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The clock is ticking on the Biden agenda.
Let me take you back to 2009. In the early months of the Obama administration, I raised quite a fuss about President Obama slow-walking his gay rights promises, on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in particular.
The problem wasn’t that Obama was bad on the issues — he was great! The problem was that a lot of us (rightly, in hindsight) thought Democrats would lose the House in 2010, and thus any chance to enact Obama’s legislative agenda. And we did lose the House.
But fortunately for us, after some considerable pressure, President Obama worked with Congress in 2010 to lift the ban on gays serving in the military, all before the House changed hands.
Fast forward to 2021.
So far, so good for Biden. The economy is soaring, the virus is increasingly at bay. But most of Biden’s biggest, sexiest legislative initiatives, are still on the horizon: e.g., infrastructure, expanding Obamacare, voting rights, climate change, and replacing new Supreme Court justices (which requires Senate confirmation.
And there is real concern that we could lose the House in 2022, or even the Senate. And that won’t just kill Biden’s legislative agenda, but it also affects Biden’s ability to appoint any nominees at all.
We interviewed Democratic strategist Paul Begala yesterday on our podcast. Paul is brilliant, and a great guy — you always learn something talking to him. We get into this issue in our talk. I highly recommend you check out the podcast.
During our chat, Paul said he thinks Biden has until August to get the big legislative stuff done, because after August people start focusing on next year’s mid-term election, and legislating grinds to a halt as partisan tempers flare, and individual members start worrying about their (re)elections.
READ MORE —> —> Read the rest of this story over at my newsletter, thanks.
The post Tick, tock: The clock is ticking on Biden’s legislative agenda appeared first on AMERICAblog News.
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