Vote info: https://showthevotes.wordpress.com/
The CHIPS and Science Act and investing in the American people, The Inflation Reduction Act, The PACT Act, The American Rescue Plan, The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, most pro union President in history, keeping our democratic institutions alive, leaving the federal reserve alone and letting them do their job resulting in the strongest inflation recovery of any top nation thus far following a global pandemic, stronger international relations, $136 billion dollars in student loan relief and more student loan relief than all other Presidents combined, appointed more qualified judges to the federal bench than any president since JFK, secured $300 Billion for Green Energy investments and furthering Eco-Friendly policies, huge steps regarding gun control, best stock market in history, record job creation and wage growth, lowest unemployment rate in 54 years, lowest black unemployment rate in history.
2025
28January: Pentagon has revoked the security detail and clearance for retired general Mark Milley, a former top US military commander who has been critical of President Donald Trump.
27Jan: “Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump," a Justice Department official wrote to NBC News. "In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government." These people had worked with Jack Smith on the classified documents case.
Pete Hegseth becomes SecDef in a Friday night vote. McConnell, Murkowski, Collins vote against and Vance breaks tie. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ce8y3yk00yjt
Trump fires at least 14 inspector generals. Senate-confirmed watchdogs at the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, Treasury and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration were ousted.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/24/trump-fire-inspectors-general-federal-agencies/
24Jan2025 Cybersecurity Review Board members fired. Probably stops review of Salt Typhoon. https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/22/trump-administration-fires-members-of-cybersecurity-review-board-in-horribly-shortsighted-decision/
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/dhs-terminates-all-advisory-committees-ends-investigation-chinese-linked-telecom-hack-salt-typhoon/
24Jan: Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow President Donald Trump — and any other future president — to be elected to serve a third term. (though not a president who has already served 2 consecutive terms) https://ogles.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/ogles.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/PIH-OGLES_006%20%28Constitutional%20Amendment%29.pdf
Revokes Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1965: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/
Hilarious "a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.": https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/
21Jan2025: Trump 1) fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration, 2. Fired the entire Aviation Security Advisory Committee, 3. Froze hiring of all Air Traffic Controllers, 4. Fired 100 top FAA security officers." over a period of days. Trump had started the FAA DEI program in 2019. “FAA Provides Aviation Careers to People with Disabilities,” the agency announced on April 11, 2019. The pilot program, the announcement said, would “identify specific opportunities for people with targeted disabilities, empower them and facilitate their entry into a more diverse and inclusive workforce.”
Project 2025 status: https://www.reddit.com/r/Project2025Award/comments/1i6tlov/president_trumps_executive_orders_and_how_they/?share_id=fsrqroaGNH_b5B4jvnUEF&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1
20Jan2025: Tiktok push message: "As a result of President Trump's efforts, Tiktok is back in the U.S."
19Jan2025: $TRUMP cryptocoin appears to have brought in $20b. Coin value started at $6B, then hit $26B and eventually $32B. Value collapsed by $6B on Monday, but the $MELANIA coin then started at $6B. The source wallets are in China, on exchanges that do not operate in the U.S. (Gate and Binance). Coin is 80% owned by Trump. https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1i50yoh/historic_grift_trumps_memecoin_creates_billions/m80tmma/, https://xcancel.com/jgmac1106/status/1880767553402012101#m
Trump appeals court overturns net neutrality. Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC, which ruled that the Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to classify broadband as a “telecommunications' service.” This classification would have granted the FCC the power to enforce the net neutrality rules set forth in its April 2024 Order.
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0002p-06.pdf
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/03/trumplican-6th-circuit-just-killed-net-neutrality-and-whatever-was-left-of-pathetic-u-s-broadband-consumer-protection/
NOTE: net neutrality was repealed by Trump’s FCC head. It was reinstated under Biden, but has since been struck down by an appeals court.. Incoming FCC boss Brendan Carr (R, AT&T) was poised to dismantle the rules anyway. You might remember Brendan from the first Trump FCC’s dismantling of net neutrality, which involved making up a DDOS attack to dismiss public outrage, and turning a blind eye to the industry’s use of dead and fake people to stuff the FCC comment section.
NOTE: Griffin and Kethledge appointed by Bush. Bush appointed by Trump.
Trump rolls back 2021 Biden ethics rules via executive order. rolling back prohibitions on executive branch employees accepting major gifts from lobbyists, and ditching bans on lobbyists seeking executive branch jobs or vice versa, for at least two years.. https://www.oge.gov/Web/OGE.nsf/0/16D49D01588276F985258668004F1094/$FILE/Exec.%20Order%2013989.pdf
2024
Biden overtime rule struck down. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/16/nx-s1-5225448/overtime-rule-pay-raises-ohio-state. On Nov. 15, U.S. District Judge Sean D. Jordan of the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the Labor Department had exceeded its authority in issuing the overtime rule, finding fault with the new salary threshold, which he said was too high, and with the automatic updating. The rule began to be phased in on July 1, when salaried workers earning less than $43,888 a year became automatically eligible to earn overtime, a hefty increase from the previous threshold of $35,568. The more significant jump would have come on Jan. 1, 2025, when that threshold was set to rise to $58,656, with an automatic update every three years based on current wage data.
Biden
Respect for Marriage Act
Chips and Science Act
Inflation Reduction Act
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal
American Rescue Plan
Department of Transportation puts rule in place requiring airlines to refund you for canceled flights.
Short term spending bill passes after Johnson removes Trump's SAVE voter ID act: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/us/congress-spending-deal-johnson.html. Includes $231m for Secret Service. According to the Treasury Department, the United States has spent about $6.3 trillion in fiscal 2024, which ends on Sept. 30.
House Republicans on Wednesday defeated their own plan to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month, with the party divided over the length of a short-term funding bill and what, if anything, should be attached to it. It was an embarrassing blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who had yanked the same funding package off the floor last week amid growing GOP defections, only to watch it collapse on Wednesday in a vote that seemed doomed from the start. The vote was 202-220 with two members voting present. In all, fourteen Republicans voted against the package, and three Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Don Davis of North Carolina — voted for it. Johnson’s plan called for extending funding at current spending levels for six months, through March 2025, and linking it with the SAVE Act, Donald Trump-backed legislation requiring that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote.
House and Senate Democrats’ final report and hearing, investigators concluded that major oil companies had not only misled the public on climate change for decades, but also were continuing to misinform them about the industry’s preferred climate “solutions”— particularly biofuels and carbon capture.
US judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of mishandling classified information, an extraordinary turn of events nearly two years after FBI agents searched his Florida estate for missing national secrets and as he strives to regain the White House. In a 93-page order on Monday, US District Judge Aileen Cannon found that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. Based on text by Supreme Court Justice Thomas in his concurrence with the immunity ruling (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/us/politics/clarence-thomas-special-counsel-appointment.html). Done day after Trump shooting.
The Supreme Court’s June 26, 2024 decision in Snyder v. United States1 significantly limited the scope of a federal law criminalizing bribery by state and local officials, holding that “gratuities” or other things of value given to such officials after taking an official action do not constitute bribery under the statute.
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Loper Bright challenged a program, enacted under the Trump administration, that required the fishing industry to help cover the costs of federal compliance monitors on their boats. The plaintiffs argued that federal law did not clearly authorize the government to seek cost-sharing from fishermen. The Biden administration shut down this program and refunded every cent back to the industry, so there is no live controversy anymore. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court took up the case as a vehicle to target Chevron, a landmark 1984 decision. y a 6–3 vote, the conservative supermajority overruled Chevron v. NRDC, wiping out four decades of precedent that required unelected judges to defer to the expert judgment of federal agencies. The ruling is extraordinary in every way—a massive aggrandizement of judicial power based solely on the majority’s own irritation with existing limits on its authority. After Friday, virtually every decision an agency makes will be subject to a free-floating veto by federal judges with zero expertise or accountability to the people.
in Fischer v. United States, the Supreme Court ignored the clear language of a federal obstruction-of-justice statute to hold that the January 6 rioters who breached Capitol barricades, assaulted police officers, broke doors and windows, and forced members of Congress to flee for their life did not “obstruct or impede” the congressional proceeding to certify the election. This 6–3 decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, can’t be squared with the language of the statute—or with common sense. Because they didn't take documents, despite "otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,"
“Trump v. United States is one of the most, if not the most, authoritarian court opinions I have ever read in U.S. law,” Blake Emerson, professor of law and political science at UCLA, told TPM. “It has a theory that in order for presidents to be able to exercise their responsibilities, they must have absolute power within this certain sphere that can’t be held to criminal account — that’s an unprecedented conclusion.” The landmark Supreme Court ruling granted former presidents wide swaths of criminal immunity. For “core constitutional powers” that immunity is absolute; for foggily defined other official acts, there is “presumptive” immunity — a standard the Court did not bother to define or explain how to overcome.
The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns and was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The high court found 6-3 in Garland et. all vs Cargill that the Trump administration did not follow federal law when it reversed course and banned bump stocks after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault rifles in 2017. He fired more than 1,000 rounds in the crowd in 11 minutes, leaving 60 people dead and injuring hundreds more. A Texas gun shop owner challenged the ban, arguing the Justice Department wrongly classified the accessories as illegal machine guns.
The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to restore regulations that expand government oversight of broadband providersand aim to protect consumer access to the internet, a move that will reignite a long-running battle over the open internet. Known as net neutrality, the regulations were first put in place nearly a decade ago under the Obama administration and are aimed at preventing internet service providers like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or degrading the delivery of services from competitors like Netflix and YouTube. The rules were repealed under President Donald J. Trump,
$95b ($61b for Ukraine, $26b for Israel/Gaza, $8b for Taiwan) military aid plus Tiktok ban https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/20/us/politics/house-foreign-aid-bill.html
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will not hear Mckesson v. Doe. The decision not to hear Mckesson leaves in place a lower court decision that effectively eliminated the right to organize a mass protest in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Under that lower court decision, a protest organizer faces potentially ruinous financial consequences if a single attendee at a mass protest commits an illegal act.
CHNV program: For a little over a year, Biden has used what’s called “parole” authority to collectively allow up to 30,000 vetted Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans per month into the country, mostly via air travel, for a temporary two-year window. Since January 2023, more than “386,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans arrived lawfully and were granted parole under the parole processes,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrote in a February 2024 update. As the Cato Institute reported in September, illegal entries by Venezuelans fell 66% from September 2022 to July 2023 and from December 2022 to July 2023, illegal entries fell 77% for Haitians, 98% for Cubans and 99% for Nicaraguans. Compared with peaks in CHNV numbers in 2021 and 2022, the report added, July 2023 arrests for those four nationalities were down 90%.
House speaker Johnson is still refusing to swear in Tom Suozzi (who recently won George Santos’ old seat), something Johnson apparently did to maintain enough Republican-majority votes to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Supreme Court on Monday restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots, rejecting state attempts to hold the Republican former president accountable for the Capitol riot. The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously reversed a Colorado supreme court ruling barring former President Donald J. Trump from its primary ballot. The opinion is a “per curiam,” meaning it is behalf of the entire court and not signed by any particular justice. However, the three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — filed their own joint opinion concurring in the judgment. While the decision was unanimous, the court’s three liberal justices also wrote separately, saying the conservative majority went too far and decided an issue that was not before the court in an attempt to “insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding office.” The justices said the Constitution does not permit a single state to disqualify a presidential candidate from national office; Congress and only congress must do it. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf
Special Counsel Ben Hur's report on Biden handling of confidential documents. No rec to prosecute. Said in his summary that Biden had memory problems, but per transcripts Although special counsel Robert Hur impugned Joe Biden’s memory in his investigation over whether the president mishandled classified documents, he actually told Biden that he appeared “to have a photographic understanding and recall.” Hur, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who was tapped to lead the Biden probe by Attorney General Merrick Garland, formally stepped down one day before his Tuesday appearance at the request of Republicans led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. https://www.justice.gov/storage/report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024.pdf
Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 (immigration bill) fails 49-50 in Senate. Republicans who had originally championed the bill voted against it due to Trump statements.
H.Res.863 - Impeaching Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, for high crimes and misdemeanors. Republicans tried to schedule the vote while a Rep. Al Green (D - TX) was out having surgery. R = 214 yes, 4 no. D = 212 no. Defeated 214-216.
United States is now producing more oil than any country in history
Since Biden took office, the deficit has decreased by $1.7 trillion.
2023
the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed with the support of 15 Republican senators and 14 Republican House members, opening the door to some hope that laws on gun violence might finally start to reflect the wishes of the majority of the country.
Unemployment is at a record low, with 14 million new jobs.
student loan forgiveness for three million borrowers.
Biden administration also launched a $7 billion solar power investment project.
Biden signs Tiktok ban for government devices
give Medicare the power to directly negotiate with Big Pharma to lower prices and cap the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries at $35.
Job Growth:
2014 = 3m (best in 21st century)
2015 = 2.7m
2017, 2018, 2019 = total 6.4m
2021 = 6.7m jobs
2022 = 4.5m jobs
unemployment rate 6.4% in Jan2021, 3.5% in Jan2022
Biden vetoes bill banning consideration of ESG investments. https://apnews.com/article/house-republicans-veto-override-esg-woke-investment-1fb8a23144d68b59c820c48c34152664. Override fails on 219-200 vote.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday (27March) invoked the Defense Production Act to spend $50 million on domestic and Canadian production of printed circuit boards.
The Supreme Court, in two rulings on June 29, 2023, by a 6-2 vote in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, and a 6-3 vote in Students for Fair Admissions v. the University of North Carolina (UNC), held that race-based affirmative action admission policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional.
Supreme Court strikes down student loan forgiveness on 6-3 vote in Biden v. Nebraska, Republican governors in that state plus Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and South Carolina argued that Biden didn’t have the authority to forgive up to $10,000 in student loans for most borrowers and up to $20,000 for students who had received Pell Grants in college. Biden had used emergency powers granted by Congress in the 2003 Heroes Act to forgive student loans. The Missouri AG case appears to have a fake plaintiff.
In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, Supreme Court rules 6-3 that discrimination against LBGTQ was OK. A web designer in Colorado claimed that a state anti-discrimination law prevented her from entering the wedding website business. The law, designer and plaintiff Lorie Smith said, would forbid her from publishing a statement on her website that included the lines, “I will not be able to create websites for same-sex marriages or any other marriage that is not between one man and one woman. Not only did Stewart have no idea that he was named in a filing in this legal challenge to upend an anti-LGBTQ discrimination law—a challenge he would never support—he told me that he never made this inquiry. This case was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedeom, and is a redux of a 2018 case, Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado, which addressed a baker who violated Colorado's ban on anti-LGBTQ discrimination by refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding also brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom. Erin Morrow Hawley, Senator Josh Hawley’s wife, is a senior counsel at ADF and litigated the case.
The court voted 6-3 in the Moore v. Harper case to reject the fringe "independent state legislature" theory, which would have given state legislatures the power to establish rules for federal elections and draw congressional maps "warped by partisan gerrymandering." Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. The theory is founded upon a reading of the Constitution's Elections Clause — "The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof."
2022
Thrifty Food Plan changes (per 2018 Farm Bill): https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/395517/joe-biden-food-stamps-snap-legacy
Nov22: Wisconsin elects January 6th participant Derrick Van Orden to House of Representatives: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/15/derrick-van-orden-jan-6-congress/
2022 Oct: Biden authorizes $725m in additional assistance for Ukraine. $44B was pledged in 2023 spending bill, bringing total to $100B.
2022 Sept: 75bp Fed rate hike, 3.00% - 3.25%
CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 passed in August, which allocated roughly $53 billion in federal funding to manufacture semiconductor chips in the U.S. instead of relying on China to produce them.
2022 July: 25bp Fed rate hike, 0.25% to 0.5%, 2.25% to 2.5% (https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/openmarket.htm)
2022 June: Biden signs Bipartisan Safer Communities Act after Uvalde, TX mass shooting. In wake of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y., — which together claimed the lives of 19 children and 12 adults — Biden signed into law the largest gun-safety bill to pass Congress in nearly 30 years. passed the House 234-193 Friday night following Senate approval Thursday, includes incentives for states to pass so-called red flag laws that allow groups to petition courts to remove weapons from people deemed a threat to themselves or others. In addition, the bill expands an existing law that prevents people convicted of domestic abuse from owning a gun to include dating partners rather than just spouses and former spouses. It also expands background checks on people between the ages of 18 and 21 seeking to buy a gun.
2022 March: 25bp Fed rate hike, 0.25% to 0.5%
Inflation Reduction Act (a re-worked Build Back Better Act that was originally a $2T bill). Vice President Harris' vote breaking the Senate's 50-50 party line vote. It cleared the House in a 220-207 vote along party lines, without a single Republican voting in favor.
$369 billion for a climate initiative to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote lean energy technologies.
$300 billion in new revenue through a corporate tax increase.
$80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to hire new agents, modernize its technology, audit the wealthy and more.
A $2,000 annual cap for out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for those insured by Medicare.
U.S. life expectancy dropped 2.7 years between 2020 and 2021— the largest two-year decline in life expectancy since the 1920s. This nosedive was largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, of which 450,000 Americans died during Trump’s last year in the Oval Office.
According to a study published in The Lancet, the Covid-19 death rate in the U.S. was 40% higher than it was in similar high-income countries, and the Trump Administration’s undermining of science and public health agencies directly “impeded the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.”
2021
In the weeks after the 2020 election, an obscure Republican lawmaker from Louisiana led a congressional effort to overturn the presidential results in four battleground states that had helped secure Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. The victories were a sham, Mike Johnson argued, because state election officials had changed voting procedures, without first seeking legislative approval, to address the challenges of casting ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson recruited 125 House Republicans to join him in signing a U.S. Supreme Court brief saying as much, and on Jan. 6, 2021, an even larger group of lawmakers, including Johnson, voted against certifying the electoral college vote for Biden in two key battlegrounds. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22O155/163550/20201211132250339_Texas%20v.%20Pennsylvania%20Amicus%20Brief%20of%20126%20Representatives%20--%20corrected.pdf
Biden buys 200m vaccines: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/11/967194072/biden-announces-deal-for-200-million-more-covid-19-vaccines
$1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The bill passed the Senate 50-49 and the House 220 to 211, both along party lines, before being signed into law by the president on March 11
sent Americans in the low-to-medium income range a $1,400 payment
extended a $300 a week federal unemployment benefit for some 9.7 million people out of work at the time
temporarily expanded the child tax credit program
allotted $7.25 billion for small business loans
$128 billion in grants for state educational agencies.
Inflation Reduction Act
Infrastructure legislation
Postal Service Reform Act
PACT Act - expands veteran benefits
CHIPS and Science Act
Safer Communities Act
Respect for Marriage Act
January 6, 2021 votes: Congress certified the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. early Thursday, ending attempts to overturn the results in two states. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Roger Marshall of Kansas and John Kennedy of Louisiana voted to overturn the results in Arizona, while 93 senators voted against. Mr. Hawley, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Tuberville, Ms. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Marshall and Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rick Scott of Florida voted to overturn the results in Pennsylvania, while 92 voted against it. The House rejected the Arizona challenge by a vote of 303 to 121 and rejected the Pennsylvania challenge by a vote of 282 to 138.
National debt: https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump
2020
18Dec2020 tweet: Peter Navarro releases 36-page report alleging election fraud 'more than sufficient' to swing victory to Trump https://t.co/D8KrMHnFdK . A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!
Then Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley, who has since retired as a general in the Army, told lawmakers that he received the note days after Trump fired then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in the aftermath of the election. The piece of paper, he told lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, had the president’s signature on it and called for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia by Dec. 15, 2020, and from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, 2021. They had not been consulted. “Acting Secretary of Defense [Christopher] Miller and I and others went over to the White House to confirm that order because we had not been consulted on that,” Milley explained. “So we did, and that order was then subsequently rescinded.” Order was written by John McEntee, who was serving as director of the Presidential Personnel Office. Roughly a week later, he received a new order from then-national security adviser Robert O’Brien, which called for the U.S. military to reduce its troop presence to 2,500.
Trump White House ordered the National Institutes of Health to terminate a $3.4-million grant to EcoHealth in April 2020, based on entirely unfounded right-wingers’ claims that EcoHealth was funding so-called gain-of-function virus research in China
Trump fired Christopher Krebs, the government cybersecurity official whose agency judged the election “the most secure in American history,”
Trump removed inspector general for $2T coronavirus CARES Act, Glenn Fine, by naming a new Defense Department inspector general and bumping Fine to the No. 2 job at the Pentagon watchdog office.
Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community who OK’d the watchdog complaint leading to impeachment.
President publicly condemned the acting Health and Human Services inspector general Christi Grimm over a survey of hospitals about the coronavirus response.
February 2020: Trump announces Taliban deal for withdrawal.
Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David just before the anniversary of 9/11 without involving the Afghan government or America’s international allies. After the Camp David scheme fell apart, Trump subsequently cut a deal directly with the Taliban that freed 5000 taliban fighters, allowing them to return to the battlefield to regain strength, and put the Taliban in its strongest military position in 20 years. Trump proceeded with talks despite reliable intelligence that the Taliban did not intend to abide by the deal’s terms, and he even acknowledged that they could “possibly” take over the Afghan government after U.S. withdrawal. Trump’s deal made major concessions and left the U.S. with only 2,500 troops in Afghanistan when President Biden took office—the smallest force since 2001. The deal set timelines for withdrawal and gave permission for the Taliban to attack U.S. troops if the timeline wasn’t met. Trump left the Biden-Harris administration with zero plans for an orderly withdrawal—only a dangerous, costly mess. Trump even bragged that the Biden-Harris administration “couldn’t stop the process” he started. Trump’s own former national security advisor admits that Trump bears responsibility for the challenges of the withdrawal
Joint Declaration: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/02.29.20-US-Afghanistan-Joint-Declaration.pdf
Timeline (from Biden admin): https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/
Trump appointed his own lawyer Brian Miller to oversee $500b in coronavirus relief funds
2019
March: Trump's bump stock ban (December 2018) becomes law.
Debt limit increased in August 2019. Debt increased by $7.8 trillion under Trump to $28 trillion.
President Trump issued an Executive Order in April 2019 that directed DOT to change existing regulations to allow LNG to be shipped in railcars.
Debt limit increased in March 2019.
$16 billion in aid to farmers.
2018
On May 24, 2018, Trump signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (the “Reform Act”). This was a regulatory relief bill for regional and community bill, which bank lobbyists and numerous politicians had fought hard for. This relaxed Dodd Frank rules for banks between $50 billion and $250 billion. Sen. Mike Crapo's (R-Idaho) Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. This affected Silicon Valley Bank.
The Department of Transportation repealed a mandate in 2018 that required safer brakes on trains that carried hazardous materials.
Trump abandons 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which slashed centrifuges by two-thirds; virtually eliminated its uranium stockpile; capped enrichment levels at 3.7 percent, a long way from bomb grade; cut off a plutonium route to a bomb; and redoubled international inspection. Trump reinstituted sanctions and added what Biden officials estimate were at least 1,500 new ones
In late 2018 Republicans shut down the government over funding for a border wall.
In early 2018 Republicans shut down the government over immigration policy.
On April 6, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed federal prosecutors "to adopt immediately a zero-tolerance policy for all offenses" related to the misdemeanor of improper entry into the United States, and that this "zero-tolerance policy shall supersede any existing policies”. By early June 2018, it emerged that the policy did not include measures to reunite the families that it had separated.
$16 billion in aid to farmers.
July 4th: The GOP lawmakers, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy, NPR reported. Also Senator Ron Johnson (WI)
2017
Debt limit increased in December 2017.
Trump signs bill revoking revoking Obama-error gun checks for people with mental illnesses. Enacted in 2013 after Sandy Hook.
The Trump administration is rolling back an Obama-era regulation requiring new brake systems on oil trains. A 2015 federal rule required trains carrying oil to have electronically controlled pneumonic brakes by 2021.
On Monday April 3, President Donald Trump signed a repeal of online privacy rules that would have limited the ability of ISPs to share or sell customers' browsing history for advertising purposes. Trump's action follows the Senate and House voting to eliminate the rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission during Barack Obama's presidency. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/trumps-signature-makes-it-official-isp-privacy-rules-are-dead/
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Under pre-Act law, the Internal Revenue Code included seven tax rates for individuals filing a tax return: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6%. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has instituted seven tax rates of: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%.
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for the tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026, the standard deduction has been increased for each filing status: $24,000 for married individuals filing a joint return, $18,000 for head-of-household filers, and $12,000 for all other taxpayers. Standard deduction will be cut in about half starting 2026.
The act doubled the child tax credit to $2000/couple. It will go back to $1000 in 2026.
Corporate tax rate changed from 35% to 21%. This is permanent.
Reduces tax rate on pass through income permanently
Tariffs increased: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/IN10943.pdf
$12 billion state aid to US farmers
2013
In 2013 Republicans shut down the government unless the Senate adopt severe cuts in social services
2003
Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which contained further tax cuts and accelerated certain tax changes that were part of EGTRRA.
2001
Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001: EGTRRA lowered federal income tax rates, reducing the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent and reducing rates for several other tax brackets. The act also reduced capital gain taxes, raised pre-tax contribution limits for defined contribution plans and Individual Retirement Accounts, and eliminated the estate tax.
In 1995 Republicans shut down the government, insisting on severe spending cuts under the leadership of Gingrich.