Biden filibustered and overrun – El Financiero

CEO Founder LEXIA Insights & Solutions

It has only been a year for Joe Biden in the presidency and every day his management is deflating. What began with good omens and the right foot, thanks to the economic rescue package and a very high vaccination rate, has been losing steam day by day.

His main problem is that he is surrounded by too many powerful obstacles.

He won the presidency, but from the beginning he has not had too many springs and levers of power under his control. His capacity for maneuver is limited and he is not enough to carry out his program. In addition, the one that covers a lot, squeezes little and without a focus there is no light.

BIDEN FILIBUSTEREADO

With this neologism I want to highlight the insurmountable wall that he faces in the Senate, today made up of 50 senators from the Democratic side and 50 from the Republican side, plus the tiebreaker vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. Supposed majority that would allow him to carry out his agenda, however, he runs into the great obstacle of the filibuster, that procedural rule that requires the approval of 60 senators so that the initiative makes its way and can be voted on.

Being a procedural rule, it would be in the hands of the Democrats to discard it, but here two supposed allies, the Democratic senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, and from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, have radically opposed modifying it, arguing that it is a lock to avoid total polarization and the death of negotiated and agreed solutions with a bipartisan sense.

First Manchin ended the dreams of the Democratic progressive group by burying the colossal social package proposed by Biden in terms of social support and ambitious initiatives against climate change.

This week they have thrown away the proposal to modify the filibuster exclusively to give way to initiatives aimed at protecting the vote and counteracting all the tricks and scams that the Republicans are preparing in the states they dominate.

This greatly reduces Biden’s scope to create new laws and programs that make a difference and make his presidency something remarkable to remember.

The window of opportunity is closing above all because everything seems to indicate that the fragile majority in the House of Representatives (only 10 seats) is going to evaporate during the elections that come in November.

The historical pattern is that the president’s party loses many seats in the midterm elections of his first term (Obama lost 61 and Trump 42) and it will be enough for 6 to return to Republican control to further increase the ability to obstruct the Biden government. .

BIDEN PASSED

The size of the problems and the limited powers make a president look overwhelmed. The fronts multiply and submerge it in a host of bad news and unfulfilled expectations.

The pandemic is charging him the piper, unlike what happens in our country, where the virus has come in handy for a government that uses it as a smoke screen and alibi to justify its poor results. Incredibly, it is being affected by the reluctance of a large segment of the anti-vaccine population that has prevented contagion from decreasing, delaying the long-awaited return to a certain normality and accelerating economic recovery.

The disruption in the supply chains has seen many economic activities come to a halt, which are obvious in the empty shelves of many supermarkets or in the interruption of services due to the lack of personnel to carry out the work.

Beyond vaccination, the Biden government continues to fail on issues such as clear communication to the public about health measures, inconsistent access to tests or the defeat in the Supreme Court of its intention that companies with more than 100 workers force their employees to be vaccinated or tested constantly.

Higher-than-expected inflation is generating a lot of anxiety among consumers and fears about what may come next. This counteracts the positive effects that could be expected from the growth of the economy and the infrastructure works that are about to start with the approved multi-million dollar package.

Let us remember that Biden has achieved the support of Republican senators and representatives to inject money into the economy and that is where he stops counting.

The perception of a weak international leadership after the disastrous and stuck exit from Afghanistan, the strengthening and emboldening of its historical rivals on different fronts, one of them Vladimir Putin on the verge of intervening militarily in Ukraine.

Add to that the conservative majority (6 to 3) on the Supreme Court, Republican control of state governments and legislatures, the largest ratings of the conservative media ecosystem, the crisis on the border, the disappointment of the progressive Democratic wing, the shift in the Hispanic vote and a very long etcetera.

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