Biden’s first 100 days: Low-key ambition
Former US president Barack Obama said his country’s historical progress was not smooth and that “we zig and we zag”. After zigging with Donald Trump through a pandemic disaster, the superpower has rediscovered its zag with Joe Biden, who last week marked his first 100 days in office.
He lacks the charisma of his old boss or the media-magnet qualities of Trump. But being the anti-Trump – calm, methodical, blunt and empathetic – has taken Biden a long way. And he’s also been fairly adept at avoiding controversies that might fire up the Republican opposition.
As a result, he’s been able to smooth the daunting edges off an expensive, ambitious and transformative agenda, selling it with everyday language as something logical and reasonable.
He has a knack of making lofty goals seem achievable. Decarbonising the planet is distilled through work, building improvements and transport. Republican Senator Ted Cruz summed up Biden’s speech to Congress last week with: “Boring but radical”.
Biden’s programme is, in essence, about redefining the role of government in the US and reversing the dominant economic approach of several decades, including spending and taxation priorities.
The US$1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus relief law was the administration’s first major success, and distributing 237 million vaccine doses is another. An estimated 55 per cent of the population has had at least one dose. Next up is about US$4 trillion for jobs creation, infrastructure and to help families. These policies would be funded in part by tax increases on the wealthy.
The Democrats have hit something of a sweet spot with a set of domestic reforms and the right person to articulate them. Still, activists on the left and a few conservative Democrats in the Senate have opposed Biden’s approach in some areas. And important non-economic priorities may not get through.
Republicans have struggled to find an opening so far as the Democrats concentrate on popular policies they can pass.
At present people are getting support, vaccines, and the economy is bouncing back.
Bill Clinton was the last Democratic president able to cut through to people from all walks of life on economic issues. Biden represents his party’s best hope of bringing back at least some of the working-class voters it has lost.
Whether Biden can produce a longer-term economic model that improves the lot of the many is unknown. But a system that’s more stable and secure for people who have taken a heavy blow during the pandemic would be better for democracy.