Remember laughing at the polls that showed that Americans disliked Obamacare, but liked the Affordable Care Act? Millions of Americans were not aware that both names referred to the same program.
We’ve a similar problem today. Polls indicate that 76% of voters like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law making possible reconstruction of roads and bridges. And 72% are happy about the CHIPS and Science Act bringing the manufacture of semiconductors back to the U.S. and strengthening supply chains.
Yet, the approval rating for President Joe Biden has been below 50% since September of 2021.
Somehow a segment of our population hears about Biden’s speech impediment and age and about inflation and natural disasters but not about the things that have gone right. In fact, Republican governor after Republican governor has stepped up to take credit for projects financed by Federal bipartisan compromises that Biden’s team negotiated.
The Biden administration achieved a stronger economic recovery from COVID than most thought possible. In 2021 the Congressional Budget Office predicted that unemployment in the U.S. wouldn’t fall below four percent until 2026; it did so before the end of 2021.
Over 13 million jobs have been added to our economy since Biden took office. According to economic analyst Steven Rattner, the U.S. economy is over 6% larger than it was before COVID; at this point after the Great Recession (2011), the economy was just 0.7% larger than before
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Wages have increased for the first time since Reagan introduced “trickle-down” economics. More union organization is occurring and the Biden team is believed ready to enforce laws against business monopolies.
And this summer the President announced programs to expand fast Internet access throughout the country.
Biden may be past 80 years of age, but he has vision, focus and the support of a skilled and committed team.
He faces some stiff opposition.
With the government facing a shutdown if 11 budget bills aren’t passed by Sept. 30, the House Freedom Caucus (self-named) is testing its power by writing demand after demand into budget bills. It’s making drastic cuts in funds for climate change and IRS audits of wealthy taxpayers.
But caucus members don’t stop there. According to blogger Heather Cox Richardson, members are also cutting funding for “food assistance programs for pregnant mothers and children, grants to school districts serving impoverished communities, the Environmental Protection Agency, agencies that protect workers’ rights, federal agencies’ civil rights offices, [and] the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Eight of the 11 “budget” bills would restrict access to abortion and gender-affirming care.
Trying to get members of the House Freedom Caucus to negotiate, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy started impeachment proceedings against Biden. He did this without a vote by the full House, because he doesn’t have the votes. Even some House Republicans argue that, if Biden had committed an impeachable act, the Trump administration would have found them.
The caucus, however, still hasn’t compromised.
House Republicans may fear vengeance from Trump supporters enough that they may pass the Freedom Caucus bills. Citizens across the country will suffer unless Senate Democrats reject the budget bills or President Biden vetoes them.
Without approved budgets, our government won’t pay debts or wages. Interest on current national debt will soar.
When a Democrat asked what these Trump extremists are hoping to accomplish, Gordon Gray of the American Action Forum said, “That’s just how some of these folks define governing. It’s how their constituents define success.”
Is the goal to stop Democrats from getting credit for improving life in the U.S.? Or is it to see that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?
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