How Biden Surprised Progress – The New York Times

A portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt has hung over the fireplace in the Oval Office since the start of Joe Biden’s presidency, a break from a long-standing tradition of giving George Washington this precious place.

It’s a tribute to a president who Biden invoked during his campaign, who he admired as a priority for the working class, and which appears to be the kind of presidential North Star that Biden hopes to use. government to protect the vulnerable.

Some of his companions said he lived up to that desire, at least.

“President Biden, when he came into office, said he was the most progressive president since FDR, and I think that on domestic issues — not on foreign policy — on issues internally, he kept his word,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent. from Vermont, he said shortly after Biden’s loss.

Comparing a long-term president to FDR would be like comparing me, your humble author, to Shakespeare or Robert Caro. But it’s an example of the kind of high praise for Biden that has come from a corner of his party that seemed unthinkable for most of his career: the left.

“When it comes to domestic policy, President Biden may go down as one of the most effective presidents to rally the working class,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, said this afternoon, though he even added that he did not agree. deep with him on foreign policy such as the war in Gaza.

“I was surprised by the openness shown in his administration, especially in the first day,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

What the president has left

For much of his political career, Biden has been seen as the epitome of political maturity. But in the spring of 2020, when he was battling Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he promised in an interview that, if elected, his administration would “go down to one of the most advanced” in US history.

Biden allies point to the billions of dollars the Biden administration has poured into coronavirus recovery, infrastructure and climate change, and his push to refinance the country with measures like the CHIPs bill.

He was the first sitting president to join Labor in the procession; he canceled student loans for five million borrowers; and his administration took drastic steps to curb corporate power.

“It’s very clear that he understands the magnitude of the coalition that helped him win the presidency,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “and he’s sought to translate that into his administration.”

Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton, said Biden’s performance placed him in the footsteps of FDR and other Democrats who believed that government could expand racial equality. social.

But what made Roosevelt successful was not only the policies he enacted – but also the fact that he was elected three times. “Part of it is letting go,” Zelizer said. “Part of that is building a very sustainable coalition that will not only continue to grow these programs but also fight across the board after you’re gone. In this case, that was not the case.

My colleague David Leonhardt wrote this morning that Biden’s thinking about the economy and government’s role in it may extend far beyond his presidency.

That’s what his advisers believe will happen.

“If the seeds planted by the Biden administration through our industrial policies are allowed to flourish, they could be economically transformative,” said Jared Bernstein, Biden’s chief economist.

He added: “I don’t care what your political colors are – even if they’re red-hot – you’re not going to bring a wrecking ball to a factory that’s being built in your backyard.”

Fight for debt

Shortly after Biden took office in 2021, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut and a longtime member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, visited Biden in his office. among other top House Democrats. He looked at a picture of Roosevelt and told Biden that FDR lifted the elderly out of poverty by creating Social Security. Biden, he said, could do the same for children by establishing a child tax credit – which he did that year.

“He stood by the working men and women of this country, and then he,” DeLauro said.

The problem, of course, was that the debt was reduced after Congress failed to do so.

Biden has failed to deliver on many of his priorities, such as raising the minimum wage or the government’s major expansion of child care. While he governed as an economic progressive on many fronts, he struggled to get voters to reward him for even his most famous accomplishments, such as using the government’s bargaining power to lower the price of drugs.

“When you look at the progressive actions, the progressive policies, those are the things that really make a difference for workers, right?” said Representative Becca Balint of Vermont, another progressive Democrat, who praised Biden’s work on climate and infrastructure. “But people have to be able to recite them off the top of their heads,” he continued, adding, “And that didn’t happen.”

Progressives say Biden knows that the rise of Sanders – who put him a distant second to Biden for the 2020 Democratic nomination – is a sign of a shift in his party. And they assure Biden that they responded.

“He knows, more than his colleagues, that the party has changed,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. “We are partners in shaping the agenda in a way that is not progressive.”

Ocasio-Cortez argued that, at least in part, the economic progress that has fueled part of Biden’s presidency will be sustained by Democrats who managed to win a close race in the tough district last year.

“A lot of them are accepting of the population disruption that I hope is permanent,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

What Gretchen Whitmer Thinks About Trump II

Some Democrats have already vowed to oppose Trump. But some are approaching their next administration with a little more in mind. My colleague Katie Glueck spoke with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Detroit today, where the governor was He gave a new perspective on his behavior against the incoming administration. I asked Katie to tell us more:

Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, the Democratic leader from one of the nation’s most important battleground states, expressed her views on Trump in a speech in at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday.

The bottom line: Find common ground on issues like lowering costs and creating manufacturing jobs, while holding the line against ideas like Trump threatening Canada with tariffs.

In an interview before the speech, Whitmer, who like Trump won two statewide in Michigan, summed up the process.

“We are likely to have strong disagreements over the policies that the next government will follow,” he said. “But at the end of the day, that’s the decision of voters across the country. And I think we respect the will of the voters and we want to make sure that we focus on the things that will make people’s lives better.”

– Katie Glueck