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You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Something to Celebrate

Something to Celebrate

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I wouldn’t just say this is a big deal.  Seems like a big Joe Biden deal to me!  No wonder the Rs want to hobble the IRS.

And this!  (CNN)  It wasn’t that long ago that people were saying this couldn’t happen.

Although this requires legislation like the REPO Act, which surely can’t pass until we win back the House and keep the senate.  Still, it’s a big deal that he has been working toward this.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  This is a good reminder that even when it looks like noting is being done, there’s a lot of groundwork that happens before we even see the tip of the iceberg.

Top Biden administration officials have spent the last year quietly trying to figure out how to divert billions of dollars in frozen Russian money to cash-starved Ukraine.

The proposal the US has hit on, described in detail here for the first time, is based on a novel legal theory to justify seizing and transferring to Ukraine the roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets which have been frozen in the West since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“The White House and the US government believe Russia should be on the hook for paying for all of the damage and destruction they have caused in Ukraine,” a US official said.

But the rare maneuver would require buy-in from US allies in the Group of 7 (G7) to have a real impact, officials said. The vast majority of Russia’s central bank assets that were frozen by the G7 and the European Union are held by the EU, with the US only holding around $5 billion worth, officials told CNN.

It would also require Congress to pass a bill introduced last year, called the REPO Act, that gives the president authority to move forward with seizing Russian assets held in the US.

Senior Biden officials have been working both with G7 allies – which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the EU – and US lawmakers to refine the proposal, which rests on the idea that nations affected by Russia’s violations are permitted under international law to try to force Moscow back into compliance using the law of countermeasures.

The issue has taken on new significance as Congress continues to balk at the White House’s request for billions in supplemental funding to help support Ukraine’s war effort. But US officials insist that the initiative is not a substitute for the $61 billion the administration says it needs now for Ukraine.

The discussions have intensified ahead of the second anniversary of the war on February 22, multiple officials told CNN. The US proposal was discussed among senior leaders at meetings of the G7 in November and December, a US official said, and will be reviewed again at the next G7 meeting at the end of February, around the anniversary.

The US has emphasized to allies that the seizures would be done for a “very specific legal reason,” one of the officials told CNN, and not one that is so broad that it risks spooking financial institutions with assets held overseas—a key concern of some G7 allies, including Germany, which has led to some hesitation over the US proposal, officials added.

With the Biden administration, it seems like nothing is off the table,   We have to have faith.  Not blind faith, but faith in the people who are doing the work.  The Rs and the courts throw up roadblocks, and the administration comes up with another way.  Very proud of Biden as our president, and proud of (nearly) all of the Biden Administration.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    Edmund dantes

    Hmmm… 900 million they refused to pay, and yet Hunter Biden is the only one up on felony tax charges for eventually paying his taxes. Seems right…

  3. 3.

    Baud

    When I see the fight over IRS funding, it makes me wonder what happened to all the Occupy Wall Street folks.

  4. 4.

    lollipopguild

    “Thinking out of the box” is a classic cliche but it seems to be something that the Biden folks seem pretty good at.

  5. 5.

    H.E.Wolf

     We have to have faith. Not blind faith, but faith in the people who are doing the work.

    I appreciate this reminder. Thank you!

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @lollipopguild: As my mother always said:

    If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

    Seems like the Biden administration learned that, too.  Unlike the MAGAs.  No need to distinguish between “regular Republicans” and MAGAs anymore.

    The regular Republicans picked a side.  Big mistake.

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    And the imbecile Vivek wants to abolish not just the IRS, but also the Center for Disease Control. It’s not like the CDC has ever really been necessary, right? Of course most of these loons want Dr. Fauci locked up as well. A deeply unhealthy party.

  8. 8.

    Hoodie

    @Baud: Too mundane that you simply make them pay taxes they clearly owed.   A lot of the appeal of stuff like Occupy was the sexy futility of it.  I’m beginning to think a lot of people actually enjoy the feeling of doom, especially if they’re not actually doomed.

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Hoodie: I’m beginning to think a lot of people actually enjoy the feeling of doom, especially if they’re not actually doomed.

    I agree.

  13. 13.

    RevRick

    WaterGirl, I can only assume you were so thrilled with the news that you got carried away with the mixed metaphors. Rome. Groundwork. Tip of the iceberg. Kind of made my head spin.
    But, yes, the Biden administration leaves no stone unturned, laying the foundation for impressive quadruple axels.

    And yes, I can be a pedantic jerk.

  15. 15.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Hoodie: I’m beginning to think a lot of people actually enjoy the feeling of doom, especially if they’re not actually doomed.

    When I dream, I occasionally enter “haunted” spaces that fill me with a sense of dread. I enjoy these dreams. They’re invigorating.

    If I want that sensation during my waking hours, I’ll watch a movie or get on a rollercoaster. Hamstringing good public servants is too slow to be exciting and too consequential to be a reasonable source of entertainment.

    Then again, I’m not a sadist.

  19. 19.

    Ryan

    “the IRS has collected more than $500 million from ~900 millionaires”

     

    And, my God, look at how little we’re settling for!  Less than half a million each!

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    the second anniversary of the war on February 22

    February 24 (there, February 23 here). I remember because it’s my mother’s birthday.

    Are there no fact checkers??!

    No, there are no fact checkers. (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    @Hoodie:

    A lot of the appeal of stuff like Occupy was the sexy futility of it.  I’m beginning to think a lot of people actually enjoy the feeling of doom, especially if they’re not actually doomed.

    The Occupy Wall Street Movement was 60 days in 2011. I’m sure that most people involved then have moved on. Some of the issues raised about income Inequality have become social policy positions.

    I’m sure that some people felt that the March on Washington was empty symbolism.

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC:

    And the imbecile Vivek wants to abolish not just the IRS, but also the Center for Disease Control.

    Wow. He’s even more of an idiot than Rick “Oops!” Perry.

  26. 26.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    Most of the people I knew from the BC Occupy movement, have gone on to become prominent Social Justice Warriors, from Land Back to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank to Farm Workers, TFW’s and International Students employment rights.

  27. 27.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: Well, lot of groundwork and tip of the iceberg certainly qualifies. Rome gets included by proximity.
    All of them obviously involve progression. Rome is the finished product of quarrying marble, constructing aqueducts, and erecting temples. Groundwork involves clearing the site, laying the foundation, and installing hookups for plumbing and electricity. The tip of the iceberg is the end result of glaciers melting and calving off chunks into the sea.
    In other words, I saw where you were going with them. But my ADHD brain got more focused on them, then the point you were making. Suddenly, I was in a madcap Marx brothers movie. But that’s me.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    Biden is raising a lot of money. It’s a mystery to me because according to political media he has no supporters. Millions of people are sending him 5 and 10 dollar donations because they loathe him.

  31. 31.

    Hoodie

    @mrmoshpotato: I’d say it’s more that he wants attention and doesn’t care how he gets it.  He’s like a lot of glibertarians, a bright guy who grew up in a well off family and avoided consequences for most things.  Consequences are for lesser beings.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    Via reddit

     

    A Northern Virginia county acknowledged it underreported President Joe Biden’s margin of victory over Donald Trump there in the 2020 presidential election by about 4,000 votes, the first detailed accounting of errors that came to light in 2022 as part of a criminal case

  37. 37.

    TBone

    @Baud: I’m still here advocating for the 99% and doing what I can via donations and my loud mouth.  I call my selective contributions “tithing.”

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    Apropos of the “hope” discussion in the thread below, RIP Lev Rubinstein, great Russian poet.
    WaPo:
    Last March, Mr. Rubinstein signed an open letter against the invasion of Ukraine.

    “Any war is terrible not only because it is very easy to start and very difficult to end. It is terrible not only because people die and cities get destroyed. In war, people’s souls are destroyed and distorted, and the consequences of a war are at times disastrous even for the generations that come after,” Mr. Rubinstein said of the war.

    “There is an old lady who, of course, looks bad now, but you shouldn’t forget about her. Her name is hope,” Mr. Rubinstein said in an interview last year with independent Russian-language media outlet Meduza. “And you should turn to her from time to time because she is built into the human psyche. You have to have hope and do what you can to the best of your ability.”

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … Electoral-Vote.com:

    Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has been there, as he has visited all of Iowa’s 99 counties and Waterloo is the most populous city in Black Hawk County. Unfortunately for him, it is also one of the bluest counties in the state and has been so for decades. So his visit was quick and pro forma, just to check a box on the way to somewhere more promising. But tonight he is likely to meet the other Waterloo—you know, the place in Belgium that Napoleon visited on June 18, 1815 and was later quite sorry he did, since that was the end of the line for him.

    Everyone was waiting for Ann Selzer to release her final poll of tonight’s Iowa caucuses. She is considered the best Iowa pollster in the business, but even she gets it wrong sometimes. And the very cold temperatures expected for tonight could also impact turnout (and her prediction). On the other hand, the expected blizzard doesn’t seem to have materialized, with the forecast now being for very cold temperatures (ca. -6F) but no blizzard for most of the state.

    So here are her results: Donald Trump 48%, Nikki Haley 20%, and Ron DeSantis 16%. If Trump gets 48%, that will be the highest score for a non-incumbent Republican ever. Even more important is that Selzer has DeSantis in third place.

    […]

    “Uuuge, Uuuge Bigly Victory! Only more than half of the GQP rejected me – your favorite president – in this very conservative state. etc., etc.”

    Watch the spin that comes out this evening. It might not be as crooked as the 1904 olympic marathon, but one never knows…

    Fred Lorz led the 32 starters from the gun, but by the first mile Thomas Hicks edged ahead. William Garcia of California nearly became the first fatality of an Olympic marathon we he collapsed on the side of the road and was hospitalized with hemorrhaging; the dust had coated his esophagus and ripped his stomach lining. Had he gone unaided an hour longer he might have bled to death. John Lordon suffered a bout of vomiting and gave up. Len Tau, one of the South African participants, was chased a mile off course by wild dogs. Félix Carvajal trotted along in his cumbersome shoes and billowing shirt, making good time even though he paused to chat with spectators in broken English. On one occasion he stopped at a car, saw that its occupants were eating peaches, and asked for one. Being refused, he playfully snatched two and ate them as he ran. A bit further along the course, he stopped at an orchard and snacked on some apples, which turned out to be rotten. Suffering from stomach cramps, he lay down and took a nap. Sam Mellor, now in the lead, also experienced severe cramping. He slowed to a walk and eventually stopped. At the nine-mile mark cramps also plagued Lorz, who decided to hitch a ride in one of the accompanying automobiles, waving at spectators and fellow runners as he passed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  46. 46.

    Kristine

    @Omnes Omnibus: @WaterGirl: @Hoodie:

    I think the futility is a necessary part of it. That way, the solution is a perfect one, every individual’s untouched, uncompromised dream. Add in reality with a capital R, and you need to deal with negotiation, compromise, the inevitable unforeseen, the final product that even when workable is no one’s perfect solution.

    I often wonder if any of these folks ever had to negotiate anything ever. Where to grab lunch? Whose turn to do the dishes?

  50. 50.

    Princess

    @Another Scott: Interesting. I don’t think there is any reasonable cause to regard Trump as anything but an incumbent however. It’s just that people who lose the presidency after one year don’t usually run again (has it ever happened?)

    But if I were a bettor, I’d bet he does better than that. I think non-Trump voters will be more inclined to stay home.

  51. 51.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay: I love how small-dollar contributions are powering the Biden-Harris juggernaut!

    97% of contributions have been less than $200

    Record-breaking total, most money raised for any campaign at this point (?)

    Very low percentage of donors “maxed out” – they can keep raising money from us for the rest of the campaign

    Unlike TFG, the Biden-Harris campaign does not need to divert millions to legal bills to defend their candidate from criminal charges (local, state, and federal)!

  55. 55.

    RevRick

    @Princess: Grover Cleveland.

    Henry Clay and William Jennings Bryan were three time losers.
    Thomas Dewey and Adlai Stevenson both lost twice.

    Nixon lost, then won.

  57. 57.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl:

    I think for some people, deciding on doom is more tolerable than uncertainty of not knowing. 

    Yes this. Bad news is difficult, and it’s even more difficult when it’s a shock.

  61. 61.

    gene108

    @Princess:

    It’s just that people who lose the presidency after one year don’t usually run again (has it ever happened?)

    Grover Cleveland

    Edit: He won his first contest for President. In his re-election bid, he lost the EC, but won the popular vote. It was also the last election where the popular vote winner did not win the EC until 2000. He won a second term. Only President to serve two non-continuous terms in office.

  65. 65.

    Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Princess:  Well he diddn’t lose his 1904 election, but agter leaving office voluntarily in 1909 for his hand-picked successor W.H.Taft, he did try to get the repbulican nomination again in 1912 and failed and then did the 3rd party thing unsuccessfully.

  66. 66.

    TheOtherJerome

    @Baud: Haven’t posted here in years. But we all get in our silos.  That is something ive been recently focused on being careful of. So if its a trumper, Liberal or Centrist, I want to make sure im not railing against a caricature of who they actually are.

    And so, as an SoCal Occupier (even if it was just for a few days) ill answer. Occupy was over 14 years ago. The ones I know, spend their time voting for the left most viable candidate in  elections. Working. Living family-ish lives. Citizen stuff.

  67. 67.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: I think my own inclination toward pessimism comes from having had a lot of trouble regulating my emotional reaction to bad news when I was younger. It was like a physical punch in the gut. I also had an extreme startle reflex to the point that bullies would go out of their way to provoke it for entertainment.

    The only way to deal with all of this was to try my best to anticipate the next bad thing that might happen, and think through worst-case scenarios all the time.

  69. 69.

    Citizen Alan

    @Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): “Unsuccessfully” is a relative term given the fact that he came in 2nd ahead of Taft.  One of my favorite “What if” questions is about the 1912 presidential election and where we would be today if Roosevelt had actually won the GOP primary and gone on to beat Wilson. By modern standards, both of them had serious flaws, but Wilson was, IMO, the worst of the two. Plus, a third term for Roosevelt would have had significant implications for whether we entered WW1.

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