53percenter's Blog

A significant portion of the public still believes in wearing a mask outside regardless of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a recent survey.

The survey indicates that forty-two percent of respondents believe everyone in their area should continue to wear a mask regardless of the CDC guidelines.

Of the respondents, 39 percent said everyone should follow the CDC guidelines that state masks are only necessary outdoors when in crowds compared to only 19 percent of respondents who actually believe “everyone should do [what] they want regardless of guidelines.”

Of those who believe in continuing to wear masks, broken down by party, the results were almost even; 36 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Democrats want everyone around them to wear masks.

Before the poll, the CDC had updated its guidance to state that vaccinated individuals do not need to wear a mask outdoors except in crowded areas. Last week, the CDC made an additional update, saying fully vaccinated people “no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance” and only must do so when required by laws, rules, or regulations, including local businesses and workplace guidance.

The CDC defines a fully vaccinated person as someone who received a second dose in the two-dose series of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or two weeks after the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Since the latest update in guidelines, major business chains have revised their own guidelines. Chains such as Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Target have announced they will no longer require customers to wear masks; they did not mention a state by state policy, whereas Costco announced its policy updates will be on a state by state basis.

Last week, the fully vaccinated far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told her 8.8 million Instagram followers she will “probably” continue to wear a mask from “time to time” despite what the CDC says. She jokingly said masks are also “a nice accessory when you don’t want to do all your makeup.”

The Hill-HarrisX survey was conducted online among 918 registered U.S. between May 10 and May 11. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.23 percentage points. Results were weighted for age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, income, political party, education, ideology, and area type where necessary to align with their actual proportions in the population.

Mexico’s government will open migrant camps to deal with the “humanitarian emergency” caused by President Joe Biden’s welcoming message for Central American migrants, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

According to the Times, “Mexico says it plans to open 17 new camps in coming weeks and months in southern states to accommodate migrant families and kids.”

It is not clear if the camps will be used to house migrants who are denied entry at the U.S. border, or if they will only be used for migrants caught at Mexico’s southern border.

Currently, Mexico cannot house and feed the migrants traveling through its territory and those quickly returned from the U.S. under pandemic health protocols known as Title 42, a measure invoked by the Trump Administration and kept in place by the Biden administration.

Last week, Politico reported that Democrats and immigration advocates accuse the Biden-Harris administration of keeping Title 42 in place to limit immigration, not protect the country against the Chinese coronavirus, highlighting another example of different views among the Democrats over how to handle the border crisis. Members from both parties have blasted the Biden administration for not providing any solutions.

On Monday, the Lost Angeles Times reported:

[W]ith most migrants … quickly returned under pandemic health protocols, Mexico is facing its own crisis — an escalating humanitarian emergency caused by what authorities and advocates call an unprecedented increase in migrant families traversing its territory.

The Mexican government has failed to develop a strategy to care for the tens of thousands of migrant women and children expelled by U.S. authorities or in transit or stuck somewhere in Mexico. Instead, Mexican authorities have mostly outsourced the task to an over-stretched patchwork of private and religious charity outfits, medical aid organizations and sundry good Samaritans.

Soon after taking office in January, Biden ended the Remain in Mexico program, which had proven remarkably effective in ending the Catch and Release policy whereby migrants are arrested and subsequently released into the U.S. interior while awaiting their asylum hearings.

President Biden vowed to allow migrants who had enrolled in the program during the Trump administration and were waiting in camps in Mexico back into the United States.

As of May, the Biden administration had released thousands of migrants who had enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program, offering them work permits to take American jobs.

The U.S. is now facing an almost two-decade high in U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions, along with a sharp increase in arrivals of families and unaccompanied minors, the majority from the Central American region known as the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador).

Although the Biden Administration is not applying Title 42 to unaccompanied children and some families while claiming that the border is closed, the historic migrant surge has resulted in the U.S. denying admission to many people, mostly Central Americans, who end up in Mexico.

Echoing some Central American governments, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) administration continues to blame the Biden administration’s immigration policy for the ongoing border crisis at the U.S. southern border.

The LA Times noted:

Mexican officials say that, aside from poverty, crime and other issues in their homelands, migrants are propelled by two factors: Somewhat relaxed border controls under the Biden administration, especially for children; and the belief of some parents that crossing as a family might facilitate entry into the U.S.

Although Mexico is no longer accepting families with small children, it still takes in deported migrants under Biden, who wants the country to take even more.

Under federal law, the U.S. can only provide asylum to groups fleeing political and religious persecution — not to people fleeing poverty. This rule means border agents can deny them access to U.S. asylum courts.

Republican voters believe former President Donald Trump represents what the Republican party needs to follow on a wide range of issues, according to a recent CBS News/YouGov poll.

For example, 89 percent believe in following Trump’s example on economic issues, and 80 percent say we need to follow Trump’s form of leadership.

Looking deeper, 88 percent say Trump’s stance on immigration issues needs to be followed, including 73 percent of the respondents who said the former president set an example on race issues.

However, when it comes to the left and the media, sixty-nine percent said Trump set the example on how to treat the left, and seventy-seven agreed with the way Trump treated the media.

Additionally, a huge majority (67 percent) of Republican voters believe President Joe Biden is not the legitimate winner of the last presidential election, including 34 percent of respondents who think Republicans who are disloyal to the base should be punished.

The survey also asked about the Republicans’ strategy for winning reelection in 2022 and 2024, which would ultimately help win back the House for Republicans. Fifty-three percent said Republicans need to focus on the “message” to find more people to vote Republican. The poll added,  Republicans “should tell the public about popular policies and ideas, and will win if more people hear about them.”

The Treasury Department said Monday that it will start sending out payments to nearly all families with children in the U.S. beginning on July 15, launching one of the biggest cash distribution schemes ever undertaken by the federal government.

The payment will cover 39 million families, according to the Treasury Department. Nearly 88 percent of children will be covered benefits their parents will automatically receive without the parents needing to take any additional action.

The payments are part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which expanded the child tax credit for one year and made it possible to pre-pay the benefits on a monthly basis.

“This tax cut sends a clear and powerful message to American workers, working families with children: Help is here,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.

Qualified families will receive a payment of up to $300 per month for each child under 6 and up to $250 per month for children between the ages of 6 and 17. The child tax credit was previously capped at $2,000 and only paid out to families with income tax obligations after they filed with the IRS.

But for this year, couples earning $150,000 or less can receive the full payments on the 15th of each month, in most cases by direct deposit. The benefits total $3,600 annually for children under 6 and $3,000 for those who are older. The IRS will determine eligibility based on the 2019 and 2020 tax years, but people will also be able to update their status through an online portal. The administration is also setting up another online portal for non-filers who might be eligible for the child tax credit.

The president has proposed an extension of the increased child tax credit through 2025 as part of his $1.8 trillion families plan. Outside analysts estimate that the payments could essentially halve child poverty. The expanded credits could cost roughly $100 billion a year.

Some have proposed that the Biden program be extended permanently, essentially creating a new federal entitlement program that would make American families far more dependent on government payments than any time in U.S. history.