US’ Biden goes all-out, risks losing control of Congress
WITH his plan for massive investment to create “millions of jobs” in the US coming on the heels of an equally titanic economic stimulus programme, President Joe Biden is “going big” in his first weeks in office, mindful of a narrow legislative window for action that could close as soon as next year.
Former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod said on March 30: “I think he knows that his legacy is going to be written in the next two years – his legacy as president – and he is going big. He is going big.”
The 2020 presidential election brought victory for the Democrat, along with a wild card – majority control of Congress, but only by the slenderest of margins.
And both in the White House and the halls of Congress, memories are only too clear of past presidents who, only two years after inauguration, lost legislative majorities in mid-term elections – Donald Trump in 2018, Barack Obama in 2010, George W Bush in 2006 and Bill Clinton in 1994.
In the face of that risk, presidents have essentially two options – to govern more from the centre, seeking consensus while protecting their majority; or to bet everything on an ambitious attempt to push major reforms through early, even at the risk of losing control of Congress.
With the 2022 mid-term elections just 19 months away, Biden has made his choice clear – he wants to move quickly with ambitious plans to fundamentally transform the US.
Time is short. While Biden – already the oldest US president
ever at 78 – says he plans to run again in 2024, Axelrod believes the chances of that are “pretty remote”, as he said on the Hacks on Tap podcast he co-hosts with Republican Mike Murphy.
Fierce opposition
“It’s big, yes. It’s bold, yes. And we can get it done.”
Withthosedeterminedwords, Biden on March 31 presented his plan to invest $2 trillion in US infrastructure over the next eight years with the goals of creating “millions of jobs”, fighting climate change and standing up to a rising China.
And that came barely three
weeks after he had signed into law his gigantic plan to stimulate the world’s largest economy as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. The price tag – $1.9 trillion.
The potential total cost of the two plans could exceed the gross domestic product (GDP) of Germany.
Biden, no stranger to the ways of Congress – where he spent more than 35 years as a senator – often portrays himself as a fan of bipartisanship, with a hand always held out to the other side.
But the White House has made it clear that it will not hesitate to move ahead without
Republicans, if necessary.
And to judge by Republicans’ early reactions, the opposition will be fierce.
Mitch McConnell, the influential Senate Republican leader, vowed on April 1 to fight the infrastructure plan “every step of the way”, saying Biden lacked a public mandate for so vast a package.
‘The art of the possible’
So, how does Biden hope to move the plan to passage?
“Successful electoral politics is the art of the possible,” Biden told reporters during his first news conference, on March 25.