Joe Biden to hit road selling his endangered agenda

The president’s spending plans are in jeopardy in congress amid a fight between centrist and progressive Democrats.

Joe Biden disembarks from Marine One as he arrives at the Delaware Air National Guard base in New Castle, on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden will hit the road this week to sell his mammoth spending plans, which are in jeopardy in congress amid a fight between centrist and progressive factions of his Democratic Party.

The US President struck an optimistic note as he spoke of prospects for passage of a huge infrastructure package and even larger social spending bill that are central to his political legacy.

Speaking as he left the White House to travel to Delaware on Saturday, Mr Biden said he was “going to work like hell to make sure we get both these passed”.

“And I think we will get them passed,” he said. “I’m going to be going around the country this week making the case why it’s so important.”

Mr Biden has been criticised for not doing more to sell the bills to everyday people.

“There’s nothing in any of these pieces of legislation that is radical, that is unreasonable when you look at it individually,” he said of the $US1.2 ($1.65 trillion) infrastructure bill and the $US3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill allocating money for education, childcare, clean energy and other issues.

The impasse on the Democrat side is rooted in political differences over how much the government should spend, but also on the sheer lack of trust between competing factions.

Mr Biden’s political legacy is at stake and so probably are the Democrats’ chances of keeping control of congress in mid-term elections next year. However, on Thursday, talks between moderate Democrats and more left-wing members over the bills ended in stalemate. Their razor-thin majority in congress means that even a few defections could prevent votes from succeeding.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled a vote on infrastructure on Saturday AEDT for the second night running as congressional leaders arbitrated disputes among the party’s centrist and left groupings.

On the other pressing issue facing the President – a deadline to raise the national debt limit ahead of a default date of October 18 – Mr Biden called on Republicans to join his party in approving an increase. A US default on its debt would be unprecedented and have catastrophic effects on the US and world economies. Usually this is not a complicated issue. But this year Republicans are refusing to join Democrats in granting authorisation, while Democrats argue they should not have to bear responsibility alone.

AFP