The New York Times
After the victory of the stimulus in the Senate, reality sinks: bipartisanship is dead
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden ran for the White House as an apostle of bipartisanship, but the bitter struggle over the $ 1.9 trillion pandemic measure that reached the Senate on Saturday made it clear that the differences between the two warring parties were too great for be overcome by Biden’s good intentions. Not a single Republican in Congress voted in favor of the bailout package now sent for final House approval and a Biden signature, while furiously denouncing the legislation and the way it was put together. Other striking Democratic measures to protect and expand voting rights, combat police prejudice and misconduct and much more are also attracting sparse Republican support. Subscribe to The Morning newsletter of the New York Times. The supposed honeymoon period for a new president would normally be a time for lawmakers to meet, especially when the country enters its second year of an overwhelming economic and health crisis. Instead, the tense clash over stimulus legislation showed that lawmakers were breaking up and ready for more ugly clashes ahead. Biden, a six-term Senate veteran, touted his deep Capitol experience as one of his main selling points, telling voters that he was the only man capable of uniting the troubled Congress and even coming to terms with his former bargaining partner, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader. But Democratic congressmen, highly familiar with McConnell’s tactics, had no such illusions. Now, they fear that voters will punish them more severely in the mid-term elections of 2022 for not taking advantage of their power to enact radical political changes than for not working with Republicans and closing bipartisan agreements. Congressional Democrats want much more than Republicans are willing to accept. Anticipating the coming Republican recalcitrance, Democrats are increasingly uniting around the idea of weakening or destroying obstruction to deny Republicans their best weapon for frustrating the Democratic agenda. Democrats believe that their control of the House, the Senate and the White House gives them the right to pressure for everything they can, and not be content with less of a sense of obligation towards an outdated concept of bipartisanship that does not reflect the reality of today’s polarized politics. “Looking at the behavior of the Republican Party here in Washington, it is fair to conclude that it will be very difficult, especially the way the leadership has positioned itself, to obtain meaningful cooperation on that side of the aisle in things that matter.” said Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md. But the internal Democratic disagreement that paralyzed approval of the stimulus bill for hours until Friday night illustrated both the precariousness of the most tenuous Democratic majority and the obstacles to removing the obstruction, a step that can only happen if the moderates now deeply opposites agree to do then. He also showed that even if the 60-vote limit to break an obstruction were eliminated, there would be no guarantee that Democrats could push their priorities to the Senate 50-50, as a separatist member can overturn an entire bill. Republicans have accused Democrats of abandoning any pretext of bipartisanship to promote a far-left agenda and go through a liberal wish list disguised as a coronavirus rescue project, stuffed with hundreds of billions of strange dollars as the pandemic is starting to subside. . They noted that when they were in charge of the Senate and President Donald Trump was in office, they were able to deliver a series of expensive coronavirus relief projects negotiated between the two parties. “It is really unfortunate that, when a president who took office suggesting that he wanted to work with Republicans and create solutions in a bipartisan way and try to unite and unify the country, the first thing to come out of the gate is a law that is simply done with one party government, ”said Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, the second Republican. At their private lunch recently, Republican senators received a card with a quote from Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, calling the coronavirus project “the most progressive domestic legislation in a generation,” a phrase that strategists in the party quickly began to present in a video aiming at the stimulus measure. The comment was a point of pride for liberal Democrats, but probably not the best argument for winning over Republicans. “I don’t understand the approach taken by the White House. I really don’t want to, ”said Senator Susan Collins of Maine, leader of a group of 10 Republicans who initially tried to reach an agreement with the White House, but offered about a third of what Biden proposed. “There is a compromise to be reached here.” However, even when Biden welcomed Republicans into the White House and engaged them in a series of discussions that were much more friendly than any other during the Trump era, neither he nor Democratic Congressional leaders made a real effort to find one. middle ground, having concluded at the beginning that Republicans were very reluctant to spend what was necessary to face the crisis. Democrats feared that if they did not act quickly, negotiations would drag on only to collapse and leave them with nothing to show for their efforts to gain control over the pandemic and boost economic recovery. They wanted to grow up and not wait. “We will not – we will not – be shy in the face of great challenges,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., the leader of the majority. “We will not be long when urgent action is needed.” Although McConnell lost legislatively, he managed to keep Republicans together when there was a desire to strike a deal. He learned in 2009, when President Barack Obama took office at the start of the Great Recession, that by holding his Republican forces together against Democrats, he could undermine a new popular Democratic president and paint any legislative victories as tainted by partisanship, scoring political points before the next election. The same handbook appears to be open for 2021. While maneuvering the relief measure by Congress using special budgetary procedures that protected it from obstruction, Democrats were also resurrecting several important policy proposals from the last session that did not get anywhere in the controlled Senate. by republicans. The first was a comprehensive measure of voting rights designed to counteract Republican efforts in states across the country to impose new voting requirements and a policing bill that seeks to ban tactics attributed to unnecessary deaths. House Republicans opposed en masse and the prospect of winning the minimum 10 Republican votes required in the Senate is bleak. In the coming weeks, House Democrats plan to pass more uncompromising bills, including measures to strengthen gun security and protect union rights – two activities abhorred by Republicans. Democrats fully recognize that the measures will hit a Republican stone wall, but that is the point. By putting Republicans on the record against what Democrats consider widely popular measures, they hope to take home the idea that, despite their party’s control over Congress and the White House, they cannot move forward on the main issues of the moment with the obstruction in place. They want voters to respond. “We can’t magically make Republicans stand up for what people want,” said Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second Democrat. “The people are overwhelmingly in favor of the agenda that we are approving, and democracy works, so if the people want these projects to be approved, they will demand that we end the obstruction or will demand that some Republican senators who refuse to do what the people want to step down. “Frustrated with their inability to stop the pandemic, the Republicans attacked the Democrats and the President. “They are doing it because they can,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, who said Biden’s promises about promoting the unit now sound hollow. “This is an opportunity to spend money on things unrelated to COVID because they have the power to do so.” Democrats would agree – they are using their substantial influence to go far beyond what Republicans can support and say they are justified in doing so. “Let’s face it,” said Schumer on the Senate floor. “We need to do this. It would be much better if we could in a bipartisan way, but we need to do that. ”This article was originally published in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company