Top Three Takeaways – January 25th, 2021
- Unity? What Unity? On Friday I ended my top three takeaways by saying this... The next 48 hours will prepare us for what we can expect for the next 48 months. That was specifically in reference to whether President Biden would lead on his unity message by calling for a dismissal of the impeachment trial in the Senate. As I cited, the first and best way for President Biden to lead on unity would be to stop exploiting the differences Americans feel. There’s no doubt but that many Trump supporters will only grow more disenchanted with an impeachment trial of Donald Trump after he’s out of office. For that matter, it’d would only serve to further cement the divide many Democrats feel towards Trump supporters. Moreover, any time taken by the Senate on a trial is time directly diverted from confirming Biden administration officials, judges and working on the legislative agenda. Yet mum’s the word from President Biden on this issue as the article of impeachment makes its way to the Senate today. To the extent it’s been addressed he’s indicated it’s up to the Senate. Not exactly the words of a leader who intends to unite. In fact, the only related news on unity vs division over the weekend was the later. President Biden removed the bust of the Great Winston Churchill from the Oval Office upsetting numerous English officials.
- Illegals first? In the vein of policy that stops you in your tracks and makes you think “say what?!” comes this little nugget out of team Biden. In today’s Q&A I describe the change in priority for COVID vaccines in detail and with full context. Here’s the short version. The Biden administration has stated that going forward federally distributed vaccinations (currently the Pfizer vaccine program) will be administered “without consideration of one’s immigration status”. There are countless times in my career I’ve investigated policy only to have a say what!? kind of moment. It’s not new for there to be policy which seems to be the exact opposite of what’s obviously right and just. This is the latest. And with COVID vaccines in limited supply relative to demand, you might say a matter of life and death as well. Here we have the Biden administration engaging in policy in which taxpayer funded vaccinations are to be delivered to illegal immigrants equitably. We literally could have Americans, Floridians, who can’t obtain a COVID vaccination, contract the virus and die while illegal immigrants are vaccinated.
- Change you can believe in. So here we are just days into the Biden administration and indeed we have change you can believe in. The border wall construction has stopped. Thousands of jobs lost through the ending of the Keystone XL pipeline. Gas prices meaningfully higher already on the basis of lower future energy supplies and increased regulation. Illegal immigrants who can be vaccinated ahead of Americans. But hey, at least Trump is going to go through a Senate impeachment trial. That’ll make your life better, right? There are two sides to stories and one side of facts. Biden is enacting change you can believe in. Many aspects of it, however, seem unbelievable.
Photo Credit: Getty Images