Biden Can’t Blame Republicans for His Failures by Marc A. Thiessen

Political Crossfire Biden Can’t Blame Republicans for His Failures

By Marc A. Thiessen

One year ago, Joe Biden promised in his inaugural address to put his “whole soul” into “bringing America together.” Now the president who just compared Republicans to racists, segregationists, and traitors is blaming the GOP for his utter failure to deliver on that promise. “Did any of you think that you’d get to a point where not a single Republican would diverge on a major issue? Not one?” Biden asked during his news conference Wednesday.

That, to put it gently, is a bunch of malarkey. Let’s review the history:

On his first major initiative – passage of a “covid-relief” legislation – it was Biden who refused GOP offers of cooperation. On Feb. 1 – just days after Biden’s inaugural promise to reach across the aisle – 10 Senate Republicans led by Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) went to the White House and offered to give him the 60 votes needed to pass covid-relief legislation with a bipartisan, filibuster-proof majority.

Passing a bipartisan covid bill should have been a layup. After all, President Donald Trump did it five times. Until Biden came along, every single covid-relief bill had been approved with overwhelming bipartisan support in both houses. But Biden didn’t even make a pretense of pretending to negotiate. He held one meeting with Republicans and then effectively told them he didn’t need their votes. As all 10 Republicans explained in a statement, the White House “roundly dismissed our effort…in order to justify its goit-alone strategy.” Senate Democrats then used the budget reconciliation process to jam his $1.9 trillion plan through on a party-line vote.

Why did Biden refuse to cooperate? Simple: Because Democrats wanted to use covid relief as a pretext to pass all sorts of liberal spending projects that had nothing to do with the pandemic. Just before it passed, White House press secretary Jen Psaki boasted it was the “most progressive bill in American history.” A bipartisan bill would have required making concessions. Biden chose to get everything he wanted rather than compromise with Republicans.

Despite this, Senate Republicans returned to the negotiating table to forge a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden did his level best to sabotage it at every turn. In June, after Republicans and Democrats reached agreement on an infrastructure framework, Biden threatened to veto the deal if Congress did not first pass his massive Democrat-only Build Back Better social spending bill. Then, he issued an extraordinary eight-paragraph statement walking back his veto threat, promising not to link the two bills. Then he broke his word and urged members of his own party to take the infrastructure bill hostage as leverage to pass Build Back Better. With Biden’s blessing, they held up the bill for months.

In his news conference Wednesday, Biden claimed Trump had intimidated “an entire party where they’re unwilling to take any vote contrary to what he thinks.” Yet when Trump threatened to oppose any Republican “foolish enough to vote in favor” of the infrastructure bill, 19 Senate Republicans – including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. – did so anyway. In the House, Biden did not have enough Democratic votes to pass it. The bill reached his desk only because 13 House Republicans crossed the aisle to save it.

That’s not all. In June, the Senate passed major bipartisan legislation to improve the United States’ ability to compete with China on technology, address the semiconductor shortage and supply chain issues, and prevent Chinese entities from engaging in cyberattacks or theft of intellectual property from U.S. firms. The bill passed the Senate by an overwhelming 68 to 32. But it has languished in the Democratic-controlled House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refuses to bring it up for a vote. Biden has barely lifted a finger to get it passed.

Or take electoral reform. This week, Biden forced a doomed Senate showdown over his partisan federal election legislation. Instead of accusing Republicans of standing with Bull Connor, George Wallace, and Jefferson Davis, he should be working with them to pass bipartisan legislation to reform how Congress counts electoral votes. But he’d rather lay the groundwork for claiming that the 2022 midterm elections were illegitimate than get something done in a bipartisan manner.

Biden blames Republicans for his failure to pass Build Back Better. But what killed that bill was his failure to compromise with Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and other like-minded Democratic lawmakers. Manchin explained the reason he decided to oppose the bill is that “it hasn’t shrunk.” Biden won’t compromise with his own party’s moderates, much less Republicans.

The president’s first year in office was a calamitous failure not because of Republican intransigence, but because he allowed himself to be captured by his party’s progressive wing, which convinced him that he should be a transformational president. Americans didn’t vote for a transformational president. They voted for the unity, moderation, and compromise that Biden promised but failed to deliver. He can’t blame the GOP for that.