Biden’s FDR delusion: He doesn’t have FDR’S political strength

In early March, President Joe Biden met with a group of seven historians in the East Room of the White House. One topic of conversation: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. “He’d like to be [FDR],” Axios’ Mike Allen reported in an inside account of the meeting. “Biden’s presidency has already been transformative, and he has many more giant plans teed up that could make Biden’s New Deal the biggest change to governance in our lifetimes.”

That’s a bit over the top -- we don’t know what is to come, but in its first 70 days Biden’s presidency has not been transformative. But the “Biden’s New Deal” talk is real. Axios reported there was much discussion of “transforming” the country, and much consideration of Biden’s plan “to jam through once-in-a-lifetime historic changes to America.”

Historian Michael Beschloss, who attended the meeting, reportedly said that FDR, along with Lyndon Johnson, are “the past century’s closest analogues” to what Biden hopes to do. “Beschloss said the parallels include the New Deal economic relief that Franklin Roosevelt brought in 1933, which saved the country from the Depression and chaos,” reported Axios.

To put it diplomatically, this is far-fetched. The United States is not in a Great Depression. Yes, there was an economic catastrophe last year. Everyone knows what caused it. GDP plunged, and unemployment soared. Then, quickly, GDP soared and unemployment plunged. The recovery began almost instantly. No, the economy is not yet fully recovered -- remember that at this point 12 months ago, the country was still headed into the worst days of the COVID pandemic -- but there is simply no comparison between the U.S. economy today and in 1933, when Roosevelt took office.

And for the economic problems that do persist, Congress has passed multi-trillion-dollar already been certified by state election officials -- and the Senate is tied, recovery bills. 50-50. American voters have not There is good given Democrats the kind of dominant reason to think majorities needed to “transform” that lawmakers the country. have already In the first six years of FDR’S presidency, spent too much Democrats had between 318 money on recovery. and 347 seats in the House. In the Last month, Senate, Democrats had between 60 before Congress passed a $1.9 trillion and 79 seats, at a time when there “COVID relief” recovery program, were 96 senators. Neither party has the Democratic economist Lawrence ever again had 300 or more seats in Summers argued the plan was too the House, nor has either party ever big for the problem it purported to had 70 or more seats in the Senate. fix. So Biden does not have the political

Democrats went ahead and passed strength to be Franklin Delano it anyway. Biden signed it into law. Roosevelt, even if he had FDR’S other And now they want to pass $3 trillion, qualities. But most important, the or maybe as much as $4 trillion, country is not in a place that needs more in spending. Why? So that the an FDR. Perhaps Biden has a hazy, president can “go big.” So that he can nostalgic view of FDR, who was president “change the paradigm.” (Biden said when Biden was born in 1942, that not once, not twice, but three

but he does not have a clear-eyed times during his first, and so far only,

view of the country’s condition right news conference.)

now.

But what would the new spending

“Assuming vaccinations allow us do? If the $1.9 trillion “COVID relief”

to get back to some type of economic bill spends $150 billion a month to fix a $20-billion-a-month problem, normal, the problem is that all of what would a new plan do? the emergency spending (plus its “President Biden’s economic advisers momentum for future spending) will are pulling together a sweeping likely about double U.S. debt relative $3 trillion package to boost the to GDP,” notes Kevin Hassett, economy, reduce carbon emissions who chaired the Council of Economic and narrow economic inequality, Advisers in the Trump White House. beginning with a giant infrastructure “The analogy is to the end of World plan,” The New York Times reported War II, not the start of the Great recently. In The Washington Post, Depression. A president who imagines the headline was, “White House prepares himself launching the New Deal massive infrastructure bill with at this point is not FDR, he is Don universal pre-k, free community college, Quixote.” climate measures.” This content originally appeared

In other words, everything. What on the Washington Examiner at is really going on is that many washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/ Democrats are hoping to use Biden’s byron-yorks-daily-memo-bidensfdr-delusion. presidency to “jam” into law a variety of Democratic agenda items old and new. Their vast ambitions are hampered by the fact that they have a very narrow majority in the House

-- so narrow that Democrats are trying to grab a seat in Iowa that has

United States territory.

(Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.)

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