The Biden Presidency

Twitter wants him to resign. Are these the usual keyboard warriors or is it actually strong consensus?
 
Twitter is the most overemphasised medium. It doesn't reflect strong consensus which is evident by the fact the majority of political candidates who are really popular on there tend to lose elections and often not in a close manner. I remember election day 2019 and the sidebar of trending items were all pro-Corbyn and/or anti-Tory but then it turned out the Tories got the biggest landslide in 80 years and the youth turnout was actually mediocre. Youth being the one thing Twitter has going for it. It's not representative.

I'm not discounting social media as a medium but Facebook is way more representative than Twitter and certainly more powerful - and Facebook itself is not very representative. The fact that the UK has almost 80% fully vaccinated is a relief because the online social media makes anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists far bigger than what they really are. On my local council's facebook page a post to update people with information was inundated with anti-vaxxers yet according to the tracker 72% of people in my ward have got their first dose and 64% have got their second dose. Those people are just a really loud minority.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map/vaccinations
 
entropy said:
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They kind of already did. The rescue plan has billions of dollars set aside for rental assistance. The process is apparently confusing and does not apply to everyone, but money is there. The infuriating thing is that states, red and blue, are failing in helping people with this. This is the way to do it, not a moratorium, as it allows apartment/house owners to get revenue as well.

EMERGENCY RENTAL ASSISTANCE
An underlying consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is that household stability is not just a financial security issue, but also a health concern. As the country entered the throes of the crisis, many cities and states began creating or expanding rental assistance programs to support at-risk households. The December appropriations bill provided $25 billion of federal relief to be administered by the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program for disbursement to existing state and local government programs. The American Rescue Plan nearly doubles the initial funding to expand the reach and impact of the existing ERA program, taking additional steps to mitigate the financial harm caused by the pandemic and keeping Americans safe as the country addresses the virus.

The American Rescue Plan provides $21.6 billion for states, territories, and local governments to assist households that are unable to pay rent and utilities due to the COVID-19 crisis. This includes:

  • A minimum of $152 million for each state and the District of Columbia;
  • $305 million for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa;
  • $2.5 billion for payments to “high-need grantees,” locations with an urgent need for assistance when factoring conditions such as change in employment, concentration of very low-income renters, and rental market costs
As a result of the American Rescue Plan, states and localities across the country will be better armed to provide relief and assistance to those vulnerable households. The new funding will leverage existing program structures, allowing for money to be disbursed quickly and efficiently to on the ground emergency programs, and ensuring this country’s hardest-hit families to receive their equitable share of relief.
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FACT SHEET: The American Rescue Plan Will Deliver Immediate Economic Relief to Families | U.S. Department of the Treasury
 
WI_Red said:
They kind of already did. The rescue plan has billions of dollars set aside for rental assistance. The process is apparently confusing and does not apply to everyone, but money is there. The infuriating thing is that states, red and blue, are failing in helping people with this. This is the way to do it, not a moratorium, as it allows apartment/house owners to get revenue as well.


FACT SHEET: The American Rescue Plan Will Deliver Immediate Economic Relief to Families | U.S. Department of the Treasury
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Landlords refuse to accept these funds as ‘rent’ and most states are doing a terrible job of handing them out. These funds are barely being utilized.
 
WI_Red said:
They kind of already did. The rescue plan has billions of dollars set aside for rental assistance. The process is apparently confusing and does not apply to everyone, but money is there. The infuriating thing is that states, red and blue, are failing in helping people with this. This is the way to do it, not a moratorium, as it allows apartment/house owners to get revenue as well.


FACT SHEET: The American Rescue Plan Will Deliver Immediate Economic Relief to Families | U.S. Department of the Treasury
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A moratorium means that the owning class gets their payment later (and the renting class gets thrown into jail later), not that they will never get it.
 
entropy said:
Landlords refuse to accept these funds as ‘rent’ and most states are doing a terrible job of handing them out. These funds are barely being utilized.
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That makes absolutely zero difference since the money will then go directly to the renters as cash who can then turn around and use it for rent.

Agree with the second sentence.
 
berbatrick said:
A moratorium means that the owning class gets their payment later (and the renting class gets thrown into jail later), not that they will never get it.
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That is a stupid term. Not all landlords are billionaire or even millionaire hedge funds. Many small complexes are owned by individuals who are using the rent as their retirement income or income in general. They still have mortgages to pay and upkeep to maintain.
 
WI_Red said:
That makes absolutely zero difference since the money will then go directly to the renters as cash who can then turn around and use it for rent.

Agree with the second sentence.
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No. The landlord can still can refuse the rent and evict them. This is why a moratorium is more effective than rental assistance programs.
 
entropy said:
No. The landlord can still can refuse the rent and evict them. This is why a moratorium is more effective than rental assistance programs.
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Sure, the landlord can evict them provided specific, legal, conditions are met, but the renter still gets the cash directly from the rescue plan to be used for rent elsewhere. Meanwhile the landlord has an empty unit. I am not saying it is perfect, but neither is an indefinite moratorium which will take months to even implement.
 
WI_Red said:
That is a stupid term. Not all landlords are billionaire or even millionaire hedge funds. Many small complexes are owned by individuals who are using the rent as their retirement income or income in general. They still have mortgages to pay and upkeep to maintain.
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Actually, that number seems to be diminishing as investment companies start seeing housing as a great investment, and some companies now have huge international housing 'portfolios'. Maybe laws should start reflecting that.
 
Cheimoon said:
Actually, that number seems to be diminishing as investment companies start seeing housing as a great investment, and some companies now have huge international housing 'portfolios'. Maybe laws should start reflecting that.
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True, and not just apartments but housing as well. If the laws were able to distinguish between a hedge fund and people like my friends parents (a retired mechanic and a stay at home mom who own a 5 unit apartment complex and use it as their only retirement income) then it would make sense. I doubt it currently does though. What you touch on though is quite worrying though. Investors snatching up houses is crushing inventory and jacking up prices for homebuyers. On my team call yesterday my California team members all commented that they could not buy their current houses now if they had to. It's insane.
 
WI_Red said:
Sure, the landlord can evict them provided specific, legal, conditions are met, but the renter still gets the cash directly from the rescue plan to be used for rent elsewhere. Meanwhile the landlord has an empty unit. I am not saying it is perfect, but neither is an indefinite moratorium which will take months to even implement.
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I mean…they are evicting them. This isn't an imaginary scenario. It is happening. Also, having an empty unit sits on the market isn’t the same as being rendered homeless in the middle of a pandemic. It’s a terrible false equivalency.
 
WI_Red said:
True, and not just apartments but housing as well. If the laws were able to distinguish between a hedge fund and people like my friends parents (a retired mechanic and a stay at home mom who own a 5 unit apartment complex and use it as their only retirement income) then it would make sense. I doubt it currently does though. What you touch on though is quite worrying though. Investors snatching up houses is crushing inventory and jacking up prices for homebuyers. On my team call yesterday my California team members all commented that they could not buy their current houses now if they had to. It's insane.
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I don't know globally at all, but I know this is really a thing in the Netherlands, and is similar elsewhere: investment companies buy up big bundles of housing, do some general updates, and then put them back on the market for much higher fees (even if existing tenants can stay for their old fee). They'll say they do it to provide great housing for people, but in practice, it takes away big parts of the lower segment of the housing market, putting affordable housing in bigger cities out of reach for lots of people.
 
When you move into a new place it's usually first and last month's rent. Those payments aren't going to cover that.
 
entropy said:
I mean…they are evicting them. This isn't an imaginary scenario. It is happening. Also, having an empty unit sits on the market isn’t the same as being rendered homeless in the middle of a pandemic. It’s a terrible false equivalency.
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It wasn't an attempt a equivalency, just (poorly now that I reread it) pointing out the insanity of landlords evicting people in lieu of accepting rent. An indefinite moratorium, and it needs to be indefinite because who the hell knows when this pandemic is going to be over, is going to be an almost impossible sell in the House, and you can forget the Senate. So it falls back on the executive branch to do something, because Dems in congress are cowards and/or greedy feckers. What the feds can do, but the Biden admin seems to not really care about doing, is providing federal assistance to help people get those funds so they can have something.

None of that is perfect and there are glaring gaps that people are going to fall through. I think an eviction moratorium, coupled with renter assistance, is the way to keep as many people whole as possible. It also does not saddle people with massive rent debts once the moratorium is over, because all the moratorium is doing is pushing rents off till later. Renters will eventually need to pay back the rent or be evicted then.
 
entropy said:
Also, how the feck do you find housing on such short notice??? while waiting for a hail mary that your application is actually processed.
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Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær said:
When you move into a new place it's usually first and last month's rent. Those payments aren't going to cover that.
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Agree with both points. Like I mentioned in the post above, those rents are going to come due at some point, so the assistance program provides a path to ensure eviction is not just delayed, but avoided. A hybrid approach is needed.
 
Wilt said:
So where’s Vice President Harris, conspicuous by her absence?

When the shit hits the fan, she goes missing….
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I haven’t been keeping up much with American politics beyond the latest Afghanistan stuff but I’ve heard precisely zip about her. Strange.
 
matherto said:
I haven’t been keeping up much with American politics beyond the latest Afghanistan stuff but I’ve heard precisely zip about her. Strange.
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She's in Asia, but yeah if she is being groomed to be the successor taking over as the continuation candidate in 4 years, she sure isn't shouldering the responsibility to warrant it.
 
The Firestarter said:
Bit misleading heading though, They need to comply with a court order.
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i don't know if the court can overturn a freeze rather than a pause, and if the court compelled them to say this or to not do the environmental analysis:

In the document, known as a Record of Decision, the administration said a United Nations report that warned earlier this month that climate change was dangerously close to spiraling out of control "does not present sufficient cause" to revise an existing environmental analysis of the offshore lease sale, which was conducted by the Trump administration.
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e - the reporting is really shoddy, it can be pieced together from 3 different articles:

a federal judge in Louisiana determined that it lacked the authority to halt auctions already approved by Congress.

But in June, a Louisiana judge appointed by former president Donald Trump stepped in to rule that the administration required approval from Congress for its pause

Friends of the Earth says the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management used improper modeling to determine not only that new leasing would not contribute to climate change but that it could somehow reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Fearless said:
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the feck is this crap?

MrMarcello said:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/202...n-tax-reform-congress-democrats-moderate.html
Wealthy Lobbyists Have Already Slashed Biden’s Tax Reform by Three-Quarters
Moderate Democrats have quietly knifed the president’s legacy bill.
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“An increase in estate taxes now looks unlikely… Raising the capital gains rate is facing the most internal opposition, and it could end up staying at its current 23.8%.”
Ridiculous that a Dem controlled Presidency, House and Senate can't these super mild reforms passed. raising estate taxes (after the 1 million exemption) should be a no-brainer and it's just insanity that capital gains tax is what it is. No surprise that I, and the rest of the middle class pay a higher percent in taxes than multi-millionaires. They also need to change the unearned income rate but no hope for that either.
 
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