Biden approaches one-year anniversary with agenda stalled

Record ID: 1655433

  • Title: Biden approaches one-year anniversary with agenda stalled
  • Date: 19th January 2022
  • Summary: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES (FILE - DECEMBER 1, 2020) (REUTERS) COVID PATIENT FLORENCE BOLTON WITH OXYGEN MASK ON AND GRANDCHILDREN SPEAKING TO HER ON VIDEO CALL SAYING (ENGLISH): 'WE LOVE YOU' WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - SEPTEMBER 15, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SMALL WHITE FLAGS LAID OUT ON NATIONAL MALL TO COMMEMORATE 600,000 AMERICANS WHO HAD DIED OF CO
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2022 18:46
  • Keywords: Afghanistan Biden Bulid Back Better COVID-19 Putin Voting Rights Act inflation one-year anniversary
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Government/Politics,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA00MFUWHFEV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: U.S. President Joe Biden needs to lower expectations about what he can achieve if Democrats are to stave off disaster in the 2020 mid-term elections, analysts told Reuters on the eve of the anniversary of Biden's first year in office.
    Biden's poll numbers have sagged amidst rising inflation, the continuing coronavirus pandemic, and a legislative agenda that has stalled in a narrowly divided congress.
    "The expectations have hurt Biden," said Larry Sabato, who heads the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
    Americans need to accept that the coronavirus pandemic is here to stay and rising inflation needs to be brought under control, he said.
    "Otherwise they'll pay the price in November," Sabato said, referring to the 2022 mid-term elections in which Democrats are widely expected to sustain losses.
    Biden's first-year anniversary comes at a rocky time: his centerpiece Build Back Better legislative agenda is on ice after fractious congressional negotiations and COVID-19 hospitalizations are at a record. Tensions are also high with Russia over a military build-up around Ukraine. And Biden's voting rights push has failed to muster the necessary support in Congress amid universal Republican obstruction, at a time of questions about the fragility of America's political system.
    Andrew Smith of the University of New Hampshire says that the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2020 has weakened America's international standing under Biden.
    "I think that's rattled our allies," he said. "It's certainly emboldened our enemies. Putin's activities in the Ukraine and Central Europe are very troubling. And it's certainly emboldened China as well by their saber-rattling towards Taiwan."
    But while parts of Biden's ambitious agenda have been put on hold, Sabato points out that Biden does have several significant achievements to point to.
    A large majority of Americans have gotten at least one vaccine shot, the unemployment rate has dropped amid record job creation, and Biden did pass trillion-dollar COVID relief and infrastructure bills, he said.
    Nonetheless he said, Biden needs to make progress on his signature legislative agenda.
    "Biden has to get some piece or pieces of it [the Build Back Better bill] passed. It's clearly not going to pass as a whole," he said. "Just like, I think, they've been living in a fog about the voting rights bills," he added.
    Both the Build Back Better and Voting Rights legislation have stalled in a narrowly divided congress, with the lack of cooperation from Senators Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema, both Democrats, making it nearly impossible for Biden to make significant progress.
    Biden's fellow Democrats are fighting to retain their control of Congress slated for Nov. 8, amid a flood of Republican-backed state laws that civil rights advocates say could suppress Black and other minority votes.
    Getting voting rights legislation through is essential for the Democrats in the coming mid-term elections, Smith said.
    "If black turnout drops three percent, five percent in many states, that means that Senate seats go, certainly House seats go, and Governors seats go. And rallying the support of minority voters, Black and Hispanic voters is something that I think is really critical for electoral success for Democrats in November," he said.
    (Production: Ashraf Fahim)
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