A Very Good Week For So-Called Sleepy Old Joe

It's been a very good week for Sleepy old Joe, who isn't so sleepy after all. 

First and foremost: today's jobs report, which is off the charts. 

Unemployment is at a 50-year low, at 3.5%, and 528,000 jobs were added this month.For all you arm-chair economists out there, you simply can not have that level of job growth and call this a recession. 

"The economy is not falling into recession," Brian Bethune, an economist at Boston College, told USA Today. "It is actually picking up speed as demand for services accelerates in a post COVID-19 environment."

It was also announced this week that gas prices are down for the seventh straight week and are on track to sink by about 20 percent from June’s $5.02-per-gallon peak to a national average of $4; some states are already below that marker. 

 

Refreshingly, the first gas station in the country to dip below $3 a gallon is in deep-red Oklahoma City. As of Friday morning, Gas Buddy shows that three stations along Mustang Road – two near Southwest 15th Street and another near Reno Avenue – have regular gas for $2.97. 

 

President Biden also ordered a military strike this week that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the torturing, monstrous leader of Al-Qaeda and successor of Osama bin Laden. This is of course huge news. Sleepy Old Joe got it done.

Also this week, after literally years of fighting over support for veterans who were sick because of the toxins they endured while on active duty, the PACT Act to expand healthcare coverage for veterans was finally passed.

 

But it came after Republicans cynically tried to dump the legislation. As a result, they were publicly blasted by just about everyone who cares about our veterans, and the GOP Senators, with collective tail between collective legs, changed their mind. 

 

Well, all but 11 Senators, that is. Here are the 11 GOP Senators who refused to help our veterans. For all of my Republican friends, remember these names. If you vote for any of these guys in November, you might as well just stop saying you support our most in-need veterans, because you don't:

 

Pat Toomey (Pa), Rand Paul (Ky), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Thom Tillis (NC), James Lankford (Okla), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo), James Risch (Idaho), Mitt Romney (Utah), Richard Shelby (Ala), and Tonny Tuberville (Ala).

Biden got this done. Period. Because he actually cares about our veterans, unlike the other party, which too often pays lip service and uses veterans as political chess pieces. Or, in the case of most of these Republican lawmakers, checkers!

 

Biden is also preparing to pass the Inflation Reduction Act this weekend. This sweeping bill will bring prescription drug costs down, provide free vaccines for seniors, offer generous tax credits for electric vehicles, and much more. 

 

Its primary aim is to create more than 1 million jobs and substantially reduce inflation. The bill will enact historic deficit reduction that will fight inflation, as well as:

 

 • Lower energy costs, increases cleaner production, and reduces carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030 ;

 

• Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and caps out-of-pocket costs to $2,000;

 

• Lower ACA health care premiums for millions of American families;

 

• And make the biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.

 

It should also be noted that in this bill there are zero new tax burdens on families making $400,000 or less and no new taxes on small businesses.

Also this week, a bipartisan majority of voters from Kansas - yes, KANSAS - voted to defend abortion rights, which Biden vocally supported. 

 

Politico's Playbook called what happened in Kansas “A POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE” and said the victory was “stunning”.

And finally, The House of Representatives passed a ban on semi-automatic firearms — the weapons used in multiple mass shootings during the last three months — on a near party-line vote.

 

Only two Republicans voted for it, and only five Democrats voted against it. 

 

Again, the Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue. Regarding this bill, Rep. Jim Jordan, a Ohio Republican, accused Democrats of “coming for your guns.”

 

But Jordan is lying, again.  

 

Rep. Deborah Ross, a North Carolina Democrat, said that the bill simply "prevents future sales of assault rifles,” and added that the weapons are “not designed for recreation, they’re designed for combat.” 

 

In a statement from the White House, a spokesman said, "40,000 Americans die from gunshot wounds every year and guns have become the top killer of children in the United States. As President Biden has repeatedly called for, we must do more to stop this gun violence and save lives."

You go, sleepy old Joe. Biden is a good man. Period. And is there anything more important than that? Despite relentless attacks, he continues to do the right thing, on multiple fronts. We're ALL getting older and a little sleepier, but that doesn't mean we can't still be very, very effective. You go, Joe!