Decryption | Not rested, this is Joe Biden

Richard Hate
Special contribution

The title, published last March by Internet magazine Salon, is set to expire in several other American press organs some spring and early this summer.

This happened at a time when immunization and the economy were doing well in the United States with a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package. Polls are on the line, suggesting voters will like this new president, who seems to have combined efficiency in action and restraint in speech or tweets.

Even Republicans were not concerned about the controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s successor, the arrival of the genderless Mr. Potato Head and the removal of racist books from the D.^R Seuss.

What are they going to find to attack him by the time of the midterm elections in November 2022?

Oh how time has changed! Exactly nine months after taking office as President, Joe Biden was presented to journalists almost like Donald Trump. According to foreign policy, this compares with 45^E President!

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian looks like Mr. Trump is “condemning” a unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision.

He spoke in support of the US Alliance, but said that maintaining some independence was not the answer. The rift caused by the security agreement negotiated behind Paris between Washington, London and Canberra.

Joe Biden certainly boasts of developing United States interests in the Indo-Pacific region. But the way he went about it runs contrary to the promise he made to reconnect with his country’s friends and partners. Another issue that kept the American media in suspense earlier this month was a promise that had already been abused: the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Vaccination began

Joe Biden is not consistent when it comes to domestic politics. He reconsidered his opposition last December to the federal government’s imposition of a vaccine against Kovid-19.

The change of position of the President was justified. After making people envious abroad, the United States is now lagging behind industrialized countries in terms of vaccines. And the Delta variant takes the opportunity to create havoc in many states, which largely explains Joe Biden’s fall in the election.

The president’s decision, therefore, was announced on September 9, introducing the obligation to vaccinate or conduct a weekly screening test for employees of more than 100 companies, i.e. more than 80 million. The decision comes along with the condemnation of “elected officials” who are “actively working to weaken the fight against Kovid-19”. These officers include Republican governors of several states, including Texas and Florida. They oppose not only compulsory vaccination, but also the mandatory wearing of masks in public schools.

Boring, Joe Biden? Not in this case, so that his administration can be sued.

“Your plan is destructive and negative,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson wrote in a letter to the president last Thursday threatening to counter-sign and sue his colleagues from two dozen Republican states.

Joe Biden should not move. In this case, he not only had the law on his side, but also the majority of voters, which the polls confirmed.

Two major projects

However, in the coming weeks the presidency of Joe Biden is likely to experience its real moment in Congress. The majority in the Senate and House of Representatives, Democrats, will have to decide the fate of the two largest construction sites in Washington in decades.

One comes from a bilateral bill already passed in the Senate. It provides $ 1.2 trillion in investment in traditional infrastructure such as bridges, roads, ports and airports.

Another is the $ 3.5 trillion plan to expand the Social Security Network and combat climate change. It embodies the many priorities of the progressive section of the Democratic Party in health, education, family support and the environment. The U.S. government has not achieved anything so ambitious in almost 60 years.

The question is what is left of that plan after ongoing discussions between the various Democratic factions in the Senate and the House. More moderate or conservative, including Senators Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kirsten Cinema (Arizona), the cost of the plan is much higher. Others oppose certain measures or tax increases that are planned to finance new programs.

Many progressive delegates are threatening to torpedo a bilateral bill on traditional infrastructure if the $ 3.5 trillion plan is reduced to $ 1.5 trillion or less, as Senator Manchin called it.

Failure on both projects is not impossible. It will be a disaster for Joe Biden and the Democrats, who are weak and divided in the face of voters in 2022 and 2024.

The 46^E The president will play big, very big in the next few weeks. In particular he will have to negotiate with the Republicans of the Senate to increase the debt limit to avoid defaults.

None of this is boring or relaxing for the media.