Biden's Challenge: Pushing His Agenda in Congress as Window Narrows
By: Ken Thomas and Catherine Lucey (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON—President Biden is aiming to push a broad legislative agenda through a narrow political window, seeking to enact sweeping changes to transportation, child care and tax policies, among other issues, before next year’s challenging midterm elections.
With his speech to Congress ahead of his 100th day in office , Mr. Biden shifted to a new stage in his presidency this week after an early period spent largely on fighting Covid-19. The president—who has proposed about $6 trillion in spending across three packages—says he is seeking to work with Republicans, though GOP lawmakers argue that he hasn’t always been receptive to their proposals.
Mr. Biden also must keep his party’s moderates and progressives united, given their narrow majorities in Congress. He has just 18 months before the midterm elections, which often mean losses for a president’s party and could cost Democrats control of the House and Senate, underscoring the sense of urgency around passing his proposals.
Mr. Biden, in his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, said the U.S. needs to act to spur the economy or fall behind. “The rest of the world is not waiting for us. And I just want to be clear, from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s job approval ratings have remained above 50%, according to public polling, helped by public support for his response to the Covid-19 pandemic . Those are higher than President Donald Trump ’s during the same time frame but lower than some other recent presidents at the end of their first 100 days. Mr. Biden believes that if he concentrates on his policy goals, “The politics in the end will take care of itself,” senior adviser Mike Donilon said.
Challenges await the president, who is trying to persuade hesitant Americans to get Covid-19 vaccines and grappling with an influx of migrants on the southern border. GOP leaders are beginning to frame their case against Mr. Biden’s White House by saying that many Democratic priorities are too far to the political left for most Americans.
“The agenda they’re proposing is extreme in every way,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R., S.C.). “The best thing for America is to slow it down.”
Mr. Biden will take his first overseas trip in June to the U.K. and Belgium and has expressed interest in holding a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin . And aides have been conducting “due diligence” in the event of a Supreme Court vacancy, a White House official said. Justice Stephen Breyer, who is 82 years old, has been urged by progressives to retire. An exit would give Mr. Biden his biggest opportunity to begin reshaping the nation’s high court.
More broadly, Mr. Biden has told members of his team during recent Oval Office meetings that his administration must strive to restore Americans’ trust in government and the nation’s ability to accomplish big things. His spending proposals are an ambitious effort to increase the role of government in spurring economic growth—shifting away from the decadeslong view that federal intrusion into the private sector would be harmful to the economy.
“There’s been a fundamental transformation in the role of government in society,” said Robert Creamer, a Democratic strategist with close ties to the White House. He said that if Mr. Biden is successful, he could be “the most transformational president since FDR.”
Mr. Donilon said the president sees this moment as crucial: “He very much believes we’re in a period of time where democracy is being tested and that democracy has to prove it can deliver for its people.”
A challenge for Mr. Biden will be keeping a diverse array of Democrats together on thorny issues like immigration, gun control, voting access and policing.
Some congressional Democrats have been pressing Mr. Biden to support abolishing the legislative filibuster to allow legislation to advance in the Senate with a simple majority instead of the current 60-vote threshold. The president hasn’t endorsed that move.
His allies say he has been able to maintain unity within the party despite such disputes and that resistance to his agenda from Republican leaders has helped keep Democrats together.
“Donald Trump became the great unifier for Democrats, left of center, right of center and further on both sides. And Mitch McConnell is now playing that role,” said Steve Israel, a former Democratic congressman from New York who led the House Democrats’ campaign arm for two terms during the Obama years.
Mr. McConnell, in remarks Wednesday morning, said Mr. Biden’s first 100 days “have left much to be desired. Over a few short months, the Biden administration seems to have given up on selling actual unity in favor of catnip for their liberal base covered with a hefty coat of false advertising.”
While Democrats captured the White House and majorities in Congress in the 2020 elections, they didn’t achieve the margins they hoped for in the legislature. The Senate is divided 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker. In the House, Democrats hold 218 seats and Republicans 212.
A first-term president’s party frequently loses seats in the midterms. Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all saw midterm losses. With Mr. Trump, Republicans lost 40 House seats but gained two in the Senate.
Rep. Tom Emmer, (R., Minn.) who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, expressed confidence that Republicans could recapture the House in 2022. He cited the calls by some on the left to defund the police and the push by the White House to aggressively address climate change as issues that would help GOP candidates.
“Everything we said they were going to do, they’re doing,” he said. “Voters are going to have a clear understanding of their socialist agenda in these details and how damaging it is on their daily lives.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), said voters in his district were concerned about the calls from some Democrats to expand the Supreme Court and change Senate filibuster rules. He also cited Mr. Biden’s policies on the southern border and decision to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, costing jobs in his home state.
Looking ahead, Mr. Bacon said, “I think we’re going to have a bit of a tailwind because a lot of the Biden-Pelosi agenda is pretty far left.”
Republicans also have been attacking Mr. Biden for his spending plans. Some GOP lawmakers proposed scaled-back Covid-19 relief and infrastructure plans that would have cost much less than Mr. Biden’s.
The president’s aides point to polling that shows his policies are broadly popular . “The other side is just seeking to divide the American people, arguing that somehow the president is too extreme,” said White House senior adviser Anita Dunn. “They were on the losing side of this argument. People rejected that argument in 2020.”
Rep. Haley Stevens (D., Mich.), who represents a closely divided district that will be a top target for Republicans next year, said that Republican efforts to brand her as a socialist didn’t work in 2020. She noted that she was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has focused heavily on manufacturing jobs while in office.
Ms. Stevens said she was encouraged because the recovery efforts were being felt in her district. “That Saturday when the checks started coming through, I remember I might have been in a Lyft . And someone said, ‘Oh yeah I got my stimulus check, I already used it to pay a lot of bills.’ Boom, it just, it hit that quickly,” she said.
Some allies of Mr. Biden hope his fortunes align with George W. Bush, who saw Republican gains in the House and Senate in 2002. Those followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as he was seen as a president managing a crisis.
“The economy’s going to be very strong,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.). “That’s very helpful. Whoever’s in power when the economy is strong, people are working, their hopes are up, spirits are up, it should work out good.”
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It's not much of a challenge when the new Senate Parliamentarian suddenly decides that democrats have 4 shots at reconciliation.
"Larry Kudlow slammed President Biden on ‘ Kudlow ' Wednesday, saying it will ‘sink the economy’ and ‘curtail real wages’
LARRY KUDLOW: I want to single out three major problems in Mr. Biden’s policy arsenal that are of great concern to me. First, he is conducting a war on investment, and therefore a war on jobs and wages by jacking up investment taxes to marginal rates we haven’t seen in over 50 years. In particular, moving the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28%, which will be over 30% using combined federal-state tax rates.
Second, increasing the tax on global cash held by American companies from 10.5% to 21%. That is a killer.
And third, doubling the core capital gains tax from 20 to 40%, and remember, this is the second tax on corporate profits with integrated rates in the mid-’50s, and you add in high tax states like New York and California, you’ll be moving into the low 60’s at a minimum. Nothing like this has ever been seen before.
Now, Mr. Biden’s team believes this will raise money to finance their social programs. Let’s not forget, in a mere hundred days, 6.35 trillion in additional spending. 6.35 trillion.
For the youngsters who got to vote for Joe Biden, I can safely assume that none of you are old enough to remember Jimmy Carter's time of runaway inflation/stagnation. Your money is going to be worth a lot less. You felt good? Let's see how good you feel a year from now?
Wonder what the reaction would have been if Mitch Mcconnel had been standing behind Biden with a copy of the speech and then ripping it in half like a certain smug looking somebody behind him did not too long ago to Biden's predecessor? The Democrats would have been howling with hypocritical outrage!
Only the likes of a progressive could do something so low.
Larry Kudlow is a clown.
Well, that settles that.
Now, now ... Larry drinks offal based beer.
I'll pay slight attention to right wingers complaints about Biden after they explain why they have been lying about his mental state for 2 or 3 years.
Biden spoke for over an hour last night, without a break and with no signs of "diminishment". Enough is enough with the "Biden is in a fog" nonsense.
What lies?
What about left wingers lying every day for 4 years?
Vic you have personally claimed that Biden is a doddering drooling old codger dozens of times.
Are you ready to retract that lie now?
That is not a lie and there won't be any retractions. Biden was fine last night, but that was one of those rarities - which usually happens when he needs to perform well. He is nothing more that a puppet for the most radical elements in our society. He is operating like a trained seal that is not concerned with a second term nor whether the democrats maintain their slender control of congress.
The is not true, from the start to the finish...
I don't care if he's a puppet, a muppet or Mickey Mouse. He's a thousand times better than what we just said good-bye to.
I think his critics are much more delusional than he is.
See Russia/collusion hoax.
I'm sure you are delighted with his policies. Just as we were with having a thriving economy, secure borders and judges who followed the Constitution.
"Delusional", "right wing" and "the deep end" don't exactly offer much of a counter argument to what I've said about Joe Biden. Why not admit that you don't care about Joe Biden. You are just happy to turn America into Oceania.
Joe Biden is fine. He wouldnt be my first choice but he is fine considering what the alternative was.
Thank you for the confirmation. As I told you all, he was a vehicle to defeat someone. He campaigned as a moderate who would unite us. The getting rid of someone is the prime reason why you and others on the far left voted for him. The best part for you is what you got once the proxy was elected. You got the best of Bill Ayers and AOC. Kind of a bonus!
Others who voted for him were voting out of racial or gender identity, loyalty to the democratic party (public sector unions, the teachers union, feminists and abortion advocates. A lot of suburban women and independents gave him their vote thinking they were getting what he promised - "unity" & "moderation."
Let's not forget the foolishness of the young.
Thanks for the honesty.
Vic, I would have voted against Trump if you were the only alternative. He's not fit to hold public office. He's completely corrupt, a pathological liar, a cheat, a racist, and he's not too bright. Five strikes and you're out.
I doubt you thought that one out. He wasn't near the enemy of the left that I would be. Not to brag, but if I had been elected in 2016, with that same Republican congress, I would have immediately fired every progressive operative in government, submitted a comprehensive immigration package to congress, appointed an FBI director who would classify BLM & antifa as domestic terrorists, denied all federal funds to illegal sanctuary cities/states, denied all federal funds to universities which taught progressive ideology, denied the msm any press conferences, placed nuclear missiles in Japan & Taiwan & Australia and I'd scrap the section 230 protections for social media.
That would be my first 100 days.
I won't bother with your usual lies about the former President.
How billionaires saw their net worth increase by half a trillion dollars during the pandemic
Are you one of those Vic ?
Borders were no more secure with trump than they are right now. The wall fiasco is a joke.
Repubs got plenty of judges, that was political advantage not accomplishment.
Bullshit. Prove it.
Vic, I dont give a damn about how much of an enemy of the left trump was or wasnt.
He's not fit to hold office. Period. Never has anyone disgraced the office the way he did, no, not even Nixon.
The reason I would vote for you over Trump is that , even though I dont agree at all with your policies, or very little, I assume you are at least ethically and psychologically fit to hold office.
If you really believe in what you are saying, then you're not the progressive I thought you were.
He's not fit to hold office.
For a guy who wasn't fit he did a lot of good for this country. He was all the middle class had. Think back to the people that some thought were most "fit" or most "presidential." Remember Woodrow Wilson?
It's about results John.
We found there is no simple metric to determine if Biden inherited the “most secure” border. Some cite miles of barriers, while others use various apprehension figures.
Trump ignores that the surge started in the spring of 2020 when he was still in office.
Besides U.S. policy, factors that drive migrants to leave their home countries have included economic havoc caused by hurricanes and the pandemic, and yearslong problems associated with violence.
That's the biggest bullshit narrative ever and nobody is buying:
More than half of U.S. adults questioned said they disapprove of President Biden 's handling of the surge in Central American migrants, particularly young unaccompanied children, at the border with Mexico, according to a survey published early Sunday.
In the Washington Post/ABC News poll , 53 percent of respondents said they disapprove at least somewhat of the job Biden has done managing the rising number of immigrants and asylum-seekers arriving at the border, while 37 percent approved. Nearly half-- 44 percent -- strongly disapproved.
Here are the undeniable facts:
Biden had made the turning back of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies one of the key planks in his 2020 presidential campaign. And on day one, he got straight to work.
Day One
Biden signed orders immediately after his inauguration that halted construction of the wall at the southern border , committed to strengthening the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and repealed the travel bans on high-risk countries from the Middle East, Africa, as well as Venezuela and North Korea.
His administration also touted his support for a sweeping immigration reform bill that would include a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo with guidance that dramatically narrowed interior immigration enforcement to recent border crossers, national security threats and "aggravated felons." That guidance also sought to impose a 100-day moratorium on deportations.
Remain-in-Mexico
In the subsequent weeks and months, Biden made a number of key moves on immigration. Most critically he ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) . That policy, known as the "Remain-in-Mexico" policy, was a Trump-era policy that kept migrants in Mexico while their hearings proceeded. Proponents said it ended the pull factor of allowing migrants into the interior, while critics called it a cruel policy that put migrants in danger.
The Biden administration also did not apply Title 42 public health restrictions -- which allowed the US to quickly expel migrants -- to unaccompanied children and some family units.
INSIDE THE BORDER CRISIS: PRESS TOURS PACKED TEXAS FACILITY WITH 4,000 MIGRANTS
Border crisis escalates
The number of migrant encounters at the border had been steadily increasing since April 2020 and continued as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated. But Trump officials and Republicans warned during the transition that, if Biden rolled back Trump-era policies, there would be chaos.
"If the current policies in place are revoked as critics have promised they would do...the 2,300 [encounters] a day will become a full-blown crisis overnight as we stand by and watch the numbers go even higher, making last year's crisis pale in comparison," then-acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said in December.
There seemed too to be some indication to Biden officials that new trouble was ahead, with top advisers warning potential migrants that the border would not be open right away.
As Biden entered office, numbers surged and continued to grow in the weeks ahead. There were more than 100,000 migrant encounters in February, and more than 172,000 encounters in March -- with historic highs of unaccompanied children.
Meanwhile ICE enforcement narrowed significantly , and while the 100 day moratorium was blocked after a lawsuit from Texas, arrests plunged.
Soon, pictures of packed migrant facilities in places like Donna, Texas, emerged as officials quickly opened new facilities while ending some COVID-related capacity restrictions to cope with the influx. Elsewhere, videos were released of smugglers abandoning children in the wilderness. The administration put out appeals across the federal government for volunteers, while overwhelmed Border Officials started releasing migrants into the U.S. without notices to appear in court.
Critics quickly chalked the escalating disaster up to Biden’s changes to immigration policy. The administration denied there was a crisis at the border, calling it a "challenge" instead and blaming the Trump administration for ending legal asylum pathways and dismissing the surge as seasonal.
So far, there have been some agreements to strengthen border security at those country’s border, while Harris will visit Guatemala in June.
Doubling Down
But despite the crisis at the border, the Biden administration shows little sign of having changed its trajectory on migration. Biden has continued to push for immigration reform, including amnesties for illegal immigrants. On interior enforcement, he has picked an ICE nominee who has opposed ICE raids in the past.
However, Biden is likely to face continued heat from the left of the Democratic Party for not having completely ended Title 42 -- which is still being applied to some migrant families and single adults, and is responsible for the vast majority of migrants encountered at the border being returned.
You’d have my vote, Vic.
i like this visual
I look at that in almost horror.
330,000,000 people
434,000,000 guns
two sides divided and at each other's throats for control
America
I post facts, you post fox.
I always like the county break down of how the voters voted , shows me that even those counties with little numbers of voters count no matter how small the population. i dont think there is an established county in any of the states that does not have some population and where no one lives . and that makes the middle staement a bald faced lie IMNSHO.
that kind of makes your second visual laughable unless you wish to show population density. which no one i think would argue .
That population intermingling of national red and blue dispersed so fully is scary as hell in terms of the country ever having a second physical civil war !
Each American has representation in Congress in two ways, through their US Representative, for which there is one per 750,000 population (or something like that, the exact proportion changes from time to time as the US population grows.) The second way each American is represented in Congress is through their senator , of which each of the 50 states has two.
I am not that much of a math whiz, but I do know that with this individual people in a small state (population wise ) like Wyoming have more representation in Congress than individuals in a large state have.
Wyoming - 1 US representative per 750,000 people (580,000), 2 US senators per 580,000 people
Illinois - 1 US representative per 750,000 people, 2 US senators per 12,740,000 people
-
What this leads to is what we have now , the Democrats in the Senate , even when the Republicans had a six seat majority before the last election, represent considerably more Americans than the Republicans do. The Republicans represent more cows.
And yet the results of Senate votes rarely reflect this reality.
Not too worried about that myself really , how that red and blue have segregated themselves and usually by choice is their own doing .
i would say the time to start worrying is when either of the extremes politically ,decide the other side doesnt deserve the same consideration they expect for themselves ,whether thats coming or not , i cant say , and nor will i try and guess , but i can likely say with some accuracy how it would all line out just from observations the last 30 or so years.
Hitler got results. A lot of Germans were happy with his results for a long time. Its about results only after basic fitness has been established.
What you fail to mention John is congress , the HoR specifically can and does limit its membership so basing it on any set number went the way of the dodo in the 1800s when they added about 20 states in a 20 year span . right now without an act of the house approved by the senate and signed by the president , no further members of the house will be admitted , unless there are new states added to the union .
the other key piece of information you neglect , is what the senators jobs are , no matter how they get the job , they do not represent the people or the populus , they represent the state and the states interests , the framers specifically set that in place because sometimes whats good for a state , isnt good for the people , and vice versa , whats good for the people might be very bad for the state .
AND in the senate since representation is not based on population but by virtue the jurisdiction has state hood , in the senate all states are equal . no one state has more senators than another unlike in the HoR.
If you think the state you live in deserves more representation , get the state legislature to split the state in 2 , get the rest of the country to agree and create a new state out of what already exists , for 1 new state you will get 2 new senators , might not get anymore members of the house and have to split what the state already has between the 2 .
We now have a 50-50 Senate. A standoff. Except the 50 Democrats represent the majority of Americans and the 50 Republicans do not. And it's been that way for a while now.
and the senate does not represent people much to your chagrin they represent states themselve and their governments in which case half the states can be said to disagree with the democrats and their proposed platforms and ideas .
You post narratives and that's the weakest one since the Russia hoax.
I doubt that. Stalin, Hitler, Obama and Biden didn't get results that benefited their people.
Vic, I just cannot help but laugh almost hysterically when I hear something like that from people who obviously live absolutely nowhere on or near out Southern border!
You have a 50-50 Senate based on Republicans not voting in Georgia and you have something that is 100% wrong - a Senate Parliamentarian who disagrees with her predecessor and gave the democrats 4 shots at reconciliation. Your radical views in no way represents the American people. The people those democrats represent revile this country and it's Constitution.
They want to change the country.
they need to get 3 more things that are very doubtful and will be difficult .
Consent
co-operation
compliance
Civil disobiediance has a history in this country.
The country is changing regaudless if any of us want it to or not. It always does. The only thing that stays the same is change.
One second at a time.
As I see it Vic, America has divided itself in half and both sides want to control the change.
Unfortunately they both want that change to be in opposite directions and neither is really willing to compromise.
I want it all.
That's unrealistic for both.
Neither wants to acknowledge that fact.
I add this so I don't cry.
Duh. The President's party is going to lose seats because of the census. That's been influenced more by immigration than people moving away from blue states.
The Democrat's plans for turning red states into blue states with immigration have been a disaster for the party. That constantly growing immigrant population is more concerned about labor issues than social issues. Democrats are now going to pay the price for throwing labor unions under the bus to court Black voters.
It's the economy, stupid. Civil rights is becoming less important. And now that the Black population has been surpassed by the Hispanic population, the Democratic Party is grinding the gears trying to change course. Joe Biden may try to pop the clutch but there is a real risk that the Democrat's transmission will decorate the highway.
LMFAOROTF, when i moved to wyoming 30 some yrs ago i was told most people dont last long , the locals start thinking you will be hanging around after you make it about 6 years, before that your either considered a tourist , or worse , a guest who is overstaying their welcome, and even if you stay the rest of your life , you will never be a native , thats reserved for those that are born here.
2 biggest things that make people move out of this state is jobs or the lack of jobs that pay enough to live here, the other thing and it can not be avoided , mitigated or changed , is toleration of the weather the state gets , personally i have seen all 4 seasons in my time here on a single day in july, numerous times .