President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.

During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”

The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

Joe Biden took additional steps Friday to ease economic hardship inflicted by the coronavirus, but three days into his presidency, he has yet to appeal to Republicans who are balking at his sweeping plan for more pandemic relief.
...
The president continued his call for national unity on Friday, saying the country needs to pull together to confront the challenge of the coronavirus. Republicans, though, say his policy moves and proposals so far haven’t reflected a bipartisan approach. Biden floated an immigration plan that had virtually no support from Republicans, who also blasted his actions on climate change, saying he was killing jobs.

Biden’s economic adviser, Brian Deese, is poised to pitch a new coronavirus aid package to a bipartisan group of senators this weekend, but the bill has yet to draw Republican support and appears increasingly likely to be done through budget reconciliation, a process that would allow Democrats to push ahead on some measures without Republican votes.

President Biden reeled in a record-breaking $145 million in so-called dark money from anonymous donors during his presidential campaign, topping the $113 million that went to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) before his failed presidential bid in 2012, Bloomberg reports.

It's not surprising that Biden set the mark given that the $1.5 billion he hauled in overall was the most ever for a challenger to an incumbent president, but it's notable in large part because Democrats have been at the forefront of a movement to ban dark money in politics since it means that supporters can back a candidate without scrutiny. Plus, Bloomberg notes, anonymous donors "will have the same access to decision makers as those whose names were disclosed, but without public awareness of who they are or what influence they might wield." As Meredith McGehee, the executive director of campaign finance reform advocacy group Issue One, told Bloomberg, "the whole point of dark money is to avoid public disclosure while getting private credit."

When President Biden announced in early December that his administration would aim to put 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses into people’s arms in his first 100 days, it seemed like an ambitious target, with the potential to ensnare his presidency in unmet promises.
...
Even with vaccine shortages and bottlenecks in delivery, the pace needed to meet the new administration’s goal — 1 million doses administered per day — was already achieved Friday and four other days of the previous eight, according to Washington Post data. The accelerating speed of the program undercuts assertions by some Biden advisers that they were left no plan by the Trump administration and suggests they need only to keep their feet on the pedal to clear the bar they set for themselves.
...
To ensure success, top Biden aides have presented unflattering portraits of the state of the immunization campaign begun by their predecessors and promised to overhaul the use of the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law used to compel production of critical items.

But the Trump administration used the law 18 times in relation to vaccine production, according to current and former officials.
...
On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Trump administration had averaged about 500,000 vaccinations a day — half the 1 million daily needed to meet Biden’s target. But the seven-day average has risen steadily, from 482,865 two weeks ago to 1,022,342 Friday, according to Post data.

Before leaving the administration Wednesday, Paul Mango, former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, said he looked at the numbers and saw that nearly 3.5 million vaccinations had been completed over the previous 72 hours.

“We’re averaging 1.1 million a day now,” he said. “They would have to slow down not to meet their target.”
...
That means that if the Biden administration were to oversee the administration of only 100 million shots in its first 100 days, a sizable portion of the projected supply would remain on the shelves. More important, 1 million vaccinations per day is not nearly enough if the aim is to halt virus transmission in six months, said Peter J. Hotez, a vaccine scientist at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/22/biden-vaccine-100-million-doses/

The Facts

Biden has taken more executive action in his first week in office than his immediate predecessors and many of those orders have been aimed at reversing Trump-era policies.

The Economist noted on January 22 that Biden had signed more executive orders in two days than Trump had in two months and was setting a record pace, while NBC News lists 40 executive actions up to January 26.

(Feb 4, 2021 03:38 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: The American people are suffering because Biden hates Trump?  Hate for one man and his policies override what’s good for the USA?

(Feb 4, 2021 04:26 AM)Syne Wrote:

(Feb 4, 2021 03:38 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: The American people are suffering because Biden hates Trump?  Hate for one man and his policies override what’s good for the USA?

It's not just that he hates Trump. Biden is an elitist career politician whose spent his life sucking at the taxpayer teat and never producing anything of value himself. As such, he believes the people only exist to enrich himself, and he will pander to those who can help him do that, i.e. other corrupt politicians and global powers, like China. IOW, he will sell out the American people and economy to the highest bidder...who will launder money back into his own pockets through his relatives.

(Feb 4, 2021 04:58 AM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: If he’s worth his salt, Biden will have to grow some balls and break pre-election promises, for the good of Americans. Keystone was not just for pipeline workers but for an army of spin-off workers plus tax dollars. 

 I heard it’s a $27trillion debt your holding. Don’t have to look any farther than Wall St. Hedge funds to see where a lot of it has gone. Right in the pockets of billionaires and millionaires exploiting retail investors, pension funds etc. Destroying many a company with their big bank buddies. As of 2019 hedge funds had assets of $3.2 trillion not even counting the rich fat cats who exploit the system. Problem is govt knows the illegalities of hedge fund practices but does nothing to stop it.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Naked-Short-Selling-The-Truth-Is-Much-Worse-Than-You-Have-Been-Told.html