![]() The aide said they expected a forthcoming infrastructure bill would follow a similar model: “‘nice if you can get it, but there’s no stopping us if we don’t get it.’” One senior Republican aide said GOP members increasingly believed that all of Biden’s promises to work across the aisle were mere lip service to voters. The American people deserve better than this partisan wishlist.” ALL of the other relief bills contained compromise. “ALL of the other relief bills were bipartisan. “Democrats just rammed their ‘American Rescue Plan’ through the Senate without *any* bipartisan support,” the Senate GOP Instead, they lambasted Biden and congressional Democrats for passing it on a party-line vote. All Democrats need to keep making it for two years.”Īs evidence of how well the package itself is polling, Republicans did not focus squarely on the contents of it. “This is hitting people where they live, and the Biden team has done a good job of making that case. “This isn’t something that seems oblique like adding liquidity to capital markets,” he added of the comparison between 20. The checks and (unemployment insurance) of course, but also the money for faster and better vaccine rollout, funding for schools, cops and firefighters, child poverty,” said Matt Bennett, a top official at the center-left think tank Third Way, who was in touch with the White House and Congress on the rescue package. “The difference between this recovery package and the one in 2009 is that almost everything in this one directly impacts people’s lives. The party is banking on this time being different, betting that the easy-to-understand nature of the relief package and the direct payments to Americans it contains in it will serve the party well in the midterms. Massive midterm “shellacking” at the hands of Republicans. The price they paid was what Obama dubbed a “And we paid a price for it, ironically, for that humility.” ![]() “I kept saying, ‘Tell people what we did.’ He kept saying, ‘We don’t have time, we’re not going to take a victory lap,’” Biden said, recalling conversations with Obama. Speaking virtually to House Democrats, Biden said his former boss was just too “modest” about taking a “victory lap” after they passed their own economic stimulus bill - in that instance, with the help of three Senate Republicans. Indeed, Biden acknowledged late in the week that Democrats would have to do a far better job than they did in 2009-2010 to make Americans aware of all the ways the nearly $2 trillion package will benefit them. White House allies said the as-yet-unannounced job of selling the rescue package would be fulsome. And Biden’s own job-approval ratingĬlocked in at 60 percent in an Associated Press survey released Friday. Americans are expressing optimism about the state of the pandemic. Production and delivery of the vaccine continue to pick up along with the number of vaccinations. Indeed, the Senate’s passage of the bill comes at a pivotal point for the Biden administration and the Covid fight. For the sake of progress, they also were willing to lower jobless benefits and tighten the income limits on those who will qualify for the stimulus checks.Īgain, the messaging was simple: dealing with Covid mattered more than any specific policy. Their messaging then was straightforward, too: it will be raised in some future fight. As progressives demanded a dramatic show of power to keep a minimum wage hike in the bill, the Biden team swiftly declined to entertain the idea. That’s some damn fine work.”Īside from one detour - the scuttling of Neera Tanden’s nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget - the White House has maintained a steady focus on its legislative priority. “They had a disciplined message, ignored Washington naysayers in order to speak directly to the American people, didn’t buckle under pressure to cut some weak-kneed deal with Republicans and kept the Democratic caucuses united. “The White House said they were going to pass a $1.9 trillion package and then they did it,” said Zac Petkanas, whose outside group, Invest in America, was formed to help Biden muscle the legislation through, and then continue to sell it. Bush and Bill Clinton could not in early bills before Congress: hew closely to the original proposal without having to give much up in return. And in doing so, Biden managed to accomplish something that former presidents Obama, George W. But keeping his party in line was a feat itself. He didn’t need them in the end, as the bill that passed the Senate only required a simple majority. Biden kept Democrats from splintering and barreled ahead without Republican support.
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