Targeting The Second Amendment, Biden's Boondoggle, Appeasing Terrorists

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer: Biden Targets The Second Amendment
President Biden made good yesterday on his promise to restrict Second Amendment rights via executive orders. His six orders are certain to face legal challenges because, as the Washington Free Beacon reports, they "could turn millions of Americans into felons overnight."

But it's worth pointing out, once again, that Biden is also gaslighting the American people. During his remarks yesterday, he made a number of obviously false statements to advance his left-wing agenda.

For example, Biden insisted that you can go to a gun show and "buy whatever you want and [there's] no background check." That's just not true. (Here and here.) All commercial gun sales require a federal background check. And the vast majority of sales at gun shows are conducted by commercial sellers. There is no "gun show loophole."

What's not subject to federal background checks are private transfers between two people. Is Biden proposing to regulate those too?

Biden also falsely claimed that gun manufacturers were "the only outfit that is exempt from being sued." Again, that's just not true. A gun manufacturer can be sued if its product is defective.

But Biden wants to repeal a 2005 law that prevents gun manufacturers from being sued if a criminal uses their legal product for an illegal purpose. That legal protection is just common sense.

It would be like suing Nissan for last week's car ramming attack that killed a Capitol Hill police officer. Nissan isn't responsible for what the murderer did with his car.

Yet Biden's anti-Second Amendment agenda was laid bare yesterday. If he could accomplish just one thing, Biden said, "Give me that one." He wants to open up gun manufacturers to criminal liability for the illegal use of their legal product. It would bankrupt them, and drive them all out of business. And he knows it.

Biden's Boondoggle
There's a big debate underway in Washington about Biden's new infrastructure bill. Polls show that the American people overwhelmingly support additional spending to improve infrastructure.

If you ask people what they think infrastructure is, they'll say more roads, better bridges, modern airports and improved rail lines. And in this digital age, many would even include increased broadband access or faster internet service.

But apparently the Biden Administration has redefined infrastructure to include virtually anything on the left's socialist agenda. Biden has thrown it all together for a massive $2.3 trillion boondoggle.

For example, Biden's bill includes a lot of items from the Green New Deal. He wants to retrofit government buildings. There's massive spending on home health care, as well as new job training programs. None of that is infrastructure.

Even the left-wing outlet Politico says that only 37% of Biden's bill is devoted to traditional infrastructure projects. But there's $590 billion for projects Politico called "a very distant relative" of infrastructure, and $400 billion went to stuff Politico labeled as "Not even close."

Sadly, it gets worse. The bill is jammed full of tax increases. In fact, the National Association of Manufacturers, whose members would benefit greatly from a big infrastructure bill, studied Biden's proposal and came out strongly against it.

They warned that Biden's massive tax increases would lead to one million job losses over the next two years. It would also shrink economic activity by $200 billion over the next five years.

In other words, Biden's plan is the exact opposite of what we need to do to recover from the pandemic.

Joe vs. Joe
Joe Biden has a big problem named Joe Manchin. West Virginia's senior senator is standing in the way of the left's extreme agenda, and progressives aren't happy about it.

As we have previously reported, there is a huge push underway by the radical left to browbeat Senate Democrats into eliminating the filibuster rule. That rule requires most legislation to receive supermajority support of 60 votes in order to pass the Senate. But Democrats only have 50 votes.

So, because of the filibuster rule, they cannot pass extreme bills like H.R. 1, nationalizing all elections, and H.R. 5 (the so-called "Equality Act") or legislation to pack the Supreme Court, which Biden is seriously considering.

Most Senate Democrats appear willing to "nuke" the filibuster rule. But a few, including Sens. Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin, are standing firm.

Writing in the Washington Post this week, Manchin was unambiguous about his position: "I have said it before and will say it again to remove any shred of doubt: There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster."

And Manchin went even further, criticizing the Democrats' repeated use of the budget reconciliation process, writing:

"If the filibuster is eliminated or budget reconciliation becomes the norm, a new and dangerous precedent will be set to pass sweeping, partisan legislation that changes the direction of our nation every time there is a change in political control. The consequences will be profound — our nation may never see stable governing again."

Please take a moment today to call Sen. Manchin's office at 202-224-3954. Thank him for standing firm against the left's efforts to eliminate or modify the filibuster.

Appeasing Terrorists
The Biden Administration announced that it is going to send $235 million – that's your tax money – to the Palestinian Authority. Why? Has the Palestinian Authority renounced terrorism? No. It is still subsidizing terrorism against Israel.

Has the Palestinian Authority agreed to make peace with Israel? No. As a matter of fact, there's a good chance that the terrorist organization Hamas could win next month's Palestinian elections. Then what?

The Coalition for Jewish Values, representing 1,500 Orthodox rabbis, blasted the administration. Rabbi Yaakov Menken said the Biden Administration is knowingly violating the Taylor Force Act, adding, "Every global terror organization is delighted to see President Biden in power."

The Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading state-sponsor of terrorism, is certainly happy.

Incredibly, the Biden Administration announced this week that it is prepared to unilaterally lift sanctions against Iran that are "inconsistent" with the 2015 Obama/Biden nuclear deal.

They're effectively rolling back the clock to the Obama era. Biden is going to remove all the sanctions imposed by President Trump specifically targeting Iran's terrorist activities and its human rights violations. In other words, Biden is appeasing Iran and rewarding its bad behavior.

Netanyahu Responds
Needless to say, Biden's actions are not being well-received in Israel. Speaking at this week's Holocaust remembrance ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to defend the Jewish people from those who routinely call for a second Holocaust. He said:

"The nuclear agreement with Iran, which allowed it to make progress in developing its arsenal of atomic bombs . . . is back on the table. However, history has taught us that such agreements with such extremist regimes are worth less than nothing.

"Even to our best friends I say: Make no mistake -- an agreement with Iran that will pave their way to a nuclear weapon -- a weapon that threatens to destroy us -- any such agreement will not bind us one iota. Only one thing binds us: preventing those who seek to destroy us from carrying out their plan.

"During the Holocaust, we did not have the strength to defend ourselves, nor the sovereign right to do so. We were without rights, without a country, without protection.

"Today, we have a country, we have a defensive force and we have the natural and full right as the sovereign nation of the Jewish people to defend ourselves against our enemies."
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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