Is it everything the Democrats dreamed of? Not by a long shot.
But it’s a big step forward – all the more remarkable because it’s happening under an evenly divided Senate. It goes against the prevailing narrative that Washington is irreparably broken and that President Biden is a nostalgic old fool even trying to reach down the aisle. Regardless of what’s going on in the cable news right now, historians of Mr. Biden’s first term will have to admit that a surprising amount has been done.
Of course, we live in a toxic and deeply polarized era where some politicians prefer to see the country fail than to help the opposing side succeed. But as compelling as the story of persistence is, it may be a bit of an exaggeration. Obstruction has limits. People who win elected office can also get tired of a stalemate. Think about what happened when Mitch McConnell tried to take the CHIPS Act hostage for political reasons. It didn’t work, in part because too many Republicans had worked on it and wanted to pass it on.
And maybe Mr Biden’s original sweeping Build Back Better plan failed, not because of obstruction, but because the land wasn’t sold. everything in the. When it died a slow death, many Democratic voters became despondent. Presidential popularity polls fell.
But that doesn’t mean nothing was done. For the past two years, legislators have skillfully addressed a series of bipartisan bills on things that have been on the country’s to-do list for years. Some who threw red meat at the base with one hand were also quietly making bipartisan deals with the other to expand health benefits for veteranssecure what the . is called largest investment ever in public transport and protect local and tribal governments from cyber-attacks.
According to Jason Grumet, the president and founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center, fifty-five senators have taken leadership roles in one or more of 16 major bipartisan initiatives over the past two years. Eight of their bills have become law and more could be passed in the lame duck session. A 50-50 Senate meant much of what passed had to be bipartisan, with at least 10 Republicans in support. It was harder than before, but not impossible.
“Democracy is badly bruised, but it is not broken,” Mr Grumet told me.
Unfortunately, it is a function of our hyperpartisan era that such productivity is often keep hidden. Many politicians feel that they have been chosen to fight rather than compromise. It’s not cool to crow about working the other side.
That gives the public the impression that their government is more broken than it really is, and it robs voters of any hope that it could ever change. The idea of an endless, absolute stalemate isn’t just wrong. It’s dangerous. It causes Americans – and people all over the world — losing faith in democracy as a governance model.
Politically, when the Democrats controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress, the widespread idea of a idle government was also self-defeating.
Democrats have spent much of the past year battling the perception of being helpless in the face of Republican (or Sinemanchian) obstructionism, so much so that many activists who worked hard to elect Democrats have begun to wonder why they are. had made the effort.
But the party persisted. Build Back Better stayed on secret life support all winter and spring. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Home Secretary Deb Haaland toured labs in West Virginia with Joe Manchin, the infamous holdout. Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, went on a strum with him. Even though the talks had been ruled dead countless times, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continued to search for a slimmed-down version that Mr. Manchin could live with.
Now, after years of bipartisan progress where they could, Democrats are about to get two more big things done with a party vote. The Inflation Reduction Act contains what Bill Gates described as the “most important piece of climate legislation in American history.” It justifies the approach of both wings of the Democratic Party. Progressives made climate a priority. Moderates patiently closed the deal that made it happen.
Will it do everything climate activists had hoped for? Of course not. But it is what is possible now.
“A climate bill has finally passed the Senate,” tweeted Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise Movement. “This is not the bill my generation deserves, but it is the bill we can get. It must pass to give us a fighting chance at a livable world.”
The Inflation Reduction Act will also allow the government to negotiate the price of drugs for Medicare patients, a common-sense but insanely unattainable goal that groups like AARP have been fighting for since the early 2000s. Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to do just that. He couldn’t manage it. Democrats did.
Will that fact trickle down to voters? It’s not clear. News of these Democratic victories was quickly drowned out by coverage of the FBI’s search for Mar-a-Lago. Insofar as these legislative achievements are discussed, it is in the context of the midterm elections. Joe Biden’s presidency is suddenly back from the dead announced New York magazine‘s Intelligence. Biden’s approval rating jumps to highest level in two months, read the headline of an article in The Hill in which a bump of two percentage points in the polls.
Oh yeah.
But even if today’s voters have no idea of the greater legacy of these bills, future generations will.
These achievements “will not rival FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s Great Society programs, which have truly reshaped the political and policy landscape for decades,” said Barbara A. Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “But in light of what would be expected to be incremental changes at best, Biden’s performance is more on par with JFK’s New Frontier legislation — somewhere between simply adjusting policy at the fringes and a large-scale reorganization of the United States government.”
It’s not as great as Build Back Better. But it’s still big. It’s shooting to the moon and landing among the stars. That is a good thing, not only for Joe Biden and the Democrats, but also for the country and for democracy itself.