Joe Biden

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘A bold leader’: White House defends Kamala Harris after reports say she’s struggling

      by

      ‘A bold leader’: White House defends Kamala Harris after reports say she’s strugglingJen Psaki fires back after several media outlets portray a vice-president struggling to make her mark John Nance Garner, vice-president to Franklin D Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941, famously said the office “wasn’t worth a bucket of warm piss”. Kamala Harris may now agree.Biden’s approval ratings continue to plunge amid crisis over inflationRead moreThe White House was moved to defend her on Sunday night, after leading US media outlets portrayed a VP struggling to make her mark.“For anyone who needs to hear it,” said the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, Harris “is not only a vital partner to [Joe Biden] but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country – from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.”Psaki was firing back on multiple fronts.On Friday, as Harris wrapped up a visit to France, the New York Times said: “Ten months into her vice-presidency, Ms Harris’s track record on delivering on the administration’s global priorities has been mixed.”Célia Belin, of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, told the paper: “I think she’s been really hidden this whole time and out of the sight of most Europeans. I think she’s been quite under the radar.”Then, late on Sunday, CNN published a lengthy report headlined: “Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris’ frustrating start as vice-president.”The report contained supportive voices, including the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, who said Harris was “off to the fastest and strongest start of any vice-president I have seen”.CNN said Klain emphasised Harris’s work on Covid vaccine equity and foreign policy, and said: “Anyone who has the honor of working closely with the vice-president knows how her talents and determination have made a big difference.”But CNN also said Klain was “known as a Harris defender in the West Wing”. Like much in the piece, it was unattributed. CNN said it spoke to “nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers”.Its report began with a stark statement: “Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at [Harris] and her staff – deciding there simply isn’t time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political concerns.”Success on one of the biggest such concerns, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, will see the White House host a signing ceremony on Monday, a chance for the president to bask in public victory at a time when his poll ratings – and Harris’s – are sliding.Reports on Harris’s fortunes generally include discussion of her own political future.As the first Black and Asian woman to be vice-president, she is assured of her place in history. But Biden is nearly 79 and may not run for re-election. Speculation continues to mount over Harris’s chances in a contest for the next Democratic nomination, perhaps in opposition to Pete Buttigieg, who ran much more strongly in 2020 and who as transportation secretary has made a confident start to Washington life.Like Harris, Buttigieg has been attacked by the right – if not so bizarrely as in claims last week that Harris spoke with a French accent while in Paris. Buttigieg recently took paternity leave after he and his husband adopted twins. Criticised by Fox News hosts and others, he was defended by the White House.An unnamed “former Harris aide” told CNN it was “hard to miss the specific energy that the White House brings to defend a white man, knowing that Kamala Harris has spent almost a year taking a lot of the hits that the West Wing didn’t want to take themselves”.There is also a typically outlandish Washington rumour that Biden might remove Harris as VP by appointing her to the supreme court.Trump ally Michael Flynn condemned over call for ‘one religion’ in USRead moreSpeaking to the Times, the former Connecticut senator Chris Dodd, a close Biden friend, said: “I’m hoping the president runs for re-election, but for whatever reason that might not be the case, it’s hard to believe there would be a short list without Kamala’s name on it. She’s the vice-president of the United States.”CNN reported perceived missteps by Harris, struggles to form a relationship with Biden beyond “an exhausted stalemate” and problems with staff. But one of the most widely discussed quotes was attributed to “a top donor to Biden and other Democrats”.“Kamala Harris is a leader but is not being put in positions to lead,” the donor said. “That doesn’t make sense. We need to be thinking long term, and we need to be doing what’s best for the party.“You should be putting her in positions to succeed, as opposed to putting weights on her. If you did give her the ability to step up and help her lead, it would strengthen you and strengthen the party.”TopicsKamala HarrisJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Xi Jinping expected in talks to tell Joe Biden to ‘step back’ on Taiwan

      by

      Xi Jinping expected in talks to tell Joe Biden to ‘step back’ on TaiwanWar of words begins before leaders’ meeting, with US president warned Taiwan is China’s ‘ultimate red line’ China’s president, Xi Jinping, is expected to warn his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to “step back” on the Taiwan issue in their first virtual meeting on Monday evening Washington time, according to Chinese state media.State media outlets such as China Daily are briefed by authorities on important issues such as China-US relations and have been accurate in reflecting the priorities of Chinese leaders.“The Taiwan question is the ultimate red line of China,” said a Monday editorial in the Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Communist party’s People’s Daily.“In order to reduce the risk of a strategic collision between China and the US, the latter must take a step back from the Taiwan question and show its restraint,” it added.The two leaders have talked twice by phone since Biden took office in January, but this video conference will be their most substantial discussion so far.It comes days after the two countries surprised analysts by agreeing at Cop26 in Glasgow to boost climate cooperation. But it also comes at a time of increasing friction over Taiwan – the most dangerous potential flashpoint between the two countries.On Tuesday, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted the latest in a series of combat readiness exercises off the Taiwanese coast, while in a phone call on Saturday the nations’ top diplomats traded warnings about the island.Ahead of the meeting, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that any show of support for Taiwan’s independence would “boomerang” on the US. Blinken in turn raised concerns over China’s growing “military, diplomatic, and economic pressure” on the island.US allegations of repeated cyber-attacks from China, deep divisions over human rights in the Xinjiang region, Hong Kong and Tibet, as well as lingering trade disputes have also contributed towards the steady souring of relations.The US-China climate agreement is imperfect – but reason to hope | Sam GeallRead moreThe US is frustrated by Chinese obstruction of multilateral investigations of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, and has been angered by Chinese government pressure on US companies to lobby Congress to drop legislation Beijing does not like, as Reuters reported on Friday.The stakes have been raised by the rapid expansion of China’s military capabilities, including its nuclear arsenal. According to the US, Beijing has tested a new weapon, a nuclear-capable hypersonic glider launched from orbit, and China is reported to be building at least 250 new silos for long-range missiles.Expectations for the summit have been set low. There is not likely to be a joint statement, and the White House has indicated that Biden will not answer press questions after the talks are over.“Overall, in both Washington and Beijing, the expectation of convergence is pretty much dead. Instead, the relationship has become more transactional,” Scott Moore, the director of China programmes and strategic initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, said.“For Biden, he is facing political challenges at home with the midterm elections looming [next year]. Therefore, he will likely face political constraints in terms of taking any actions that could be perceived or characterised as making significant concessions to China.”“For Xi, his biggest vulnerability is on the economic front. That’s why Beijing has been signalling its interest in making progress on trade. Recent comments from Biden administration officials suggest there is interest in engaging on these issues, but again there are likely to be significant political constraints.”Both leaders will seek to limit the dangers of the rivalry spiralling out of control.In a message to the National Committee on US-China Relations, Xi said that the bilateral relationship was at a “critical historical juncture”.“Both countries will gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Cooperation is the only right choice,” Xi said in his statement. In his message to the committee’s gala on 9 November, Biden also pointed to an “inflection point in history”.“From tackling the Covid-19 pandemic to addressing the existential threat of the climate crisis, the relationship between the United States and China has global significance.”The White House spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said Biden would be “clear and candid” about US concerns, but would look for ways to “responsibly manage competition” between the world’s two largest economies and also seek “to work together where our interests align”.Wang has said Monday’s summit is a potentially pivotal event in efforts to improve the trajectory in bilateral relations.“The two sides should meet each other halfway … ensuring that the meeting will be smooth and successful, and push Sino-US relations back on the track of healthy and stable development,” Wang said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.Xi will be seeking to head off moves to boycott the Winter Olympics in China this year, and he is also expected to invite Biden to the games as a conciliatory gesture.But Taiwan remains on top of Xi’s talking points, particularly after a series of steps the Biden administration has taken to raise Taiwan’s status, which China sees as breaking with Washington’s long-held “one China policy”, recognising the People’s Republic as the sole sovereign Chinese government.“Beijing has noticed recent statements by senior Biden officials such as Jake Sullivan, saying that Washington no longer wants to change China’s system. It is a positive signal,” said Wang Huiyao, the president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, who also advises the Beijing government. “But if this is the case, the US should cease using Taiwan as a card to irritate China, and leave the Taiwan affairs to the peoples on both sides of the Taiwan strait.”Bonnie Glaser, the director of the Asia programme at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said Beijing was concerned about whether the Biden administration was really sticking to its one China policy or whether there was “a lot of salami-slicing” going on. “They want to hear greater reassurance about what the US will and will not do with Taiwan,” she said.The US side will be pushing for more routine contacts between the defence and diplomatic establishments, but Xi is likely to resist any action that he sees as normalising the US role in China’s immediate neighbourhood.‘We need to be much clearer’: leading Democrat questions US strategy on defending TaiwanRead more“It’s something that the Chinese have so far been very resistant to because they don’t want to give the US military a licence to operate anywhere near their shores,” Glaser said.As for nuclear arms control, China has so far resisted any approaches on entering bilateral negotiations, and spurned Donald Trump’s attempts to start trilateral talks with Russia.“Sadly I don’t think it’s going to be a major topic at the meeting. The United States hasn’t proposed anything that China can talk about, and China doesn’t like to negotiate outside of the UN,” said Gregory Kulacki, the China project manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists.“They could make some sort of vague statement about wanting to check the nuclear arms race, but anything concrete coming out of it seems unlikely.”Reuters news agency contributed to this reportTopicsUS foreign policyXi JinpingJoe BidenChinaTaiwanAsia PacificUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      Biden’s approval ratings continue to plunge amid crisis over inflation

      by

      Biden’s approval ratings continue to plunge amid crisis over inflation
      41% of voters approve of Biden in new poll despite victory lap
      Biden touts infrastructure win as midterms loom
      Aides to Joe Biden took to the political talk shows on Sunday in a bid to talk up the US economic recovery despite confidence in the president continuing to plunge amid a crisis over inflation and supply chain problems.Republican senator won’t condemn Trump for defending chants of ‘Hang Mike Pence’Read moreIn alarming news for the White House, only 41% of voters approved of Biden in a Washington Post/ABC survey published on Sunday, continuing a steady downward trend in the president’s ratings.The new numbers, which come despite a victory lap over the passing of a $1.2tn infrastructure package and growing confidence over the prospects for a $1.75tn social spending bill, are a growing worry for Democrats with less than a year to the midterm elections.Only 39% approved of Biden’s handling of the economy, their confidence shaken by inflation surging to 30-year highs and the supply chain crisis threatening the availability of food and other essentials with the holiday season approaching.Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, and Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, tried to reassure voters that Biden’s policies had the US on the right track, amid warnings of inflation remaining high well into next year.“We will still have an economic recovery that will be strong and support ongoing growth,” Yellen told CBS’s Face the Nation when asked about the likely dropping of paid family leave – forced by moderate Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin – from Biden’s Build Back Better domestic spending package.“We’re supportive, President Biden and I, of paid leave, and it’s something that we will try to legislate in the future,” Yellen said. “But there’s money in this package that will make it easier for people to work and care for family members at the same time.”Yellen blamed Covid-19 for the worst of the inflation and supply chain issues, and predicted that prices would likely “return to normal” in the second half of next year “if we’re successful with the pandemic”.“The pandemic has been calling the shots for the economy and for inflation,” she said. “If we want to get inflation down, continuing to make progress against the pandemic is the most important thing we can do.“We passed the American Rescue Plan and unemployment has declined from almost 15% to under 5% now. Americans feel confident about the job market. They’re seeing wage increases. It really reflects the support that we gave to Americans to keep up their spending and make it through the pandemic.”Yellen’s upbeat position was mirrored by Deese. On NBC’s Meet the Press, he attempted to downplay attempts in the summer to paint rising inflation as a “temporary” blip.“Because of the actions the president has taken, we’re now seeing an economic recovery that most people didn’t think was possible,” Deese said.“If you look at the strong wage gains plus the direct support that we’ve provided to families, checks in pockets and the child tax credit, the disposable income for a typical family is up about 2% even after you take into account inflation.“That doesn’t reduce the frustration any more when somebody’s going to the gas station and they see prices go up. But it does mean that we are well positioned to try to address these challenges going forward.”On CNN’s State of the Union, Deese said: “We actually know what we need to do here. We need to make a fully paid-for investment that will unlock more opportunities to get more people working in the economy.”Whether rosy messaging about inflation sways voters remains to be seen. Republicans such as the Florida senator Marco Rubio continue to bash Biden over the issue. Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, wrote in the Guardian this week that a lack of regulation has allowed corporate giants to continue raising prices while recording record profits.“They have so much market power they can raise prices with impunity,” Reich wrote. “The underlying problem isn’t inflation per se, it’s lack of competition. Corporations are using the excuse of inflation to raise prices and make fatter profits.“Price inflation is a symptom: the increasing consolidation of the economy in a relative handful of big corporations. This structural problem is amenable to only one thing: the aggressive use of antitrust law.”Deese, on CNN, said Biden was open to exploring the issue.“There’s a real concern of price gouging or market manipulation that could harm consumers,” he said. “So we’ve asked the Federal Trade Commission to take a very close look at that.”TopicsJoe BidenUS domestic policyUS politicsBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

    • 188 Shares109 Views

      in US Politics

      Fox News edits video of Biden to make it seem he was being racially insensitive

      by

      Fox News edits video of Biden to make it seem he was being racially insensitiveFox & Friends host played edited clip before claiming the US president was ‘facing backlash’ for his remarks Fox News edited video of Joe Biden to remove context from remarks some could judge as racially insensitive.In Veterans Day comments at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, Biden told an anecdote that referenced the baseball player Satchel Paige, who pitched in the Negro Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.Biden’s remarks were featured on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Thursday night, when the primetime host said the president had “one of his most disturbing, troubling moments to date”.Then, on the Fox & Friends morning show on Friday, host Rachel Campos Duffy said Biden was “facing backlash”.Biden said he had “adopted the attitude of the great Negro, at the time pitcher in the Negro Leagues, went on to become a great pitcher in the pros in Major League Baseball after Jackie Robinson, his name was Satchel Paige”.But when Duffy played the clip, it was edited so Biden was heard saying he had “adopted the attitude of the great Negro at the time, pitcher, name was Satchel Paige”.Duffy said Biden’s remarks were “landing him in hot water”.While “Negro” was once a common way to refer to Black people and still appears in organization names, the terms “Black” and “African American” are more widely used.Philip Bump, national correspondent for the Washington Post, wrote: “The hashtag #RacistJoeBiden was trending on Twitter by early Friday afternoon.“Some commenters on social media described Biden’s speech as having used the ‘n-word’, suggesting that a term once commonly used to refer to Black Americans – a descriptor that was in use in the Census Bureau’s racial categories as recently as 2010 – was equivalent to a historically racist slur.“By pretending that Biden was calling Paige a ‘Negro’, though, they could pretend that Biden was revealing a secret bias against Black Americans, both for him and his party.”Bump also wrote that it was “useful to consider why [Fox News] and others on the right are investing in this particular narrative. It comes down to one of the central debates in politics at the moment, the interplay of partisanship and race”.“There is a sense among many conservatives that the political left is constantly attacking them as racist. The reasons for this are myriad and complicated, rooted to some extent in the overlap of race and partisanship (most Black Americans are Democrats) and in a sense that reevaluations of America’s history through the lens of race are implicitly (or explicitly) about criticizing White Americans.”Al Tompkins, a faculty member at Poynter Institute, a journalism thinktank, told the Associated Press that when editing video, journalists have an obligation to keep statements in the context they were delivered or explain to viewers why a change was made. In the video presented by Fox & Friends, he said, the edit was not at all clear.A Fox News spokesperson said Biden’s full remark was used when the story was repeated twice on Fox & Friends, and said the one-time edit was made because of time constraints.TopicsFox NewsJoe BidenUS politicsRaceDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘We’re here to deliver’: Biden touts infrastructure win as midterms loom

      by

      ‘We’re here to deliver’: Biden touts infrastructure win as midterms loom President hits the road to sell bill as Democrats, facing daunting odds in 2022, fight to reach votersThe Port of Baltimore dazzled in the setting sun. Giant cranes arched over the Chesapeake Bay, the shoreline stacked with colorful shipping containers. At the center of the tableau was the American president, on a mission to promote his hard-won $1tn infrastructure package.“Infrastructure week has finally arrived,” Biden said last week, beaming at the mix of elected officials and local union leaders in attendance.The president’s visit to the bustling port came at the start of a cross-country tour to sell his sprawling public works plan to the American public, in the hope of parlaying the policy achievement into a political victory that will help Democrats keep their slim majorities in Congress.But while his policies are popular, Biden and his party, presently, are not. Last week, voters turned sharply against Democrats, delivering a number of surprising Republican victories in states Biden won handily in 2020.America needs help. Yet Democrats are getting sucked into fake culture wars | Hamilton NolanRead moreThe losses jolted Democrats into action on Capitol Hill, even as some moderates wondered if the president had misread his mandate. Within days, they sent the infrastructure bill, gridlocked for months amid intra-party feuding over a separate pillar of Biden’s agenda, to his desk for his signature.In the weeks ahead, the president’s promotional tour will test his political salesmanship and his theory of governance: that delivering concrete benefits is the best way to rise above the political tribalism roiling the country. “The American people sent us here to deliver. The American people sent us here to make the government work,” Biden said on Friday, during a cabinet meeting to discuss the implementation of his infrastructure bill. “They sent us here to make a difference in their lives. And I believe we’re doing that.”Facing daunting odds in next year’s midterm elections, Democrats are pleading with “Amtrak Joe” to make the pitch loud and clear.Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, who leads the campaign committee for House Democrats, pleaded with the White House to put Biden on the campaign trail as frequently as possible to trumpet his domestic agenda. In an interview with the New York Times, he said his message to the White House was, “Free Joe Biden.”“That campaign needs to start now before the next crisis takes over the news cycle,” he said.On Monday, Biden will sign the measure into law during a ceremony at the White House, surrounded by a bipartisan group of legislators, governors and mayors. Following that, the president will hit the road, with plans to visit a bridge in Woodstock, New Hampshire, and a GM electric vehicle plant in Detroit, according to the White House.In addition, Biden is dispatching his cabinet members, including the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg; energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm; and interior secretary, Deb Haaland, to promote the bill’s investments in states, cities, towns and tribal communities.So far, the strategy echoes the administration’s “Help is here” tour to showcase the Democrats’ $1.9tn coronavirus relief package Biden signed into law shortly after taking office. But the presidential messaging blitz was soon swamped by the US’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, a summertime resurgence of the pandemic and a rise in inflation.Even though the legislation sent $1,400 stimulus checks to millions of Americans, expanded the child tax credit program and increased unemployment insurance – all tangible, popular benefits – Democrats hardly reaped the political rewards. An August poll by Daily Kos/Civiqs found that 57% of voters said the Biden administration had not done anything that has benefited them personally.“Voters don’t go to the ballot box with a spreadsheet of policies. They go with a feeling about who values them,” said Jesse Ferguson, a senior Democratic strategist. The way to show that, he said, was “to deliver on the things that matter to people who work for a living”, like lowering the cost of prescription drug prices, making childcare more affordable and providing paid family and medical leave.​Whether a concerted appeal from the president ​can overcome ​a toxic political climate​ is an open question for Democrats. Biden’s standing with voters has dropped sharply, particularly among independents. Wide majorities say the nation is on the wrong track. A CNN poll released this week found that six in 10 American believe Biden has the wrong priorities. The number climbed among voters who ranked the economy as a top priority.As the administration’s messaging campaign ramps up, the White House says its digital team is developing explainer videos and other social content to educate voters about the Democrats’ initiatives. They are also planning for a burst of TV appearances, including with media outlets that serve Black and Latino communities.The push also includes an emphasis on local news organizations, such as WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, which sat down with Biden on Monday. In the interview, he predicted a long-overdue upgrade for the deteriorating Brent Spence Bridge that stretches between Ohio and the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky.McConnell was one of 32 Republicans in the House and Senate to vote for the legislation that has divided the party. Donald Trump savaged those in his party who supported the measure, blaming them for voting for “Democratic longevity” while his loyalists in the House accused them of disloyalty. Many of them have faced vicious backlash from constituents, including vulgar insults and even death threats.Speaking in Kentucky, McConnell squashed any suggestion that the unusual display of bipartisanship might extend beyond the realm of roads and bridges.“Let me sum it up this way,” he said. “I think every step we took this year … except infrastructure is in the wrong direction.”At home during the congressional recess, Democrats donned hard hats and lined up next to union workers to highlight how the once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure would benefit the wishlist of long-neglected public works projects in their districts and states. The plan, they said, would touch all 50 states, creating high-paying jobs and helping to rejuvenate the economy.The package, which includes the largest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower began the interstate highway system in the 1950s, is popular with voters. But many of the projects won’t be started, much less completed, until long after the midterm elections are decided.“It is part of our job to let people know exactly what Congress did for them,” Madeleine Dean, a Democratic congresswoman from Pennsylvania, said on a press call showcasing the infrastructure bill’s investments in her state. “We have a lot of educating to do.”A Monmouth University poll released this week found 65% of Americans support the infrastructure bill while 62% approve of the Democrats’ spending measure. Yet the poll showed that voters increasingly believe Biden’s policies have not helped middle-class or poor families.Taken together, the results suggest the White House and Democrats “lack a cohesive and concrete message about how this bill will help the American public”, said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll.The measure’s bipartisan passage has given some Democrats fresh optimism that they can muster the votes to pass a second, even larger domestic policy measure and begin to reverse their political fortunes ahead of next year’s midterm elections.“Democrats are delivering – and we are making sure that the American people know it,” Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. The DNC is “doubling down” on their outreach to voters, working with state and local parties to help translate how the plan will benefit their communities.Matt Barreto, a Democratic pollster and senior adviser to Building Back Together, a group advocating for Biden’s agenda, said voters were swayed by results.“I really like our chances if we are messaging on very popular policy that we have passed and signed into law and the other side is complaining about cultural issues,” he said.If Biden doesn’t pass the climate bill, it will be the betrayal of a generation | Daniel SherrellRead moreA Navigator Research survey found that Biden’s overall approval rating climbed in the days since Congress passed his bipartisan infrastructure deal. The same survey showed that support for the major pieces of Biden’s agenda remains high as a growing number of voters say they’ve heard about the bill.Yet the challenges threatening to derail Biden’s PR campaign are myriad. When Democrats return to Washington next week, a new fight awaits over the next phase of his agenda. Republicans are eager to weaponize rising inflation, using it to attack the spending plan as reckless. And even when Biden attempts to take a victory lap, as he did in Baltimore on Wednesday, the news of the day interferes.Designed as a solution to fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, Biden said the measure would also address immediate economic concerns caused by rising inflation and supply chain bottlenecks.The obstacles were underscored by his appearance in Baltimore. In his speech touting the “once-in-a-generation investment” in the nation’s infrastructure, he also delivered a lengthy explanation of supply chains and conceded that “consumer prices remain too high”.After his remarks concluded, Biden, a retail politician at heart, waded into the crowd, joking and laughing as he worked the rope line and glad-handed local officials.TopicsUS newsUS politicsDemocratsJoe BidenRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 225 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      If Biden doesn’t pass the climate bill, it will be the betrayal of a generation | Daniel Sherrell

      by

      OpinionClimate crisisIf Biden doesn’t pass the climate bill, it will be the betrayal of a generationDaniel SherrellFailure to pass Build Back Better would disillusion a generation of voters, and potentially fracture the Democratic party Tue 9 Nov 2021 06.16 ESTLast modified on Tue 9 Nov 2021 13.10 ESTDeep into the night last Friday, long past the hour when most Americans had ceased paying attention, Congress passed the $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill otherwise known as the BIF. Its passage was heralded as a victory for President Biden, and the daily news chyrons dutifully marked a point in his column. But beyond the horserace myopia of the Beltway – and especially among young people – the news came tinged with the threat of disaster. Because for those of us interested in sustained human civilization on a habitable planet, the most relevant fact about the BIF is this: without consequent passage of the clean energy and social welfare bill known as Build Back Better, the BIF alone will exacerbate the climate crisis.AOC says Republican who posted sword attack video ‘cheered on’ by partyRead moreThe reasons are manifold. The bill is riddled with exemptions and subsidies for corporations like ExxonMobil, whose lobbyists were caught bragging about their role in shaping the text. It invests in highways, bridges and airports that – in the absence of an aggressive drive to electrify cars and planes – will only add to emissions from the transportation sector. And the climate funding it does contain is focused not on drawing down emissions but on preparing Americans for worsening floods, fires and superstorms. If this is all we get, the message to young people is clear: Exxon will continue to be allowed to drown your homes, but not to worry, the government is investing in some life vests. Good luck!When it comes to passing the Build Back Better bill, the handful of extremist, Wall Street-backed Democrats who have obstructed it for months are now asking for something they have done very little to earn: trust. It would be one thing if congresspeople like Josh Gottheimer and Abigail Spanberger gave the impression of fully understanding the gravity of the climate crisis and pulling out all the stops to make a commensurate response politically possible. Instead, they come off as narrow-minded political animals, too blinkered by the game to see the world around them burning.It seems doubtful that any of them have read – much less internalized – the findings of the latest IPCC report. If she had, Representative Spanberger might have registered the irony in her insisting that Biden “be normal and stop the chaos”. As if it weren’t precisely those ideas long considered “normal” – massive fossil fuel subsidies, economic austerity, energy market deregulation – that are leading us straight into planetary chaos.Even more worrisome, their excuse for obstructing Build Back Better seems less than fully genuine. They insist they need to see an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on how the bill would affect the national deficit. But they seemed little bothered when the CBO made it known that their BIF would expand it by $256bn. They also seem intent on ignoring the many analyses – including several from the treasury department itself – showing that Build Back Better would actually reduce the deficit. And that’s not to even mention the fact – still rarely mentioned, somehow! – that climate disasters cost Americans $1.9tn in 2020 alone.Even if their concern about the deficit is genuine, it’s grounded in a fundamental misapprehension of contemporary macroeconomics, which is undergoing a revolution in how it understands national debt and deficit spending. It’s as if they made some sort of superstitious pact, circa 1980, to admit no additional research from either economists or climate scientists. Even the former chief economist of the CBO made it clear that their insistence on a CBO score is ludicrous. “This is a really important package that will change people’s lives, and that should be the guiding principle,” she said in reference to Build Back Better. “The 10-year window [for CBO scoring] is arbitrary. Aiming for deficit neutrality is arbitrary – it’s arbitrariness on top of arbitrariness.”But despite all of these red flags, most of the self-styled House “moderates” – with a few notable exceptions, including Spanberger – have promised to eventually vote for Build Back Better in its current form. It is hard to overstate how much rests on that single-paragraph promise. A failure to pass Build Back Better would, at this point, amount to a betrayal so large it would disillusion an entire generation of young voters, and potentially fracture the Democratic party itself. The muted applause for BIF would be completely drowned out by recriminations, and the party would stumble into the midterms in open civil war, having failed to pull us back from the brink of worldwide catastrophe.Maybe Abigail Spanberger would hold on to her seat, but she would probably find herself isolated and ineffectual in a Republican Congress, desperately clinging to her fantasy of “normality” as she cranked up the A/C on another blistering summer day.Meanwhile, President Biden’s legacy would be sealed. For all his adulation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he would have failed to live up to the one test that cemented his predecessor as a hero. It’s worth remembering that FDR passed the New Deal over the violent protestations of Wall Street bankers, some of whom tried to stage a coup to replace him. Biden faces a similar test on Build Back Better: can he discipline the wealthiest and most dangerous industry in history, who will stop at nothing to make the “moderates” kill the bill? Can he wrest the helm of history from the fossil fuel executives, who would just as soon watch it all go down in flames?If he fails to pass Build Back Better, China’s taunts will ring true, though for the wrong reasons. The American political system will have proven itself incapable of passing extremely popular policies to address the climate crisis – not because it was too democratic, but because it was never democratic enough.With stakes this high, it’s no wonder the Progressive Caucus leader, Representative Pramila Jayapal, asked each “moderate” to look her in the eye as they signed their name to the Build Back Better promise. That look might have contained the anxiety of my entire generation. Not only our fear of being played, not only our dread of inheriting a squandered planet, but our ongoing hope – despite all evidence to the contrary – that our leaders may actually choose to lead.
      Daniel Sherrell is the author of Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World (Penguin Books) and a climate activist
      TopicsClimate crisisOpinionDemocratsUS politicsJoe BidencommentReuse this content More