As the Republican Party’s blockade of aid to Ukraine drags into its fourth month, the U.S. government under Pres. Joe Biden has found a clever new way to give Ukraine’s forces the weapons and ammunition they need to defend their country.
It is, in essence, an American version of Germany’s circular weapons trade—the so-called Ringtausch. The United States is gifting older surplus weapons to Greece with the understanding that Greece donates to Ukraine some of its own surplus weapons.
Greek media broke the news last week. According to the newspaper Kathimerini and other media, the Biden administration offered the Greek government three 87-foot Protector-class patrol boats, two Lockheed Martin C-130H airlifters, 10 Allison T56 turboprop engines for Lockheed P-3 patrol planes plus 60 M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and a consignment of transport trucks.
All this hardware is U.S. military surplus—and is available to Greece, free of charge, under a U.S. legal authority called “excess defense articles.” Federal law allows an American president to declare military systems surplus to need, assign them a value—potentially zero dollars—and give them away on the condition that the recipient transport them.
The whole appropriations stuff really puts a crimp on executive power when it comes to expenditures. It’s fundamentally different from moving stuff around.
This.
It was always a white lie to claim the US was sending Ukraine billions in aid. The Democrats liked to pump up the numbers, because supporting Ukraine was and is politically popular. And the spending bills also contained nice pork for the military industrial complex.
But it has almost exclusively been old stock being sent. Stuff that is very valuable, since no other Ukrainian ally has the huge stockpiles that the USA has, but it was always worth much less than it was being billed for.
Now Biden is following a more boring, but more honest (in accounting terms) procedure.
Similar to what the Germans did.
As for helping Americans, he has also explored every possibility to reduce debt and prescription drug costs and to invest in infrastructure.
For example, much more has been spent on student loan forgiveness than on Ukraine.
For student loan forgiveness, I believe the tally is $137B. And that is real cash. For Ukraine the total is $75B, but a lot of that is pumped up valuations of old military stock. The actual value of what Ukraine received is closer to $40B
And replacing the old stock with newer, better kit will result in equivalent or more being spent inside America.
He has literal campaign promises he can fulfill without congress…
He’s been “looking into” them since assuming office, because he’s doesn’t really want to do them.
Cannabis can be descheduled in a day if he wanted too. Instead he pardons people but leaves it federally illegal.
While saying that forgiving student debt without fixing the cost of college wouldn’t fix anything.
Even tho that’s what he’s doing with cannabis users.
There’s no consistent logic to Bidens actions, he just does whatever he wants to do, and if he doesn’t want to do it, he says a president has no power and can’t do anything.
If people believe him, then it depresses turnout because the literal president keeps telling voters the president doesn’t matter. If they don’t, it still depresses turnout because people think Biden specifically won’t do anything.
The solution is the same it’s been since before FDR:
Try to help Americans and the votes will follow.
He has the DEA reevaluating what schedule it is classed as. He does not have authority to make it legal. Again laws.
He tried to forgive significant student loan debt for everyone and got stopped by SCOTUS. He still has forgiven a lot of debt but it takes work to figure out who he can do it for without congressional approval and the SCOTUS ruling. Student loans are also based in laws that he can’t as easily bypass.
He is trying to help Americans and he has. Not as much we’d like but a hell of a lot more than the GOP.
The president is not a dictator.
He can’t make it federally legal.
But he can remove it from the federal schedule, which is why it’s illegal.
Then it would default to being federally legal.
Try to get nicer tho, I almost didn’t take the time to explain that for you.
Edit:
The biggest reason to vote Biden is trump would be a dictator if elected…
Biden himself says that.
It’s hard to convince voters Dem presidents have no power, but Republican presidents would have all the power so we need to vote D so nothing can fundemantally change.
The logic doesn’t add up, and that’s why 1/3 of Americans don’t vote.
Because they are know nothings?
Republicans break the laws. Democrats don’t.
But democrats don’t hold Republicans accountable for breaking the law…
So saying Biden cant" do anything is wrong.
Like, imagine your playing a game with a toddler, and the toddler constantly cheats but you let them because they cry if you don’t.
If it’s just a game, sure, let them have their way.
But if you bet 100 million dollars on the game, you need to either stop them from cheating, or bare minimum start cheating too. Because even tho you’re playing against a literal toddler, if you follow the rules and let them cheat, you ain’t going to win the fucking game.
Edit:
And Biden can’t really claim that high ground when he just went around Congress to “sell” Israel weapons that are being used to commit a genocide, especially when the money they used to “buy” the weapons came from American taxpayers anyways.
I think the social liberals have always been the leaders on anti corruption practices. We don’t do enough. Change starts at the bottom though. Biden is not going to reform the DNC. That’s what the primary will be for four years from now, assuming we don’t end up with a dictator who cancels elections.
Maybe you should review what each branch of the US government can do, plus follow the news on things the President attempts
I have
Biden can order it be removed from the federal drug schedule. It being on that schedule is why it’s federally illegal
It’s what he said he’d do “decriminalization”.
But instead of doing that when he took office, he backtracked and has been “looking into if he can do that” for a couple years now…
Government process is slow, but it looks like Biden is pursuing pardons for pot convictions and trying to get states to do the same, as well as fix their laws. I also see a bill that passed in the house to reschedule marijuana but blocked by Republican filibuster in the senate.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/06/statement-from-president-biden-on-marijuana-reform/
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/us/politics/marijuana-legalization.html
It doesn’t have to be…
It can be descheduled in a day if Biden wanted to.
Instead he told people to “look into it”
Like, let’s say I owed you a $100, and everytime you asked me, I said I was looking into it.
Then three years after that, I said:
That would be true. But it’s also bullshit because I’m the one slowing it down and if I really wanted to I could just hand you the hundred bill I’ve had in my pocket for three years…
Biden can not unilaterally deschedule or reschedule a controlled substance. He can do what he is doing, by pressuring the DEA, HHS and FDA to deschedule it, but without congress approval he can not use a executive order to reschedule Marijuana as per the controlled substance act
I think Elizabeth Warren knows more about this than either of us…
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-urge-biden-administration-deschedule-marijuana-rcna136241
The DEA can do it, and Biden can tell the DEA to do it.
So when Biden defenders claims he can’t, it’s like when billionaire defenders say CEOs can’t raise wages.
They can they just don’t want to.
Hell, Biden just ordered every federal agency to return to office, I don’t know why anyone would think federal agencies are above the president in the chain of command, but when it’s convient a whole bunch of people love to say it…
But also, we have to vote Biden because if we don’t trump will be president and in charge of every federal agency!
This shit is fucking old man.
In your linked article it says the DEA has final authority, the president does not have the power to tell federal agencies what to do, he can make suggestions or pressure them. Even the “biden ordered every federal agency to return to office” is bull shit. He suggested returning to office but each agency can do what they want, and they have since many agencies have no plans to return to office.
Tell me you don’t understand American politics without telling me you don’t understand American politics, why don’t ya?