America's Talking - Episode 3: President Biden unveils plan to address rising crime across US

Episode Date: June 25, 2021

President Joe Biden unveiled a major gun regulation and crime prevention plan Wednesday as cities around the country struggle with rising violent crime. Amid the wave of violence nationwide, Biden released a plan for more gun control measures and called on local governments to hire more police officers, a departure in rhetoric from some in his party who have pressured local municipalities to "defund" or cut back on police. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America and Focus, powered by thecentersquare.com. I'm John Spittaro, and this is the 25th week of 2021. Coming up, we'll take a quick look at one of the top stories from thecenter square.com. And later, executive editor of the center square, Dan McAulb, and DC reporter Casey Harper, will take a deeper dive into some of the top stories of the week, including President Biden's plan to address the rise in violent crime across the country, country, the latest on the child tax credit payments set to hit Americans bank accounts, and the

Supreme Court's ruling in favor of college athletes. Coming up right after this on America and Focus, powered by thecentersquare.com. Hi, this is Chris Krug, publisher of the Center Square. Our team produces the nationally read and recognized news stories at thecenter.com, the country's fastest growing, nonprofit, nonpartisan, state-focused news and information site. We deliver essential information with a taxpayer sensibility through reporting that's easy to understand and easy to share with your friends and family. We know that you need information that allows you to understand what the governor and your local legislators are doing. Get the news that you need to know at thecentersquare.com.

That's thecenter square.com. Thecenter square.com. Welcome back. Here are the top stories of the past week on the center square.com. After weeks of criticism from Republicans, Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting the U.S. Mexico border after being tapped by President Biden to address the increasing number of people entering the U.S. illegally. Vice President Harris toured the El Paso Border Patrol Processing Center in El Paso, Texas on Friday, along with the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, and U.S. rep Veronica Escobar. From October to May, all five sectors in Texas saw double to fivefold increases in apprehensions of people entering the U.S. illegally. Texas U.S. senators John Corrin and Ted

Cruz criticized the vice president's visit to El Paso, claiming she was visiting an area that was not the epicenter of the increased border traffic. Forty-three thousand sixty-one people were apprehended in the El Paso sector compared to 118,300,000. 14 apprehensions in the Del Rio sector, which is 423 miles southeast of El Paso. Harris and Mayorkas argue that the Biden administration inherited a broken and inhumane immigration system and that they are in the process of building a fairer, more humane system. To read more about this story and many others, visit thecentersquare.com. Now for a closer look, over to Dan McAulb and Casey Harper.

Thank you, John, and welcome to American Focus, powered by the Center. Square and the center square.com. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Just about a week ahead of the Independence Day holiday weekend and a congressional recess, it was a busy week in Washington, D.C. this week. Joining me today from the nation's capital, to analyze the news from inside the Beltway is Casey Harper, the Center Square's D.C. Bureau Chief. We are recording this on Friday, June 25th. With a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure spending, President Biden's plan to address a wave of violent crime in America's largest cities, the U.S. Supreme Court's activity, and more news on the border crisis. Casey, how are you hanging in

there after such a busy week? I'm doing well, although I'm a little confused because you said the date is 2021, and you also said the word bipartisan. So I think, I don't know if there's something missing. What am I missing here? Because that can't be right. We'll be talking about that in just a few seconds, bipartisan in Washington, D.C. in 2021, does not seem like you should say those words together now, but we actually might have some sort of a bipartisan agreement. But let's jump into that in just a few minutes. First, I want to talk about this violent crime plan that President Biden unveiled on Wednesday. The nation's largest cities have been overrun with gun violence and other kinds of violence.

So what does President Biden want to do about that, Casey? Well, yeah, Dan, you're right about that. The violent crime has really spiked significantly. Homicides are up 24% during the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of 2020. You might say, oh, well, that's, maybe that's because of COVID. Well, actually, this quarter is up 49%, almost 50% compared to the same time in 2019. So, you know, any thoughts of this is, oh, this just,

kind of a COVID thing. People didn't have anything to do. You know, it's not not the case. And in 2020, the law enforcement legal defense fund showed that in 2020, there were 4,000 more murders than in 2019, a 25% increase. So this crime is particularly violent. You know, the statistics vary when you look at things like more petty theft and vandalism. But when it comes to just clear violence, there's been a very significant increase. So there's a lot of controversy and political back and forth about the cause of that. But this week, President Joe Biden released a plan to address the rise in violent crime. Of course, you know, there's a lot of spending for different provisions, crime prevention, neighborhood engagement, youth programs, the kind of things that people often

talk about. One provision, though, that's particularly interesting is that Joe Biden is called on local municipalities to hire more police officers to address violent crime. Wait a second. I thought we wanted to defund the police. Excuse me. I thought some Democrats. Yeah. Yeah, this is you could definitely make the argument. This is refunding the police because, and it'll be really interesting to see how Democrats react to Biden taking this stance in the weeks to come. Because you've had liberal activists and Democrats being very vocal, very aggressive on this topic. And even saying that making the point Joe Biden made was even racist.

And so there's a lot of debate over what point, you know, what to do and what's, you know, racist or not. But Biden, compared to a lot of people on his party, is taking a pretty moderate, even conservative stance. Now, even just that connection to say that more police officers prevent crime is something that a lot of people on the left will contest right now. And they'll say that the funds need to be moved to other things. So this is a pretty significant thing. Now, Jen Saki, you know, Biden's press secretary, when they made this announcement, was really clear. It just said that the president has never supported defunding the police.

He's always supported, which he's said community policing programs and different things. So I think it's true for the most part that he hasn't been vocal on defunding the police. But I think to a lot of Americans, it's all they've heard from Democrats for months and over a year is defund the police. So it's a little bit of lip-lash, I think. So just to add a little context to this, I'm in the Chicago market, Chicago being one of the cities that President Biden named when talking about his plan. Here we are approaching the end of June. There have already been 334 homicides in the city of Chicago alone.

That's significantly up from last year, which was significantly up from the year before. Of those 334 homicides, 316 were by way of guns. And one of the sad things about this, too, is it's just not, you know, there is a lot of gang violence in Chicago, but children are being caught in the crosshairs here. So to date, 52 children under the age of 15 have been shot. 10 of them dead.

So it is, and I'm just talking about Chicago here, you could probably name similar stats in cities like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles. So there is a very real violent crime problem. One of President Biden's, another part of his planning, including refunding the police, is to crack down on what he calls renegade gun dealers. He essentially wants more gun restrictions. and more enforcement of current gun laws. My experience has been in the reporting I've done over, I'm not going to say how many years, but a number of years. Probably safer, faster to just count the decades.

Let's not go there, please. Okay, got it. It said criminals don't go to retail outlets to buy guns. They get them off the street. So what's been the feedback on that? What are your thoughts on on that part of the plan? Yeah. Are you saying that criminals don't go to Walmart and write a check or hit their name and sign it?

Yeah. I mean, yeah, this day can really quickly fall into like the normal battle lines for Democrats. I think the response for Republicans that I've seen a little bit of is going to grow is, wait a minute. You guys have been pushing, you guys being Democrats have been pushing for defunding the police. we understand some of the motives behind that there's some hard things have happened but you push for defunding the police and now crime is way up

and now you're going to blame guns guns have you know guns have their place and their role in this problem but guns have remained steady they've been a constant right if you look at this like almost mathematically guns have been a constant in this equation

and just the variable that's changed has is not the guns and so in some ways I think a lot of Republicans will say this is just kind of trying to distract from the issue, rally Democrat support, and just, I think that Biden, this is an example of where Biden is a more old school Democrat and does, man, he would much rather focus on passing a big spending bill, raise taxes a little bit, than get caught up in the woke versus anti-woke versus whatever side of the culture where you're on. I think he really doesn't want to get tangled up in this conversation about defunding the police. because he won a lot of swing states that really don't, are not impressed with the idea of defunding the police, whereas a lot of the Democrats that push this kind of rhetoric

come from districts that are much more liberal and, you know, they can get a lot more support. But Biden is thinking long term. He's thinking about the next election. And he knows that, you know, defund the police is going to cause him problems with a lot of voters and swing states. Well, I don't know how it's going to work out. But certainly there is an issue with violent crime in our cities.

We're not even in the heart of the summer yet. I know from personal experience in Chicago that once you get into the Julys and the August, it really starts to spike. So hopefully we can get a handle on this and we don't see those spikes. But that remains to be seen. Why don't we move on, Casey, you mentioned President Biden in spending plans. It appears that there might be a bipartisan agreement on an infrastructure plan, something less than what President Biden pitched a couple of months ago,

$1.2 trillion infrastructure package, a group of 10, five Democrat, five Republican senators reached this deal. That does not mean, of course, that the full Senate is going to sign off on it. but at least there was some progress made on it. What can you tell us about this bipartisan agreement? Yeah, Dan, so there's a political headline that I think really captures where we are right now. And the headline is Joe Biden basks in bipartisan glow, if but for a fleeting moment. And so you saw yesterday the White House really spiked the football, declare victory on this infrastructure deal.

And there's a few reasons for that. After the infrastructure talks with West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito fell apart, a lot of people thought this is over. Biden tried to get some Republican support. He's been negotiating this for so long, and then everything just fell apart. And so it didn't look good for Biden. We covered that story here at the Center Square. But then Biden was able to kind of cobble together some other more moderate Republican senators.

had five of them at the White House. And really yesterday they announced this deal. So one thing about the deal, in typical Washington fashion, it's kind of written in such a way that both sides can declare victory because the White House is saying it's a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. And you're seeing a lot of Republicans emphasizing how there's $600 billion in new spending. Now, that $1 trillion mark was kind of a point of contention. Republicans didn't. really want to go over a trillion. And Biden started out of two trillion. So he really didn't want to come down that far. Now, the way they can both say these different numbers and both technically be right is just the way the bill is structured is that there is about $600 billion in new spending,

but there's taking from previous things and cobbling together money from different sources and creating this big package that will go over eight years. So the White House is not incorrect in saying $1.2 trillion total. And Republican, are not incorrect as saying $600 billion in new spending. So they both get to kind of use their own number, declare victory. So that's kind of the point of the plan. The other thing is that a lot of the fears about different tax hikes, like the gas tax and different taxes are, you know,

reversing the 2017 Trump tax cuts or the corporate tax rate. None of that made it in. And so that is going to, that's a really big thing. of course that's going to be, you know, raises all the questions about paying for things and where you take money for places, what are you taking it from? But yeah, they both get to kind to declare victory and there's no new taxes so far. But then there's the question of can you actually get it passed? Right, through Congress. I want to come back to that tax question in just a second. But one thing about this compromise is Republicans had criticized President Biden

over his initial two plus trillion dollar infrastructure plan for including items that had nothing to do with infrastructure right so this this compromise plan it's limited to you know roads and bridges and highways water infrastructure um and broadband infrastructure is that is that correct uh general yeah that's like those are the top things when there's some other kind of slendery things that can get thrown in but it's generally true that uh progressive democrats and this is going to be another problem for Biden. I mean, that progressive Democrats had a long list of things that were in this infrastructure bill, everything from like almost like social care programs, like elder care, you know, a lot of climate change is a big one. And so a lot of progressives are

having a lot of heartburn about these plans, you know, from the progressive perspective is you could say, I mean, if we wanted this infrastructure bill, this is, you know, Trump could have passed this. You know, that could be that they, you know, a $600 billion in new spending that doesn't hit any of the progressive goals or pet issues. That's, you know, I think they're kind of really chafing at that and saying, this is basically something Republican could have done. So why do we have a Biden, you know, Biden office if we're not going to be aggressive? That's the pushback he's receiving from the left. That said, my understanding is President Biden still plans to push forward with these, other non-infrastructure related spending increases,

but doing it through a more traditional budgetary process, which still could mean that he's gonna try and push through these tax hikes that you mentioned. Yeah, and it's funny because the reconciliation process, which you're referring to, is basically taking some of the other parts of this bill and just kicking them down the road a little bit. It's funny, on the Republican side,

you've seen Senator Lindsey Grant, who was one of the ones that they thought could actually be, you know, one of the ones supporting it to get them over 60 votes. He's already come out very aggressively against this plan because when they, when the initial agreement was made, there wasn't talk of the reconciliation things going through later. And so his, he is opposed it saying, oh, if you're just going to do part two infrastructure later on, then no, we're not going to do this.

But at the same time, the progressives are very skeptical. It's like, this is an IOU. Just trust us past. this now and we'll do the rest later. You know, I mean, we've seen plenty of times where that doesn't happen. You know, I mean, even the promised spending cuts in the future, you know, that just, it seems like that never happens, though. So somehow he, he has a doubt from both sides.

Republicans are very skeptical now that this is just like a trick to get your infrastructure bill in two pieces, but a lot of progressives are saying, so you're just going to, you know, promise on your honor to do this later. and can we really trust that that's going to happen? Well, we'll be following this story fairly closely at thecentersquare.com. So make sure listeners out there keep coming back to us because as there are updates on the story, we'll be covering it there. Why don't we move on now, Casey?

We've talked about this story before, but monthly child tax credit payments are going to begin next month. Americans, most Americans of certain income levels will be receiving $250 to $300 checks per child starting next month. What's new on this? Sure, yeah. So for viewers who are unfamiliar, this is part of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that was passed earlier this year that sent out stimulus checks to folks and did a lot of other things, but part of what was in that was funding for these fully refundable,

advanceable child tax credits. So what the bill did is it expanded the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 for all kids six years and older. For kids under the age of six, the tax credit went from 2,000 to 3,600, right? And you could get that for a kid until they're 17. So they expanded the size of the tax credit. And then they made it fully refundable. which means even if you don't pay income taxes, you can still receive it, which is, you know, sparked a little bit of controversy because you started to tiptoe into some realm of universal basic income, or at least that's what critics have said.

And then the last thing is it's advanceable, which means normally to get, you know, your tax credit, you wait. And when you file your taxes, it's applied then and you get a big check for a refund, right? But because this is advanceable, you can actually, you'll start, actually families will start receiving it in July 15th on a monthly basis. And to not receive it, they have to actively opt out. So you don't even have to go sign up for this or apply for it. You're going, if your income qualifies, you are going to start receiving these monthly payments from the IRS. Now, if you want to defer it to till tax day, you can. But if you don't actively go on the IRS portal and defer, you're going to start receiving this money.

So, yeah, one thing just to add on to that, one thing that's important for listeners to understand is if when you file your taxes, usually April 15th is tax date, the last two years because of COVID, that has been extended. But usually when you file your taxes in April, many Americans, most Americans get a refund. some depending on how much you earn and how much you pay in federal income taxes on your on your paychecks every couple of weeks they'll get thousands of dollars back in April but this is an advance on that right so if you do not choose to opt out for these child tax credits you're likely to see a lesser refund when it comes to tax day in April is that correct yes this is So this is not a stimulus check. That's important to understand.

If people get this money and they think it's a stimulus, it's just kind of extra free money. This is tied to your taxes. It's going to affect your tax refund. And it's going to be based off your previous years filing of income taxes. So you're right. It's not just a bill to give people another check. If we kind of experience, it's going to affect your taxes.

It's going to be based on your previous year's taxes. Thank you, Casey. Moving on, the Supreme Court has been active these past couple of weeks. They're in the heart of their sessions where they released decisions on key cases that they've agreed to hear. One of the cases they decided this week was on a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA, which governs college athletics. Tell us about that decision this week. Sure. So paying college athletes, I mean, has been an issue for the issue of debate for years and years. I mean, I remember even back in high school writing some essay about everyone had to take a position on should we pay college athletes.

So that's kind of what's an issue here. Now, to be clear, the Supreme Court did not just simply rule that you can pay college athletes. it's, you know, there's not going to be, your top D1 athletes are not going to be getting a million dollar paychecks like the pros. And so that's an important thing. Some of the reporting on this was a little misleading or confusing, and people were thinking that college athletes get paid now. And that's not the case.

But what the Supreme Court did rule is that the NCAA, which is the organization that, you know, oversees college athletics, is being basically too restrictive on what money students can receive. So student athletes can receive any education-related benefits. And so that could be anything from a free laptop to, you know, different internships and different things like that. So like for scholarships, for graduate or vocational school, payments for academic tutoring, you know, these are education-related benefits. It's not just a paycheck.

It's things that are related and tied to the education. And so previously, the NCAA was very strict and saying you can't give college athletes anything. And so now they've really loosened up on that. And the last thing I'll add is that some of the language that the justice is used to open the door that future payments and things could be expanded. And the NCAA practices could be challenged more in the future. Of course, college athletics, you know, particularly when you're talking about college football and college basketball, both men's and women's.

They're a billion-dollar industry, and there has been widespread criticism over the NCAA's strict rules. Finally got challenged. The Supreme Court made its ruling this week. So we'll see how that plays out in the coming months and coming years. One last story, we have a little bit of time. One last story we want to talk about. Of course, the border crisis has not gone away.

Vice President Kamala Harris later today is going to visit the southern borders. She's going to visit El Paso, Texas for the first time since President Biden named her, essentially the quote-unquote borders are more than three months ago. We had a departure of a key immigration official this week. Of course, in advance of Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to the border, we don't know what she's going to say there, what's going to happen there. But where are we at with the border crisis? Yeah, where are we at with the border crisis?

We're definitely in a crisis that illegal immigration has really spiked this year. And it's higher than it was last year as well. I mean, even we're up in the 170, around 180,000, depending on what month it's been this year, which compared to even just in February this year was like 100,000, roughly 100,000. And the numbers we're seeing now. it's not just this year. It's much higher than last year. So the legal immigration is surging. This is an example of where I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the White House because the short history of this is that Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of immigration.

And since then, the border has got worse and worse. And she's really tried to pivot and say that she's not in charge of the border. She's in charge of immigration. as a whole and focusing really on the Northern Triangle. She's done a lot of things with the Guatemalan president to really beef that up. But people are just honing on the border. Republicans have been just hammering her about visiting the border. You know, for a better or worse, you know, Americans care a lot more about the southern border than they do. Different international issues, the polling shows that. The political outrage shows that. And so she's been having her arm twisted and is now going down to the border. So, you know, from a political analysis angle, I'd say I think that Kamala knew that this was a political football, that she didn't really want to have to run down the field because the, you know, Republican linebackers are going to just take her out.

But, you know, it is an opportunity for her to show leadership to her party and make some big advances. But it's just a risky thing. The border is so politicized. It's not an easy problem to fix, you know. So we'll see what her speech is, what she says down there. But so far it's been a real thing. really tough issue for her. And Biden has successfully made this Kamala Harris' issue and not his, which is really interesting political dynamic. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been particularly

critical of the Biden administration over the border crisis. Of course, Texas has the longest border with Mexico. And he has declared a state of emergency in Texas. A number of Texas counties, border counties have also declared states of emergency because of the influx, the inflow of illegal immigrants and the human trafficking that's been going on and the other crime waves that have been a part of this whole thing. So we'll see what happens later today. We will be covering Vice President Harris's visit to the border. You can read about it at thecenter square.com.

Casey, that's all the time we have right now. Thank you. This is the America in Focus podcast. We'll see you next week. 200,000 people are trying to the country illegally. If you want to think about a taxpayer angle on this, you know, there's, depending on your state, there can be different levels of benefits that immigrants of this kind can receive, not to mention just infrastructure things. But I think this is an issue that clearly defined the 2016 election is something we're going to keep watching. another interesting fact is that 38% of the people who were encountered in May trying to illegally cross were people who had been caught trying to go before. And so I do think it shows kind of a

flaw in the system where it's like, you know, you get caught. There's not really any fear. You just get caught and you'll get out and you'll just try to come back again. And the other backdrop of that is that the Biden administration has really plummeted the arrests from ICE, immigration and customs enforcement. So less and more people coming over, less enforcement of it. I know border states, particularly in Texas, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has is up in arms over this and how this illegal immigration, the surge in illegal immigration, has affected his state, particularly border communities. Texas and other states have filed suit against Biden's illegal immigration policies saying they violate federal law. So there is,

and the cost of housing, putting these illegal immigrants up in temporary facilities, you know, and feeding them and transporting them when they get full, when these facilities get full. So there is a huge cost on taxpayers, not to mention the increasing in crime. Now, certainly, many of these people, you feel for them, they're fleeing horrible situations in their home countries. that does not mean that we should be responsible for what's going on in their home countries. But not all of them are criminals, but some portion of them are. Human trafficking has soared the federal government has said since the surge in illegal immigration has occurred. So there are dramatic impacts, particularly on these border communities, but essentially federal taxpayers end up footing the bill.

Right. I think, you know, and just looking at it, it from purely just the economic impact. You imagine that you're a small border town with maybe 40,000 people, and there's almost 200,000 more people coming in every month. I mean, the impact that could have on so many different factors from, you know, housing prices, you know, where do people live, the system is set up to like, to integrate people over time in a systemized way, but having almost 200,000 coming in illegally at, you know, spots where the, I guess you said the border is more soft,

is not a good system for long-term success, especially for those border communities that are struggling just from an infrastructure, logistical, financially to handle so many people. Thank you, Casey. We've run out of time. We covered a lot of issues this week that will be ongoing and recurring that we're reporting on at the center square.com. Thank you for joining me this week on American Focus. We'll see you next week. Thanks, Sam.