Inside the Beltway: Biden: A moderate president gone rogue

NEWS AND OPINION:

President Biden has signed 38 executive orders since taking office, according to the Federal Register, many of them with a flourish on Inauguration Day.

But in reality, all that ceremony is an effort “to rule by presidential fiat,” says Saul Anuzis, president of 60 Plus, a conservative organization for seniors.

“He has implemented and pushed progressive liberal policies that he could not get passed by Congress. That is clearly not what our Founders intended,” Mr. Anuzis says in a statement shared with Inside the Beltway.

So what ever happened to those comfy campaign promises Mr. Biden made on the campaign trail? At the moment, he has only made good on 8% of them, according to the Biden Promise Tracker Scorecard, an ongoing project launched by Politifact, which is now monitoring the president’s “100 most important campaign promises” and has previously noted that “improving the economy” had been one of Mr. Biden’s top priorities.

The fact checker, by the way, is a project of the Poynter Institute, a media think tank in Florida.

“Ironically, where is the executive order for a balanced budget — to spend within our means?” Mr. Anuzis asks. “Where is the executive order to stop riots and looting in America’s streets? Where is the executive order to bring our troops home from endless wars?”

He also wonders why there isn’t a demand from Mr. Biden to work in a “bipartisan fashion” as he promised on the campaign trail.

“Apparently the so-called moderate president has gone rogue and has sold out to the far-left progressives trying to change the basic foundations of our Republic. This is not your parents’ Democratic Party. They are way off to the left of mainstream America,” Mr. Anuzis cautions.

IVY-COVERED HALLS

The nation’s most elite institutes of higher learning are getting cash from the coronavirus “relief bill.” Much cash, in fact — $168 million went to Ivy League universities in recent days, according to Sophie Mann, an analyst for Just the News.

These schools already have multibillion-dollar endowments yet are benefiting from the bill, she points out.

“No Ivy League school is receiving less than eight digits’ worth of taxpayer-supplied ’relief’ funds,” Ms. Mann writes.

“Princeton, a school with a $26.6 billion endowment, is receiving $12 million, while Yale will add $17.3 million to its $31.2 billion stockpile, and the University of Pennsylvania has been awarded $26.3 million on top of its nearly $15 billion fund,” she continues.

In addition Columbia and Cornell universities will each receive $33 million to add to their respective billions — while Harvard University — a school that once was called “a hedge fund that has a university” in a Wall Street Journal commentary — is receiving more than $25 million to add to its $41.9 billion endowment.

“All told, the Ivy League will receive $168 million in coronavirus bailout funds in this round of ’relief’ alone. The endowment of each Ivy League school has grown over the past year, with the exception of Cornell’s, and the schools do not pay taxes on investment gains their endowments earn, making the need for government — read taxpayer — assistance even less plausible,” Ms. Mann noted.

FOR THE LEXICON

“The Trumpcine.”

This handy term is former President Donald Trump’s suggestion as the proper name for the COVID-19 vaccine now being administered nationwide in record time — thanks to Mr. Trump’s rapid and aggressive work to develop the vaccine while he was in office.

The president made the suggestion during his appearance Saturday at the 2021 Republican National Committee Spiring Retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.

STILL MISSING ON THE BORDER

Many continue to wonder why Vice President Kamala Harris has not visited the southern border, despite her designation as the immigration czar within the Biden administration.

But over the weekend, a total of 18 Republican lawmakers journeyed to Texas to witness the strife and confusion of the migrant surge now underway. The two delegations were led by Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, the Republican Study Committee chairman, and Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

The groups saw detention facilities, the unfinished border wall and visited with U.S. Border Patrol agents, among other destinations in the border region.

“How could President Biden and Kamala Harris allow this to go on and not even come here and see it for themselves? It’s a disgrace that they won’t come and talk to girls like the girl we talked to this morning — crying because she doesn’t want to be here. But because he wants to appease his far-left base and tell the world that America’s border is open and undermine our national security, these kids are pawns in his dangerous game. It’s got to stop,” Mr. Scalise said at a press conference after his visit.

He cited Mr. Biden’s decision to jettison former President Donald Trump’s productive “Remain in Mexico” policy as a particular factor in the humanitarian crisis.

“President Biden, you know this is going on. You can stop it right now. We are calling on you to come down here, see this for yourself, and then reverse the failed policies you’ve put in place that created this crisis at America’s southern border,” Mr. Scalise advised.

POLL DU JOUR

• 54% of U.S. adults who are parents would prefer their child pursue a four-year college degree; 46% of Republican parents, 48% of independent parents and 70% of Democratic parents agree.

• 8% of parents overall would prefer their child go to a two-year college; 7% of the Republican parents, 9% of the independent ones and 11% of Democratic ones agree.

• 22% overall would prefer their child pursue another “pathway” such as starting a business or joining the U.S. military; 28% of Republican parents, 25% of independent ones and 12% of Democratic ones agree.

• 16% overall would prefer their child pursue “non-college training programs”; 19% of Republican parents, 19% of independent ones and 7% of Democratic ones agree.

Source: A Gallup poll of 2,952 U.S. adults who are parents of children between the ages of 11 and 25. The survey was conducted Nov. 9-Dec. 8 and released Wednesday.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.