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      Why are Americans so unhappy with Joe Biden? | Robert Reich

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      Why are Americans so unhappy with Joe Biden?Robert ReichOne answer might be that expectations were so high that hopes were bound to be dashed America is overflowing with good news. Unemployment is down, wages are up, consumer confidence is rebounding, and consumers are spending more (retail sales jumped 1.7% in October, the third monthly increase). Covid seems to be in retreat, at least among those who have been vaccinated. And two big parts of Biden’s legislative agenda – last spring’s $1.9tn American Rescue Plan, and his recent $1.2tn infrastructure plan – have been enacted.So what’s not to be happy about? Apparently, plenty. Biden’s job approval rating is 12 points lower than when he took office – now just 41% (around where Trump’s was for most of his presidency). Most registered voters say that if the midterm elections were today, they’d support the Republican candidate. Even Trump beats Biden in hypothetical matchups. More than 60% of Americans say the Democrats are out of touch with the concerns of most Americans. And Republican congressional candidates now hold their largest lead in midterm election vote preferences dating back 40 years.How can the economic and pandemic news be so good, and so much of Biden’s agenda already enacted – yet the public be so sour on Biden and the Democrats?Some blame Biden’s and the Democrat’s poor messaging. Yes, it’s awful. Even now most Americans have no idea what the “Build Back Better” package is. It sounds like infrastructure, but that bill has been enacted. “Human infrastructure” makes no sense to most people.Yet this can’t be the major reason for the paradox because the Democrats’ failure at messaging goes back at least a half century. I remember in 1968 after Nixon beat Humphrey hearing that the Democrats’ problem is they talk policy while Americans want to hear values – the same criticism we’re hearing today.Some blame the media – not just despicable Fox News but also the corporate mainstream. But here, too, the problem predates the current paradox. Before Fox News, Rush Limbaugh was poisoning countless minds. And for at least four decades, the mainstream media has focused on conflict, controversy and scandal. Good news doesn’t attract eyeballs.Some suggest Democrats represent the college-educated suburban middle class that doesn’t really want major social change anyway. Yet this isn’t new, either. Clinton and Obama abandoned the working class by embracing trade, rejecting unions, subsidizing Wall Street and big business and embracing deregulation and privatization.So what explains the wide gap now between how well the country is doing and how badly Biden and the Democrats are doing politically?In two words: dashed hopes. After four years of Trump and a year and a half of deathly pandemic, most of the country was eager to put all the horror behind – to start over, wipe the slate clean, heal the wounds, reboot America. Biden in his own calm way seemed just the person to do it. And when Democrats retook the Senate, expectations of Democrats and independents soared.But those expectations couldn’t possibly be met when all the underlying structural problems were still with us – a nation deeply split, Trumpers still threatening democracy, racism rampant, corporate money still dominating much of politics, inequality still widening, inflation undermining wage gains, and the Delta variant of Covid still claiming lives.Dashed hopes make people angry. Mass disappointment is politically poisonous. Social psychologists have long understood that losing something of value generates more anguish than obtaining it generated happiness in the first place.Biden and Democrats can take solace from this. Hopefully, a year from now the fruits of Biden’s initiatives will be felt, Covid will be behind us, bottlenecks behind the current inflation will be overcome, and the horrors of the Trump years will become more visible through Congress’s investigations and the midterm campaigns of Trumpers.Most importantly, America’s irrational expectations for quick deliverance from all our structural problems will have settled into a more sober understanding that resolving them will require a huge amount of work, from all of us.Then, I suspect, the nation will be better able to appreciate how far we’ve come in just two years from where we were.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
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      White House defends Kamala Harris after reports suggest she is struggling in role – video

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      The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, disputed recent media reports that the US vice president, Kamala Harris, is struggling with her role in Joe Biden’s administration. ‘She’s a key partner,’ Psaki said. ‘She’s a bold leader, and she is somebody who has taken on incredibly important assignments,’ including immigration and voting rights. With questions being raised about the president’s willingness to seek a second term, speculation is mounting over Harris’s chances in a contest for the next Democratic nomination. 
      ‘I don’t have any predictions of whether she will run, when she will run,’ Psaki added. ‘I will leave that to her, but I can tell you that there’s been a lot of reports out there and they don’t reflect his view or our experience with the vice president’

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      ‘America is moving again’: Joe Biden signs hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into law

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      ‘America is moving again’: Joe Biden signs hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into lawPresident celebrates with bipartisan crowd on White House lawn but faces tougher battles ahead to pass broader package President Joe Biden has signed his hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into law before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the new infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life “change for the better”.The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the public health and economic risks from Covid-19.“My message to the American people is this: America is moving again and your life is going to change for the better,” he said.Biden basks in bipartisan triumph – but is it a new start or a swansong?Read moreHowever, the prospects are tougher for further bipartisanship ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as Biden pivots back to more difficult negotiations over his broader $1.85tn social spending package.With Monday’s bipartisan deal, the president had to choose between his promise of fostering national unity and a commitment to transformative change. The final measure whittled down much of his initial vision for infrastructure. Yet the administration hopes to sell the new law as a success that bridged partisan divides and will elevate the country with better drinking water, high-speed internet and a shift away from fossil fuels.“Folks, too often in Washington the reason we didn’t get things done is because we insisted on getting everything we want. Everything,” Biden said. “With this law, we focused on getting things done. I ran for president because the only way to move our country forward in my view was through compromise and consensus.”Biden will get outside Washington to sell the plan more broadly in coming days.He intends go to New Hampshire on Tuesday to visit a bridge on the state’s “red list” for repair, and he will go to Detroit on Wednesday for a stop at General Motors’ electric vehicle assembly plant, while other officials also fan out across the country.“We see this as is an opportunity because we know that the president’s agenda is quite popular,” said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. The outreach to voters can move “beyond the legislative process to talk about how this is going to help them. And we’re hoping that’s going to have an impact.”Biden held off on signing the hard-fought infrastructure deal after it passed on 5 November until legislators were back from a congressional recess and could join in a bipartisan event.The gathering on Monday on the White House lawn was upbeat, with a brass band and rousing speeches, a contrast to the drama and tensions when the fate of the package was in doubt for several months. The speakers lauded the measure for creating jobs, combating inflation and responding to the needs of voters.Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who helped negotiate the package, celebrated Biden’s willingness to jettison much of his initial proposal to help bring GOP lawmakers on board. Portman even credited former president Donald Trump for raising awareness about infrastructure, even though the loser of the 2020 election voiced intense opposition to the ultimate agreement.“This bipartisan support for this bill comes because it makes sense for our constituents, but the approach from the centre out should be the norm, not the exception,” Portman said.In order to achieve a bipartisan deal, the president had to cut back his initial ambition to spend $2.3tn on infrastructure. The bill that became law on Monday in reality includes about $550bn in new spending over 10 years, since some of the expenditures in the package were already planned.Senate GOP leader Mitch cConnell supported the agreement, saying the country “desperately needs” the new infrastructure money, but he skipped Monday’s signing ceremony, telling WHAS radio in Louisville, Kentucky, that he had “other things” to do.Historians, economists and engineers welcomed Biden’s efforts. But they stressed that $1tn was not nearly enough to overcome the government’s failure for decades to maintain and upgrade the country’s infrastructure.“We’ve got to be sober here about what our infrastructure gap is in terms of a level of investment … that this is not going to solve our infrastructure problems,” said David Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell school of citizenship and public affairs at Syracuse University.“Yes, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a big deal,” said Peter Norton, a history professor in the University of Virginia’s engineering department. “But the bill is not transformational, because most of it is more of the same.”Norton compared the limited action on the climate crisis to the start of the second world war, when Roosevelt and Congress reoriented the entire US economy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Within two months, there was a ban on auto production. Dealerships had no new cars to sell for four years as factories focused on weapons and war materiel. To conserve fuel consumption, a national speed limit of 35mph was introduced.“The emergency we face today warrants a comparable emergency response,” Norton said.Biden tried unsuccessfully to tie the infrastructure package to passage of a broader package of $1.85tn in proposed spending on families, health care and a shift to renewable energy that could help address the climate crisis. That measure has yet to gain sufficient support from the narrow Democratic majorities in the Senate and House.Biden continues to work to appease Democratic skeptics of the broader package, while also holding on to the most liberal branches of his party. Pelosi said in remarks at the bill signing that the separate package will pass “hopefully this week”.TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden-Xi virtual summit: Biden says US and China must 'not veer into conflict' – video

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      US president Joe Biden has told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that he hoped to have a candid conversation about human rights and security issues as the two began a meeting meant to lower tensions between the two global superpowers. Biden added that the two leaders must make sure their relations do not veer into open conflict, including by installing ‘common sense’ guardrails. Biden spoke with Xi over a video conference as the two leaders engaged in their most extensive talks since Biden became president in January. Xi said the two sides must increase communication and cooperation to solve the many challenges they face.

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      Biden basks in bipartisan triumph – but is it a new start or a swansong?

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      Biden basks in bipartisan triumph – but is it a new start or a swansong? The signing of a $1.2tn infrastructure act was a much-needed win but Washington’s deep divisions were all too apparent“Here is what I know to be true, Mr President,” Vice-President Kamala Harris said on Monday, as she addressed Joe Biden. “You are equal parts believer and builder. And because you are, we are all better off.”Biden is a believer in the ability of the American people, US democracy and Democrats and Republicans to work together and get things done. It was the theory of his candidacy for president.Joe Biden signs $1.2tn infrastructure bill into law – liveRead moreBut his faith has been sorely tested since he took office.Reality keeps mugging Biden and yet he comes back for more, his convictions apparently unshaken. He refuses to be disappointed in America. His reward came on Monday when he signed into law a bipartisan trillion-dollar bill to repair roads, bridges and other infrastructure.The president told a gathering of about 800 mayors, governors and workers on the White House South Lawn: “The bill I’m about to sign is proof that despite the cynics, Democrats and Republicans can come together and deliver results. We can do this. We can deliver real results for real people.”Only the harshest of cynics would deny him this victory lap for the biggest public works bill since former president Dwight Eisenhower created the interstate highway system in 1956. “Joe! Joe! Joe!” chanted supporters as the sun set, casting its light on him but leaving most of the crowd in the shade as chill winds blew.But it did not take a cynic to notice the clues that Washington still has a long way to go to heal its deep, dysfunctional divisions and live up to Biden’s idealism. This might be a new dawn of bipartisanship. Or it might be its last gasp.Infrastructure, after all, is a low bar to clear. Foreign visitors to the US are stunned to find the most powerful nation the world has ever known plagued by potholed roads, crumbling bridges and clapped-out airports. China and others are racing ahead. America had to act because it couldn’t not act.Six years ago, when Congress last approved a significant renewal of federal highway and other transport programs, it was backed by nearly every Democrat and robust majorities of Republicans.This time, the $1.2n infrastructure bill cleared the Senate 69-13 with Republican support, but scraped through the House last week with just 13 Republican votes. And they have paid a political price.Donald Trump, the former president, lambasted them. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an extremist member of Congress, branded them “traitors” while tweeting their names and office telephone numbers.Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan said his offices received dozens of threatening calls following his yes vote. That included one obscenity-laced rant in which the caller repeatedly called Upton a “traitor” and expressed hope that he, his family and aides would die.If the Maga (“Make America Great Again”) wing of the Republican party was hoping to intimidate party members so they would stay away from Biden’s shindig, they appear to have succeeded. Only a sprinkling of congressional Republicans were present to hear this paean to bipartisanship.Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who voted for the bill, was notably not among them, apparently unwilling to enhance Biden’s political victory (the president thanked him in his absence, all the same).Instead there was the Republican senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who is not running for re-election and so has nothing to fear from the vengeance of Maga world.Biden joked: “Senator Rob Portman is really a hell of a good guy. I’m not hurting you, Rob, because I know you’re not running again.”This was not a Trumpian celebration of fireworks, military jets roaring overhead and tanks parked on the lawn. Nevertheless, the Rose Garden colonnades were bedecked with the Stars and Stripes and the flags of all 50 states were lined up at the south portico.Portman, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (neither wearing a coat despite the cold), the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, strode across the South Lawn as a fanfare played from a brass band.Sinema, a centrist Arizona Democrat, told the gathering: “How many times have we heard that bipartisanship isn’t possible any more or that important policy can only happen on a party line? Our legislation proves the opposite and the senators who negotiated this legislation show how to get things done.”But her prominent role summed up the ambiguity of the moment. Sinema has enraged many on the left by her enigmatic and intransigent approach to part two of Biden’s agenda, known as Build Back Better, which proposes $1.75tn in social and environmental spending. Republicans are uniformly opposed.That deadlock is not helping Biden’s approval rating, hovering around the 40% mark despite jobs growth, nor doing much to dispel the fear that the rot has set in for good in the body politic.But for one afternoon at least, Biden could be Biden, giving thanks to absent friends and reasserting his belief in America.“I ran for president because the only way to move our country forward is through compromise and consensus,” he said.TopicsJoe BidenThe US politics sketchUS politicsUS domestic policyfeaturesReuse this content More