BIDEN HOPES TO SELL ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS SUMMER
WASHINGTON — The nation is about to witness a bold experiment. It’s a test of whether normal governing — building stuff, spurring economic development and job creation, trying to anticipate future challenges — still plays a significant role in American politics.
Informed skeptics, of course, challenge the idea that elections really revolve around how politicians do their work. Political scientists have found that who wins or loses typically depends on long-standing partisan loyalties, group attachments and gut impressions about whether things are going well or badly.
Nonetheless, President Biden’s administration is placing a large bet on the idea that voters still care about whether government is succeeding at the basics: constructing roads and bridges; creating well-paying jobs in new green and tech industries; and managing the federal apparatus without excessive drama.
Biden is also drawing lines on issues where he and his party have majority opinion on their side. On Friday, he traveled to Connecticut to celebrate the first anniversary of the passage of the first gun safety legislation in a generation — while pushing for stronger measures. Earlier in the week, Vice President Harris joined a convening of state legislators from 41 states focused on protecting abortion rights, while Biden continued his campaign against junk fees and hidden charges.
With inflation remaining one of the largest political challenges he faces, this popular cause — along with the impact of legislation to bring down the price of prescription drugs — allows Biden to highlight his efforts to contain living costs.
Meanwhile, Biden is continuing his campaign against House Republicans’ efforts to cut business taxes and, ultimately, to extend the tax cuts passed under President Donald Trump.
The investments in infrastructure, green energy and tech, he’ll argue, are promoting shared growth, especially in the parts of the country (many of them rural and Republican-leaning) that have experienced decades of economic turmoil. At the same time, they reflect a measured — and, in the case of tech and infrastructure, bipartisan — approach to what government should look like.
Biden’s team sees the president as having running room after getting past the debt ceiling crisis with minimal concessions to House Republicans.
If the Democrats’ loss of the House last year means they can’t expect to pass more breakthrough legislation before the 2024 election, it also means they will not have to live with months of stories about intraparty skirmishing, breakdowns in negotiations and angry ideological clashes. Between now and the election, most of the infighting will be within the House GOP majority and between House and Senate Republicans.
Biden’s lieutenants are under no illusions about the tests he faces. His approval ratings have been stuck in the low 40s for some time. Commentary about the president’s age has become a journalistic staple. If the Federal Reserve overshoots in its battle against inflation, the economy could turn sluggish at exactly the wrong moment in the electoral cycle for Biden. And, if the cynics are right, voters might not pay much attention to the impact of Biden’s investment program. Even if they do, they might not give the president much credit.
On this last point, at least, Biden is determined to defy expectations. His implementation and sales efforts this summer could have an unusually large impact on what voters decide in the fall of 2024.