Biden has long to-do list if he wins White House
Joe Biden wants to address health care disparities, toughen gun control, overhaul policing, provide free community college, erase student loan debt, invest in green energy and improve the nation’s infrastructure.
But that’s just the start. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has also proposed measures to help Americans buy their first homes, raise the federal minimum wage and boost taxes on the wealthy and corporations. That’s to say nothing of his massive plans tied to the coronavirus.
The reams of proposals reflect Biden’s belief that the nation faces immense challenges that require a far-reaching government response not seen since the New Deal. It marks a contrast with President Donald Trump, who has struggled to articulate his second-term plans and has sometimes said the coronavirus will simply go away. But such ambition may inevitably lead to disappointment.
At a time of unprecedented gridlock, even some fellow Democrats warn Biden’s lengthy to-do list faces long odds in Congress.
“I think there is considerable bipartisan support for many of the principles,” said Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon. “The higher priority for the Republicans, should they be in the minority, is to prevent Biden from being an effective president.”
Democrats already control the House, but much of Biden’s agenda could come down to the Senate. If Democrats win the White House, they would need to pick up three seats in the Senate to retake the majority. Biden has predicted the party could end up with as many as 53 seats.
That’s still short of the 60 votes required to past most bills in the Senate. Merkley is a leading voice calling for the removal of that threshold, known as the filibuster, and instead pass legislation with a 51-vote majority.
As a 36-year veteran of the Senate, Biden has been reluctant to end its traditions. But he’s hinted his position may shift.
“You have to just take a look at it,” he told journalists this month, adding that his decision would depend on how “obstreperous” Republicans become.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pointed to the prospect of a Democratic-run chamber to warn donors that it’s vital for the party maintain its majority.
Don Stewart, a former top aide to McConnell, said the GOP can still slow major legislation even if they’re in the minority. He pointed to President Barack Obama’s struggles during his first term as an example of the playbook Republicans will use.
Obama came into office with a significant House and Senate majority, and Democrats still underwent months of legislative wrangling to hammer out a health care bill that would clear the Senate.
“It’s so hard to get an agreement on something that big and broad, because of all the little things in it and all the little ways that minority can attack every little piece,” Stewart said. “Between Obamacare and the stimulus, by July of Obama’s first year, he went from walking on water to completely upsidedown.”
Beyond the health care overhaul and the economic stimulus, Obama won passage of a new financial regulatory regime early in his administration. But other top first-term priorities, such as cap-and trade legislation and immigration reform, languished.
Biden’s aides say overlapping crises — the pandemic, the economic downturn and the demand for criminal justice reform — lend an urgency to reform that didn’t exist when Obama was in office.