House passes $79bn package including child tax credit and tax breaks in rare moment of bipartisanship – US politics live
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Woven into the president’s prayer breakfast remarks was an appeal to Congress to continue aiding Ukraine.
As the second anniversary of the grinding war nears, Biden praised the Ukrainians people’s “incredible resolve and resilience against Putin’s aggression” and demanded of the members of Congress seated in the pews before him: “We must continue to help them.”
The White House’s request to send nearly $110bn in additional security assistance and aid to Ukraine has met sharp resistance from conservatives in Congress amid polls showing American support for the war effort waning. Efforts to replenish Ukraine’s war chest have been tied up with talks over a border security plan that appears to be on the brink of collapse.
Biden also denounced the rise of antisemitism and Islamaphobia, which have spiked in the months since the 7 October attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
“The challenge of our times reminds us of our responsibility as a nation to help each other, just and lasting peace delivered abroad and here at home,” Biden continued. “That’s why we’re fighting against the rise of anti-semitism and Islamophobia here in the United States all forms of hate, including those against Arab-Americans and South Asian Americans. This is a calling to stand against hate.”
The Biden administration has launched several investigations into hate incidents at academic institutions across the country as accusations of anti-semitism and Islamaphobia roil college campuses amid youth-led protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages.
Many Arab Americans have voiced their fury with the president’s response to Israel-Gaza war. They have accused Biden of doing far too little to address Islamaphobia in America and to stop Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza that many critics argue amounts to a “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
Woven into the president’s prayer breakfast remarks was an appeal to Congress to continue aiding Ukraine.
As the second anniversary of the grinding war nears, Biden praised the Ukrainians people’s “incredible resolve and resilience against Putin’s aggression” and demanded of the members of Congress seated in the pews before him: “We must continue to help them.”
The White House’s request to send nearly $110bn in additional security assistance and aid to Ukraine has met sharp resistance from conservatives in Congress amid polls showing American support for the war effort waning. Efforts to replenish Ukraine’s war chest have been tied up with talks over a border security plan that appears to be on the brink of collapse.
In his remarks, Biden offered prayers for the lives lost in Israel and Gaza and said his administration was working “day and night” to secure peace in the region. The president re-asserted Washington’s assessment that they key to lasting peace in the Middle East is a two-state solution.
We value and pray for the lives taken and for the families left behind and all those who are living in dire circumstances: the innocent men, women and children held hostage, or under bombardment or displaced not knowing where the next meal will come from, or if it will come at all. Not only do we pray for peace, we’re actively working for peace, security, dignity for the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. I’m engaged in this day and night, working as many of you in this room are to find the means to bring our hostages home, to ease humanitarian crisis and to bring peace to Gaza and Israel and enduring peace with two states for two peoples.
Biden also seemed to nod to the deep divisions over his policy toward Israel, which has sparked widespread calls for a ceasefire, which his administration has resisted, and hurt the president’s standing among young people and progressive Democrats.
“I also see the trauma, the death and destruction in Israel and Gaza,” Biden said, “and understand the pain and passion felt by so many here in America and around the world.”
Biden started his remarks my honoring the three US servicemembers killed at a US base in Jordan in what the Biden administration has said was a drone attack from an Iran-backed militia.
Biden said he spoke with each of their families and would receive the dignified transfer of their bodies at Dover air force base on Friday.
“They risked it all,” Biden said. He also praised the “sacrifice and service to our country” of the dozens of servicemen and women who were injured in the attack. Under pressure to respond, Biden is weighing the perilous decision as he seeks to avoid dragging the US into a wider regional war.
Biden is now speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill, where it should go without saying the former senator and avowed Catholic feels especially at home.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, he nodded to Speaker Mike Johnson, who he was squished next to in the pew. He also praised the earlier performance by Andrea Bocelli, comparing the Italian tenor’s voice to a “choir of heralded angels.” Biden appeared to wipe a tear away with a tissue when Bocelli sang Amazing Grace.
“I am an unadulterated fan of Bocelli,” Biden said whimsically. “God. He’s incredible.”
Last night, the US House passed a nearly $79bn tax package that would expand the child tax credit for millions of lower-income families and revive a trio of tax breaks for businesses. Yes, that House – the Republican-controlled one that booted its Speaker and has repeatedly brought the US government to the brink of a shutdown while failing to do much legislating of consequence – that passed the tax bill on a vote of 357-70.
It was a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill at a moment when the House is moving ahead with the impeachment charges against Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, and cross-party border talks near collapse, leaving aid for Ukraine and Israel in jeopardy.
Perhaps the trick to its success was the way the bill paired a long-term Democratic goal –enhancing the child tax credit, which was temporarily expanded during Covid and resulted in halving the child poverty rate in America – with a long-sought Republican one: the restoration of deductions for business research and development expenses as well as well as tax breaks aimed at expanding housing affordability and boosting manufacturing. It faced opposition from progressives who said the child tax credit enhancement fell well short of what was needed to slash child poverty and from conservatives who likened the expansion to “welfare by a different name.”
The legislation next goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where its prospects are unclear. Senate Republicans have indicated opposition to several aspects of the bill.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Joe Biden is about to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast on Capitol Hill. Then Biden will depart for Michigan where he will rally support from union members. The visit comes a day after Donald Trump held a roundtable discussion in Washington with leaders and rank-and-file members of the Teamsters union amid a brewing fight for the support of union workers, who have historically favored Democrats.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will take reporters’ questions aboard Air Force One en route to Detroit.
A new Monmouth University-Washington Post Poll found Trump leading Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina by a wide margin.
Border security negotiations continue on Capitol Hill but with House Speaker Mike Johnson declaring the yet-to-be-seen bill “dead on arrival,” it appears destined to fail.
Today is the first day of Black History Month. The Biden-Harris campaign is marking the day in a statement from co-chair and South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn: “As we celebrate Black History Month, we should remember: the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow were decided by just one vote. The power is in our hands to choose freedom and prosperity over chaos and vitriol.”