Joe Biden’s build bill is ‘FDR-like’, say Democrats

Allies are seeking to compare his administration to the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, which pulled the US out of the Depression.

Joe Biden and Jill Biden hit the beach in Lewes, Delaware, on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden aims to reset his stumbling presidency this week by touting the benefits of a $US1 trillion ($1.6 trillion) infrastructure bill that have been drowned out by weeks of wrangling between warring factions of his own party.

Exactly a year since he was elected, his allies are seeking to compare his administration to the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, which pulled the US out of the Great Depression.

Mr Biden’s efforts to haul the country back after the pandemic with economic stimulus measures and structural reforms have been hampered by divisions in his own side, and by court challenges by Republican states to his aggressive use of vaccine mandates.

Much now hinges on whether the Democrats manage to pass the second leg of his ambitious program, a package of social and climate measures priced at $US1.75 trillion, which party moderates have agreed to back – subject to cost reassurances – to secure left-wing votes for the infrastructure bill. This finally passed late on Friday.

“People elected President Biden to do big things,” Cedric Richmond, a White House senior adviser, told Fox News Sunday, responding to suggestions that the US voted a year ago for a moderate “stop Trump” president and not a new FDR – the longest-serving president, known for introducing enduring infra­struc­ture and welfare state provisions.

At the height of frenzied negotiations last week Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Democrat congresswoman, said: “Nobody elected him to be FDR, they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.” Mr Richmond retorted on Sunday that one of the “big things” Mr Biden had achieved was to “get the pandemic under control”.

“Let’s just point to the economy. The President has added 5.6 million jobs to this economy, brought the unemployment rate down to 4.6 per cent, two years faster than the Congressional Budget Office expected,” he said.

“That’s big things, doing infrastructure and getting this bipartisan bill done that many presidents could not do. If you want to describe it as FDR-like, then it’s FDR-like.”

Mr Biden, whose poll ratings have dropped dramatically, allowed himself a moment of celebration when he mocked his predecessor, Donald Trump, who occasionally announced that he would pass big infrastructure ­reforms without ever doing it. ­“Finally, infrastructure week,” he said with a laugh on Saturday.

The White House said Mr Biden would visit the port of Baltimore in Maryland on Wednesday to begin outlining the details of the bill. The vote passed by 228 to 206, with 13 Republicans in support and six Democrats against. As it had already passed the Senate, the bill goes to Mr Biden’s desk for a signing ceremony.

Asked about Ms Spanberger, Mr Biden described her as a friend and said they had joked together. “I don’t intend to be anybody but Joe Biden. That’s who I am. And what I’m trying to do is do the things that I ran on to do,” he said.

Bernie Sanders, unofficial leader of congressional left-wingers, warned moderates to keep to the deal to pass the social and climate package, known as the Build Back Better plan. “Their constituents are watching. They must keep that promise. No excuses. Every Democrat must vote to address the needs of working families & climate change,” he tweeted.

Moderate Democrats are withholding their final approval until they receive a cost analysis from the CBO. The price of the bill has already been halved under pressure from moderate Democrat senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Even if it passes the House this month it is likely to face more revision by the pair, leaving Mr Biden with a short time in which to capitalise on relative peace in his party to sell his achievement.

Recriminations began within Republican ranks over the 13 representatives who helped the infrastructure bill to pass. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy had said it would succeed “over my dead body”. Matt Gaetz, a right-wing congressman from Florida, tweeted: “I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill.”

The Times