Is Biden truly bipartisan?
Republicans are right to complain that President Joe Biden’s talk of bipartisanship has so far been all words and no deeds. There is still plenty of time, however, for Biden to show he means what he says.
Biden has merely put a happy face on a strongly progressive agenda. Many of his executive orders — including canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and re-entering the Paris climate accord — simply repeal former president Donald Trump’s actions. House Democrats have introduced the administration’s comprehensive immigration bill with no substantive GOP input, and they are also pursuing a ludicrously partisan rewrite of election law (H.R. 1). Initial talks with a group of 10 Republican senators over a compromise to Biden’s $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill have fizzled. Democrats are now moving to pass the massive proposal using the reconciliation procedure that allows a fiscal bill to pass the Senate with only a majority vote instead of the 60 votes needed to surmount a filibuster. Biden’s nice talk can’t wholly mask this nakedly partisan drive.
This could be a sign of things to come, with Democrats using their narrow majorities to run roughshod over Republicans. Or it could be the opening stages of a typical negotiation, where the parties thunder and bluster at the onset to show the other side they won’t cave. Let’s hope it’s the latter, as there is still a chance that genuine bipartisanship can emerge.
The covid-19 relief bill is a case in point. Passing it out of the House on a partisan vote is simply a formality, as spending bills must always originate in that chamber. House Republicans have no chance to change the outcome because of the Democrats’ majority and the rules of the House. Everyone involved knows that the real action will come in the Senate, where the Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote to prevail. What happens there will determine whether Biden means what he says.
Good negotiators follow a few simple rules. First, get leverage and use it to shape the contours of the deal. Second, have something on the table that you can give up that the other party values a lot. Third, use initial negotiating sessions to feel your adversary out and get a sense of their priorities and temper. Do this, and any deal will likely result in you getting more of what you want than if you act rashly.
Biden’s behavior so far follows these guidelines perfectly. The reconciliation process gives him leverage: Talk or you’ll lose everything. The bill itself is so filled with liberal wishes and so excessive in size that even some Democratic economists have criticized it. Biden could cut the bill in half and still end with more than enough aid to help those struggling because of the pandemic. And the initial discussions with the 10 senators provided a sense of what they want (a smaller, more targeted bill) and their temper (they really want to get to yes). All of this bodes well for a deal in early March — if Biden wants one.
If he doesn’t, then we should expect to see partisan tempers burn even more brightly. Progressive activists will demand repeal or modification of the filibuster to give Democrats the power to pass the rest of their agenda. This will embolden or inflame activists on both sides no matter the outcome. Both parties’ bases will pressure legislators to stand firm and give no quarter in what both will label a battle for America itself. That’s the polar opposite of what Biden has said he wants to accomplish.
What happens in the next two weeks, then, will set the template for the next two years. A deal-cutting Biden puts Democrats on the front foot, but not so much as to turn political heat even higher. A recalcitrant Biden who cajoles Senate Democrats to pass his current bill with minimal changes sets the nation on a course of imminent, intense conflict.
Most Americans would like to see the parties work together for the common good. That’s especially true of the suburban former Republicans whose votes gave Biden the White House. George W. Bush and Barack Obama promised to be unifiers but proved to be dividers, and Trump’s demeanor meant he could never cut the deals he promised. Biden’s appeal was that he could do what has eluded all of his predecessors in this century.
Biden said in his inaugural address that his “whole soul” was in “bringing America together, uniting our people, and uniting our nation.” We’ll know soon whether he was serious.