Global Courant
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden promised voters in 2020 that he knew how to get things done in Washington and bring stability to the capital. It seemed like a message out of step with the more combative era ushered in by Donald Trump.
But Biden was victorious, by more than 7 million votes, and as he seeks a second term, he is trying to reframe the race as a referendum on competence and governance, pointing to the bipartisan debt cap and budget bill he signed on Saturday as a another example of the success of his approach.
The deal the Democratic president negotiated with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans averted the catastrophe of a U.S. government bankruptcy — and averted another threat until after the 2024 election — while the domestic agenda was largely that formed the backbone of what he hopes will be his legacy.
His approach, favoring pragmatism over Trumpian pugilism, will be tested in the coming campaign like never before, with a low approval rating even among Democrats despite the results he has achieved, largely due to concerns about his age as the oldest person ever. search for the presidency.
“The results speak for themselves,” said Jeff Zients, Biden’s 80-year-old chief of staff. “This level of support shows that we have struck a bipartisan deal that, more importantly, protects the president’s priorities. And now we have a runway to carry out the president’s priorities.
Biden’s allies say his strategy reflects his broader view of the presidency: to cut out the day-to-day chatter and focus on making a long-lasting impact.
“This was quintessentially Joe Biden,” said longtime Biden confidant and former Delaware senator Ted Kaufman. “He really understands the institutions, how they function, how they interact and what their limitations are. It’s the incredible advantage he has from 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president.”
That perceived advantage — longevity — may also be Biden’s steepest hill as he seeks another four years.
Biden, aides said, devised a strategy shortly after Republicans took the House in November and stuck to it during the talks, despite misgivings from members of his own party. He urged Republicans to define their budget priorities, then publicly hammered out unpopular proposed cuts to enter the negotiations with the strongest possible hand.
“He believes in the institutions of American governance. He approached this with a view to making the presidency and congress work the way they were meant to work,” said MIke Donilon, a senior adviser to the president.
As the talks progressed, Biden stepped out of the spotlight to let Republican leaders claim a victory — necessary to sell it to their caucus — and quietly assured Democrats that they would like the deal as they learned more about it.
The result is a deal that White House aides say exceeded their expectations of what a budget deal would look like with Republicans in charge of the House. It essentially freezes next year’s spending, rather than the sharp cuts proposed by the GOP, and protects Biden’s infrastructure and climate laws and Social Security and Medicare spending.
It’s also far better than the outcome of the 2011 debt cap confrontation, according to Biden’s team, when Biden was a negotiator for then-President Barack Obama and House Republicans forced them to accept tighter spending cuts that they say would boost the recovery. of the country hindered. of the Great Recession.
Biden is still under fire from some in his own party for agreeing to tougher job requirements for some federal food aid recipients and speeding up environmental assessments for infrastructure projects.
But the White House sees a bright side: The permit changes will accelerate implementation of Biden’s infrastructure and climate laws, and Biden’s aides stress that projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that exemptions from work requirements for veterans, those who are homeless and those those leaving foster care will actually expand the number of people eligible for federal food assistance.
“While the rest of us are dealing with the micro-news cycles and who’s up and down on Twitter, the president is playing the long game,” said Obama spokesman and Democratic strategist Eric Schultz.
“He ran for president and promised to restore functionality in Washington after his predecessor, and it’s hard to argue with his record,” Schultz added. “He has proven that he can win significant Democratic victories while also working in good faith with the other party.”
Biden drew a red line in the negotiations that the debt limit should be extended beyond the 2024 presidential election, both in substance and style worried about the potential for another confrontation in an even more heated political environment.
His sentiment may be valid, but voters are increasingly concerned about his age and his toll, a message relentlessly reinforced by would-be Republican challengers and the conservative media ecosystem.
“Biden has put in a series of impressive performances on a bipartisan basis and has shown that he can do so without being the center of attention,” said presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky. “That’s what American voters said they wanted at the time. But 2024 will have a very different context.”
Biden, she said, would have to argue that the stability he has established is being jeopardized by his opponents and she hopes voters’ memories are long enough.
White House aides say the deal gives them “running room” during the 2024 election to focus on making the impact of the legislation Biden signed into law felt and begin drafting their priorities for what he would do with a next term and more Democrats in Congress.
Biden himself on Friday underscored the contrast to the belligerent nature of the Republican race and its grown-in-the-room attitude. He called on both sides to “join forces as Americans to stop screaming, turn down the temperature,” even as he stressed the GOP’s opposition to his efforts to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses and provide tax breaks. Reduce.
“Republicans defended each of these special interest loopholes,” Biden said, testing a campaign line he expects to hone in the coming months. “Every. But I’ll be back. And with your help I’m going to win.
Despite Biden’s protests and his goal to relieve himself and future office holders of the potential of future “hostage-taking”, Biden still proved unable to break the debt ceiling cycle used as leverage in negotiations. Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer said it made the deal an “all-rounder,” preventing a crisis now but one that could haunt him and subsequent presidents.
“Republicans just did it again. It happened when he was vice president, it happened when he was president, and it will happen again,” he said. “A lot of Republicans always wanted the tactics more than the outcome — he didn’t stop there.”
Zelizer acknowledged that Biden may have had no other options — a proposal to use the 14th Amendment to pay obligations without Congress saying so was untested and had its own pitfalls.
“When you have a threat like that, you have to negotiate,” he acknowledged.
But for Biden’s team, it’s about the results.
“He had his eyes on the price, namely, ‘How is this deal going to come about? And how is my way of doing this going forward with this deal?’” said Donilon. “We have to let our politics come together at the times when they need to. And so I think that will actually be a reassuring moment for the country.
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