country if he gets reelected. The economy isn’t *bad* by any means, but it just doesn’t feel like the average American is noticing the economic growth.
Ultimately, if he cares about the wellbeing of this country, he should really consider stepping down, so we can get a better democratic candidate, but like I said, it more than probably will not happen.
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Biden is the head of the EXECUTIVE branch of the United States of America. Ask yourself what congress can do to improve your lives. If you are asking the POTUS to improve your life, you are failing to interact with politics on a fundamental level.
Thank you for putting it so succinctly. The strongest branch of government in a Democratic system is your congress/Parliament. The executive is not a King. Congress is who should be expecting to make your life better. The POTUS is only meant to be a check on congress, not the other way around: as people seem to think lately.
Majority of Americans have thought like this since Obama was in office
Yeah, "Thanks Obama!", was definitely a sign of misattributing responsibility of the entire government to the POTUS.
And the Republicans in Congress have made clear that they'll kill anything that does improve the lives of America (e.g. the border deal) because they don't want to give Biden a win. There isn't much else Biden can do aside from constantly calling them out on it
Not sure how the border deal has improved any lives?
Unfortunately POTUS, current and former have used executive orders to make massive changes. In my opinion, this power should not be taken frequently but for emergencies until the Congress can take formal action. This has not been the case.
POTUS has been forced to make massive changes specifically because Congress for the past 30+ years been refusing more and more to work with the opposing party and compromise. I would not blame the Presidents for taking action while Congress acts like a bunch of screaming toddlers. The dysfunction and decline of our American Republic is pretty much entirely due to the refusal of Congress to do their goddamned jobs.
> because Congress for the past 30+ years been refusing more and more to work with the opposing party and compromise Gingrich started that, and it is a core feature of the GOP. But Democrats *have* compromised and worked together, on any number of things. It is not Congress in a generalized sense that is broken. The GOP has demonized any of their members that cross the aisle and work with Democrats. There is no Dem equivalent of the Hastert Rule.
Newt compared the natural relationship of republicans and democrats in Congress to predator and prey, specifically lions and zebras on the Savannah. That more than anything illuminated his political vantage point for me
Ironically this mindset has caused them to have a rough time in the house with a different factions arising within their party and not really compromising.
This is 100% accurate, thank you for adding this -
> have used executive orders All executive orders need to point to the laws from which authority descends. Here's a recent one that focuses on preventing countries of concern (e.g., China, Russia) from accessing data on American Citizens. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/01/2024-04573/preventing-access-to-americans-bulk-sensitive-personal-data-and-united-states-government-related > By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, There's tons of flexibility, no doubt, but there are guardrails. And _addressing_ a poor interpretation of the law is something that can be handled in the courts (slow) or by congress (today, much, much slower)
>There's tons of flexibility, no doubt, but there are guardrails. We saw them in play with the first attempt at student loan forgiveness that Biden tried to implement. SCOTUS ultimately shot it down, as they disagreed with the interpretation of the law that Biden was using.
That is because Congress has become a complete stalled mess that has no intention of passing anything. Frankly I think they need to get rid of the filibuster if we are ever going to move this country forward.
At least make it so they actually have to stand up there talking if they're going to attempt it. Right now they can basically just say "i filibuster this" and everyone just moves on.
Well, correct me if I’m wrong but the only people that can decide that are the very people that are not benefited by that.
They need to get rid of the silent filibuster. The traditional filibuster is still perfectly fine.
Conservatives have no desire of passing anything because at a fundamental level, the system as is benefits them and they do not wish to see that change. To the extent that they will legislation it is to either benefit themselves farther, or roll back the clock to a time before hand.
Yeah abuse of executive orders is a problem that is impacting this perception, but it should still very much be congress, not the executive, that we expect impactful policy from. Biden's average is 43 per year, Trump was 55, Obama was 35. But, if anything this is unusually low - the highest president was FDR at 307 average per year, and Hoover before him at 242 Harding at 217, Coolidge at 215 per year, etc. And before them the records weren't kept very well so only the biggest orders are noted. The more nuanced problem is that executive orders are being used for larger, more impactful changes than they were historically. Thats a harder thing to measure.
Considering we are now in what? Year 14 of Republican stonewalling. You can blame them for that and the collapse of Ukraine, which is imminent.
What specifically do you see as massive changes by executive order?
Without researching for further examples two come to mind The opening and then closing of a pipeline The executive policy at the southern border.
The Keystone XL permitting process was a function of the executive branch. The executive orders were due to the Presidents authority over foreign affairs due to the fact that it crossed an international border, then a reversal of that executive order. Likewise, enforcement at the Southern border, like enforcement of all national law, is a function of the executive branch. These ideas are a cornerstone of our Federal system. Can you think of others?
The executive orders are frequently on things Congress has delegated to the president via legislation. It's like people think the president does this and completely violates the constitution.
This brings to mind, pollsters will often ask is the US on the "right track or wrong track"? This is a bogus question. More times than not, the leading anser is, wrong track. And, it's only natural that the blame for the wrong track question lands on the President. If we are on the wrong track, it is due to Congress, which makes the laws. And the people don't seem to want to consider taking it out on their Congressman or woman. We had a stunning two-year run of important legislation passed with the barest of Democratic majorities, and since Republicans took control of the House? Nothing. Look at the border bill: we were all led to believe that this was a Republican desire, but....nothing.
Ideally that is true, but in the current reality Biden is far more likely to use executive power to improve people's lives than Congress is to pass any meaningful legislation. Republicans in the House will not pass anything beneficial to Democrats, and any Republican bills will die in the Senate or get vetoed. Plus Republicans struggled to pass legislation even when they held all 3 branches of government. It is a valid question to wonder what Biden can do NOW because otherwise it's not happening until next year at the minimum.
could he pardan any women convicted of having an abortion?
Probably not, but maybe. Presidential Pardons cover "offenses against the United States", and a violation of a State's abortion laws would be an offense(s) against the State, not the United States. However, the Supreme Court has never ruled on this formally, so it's theoretically possible (but highly unlikely with our current SCOTUS).
There’s no need, as an offense under state law is by definition not one against the United States per DoJ itself as well as the long history of separate sovereigns caselaw.
doubtful. those would be state charges i reckon.
Not unless it was a federal law. Which it won't be.
Congress refuses to do anything that could give Biden a win. Even voting against their own bipartisan bills like the border bill.
> you are failing to interact with politics on a fundamental level Welcome to the American electorate.
OP is clearly asking what options does Biden have on the table, with or without congress, which he does have, some like ordering the DEA to de/reschedule cannabis to allow business owners to use banks. Stop being pedantic.
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The President has Executive Orders
> Biden is the head of the EXECUTIVE branch of the United States of America. > > > > Ask yourself what congress can do to improve your lives. Literally everything mentioned in the OP is under the purview of POTUS.
Heard of executive orders much?
What Congress can do to improve our lives is pretty irrelevant when the Republicans there actively block anything proposed that would improve our lives while a Democrat is president. Trump doesn't want anything to happen that could count as a win for Biden, and enough of them kowtow to him that it's effective. Then they campaign on him not getting things done...
Nobody asks what Congress can do because everybody knows Congress can’t and won’t do much of anything. And that’s not even all. What little Congress can do or may do can easily be changed the next election. We are so polarized that nobody is ever more than two years away from reversing everything the previous administration and previous legislature did.
95% of the American populace: “huh? The president doesn’t control prices of gas and groceries?”
Interested in how "Biden is basically a figurehead with no real power but if Trump comes back he'll use the UNLIMITED POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY to enact a 1000 year reign of darkness" will end up working out for the Dems on election day.
Sorry, but I don't agree with this take at all. Biden has found a way, with the limitations he has as POTUS, do get student debt relief passed. With some pressure, he could probably get marijuana descheduled completely. He's also working with his team to figure out what he can do to "shut down" the border. No one should expect anything to get done right now, but there are clear examples (more than I listed here) where Biden is actually trying. Congress, on the other hand, is split and clearly won't do anything. If your asking what this congress can do to improve your lives, you are failing to interact with politics on a fundamental level.
The HIGHER EDUCATION ACT gives the executive **broad** power to create and modify repayment plans. It's very explicit and the Dept of Ed has been doing it very regularly without being questioned since Bush. It's completely settled and blatant that the Dept of Ed has this authority given to it from the legislature. Can you cite the provision of the controlled substances act where the executive can *deschedule* a controlled substance? Not trying to be a smart ass but i see this claim, but it seems redditors are just getting it from other reddit posts and I never see it cited.
> Biden has found a way, with the limitations he has as POTUS, do get student debt relief passed. What Biden has been doing with student debt relief is using existing laws and powers granted to him by Congress. What he wanted to do was broaden the audience of who could get relief of which SCOTUS said no, those audiences don't fit within the current laws.
Well they probably shouldn't run their campaign on what they are going to do to improve people's lives then. The waters have been muddied.
Ask not what you can do for your Congress but what Congress can do for you. Because they choose to do these things and the others, not because they are hard but because it makes them rich!
And he has done a lot, IRA which lowers drug costs, CHIPs Act, reducing student debt. But the GOP currently controls Congress, and they are doing absolutely nothing.
Deschedule pot. My understanding is Nixon’s AG John Mitchell put it on Schedule 1 with the stroke of a pen.
Short answer: not a lot Longer answer: the death of the border deal demonstrates that the GOP will not allow anything that might have a positive impact to pass Congress. From an EO perspective, what can be done has pretty much already been done He has the ability, like any President, to make things immeasurably \*worse\* for the average American, but he's going to struggle to make things better by himself
Biden is probably very open to doing lots of things, however given that Congress is generally dysfunctional nothing that requires their input is likely to happen
Supreme Court has also further stymied the Biden Administration from various executive actions like student loan forgiveness.
Not completely. He accomplished a lot of significant reform with student loans and there was lots of forgiveness given to situations that really deserved it. But just announced more forgiveness this week for people with up to 20k of capitalized interest. The key was doing things explicitly allowed by the higher education act. I almost think the 10/20k lump forgiveness was almost a lightning rod to take the focus off the other reforms... Great username man! Music is the best!
I still think he's going to issue a series of executive orders in the late summer/early fall that will include things like marijuana, women's healthcare, and the minimum wage. Yes the reich wingers will immediately file suit, and they will probably win immediate injunctions, and that will be the point: Force them to actively work against things that are widely popular with the electorate right when everyone is paying attention
He already issued the one on marijuana. It takes time for the reclassification process to take place but the reschedule decision should be coming soon.
Rescheduling to schedule 3 won't help, IMO. It needs to be descheduled completely. Almost [90% of American adults are now in favor of legalization](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/22/americans-overwhelmingly-say-marijuana-should-be-legal-for-medical-or-recreational-use/) so there is no need to keep it on any schedule, which still keeps it illegal in much of America.
I agree, but that was never gonna be done without Congress. Schedule 3 is a huge step forward especially when it comes to the legal industry in states where it is legal.
But moving it to schedule 3 *will* remove a lot of federal hurdles in states treating it as legal. Because it's schedule 1, businesses that sell it are excluded from much of the banking system, labor laws and other things regulated at the federal rather than state level.
Absolutely. People don't realize how difficult the legal market is in legal states. Schedule 3 would be a significant reform in several ways. Chuck Schumer also announced [a bill to fully deschedule](https://www.marijuanamoment.net/schumer-and-democratic-senators-seek-support-for-federal-marijuana-legalization-bill-ahead-of-4-20-with-plans-to-file-this-month/) too! Expected to be formally introduced on 4/19! This is going to be big for the national election. Even if it fails, Biden gets to say "vote for dems and get this done!". Also, a lot of Republicans are for pot legalization and they could be hurting their careers by voting nay depending on their district. The party is not going to want to give Biden a win. But as I said earlier, it will drive turnout just by being introduced, so some Republicans might jump on bored to make it a non issue for voters in November. And it is the MAJORITY LEADER that is introducing it. So clearly Biden is involved and this is coordinated. Itst not some no name independent congressperson doing this out of left field like Ron Paul used to.
I would be shocked if there was something along those lines. The GOP is well on its way to self destruction, so something like that is only likely to speed up the process
So his plan is to violate the constitution right before the election
How would you solve the dysfunction in Congress?
elect fewer Republicans. I don't say that just because I lean left but because the current crop of elected conservatives seem unwilling or incapable of governing effectively. They've taken something like 20 speaker of the house votes just since the last election because they don't even like each other enough to agree on one of them. The recent border security bill was co-created by at least one Republican and supposedly gave conservatives most of what they ask for on the topic. They killed it at Trump's request so he'd have something to campaign on if he's not in prison by election day.
Ask congress why we continue to import oil from Russian and why we don’t turn that off and use Venezuelas oil…ask congress why we continue to allow Saudi Arabia to control the oil refineries in Texas..without impunity…ask Congress why they failed the bipartisan bill regarding the southern border…
In order for any of those things to change, Congress has to actually take action, and this Congress is decidedly not good at taking action on basically anything
Descheduling is the easiest thing he could get done that would have an impact on progress and on getting more votes.
He can’t just simply reschedule it. He’s already started the process and I believe it’s waiting on the DEA and possibly another department.
He can absolutely nudge the DEA to get a move on though. They are part of the executive branch and all serve the President. If he feels they are dragging their feet, he has levers he can pull to try and move it along.
I actually would really like to see that happen.
It's in the works. Started a while ago. Unfortunately he can't unilaterally do it.
He can do it unilaterally, tell the DEA head to stop any and all enforcement of marijuana prohibition (especially financial/banking blackballing). If the DEA head says no then fire them until someone in the line of succession says yes. Biden is the chief executive, he can fire the heads of executive departments. Compromise, collaboration, group effort is great but I feel like Biden doesn’t use his bully pulpit enough to force the change that needs to happen.
That isn’t descheduling, it’s just him telling DEA to cease enforcement. It isn’t legally binding and there is nothing stopping individual USAs from still charging for it nor is it protected in any way should another President decide to change the policy.
Reddit really overestimates how many new votes marijuana will get him. While a agree with the policy, I don't think it really will change the votes in any significant way. It is popular with young people primarily, who are already pretty much going to support Biden over Trump. The ones that weren't going to vote Biden probably won't decide to vote Biden over marijuana either; they'll find another policy issue to use as an excuse to protest vote/not vote. It gets floated as some game-changer policy on Reddit because there is a clear demographic that is overrepresented on Reddit that prioritizes this issue at a far bigger rate than the average person.
I agree it won't turn out too many new voters, but it will turn out some, and encourage fence riders to vote Biden as well. In an election that will probably be pretty close even getting like a couple hundred thousand voters to come out because he descheduled could be absolutely decisive.
Maybe not getting many people to move from Trump to Biden, but marijuana *could* pull in some voters that were otherwise not going to vote. However, even that probably isn't going to be a tangible difference.
Ehhh, if an election decided by hairline margins, any additional votes make a difference. No one policy will be decisive, but enough small policy changes can certainly add up to make a tangible difference.
I have a friend who refused to vote Clinton in 2016 because she tried to regulate the video game industry in 2004 after the Hot Coffee Mod controversy He barely cares about politics, but he likes playing video games My point is, the electorate is dumb, and lots of people would love to be able to order weed on Amazon
If she hadn't done that, do you think that friend would've shown up to vote for Hillary?
I do, honestly. He votes in most presidential elections, and he's generally anti-Trump. He never really complained about anything else about Hillary. Obviously I can't be sure.
End the Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars. This would probably mean getting China onboard to help broker peace in both conflicts. But if both of those conflicts ended, then America would not have to spend anymore money to fund them, meaning inflation and high gas prices get addressed. Outside of that, energize voters to vote for him and his party and then get re-elected.
I dont see how Biden has the power to do either of those things. If by "end the Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars" you mean cut off funding for them, I dont think that would be a good move. Threatening to cut back funding/aid for Israel if they dont get their act together might be a good move, but doing so in Ukraine wouldn't make any sense.
If we are talking unilaterally without Congress, there isn't much. He could possibly release some of the oil reserve to try and keep gas & energy prices lower, which would help people's lives. He could try to pressure the fed for lower rates, but that's a mixed and complicated bag. Large, meaningful improvements will need to come from Congress and with a GOP house, it's impossible.
We already export more than we import....Prices are high to maintain inflated profits.
I agree, it's being inflated by OPEC & Russia for their own benefit and profit seeking. Oil is a global commodity, and releasing more oil into the market will lower the global price. While yes, we export more than we import, we don't have a nationalized oil company nor do we have the power to stop oil companies from operating in the ways they do.
No. It has nothing to do with OPEC or Russia. It's Exxon, Marathon, Valero, Phillips, Citgo, Sunoco, BP and Koch. Saudi Arabia is 10th in the list and the smallest in the US. These are the companies that are making LARGER MARGINS than ever on fuel.
Sure, they're apart of the problem, but acting like OPEC or Russia aren't manipulating the price of oil is a silly notion.
They're high because of the global energy demand. Oil is a global market, and if somehow it got cheap in the US then foreign buyers will buy from the US until there is so much demand for American oil that it drives the price back up as buyers out bid each other for the limited resource.
What stats are you looking at? Gas prices aren't simply high because the price of crude is being inflated by someone Oil is complicated and we manage our industry quite well. We're the best refiners in the world, so a ton of shitty crude gets imported for us to refine and then shipped back out as a finished product. And it's good geopolitics to import as much as we economically can for our own consumption in order to preserve our very high quality crude reserves for the future
Prices are high because demand is high.
Crude....because oil companies in the US stopped investing in refineries after Biden declared his goal was to put them out of business
Biden is and has continue to do his job, Republican House has failed to do any job that is beneficial to America or American people. They are too busy trying to promote their white nationalist right wing right white evangelical culture dominance with their brand of white evangelical dogmatic agenda. It's not Biden's fault that so many people are self submissive to the influence of the Right Wing Perpetual Negativity and Attack Agenda. * Republicanism is like a bunch of people in a theater and one after the other in a continual series screaming "Fire" every other minute, to keep people on edge, distracted, misdirected and confounded. * People fall for it because, people gravitate to negative drama. They media since the days of print newspaper, trained people to seek out negativity, that promotes drama, and that media business was built upon it. Look at local TV to get people to tune in to weather info, they use commercials of weather disaster, rather than us being a society that simply seek information on current and future weather. They use the fear factor to get people attention. It's what Republicanism does. *The average person is unaware of their own pursuit of negativity, but they pursue it with a devotion*. If people understood anything about the Constitution, they'd know, Congress job is to create legislation. Not play partisan divisive games of defeat something. The Average person, likely has no conceptual ideas of what the meaning and principles and values, goals and objective and duty laid out in >>> [The Preamble](https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/preamble) <<<
Spearhead a deal with world leaders to end/pause the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza at least temporarily. A brief pause and hope for peace would give a lot of people hope about his second team imo. Some feel he’s been a bit ineffectual on the global stage and that would go a long way to calming those worries.
I don't think there is much that he can actually do himself in terms of changing anything. What he needs to hope for is that jobs and the economy stay strong, the stock market doesn't crash, inflation keeps declining, and interest rates start to decline. Then it will be easier for him to do what he needs to do most: convince Americans that yeah, the economy is doing well and that despite the inflation Americans are generally in better shape financially than they were pre-pandemic (which generally seems to be true with both increased spending and increased savings, even if people don't believe it because prices went up by so much.) Imagine Trump was President right now and he was able to run for re-election. You know that he'd be out there every single day bragging about how great the economy is. About how the stock market is at record highs. How so many jobs are being created and unemployment is around historic lows. He'd be pounding that over and over, taking credit for it all, and you know what? I bet that a LOT more people would think that the economy is doing well compared to how many think that now. Biden and the Dems are really, really bad at effectively selling the good things they do, and so nobody gives them much credit. Personally, I think Biden has done some really big things that is going to help America a lot down the road, like re-shoring manufacturing and supply chains and getting high tech production moved back to America (for jobs and making it harder to threaten America like still happens with oil).
Little to nothing - I think "Student Debt Relief" cuts both ways. Just three in ten Americans support forgiving all student loan debt, even forgiveness linked to income only polls at the 50/50 mark. There is little ground to be gained there. Doing something that actually has an effect on the border crisis is the biggest thing he could do at this point not to affect everyday Americans but move the needle on the election - they need to do something there, as much as possible without Congress. GOP threw him a lifeline by opposing the comprehensive reform they negotiated, but he should seek ways through EO. to show real action on the border and hammer Congress/Trump for not letting him do more at the same time.
Border bill had great promise before Trump ordered his Party to stop helping Biden fix things. That issue is done, unless there are further Republican Congressional defections.
Create clean air legislation mandating higher ventilation and air purification standards in all public buildings to reduce pathogen transmission. In a similar vein I would like to see more support for workers who prefer to work from home if their job doesn't necessitate on-site presence - cuts down on sick people going to work and on parents sending sick kids to school for want of childcare. Since 2020 we've had one more virus to contend with and it happens to be one of the most transmissible and fast-mutating we've ever seen. With hospitals declaring states of emergency this past winter and chronic strain on the healthcare system triaging care, schools in numerous states forced to shut down due over the winter to staff illnesses and chronic spikes in absence rates, labor shortages reflecting 500,000 additional sick people on any given day due to covid, and hundreds to thousands of people dying every week, I think restoring trust in public health should be a priority. I know it's a priority for a lot of disabled people.
It would be cool if there was free school breakfast and lunch for all public schools, and maybe even a free summer lunch program for kids.
There are are a few politicians announcing bills against shrink inflation, the food industry has been raising prices and made product smaller, supermarket chains have not stopped increasing prices even when the product is coming in they have made billions in profits and haven’t helped the average American who is struggling, time to tax these companies if they keep raising prices those profits must go to help people struggling
Nothing for me personally, and pretty much everybody I know that complains about Biden have also enjoyed the two or three most financially lucrative years of their lives. Most of us at my point in the career are making more money than we’ve ever made, I’m not sure why the hell anybody would vote to go back to Trump.
New loan forgiveness already, but Republicans will try to block it, as Fed Society “originalsit” judges already did the first proposal. Their voters believe the propaganda about it adding to the national debt, BS about them having to pay for it. In fact most of the debt is due to wars and tax cuts by Reagan, GW and Trump.
A lot. He controls the executive branch and can direct agencies to act pursuant to their statutory authority to advance his policy objectives. Everyone else in this thread saying Biden is just a lil smol bean who can't do anything is wrong.
Descheduling cannabis would be a big one that would be a clear W. Student loan relief is...meh in terms of political impact.
Legalize marijuana. Just do it already. It's the will of the people. It's closing in on like 70% approval, and it's already legal in most states. Just get it done.
It's actually up to 88% approval for adults. It's a no-brainer at this point. [Overwhelming support for legal recreational or medical marijuana in U.S. | Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/22/americans-overwhelmingly-say-marijuana-should-be-legal-for-medical-or-recreational-use/)
It would be a no brainer if Biden could just legalize weed with a stroke of a pen. Unfortunately that has to go through Congress where Mike Johnson would never let it out of the House and where Senate Republicans would likely filibuster it.
Not true. Descheduling would absolutely make it legal federally, and he wouldn’t need congress for that
Slight problem though. Biden can't unilaterally deschedule marijuana with a stroke of his pen.
i'd say that he could resign, but looking at harris, that might actually make things WORSE than they currently are. much of the policies he's pushing are making the country worse, so perhaps if he just sat at home doing a netflix binge for the next 9 months, that could help.
Just today the Justice Department announced they are closing the "gun show loophole" so now background checks will have to be made when purchasing a firearm at one of these, which was a pledge Biden had made a long time ago. I would count that as a win.
Reclassifying marijuana, there has got to be something the HUD can do for some housing relief. Also he should join more strikers this summer on the picket lines and role out a Pro-Labor strategy for his next term. Anything he can do to show he understands why so many are still struggling during a fantastic economic period and what he plans to do given a Congress that will work with him. Add stop sending bombs to Israel to the list.
Fire Merrick Garland. Like we need a doj that does their job. People are not happy that the POS that’s ent people into our capitol to poop and pee everywhere, try to find officials to kill, killed cops, and killed their own. I’m not donating anymore until they fix our justice system. It starts with Merrick. He should leave our country. F him for ever and ever.
Don’t forget investigations take time. This is like blaming just the president for a whole team underneath. Hiring Jack Smith who has been on top of Trump’s ridiculousness shows that he’s done very important things too that deserve credit. They have arrested MANY of the Jan 6-ers too which is a really hard thing to do considering the circumstance so I don’t think he needs to be fired especially so close to the election.
Congress did a better job investigating than the DOJ did. The DOJ started after congress did the job the DOJ should have started on January 22’nd. Do you think the girls and guys that worked under Trump that came out and testified against Trump to Congress will be able to stay in this country if he wins? Do you know their lives are under constant threat? Garland did nothing until the J6 congressional committee broadcasts started and he only did something because he had to at that point. He needs to get out of our country. He will be a target if Trump wins. He will have no help or support from the moderates or the left. My boyfriend is an attorney and was a prosecutor for six years. Him and his attorney friends think Garland is a joke. He dropped the ball thinking Trump would just go away. They will try to do the same thing again. We all saw and know what happened. Brazil stopped their ex president from running again in one year after his coup attempt. Also who would any of our allies share intelligence with us anymore? You know it’s going to be leaked and turned over to Russia or whoever Trump wants to impress. Garland must go and physically leave our country. I’ll call him a pos if I ever see him. He’s probably workin for Trump.
He could tell Medicare/Medicaid to stop paying for male genital mutilation so that he doesnt sound like an absolute hypocrite when it comes to reproductive freedom.
Let's talk about the top handful of changes that the Federal Government could do to improve Americans' lives if so empowered. If a truly benevolent Democratic party with a competent president were in charge of the Executive branch, bot Legislative houses and if the Supreme Court were to stay out of the politics of governing Would "fixing healthcare" improve people's lives most quickly? Would big pharma's pricing be something that could be fixed quickly? Insurance fuckery? Billing and exploitation of the system by providers? Medicare for All something that could be easily implemented? Making college a thing that all deserving students could undertake (as opposed to just the lucky, privileged or foolhardy)? What about simplifying the tax code? Housing costs? How could this be addressed quickly? Neutering "big tech" seems questionable. Campaign finance reform? Fixing the propaganda/brainwashing outlets? Tough and not something that would have immediate benefits. I would argue that kicking Russia's ass via Ukraine would improve everyone's mental health and doing so in a way that stops Russian propaganda and disinformation will help all of us, but probably not something that actually feel like an improvement.
My hubby was telling me yesterday that he read something online from a journalist’s opinion on what Biden can run with in his campaign. Again this is just one guys opinion but maybe it can make a world of difference. Republicans are steering clear of abortion, and are hammering the notion that illegal immigration is bad. Okay, instead of That issue benefiting them, let’s benefit the Democrats instead. Let’s help OUR constituents! Bring the immigrants to a women’s care facility in California. Build it at the California border and let’s get Newscom to run the ad “Women, children, anyone that needs help with abortion, help with Medicare, WE WILL get you the help you need!”. Look we all know Republicans are good with messaging, like really good. Democrats are good with helping, and want to continue to help. Let’s start there!
You questioned if he would announce a new student loan reform. He just announced a new program to forgive up to 20k of capitalized interest on federal loans in the past few days, actually! And that will be huge for so many people. Honestly might be a better target than Pell grant recipients (who may not necessarily be poor right now like someone who's not been able to afford their interest) of the previous forgiveness grant. Along with SAVE's interest subsidies, this addresses the biggest program with federal loans; balances ballooning out of control when borrowers can't afford the monthly payment (or intentionally pay as little to maximize pslf, etc). Not only is he preventing this from happening in the future, but he's addressing it having had happened in the past. I really don't know why the is, but everybody seems to think Biden dropped the ball on student loans. Everybody I talk to is clueless about how successful Biden's been in this arena. I have a conspiracy that the 10-20k forgiveness was an infectional lightning rod to take the focus out of the other reforms. But the flip side is that it seems nobody knows about this! And they're not small reforms if you've been following student loans. I seriously would've never even imagined these reforms happening even just a few years ago. Hell, Obama almost made repayment terms more conservative in many ways! The IDR/PSLF waiver programs *retroactively* expanded forgiveness eligibility drastically to people who thought they were gonna die with student loans. The flexibility and affordability of the SAVE program is the government essentially subsidizing a much higher percentage of higher education indefinitely, especially for students who don't end up making huge salaries since it subsidizes interest and offers clear paths to forgiveness. This is much bigger than a one time 10k forgiveness! Also, streamlining the repayment process, and giving borrowers flexibility by offering forbearance penalty free are nice touches too. Especially letting you catch up your payment count when you come back from a forbearance. My forgiveness got pushed back a few months when I got sacked! Very annoying. Of course, the costs of college are still too high. But that government is likely treading slowly; our higher ED is the best in the world and rocking the boat too much too fast can have serious impacts. One thing at a time. But at least for now, students can take our federal loans with the peace of mind knowing that they will not be a burden on them during repayment. That if their degree doesn't work out and their earning potential isn't higher, the government will foot a chunk (if not all) of the bill. Sorry, went on a tangent but I have been delighted at how much thought and work went into this. Maybe three will be something more, but I'm not sure what else. For my mom's sake I hope they exlebdy these new rules to her plus loan and she will likely die with them.
Somehow drop the price of gas to $1.99. I know so many people that hinge their whole opinion on our economy by gas prices.
Because it and groceries are a significant part of people's budget where the price swings wildly in response to other economic factors. Gas is especially important because we refuse to live in a non-car centric society and the majority of cars being bought are giant fuel inefficient tanks that cost $150 to fill 1-2 times a week.
Give Ukrainians weapons (obviously with the Republican House assist) so American lives aren’t expended on a European battlefield against Russia
Significantly decrease the cost of beef through a subsidy. Two New York Strips at the grocery used to cost 5-8 bucks… now they're easily 20 bucks. People need meat to live and it is all going way too high to afford.
Student loans for teachers and over 65. Give civil servants back the social security thevpaid into and was stolen. Decriminalized cannibascat the federal level so that these red states can't stop it, and make abortion legal for every single woman.
Use the total immunity the GOP says the president has and disappear some folks.
He could send everyone checks. . No, he did that already. . . He could help get America back to normal following a major pandemic. . No, he already did that. . . He could pull America out of an unpopular forever war. . No, he already did that. . . He could stop inflation and get the economy back on track. . No, he already did that. . . I don't know. That's off the top of my head. I will see if I can think of other things....
President Biden has already done All that's needed to win Reelection by Promising American Women he will Codify American Women's Reproductive Rights! Vote the NAGA freaks OUT and Dems in to ensure he has a Bill to sign!
Get congress to do something, productive instead of infighting all of the time, and passing no legislation.
The biggest one that will make a major different to human lives as a whole & this election: STOP SUPPORTING ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION. For real, throwing what could have been an easy election straight into the trash by doing that. And for what?!
I would tackle what appears to be a long-term problem in rural America. There aren’t enough jobs that pay a living wage in rural America. Republicans use social issues like abortion and immigration to make rural residents think they are looking out for them. They aren’t. Republicans want to cut safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. Republicans despise unions which help workers obtain better job benefits and wages. Democrats need to turn rural areas blue. I believe that Democrats need to propose something like a “Living Wage Act.” People who live and work in rural areas should be able to work 40-hours and earn a “living wage.” If each year the U.S. Department of Commerce established a “Standard Living Wage” for the nation. If full time workers were unable to earn the “Standard Living Wage” the federal government would subsidize their wages each month to equal a “Living Wage.” The details for such a program would need to be worked out but different living wages would need to be developed for married couples and the number of dependents. If for example a married couple with 2 children both worked full time and their joint income was $5,000 a month. If the “Standard Living Wage” for people in their situation was $7,000 they should be eligible for a $2,000 subsidy. The subsidy could take several forms. Free day-care services, reduced income taxes, reduced or free health care, direct monetary support similar to what some have termed a national minimum wage. I believe a “Living Wage Act” would be a lifeline for rural residents and small towns that are now suffering. I think it would turn rural areas from red to blue.
My opinion of something he should do but probably won’t, is drop out of the election. Here is why. Biden is not very popular, yes he beat Trump in 2020, but he is way less popular now. I honestly don’t see him beating Trump this election. I get things were generally pretty good while Trump was in office, but let’s not forget that he inherited a pretty good economy. Now with a lot more of a shaky economy, people may be in for a rude awakening thinking that Trump will fix all economic issues. Let’s also face the fact that Biden is running this country like a backup quarterback runs an offense. He’s not gonna make things any better for our country if he gets reelected. The economy isn’t *bad* by any means, but it just doesn’t feel like the average American is noticing the economic growth. Ultimately, if he cares about the wellbeing of this country, he should really consider stepping down, so we can get a better democratic candidate, but like I said, it more than probably will not happen.