Why Joe Biden needs bipartisanship

Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris meet Susan Collins and Mitt Romney in the Oval Office on February 1. Picture: AFP

When you work in the White House, you reserve only the toughest of tough decisions for the president. If the best option is clear or obvious, the staff signs off before it reaches the Oval Office. As President Joe Biden wrestles with a pandemic, a stalling economy and the GOP’s recalcitrant leadership, every potential move comes with serious trade-offs. Like every president, Biden’s success will be determined by how deftly he balances policy and politics as well as his short- and long-term objectives.

Biden’s legacy will be defined largely by how well he handles Covid-19 and whether he can rev up the economy. His pledge to unify the country distinguished him as a candidate. Because many voters view bipartisanship as a core part of his character, abandoning it risks undermining his central appeal to swing voters and others. Keenly aware of the President’s situation, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is looking to force him into a no-win choice between a short-term legislative success and long-term bipartisanship. Biden’s challenge is to avoid McConnell’s trap — to pursue the robust pandemic relief package the country needs without destroying his relationships with moderate Republicans who will be crucial to passing his plan to “build back better.”

McConnell is playing the long game as always. He knows that Biden won’t scale back the funding required to get the country past this long, dark winter. As minority leader, he can’t stop Democrats from using the tools provided through the budget reconciliation process; he used the same strategy when championing tax cuts in 2017. He wants to make Biden’s coming legislative victory as costly as it can be politically, framing it to the public as evidence that the president’s professed devotion to bipartisanship was merely lip service. If senators come to believe that the president is stiff-arming Republicans, McConnell will more easily convince his GOP colleagues to join him in obstructing the rest of the President’s agenda.

This is not only an economic debate; it’s a political balancing act. The near-term risk of sliding into a double-dip recession is much more dangerous than the possibility that inflation may return this northern summer. If the US slips into another recession, the President will quickly lose his political capital. In other words, the country can’t afford for Biden to abandon today for tomorrow, and McConnell is using that reality as leverage. As Bill Clinton’s tenure made clear, tough, single-party economic fixes passed at an administration’s outset can open the door to bipartisan successes down the line.

That said, Biden can’t ignore the political risk of steamrolling the GOP. A majority of Americans (especially independents) want him to follow through on his promise to work across the aisle. If “build back better” is the north star for this administration, Biden will need Republicans who vote against the relief package to work with him on climate, infrastructure, education and more.

The president’s savvy decision to invite Maine’s Susan Collins and other Republican senators to the Oval Office represented an auspicious beginning — and the public took note. Now he can take several more quick steps. First, when altering or trimming the relief package, he can highlight the ideas incorporated from his meeting with Collins and her GOP colleagues. He should also make a point of nominating a series of serious-minded Republicans to his administration. Republican voters will take note of that as well.

Second, because it appears that the minimum wage hike won’t pass as part of the relief package, he can pair the priority with small-business reforms Republicans have long championed. The last time Democrats raised the federal minimum wage, in 2007, they won Republican acquiescence by adding tax cuts targeted to small businesses. That bill passed the Senate 80-14, and Biden can follow the same model.

Finally, the president can look for middle ground between Democratic plans to fight child poverty and senator Mitt Romney’s proposal, which White House chief of staff Ron Klain received enthusiastically. Taken together, this strategy will enable the White House to sidestep the tension between Covid relief and bipartisanship. By keeping the economy growing and maintaining his ties with open-minded Republicans, the President will burnish his political appeal and lay the groundwork for enacting his broader agenda. After decades in the Senate, Biden knows that today’s opponents can be tomorrow’s allies.

On the campaign trail last year, Biden promised to control the pandemic, revive the economy, and restore the nation’s bipartisan spirit. It was the third element that stood out during the primaries, when his pledge to work across the aisle made him an object of ridicule. But voters were drawn to his decency, openness and respect for those who disagree with him. If he remains true to his character — if he navigates past the temptation to bulldoze the other side — he will have picked the lock to McConnell’s trap and kept all three of his campaign promises. He’ll have demonstrated that it’s still possible to do the right thing, even when success requires partisan resolve.

Rahm Emanuel was a senior adviser to Bill Clinton and chief of staff to Barack Obama. He represented Illinois’s Fifth Congressional District, 2003-09, and served as mayor of Chicago, 2011-19

The Wall Street Journal