With a likely Republican Senate, I’m still trying to figure out how either Biden or Sanders would get ANY major legislation passed or why he would be expected to in the face of total, uncompromising Republican resistance.
To the extent it is possible, I think a Biden White House has a better shot at it than Sanders, who might be a better ally to have within the Senate itself than outside it trying to browbeat his former Republican Senate colleagues and/or have his planned fiat executive orders overridden by the federal courts.
ETA: Liz Warren seems to have had realistic plans on how to deal with unyielding, uncompromising opposition, so I would hope Biden (or in an alternate reality Sanders) would take on those ideas, but I’m not really hopeful on that score, either.
Because Sanders’ own “ruthlessly efficient steamroll-the-opposition mentality” has been so effective in advancing his goals over his decades-long Senate career.
A week ago the GOP wanted to pass a stimulus. Democrats blocked them until democratic agenda items were added.
Extra oversight was added (which Trump is already trying to get around, but it was added)
UI was expanded beyond the GOP senate bill
Extra funding was added for minority groups
Extra funding for health care frontliners
etc
Yes, that is ruthlessly efficient. Did the democrats get everything they wanted? No, but they stood up for themselves and fought for what they believe in.
Biden won’t do that. Biden will let the republicans write the terms of the debate, and he will submissively give into those terms in the name of bipartisanship.
Thats not bipartisanship. Ideally bipartisanship is the GOP fights like hell for what they believe in, then the democrats fight like hell, and hopefully something gets hammered out that both sides can agree on. But yes, sometimes groups need to be steamrolled. When LBJ passed the civil rights act, virtually no southern white politicians voted for it. And thats ok.
The Obama/Biden definition of bipartisanship is the GOP fights like hell, so the democrats give up ground until the GOP stops fighting. Instead of meeting on the battlefield and fighting it out, Biden will retreat and retreat until the GOP realize they’ve won and don’t fight as much, then Biden will say how bipartisan he was.
We’ve got 4-8 years of that to look forward to. Biden encouraging the democrats to abandon their voters and abandon their principles until the GOP realize they’ve won and don’t put up as much of a fight.
This isn’t because Biden is a centrist either. Harris and Buttigieg are centrists too, and I don’t think they would do that as president. Its more of a Biden thing.
I’ll be surprised if he’s still alive in 2024, and if he is, that he’s even healthy enough to be in the Senate. Every time I saw him interviewed, etc. he was more and more bent over, which is never a good sign.
Realistically bipartisanship is Biden’s best chance to get things that require legislative action done.
If Democrats do manage to eke out a slight Senate majority they probably do not have the votes to nuke the legislative filibuster. The odds of a supermajority are slim. A majority, even if it is just based on the VP tiebreaker vote, does open up budget reconciliation once a year.* The likeliest possibility still seems to be a small Senate GOP majority. In that case, only things that are at least mildly bipartisan will get passed.
Then there is the House. There are a lot of freshmen Reps that won slightly red leaning districts in 2018 while not arguing for impeachment. Some even argued against impeachment. That changed. In a presidential cycle, Biden needs to work to make sure normal coattails keeps them from losing in order to keep the House majority. He probably keeps it for at least that first 2 years but is not a given. The margin may still be reduced enough where he has issues with internal party conflict limiting what he can get through. Biden also has to know that the sitting president normally sees the House swing the opposite direction. The “Blue Wave” that brought in the current Democratic majority was a pretty normal sized swing for a midterm election. It was not particularly special. Biden has enough experience to know that there is a real chance he will see a wave against him and face a GOP majority in the House to finish his term.
Biden having the freedom to legislate without some form of bipartisanship is IMO not very realistic.
Technically twice a fiscal year for budget reconciliation. There can be on appropriations and one revenue/taxation bill per year. Frequently that is one bill that does both. There can be two separate bills, though.
I’m not even talking about that. I’m talking about the democrats fighting with everything they have. Which Biden will not do. The republicans will bring a gun to a knife fight while Biden will bring cookies and milk.
The president is going to need to use executive orders, reconciliation, and boxing the GOP into bad positions (like they did with the coronavirus stimulus, and like they tried to do with extending the Bush tax cuts) to get agenda items they want passed. Biden probably won’t use these tools. Instead he will let the GOP use all the tools at their disposal while the democrats use almost none, the GOP will write the terms of the debate, and ‘bipartisanship’ will mean the GOP gets 80% of what they want and the democrats get 20% if they are lucky.
HOpefully, Pelosi will hold up another coronavirus stimulus unless the democrats get concessions like voting by mail. Voting by mail is not only smart and healthy during a pandemic, it increases voter turnout which increases democratic election victories. Knowing Biden, if he were president he’d give that agenda item up for nothing in return as a good faith concession. Its like when the ACA was being debated, the democrats gave up both single payer and a public option for nothing in return.
Biden is weak and gullible. That isn’t because he is a centrist, its because he is Biden. Buttigieg was a centrist, and I don’t think he would do those things.
Republicans have worked extremely hard to make it hard to vote because its the only chance they have, we’re going to be living in The Stand before they agree to vote by mail.
It’s also a really shitty time for everyone right now. People are all stresed out, and just one thing, even something really small, can send you over the edge.
Think like, you’ve had had a really bad day, just one thing after another, until finally just the tiniest thing, just breaking a glass, or spilling something, it’s just one thing too many.
