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April 27, 2021

Biden Has Been Pushed to Deliver by Progressives and Advocates

Upending the narrative of the first 100 days

 

In the first 100 days, Joe Biden's initial instinct has often been
modified in response to pressure. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

The Chief

**** This week is that time in the presidential term where
everyone decides to assess a new president's performance, using the
mile marker of the first 100 days. (Some media wags even design an
entire newsletter around that somewhat arbitrary figure.) But well
before we hit day 100, a narrative had set in on the center-left.

This is a popular, transformative president
,
the narrative goes
,
doing bold yet popular things, proving that good policy is good
politics. Certainly, the president is popular, or as popular as a
president can be in a completely polarized age. His job approval

in several

polls

hovers a couple points above his share of the two-party vote in 2020.
His policy priorities-the infrastructure package, the American Rescue
Plan-are even more popular
,
allowing the administration to redefine bipartisanship as promoting
policy preferred by Republican and Democratic voters, if not their
representatives in Congress. The vaccine rollout has been a success
(even if it's slowing now), and if nothing else was accomplished that
would be a signature achievement.

**Read all of our First 100 reports here**

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**** And yet there's another way to look at this first 100 days
of the Biden era: one where the administration has to be dragged to that
place of transformation, pulled forward not just by the progressive
movement but from across the spectrum of the Democratic Party. You can
read this as good or bad depending on your perspective: maybe it's bad
that the Biden administration's instincts are smaller than the moment
requires, or maybe it's good that the party's instincts are
bigger-and that the Biden team is listening to them.

To be sure, Biden has put forward several laudable policies: leaving
Afghanistan without preconditions, rejoining the Paris agreement, and
just today, raising the minimum wage

for federal contractor employees to $15 an hour. He has delivered on a
number of campaign promises and on one big meta-policy-meeting the
required level of ambition and rejecting naysayers who tried to use
deficits and inflation to trim his sails-he potentially provided a
lasting blueprint for Democrats. But let's look at several other
issues that have transpired over the past few days:

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* In response to the tragic outbreak of COVID-19 in India, Biden's
team ignored calls for help for several days. Finally, national security
adviser Jake Sullivan ended the export ban

on raw materials for vaccines. Then, after weeks of prodding, he decided
to share with India and the world dormant AstraZeneca vaccines
that had been
sitting in a warehouse in Baltimore.

* The administration set a deadline of March 15 for an emergency
temporary workplace standard for COVID-19, then shot past that date and
at one point even put the rule on hold
.
After pushing from Senate Democrats

and labor unions
,
finally yesterday the Department of Labor advanced the temporary
standard

through the regulatory process, which means it's still not active
until after the Office of Management and Budget signs off.  

* After initially leaving out changes to health care

in the American Families Plan, which will be announced in Wednesday's
speech to a joint session of Congress, the administration took a ton of
heat

from all factions

of the party, and it finally decided

to include $200 billion to extend increased subsidies for the Affordable
Care Act insurance exchanges (which were added for two years in the
American Rescue Plan). This has not stopped the lobbying, as over 80
House Democrats spanning the ideological divide from AOC to Conor Lamb
are pushing

to lower the Medicare eligibility age and allow prescription drug price
negotiation in Medicare, the latter a cost-reducing policy that
Biden's team has still left out.

* The Biden team's greatest legislative accomplishment, the expanded
and advanced child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan, only lasts
for one year. Democrats pressured Biden to make that permanent, but he
rejected that, citing the high cost, and instead will reportedly only
extend it to 2025 in tomorrow's announcement. Rep. Richard Neal
(D-MA), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has deviated from
that script, today introducing a family care bill

that makes the CTC permanent.

* The Biden team needed only to sign a piece of paper

to increase the refugee cap and allow tens of thousands of migrants in
deplorable conditions to settle in the United States. Biden promised to
do it and briefed Congress, then changed his mind (reportedly it was his
decision
)
and left the refugees stuck on the tarmack. After tremendous pushback
from all corners of the party, Biden relented-but only to say that he
would set a new refugee cap by May 15.

And I haven't gotten into student debt cancellation
,
or marijuana legalization
,
or what's going on with the Yemen war
, or
more.

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This is a defined trend. On a number of key areas, Biden's team has
not been the one with the boundless ambition. They've reneged or
stayed silent on a number of items, only moving when enough pressure has
been created by the political system to make inaction impossible. And
often those reluctant moves are half-steps: raw materials and
AstraZeneca vaccines but no IP waiver on vaccine patents, or ACA
exchange subsidies but no drug price reform, or so on. Even on the
minimum wage increase for federal contractors, there's much more that
can be done, as we've outlined in our Executive Action Tracker
. Biden
can ban contractors from forced employee arbitration agreements; he can
require them to maintain neutrality in union organizing; he can mandate
replacement contractors to rehire the previous firm's workers. None of
this has been done.

As we're moving into an uncertain area on legislative policy, this is
problematic. Joe Manchin wants the infrastructure package whittled down

to next to nothing
with the
participation of Republicans. As his vote is critical, there's simply
no guarantee that anything monumental will come of the infrastructure
bill; the return of earmarks might spur cooperation
,
or it might not. Manchin also refuses to budge on the filibuster

and thinks voting rights changes have to be done in common cause with a
party that's actively moving to suppress the vote across the country.
There are some bipartisan gangs circling one another on China policy

and criminal justice
,
but again success is not ensured.

Therefore, executive action and implementation is fast becoming the only
remaining path by which change can happen, and the executive branch is,
in many key areas... let's say reluctant. I mentioned the Executive
Action Tracker
, and its
77 discrete agenda items. Biden's accomplished 7, and gets partial
credit for another 5. That's not good enough, leaving on the table a
host of policies on climate, health care, financial regulation,
conservation, consumer protection, and much more. Implementation of
grants for arts venues was delayed four months

and only restarted yesterday
;
implementation of rental assistance

for desperate tenants is just as bad. Immigration policy is thus far a
trail of broken promises
.

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The first 100 days have been successful, but by definition they are
incomplete. The legislative window is rapidly closing thanks to
recalcitrant Senators in a narrow majority, and that which Biden has
control over, his executive authority, has established a defined trend
of doing too little and being pushed to do more.

Again, there's a positive quality to this: the progressive movement
really is at the table. It has a voice to move policy, though not always
100 percent. We might wish for Biden to get it right the first time, but
the game of trial balloons and external pressure is common. Obama
typically didn't listen, or took much more time to come around. Biden
has improved on this, and being willing to listen and shift is a real
credit of leadership. He is finding the parameters of the coalition and
positioning himself within it. But for this presidency to reach
transformative levels, advocates are just going to have to keep working.
The president will not do it by himself.

What Day of Biden's Presidency Is It?

Day 98.

We Can't Do This Without You

Today I Learned

* A bizarre bill Biden recently signed commits the government to a
marketing campaign
on behalf
of one side of the biopharma industry. (Congress.gov)

* Another bill makes sesame the ninth major food allergen
.
Biden has only signed 11 bills

in total. (Washington Post)

* No, the infrastructure package does not outlaw meat
,
but if conservatives keep wanting to focus on nonsense while Democrats
handle policy, fine. (New York Times)

* Another Justice Department pattern and practice investigation
announced, this time of the Louisville police department
.
(ABC News)

* A lack of appointments to the DOJ antitrust division has led to a
return of the status quo
.
(ProMarket)

* The goal is for an 80 percent clean power grid

by 2030. (CNBC)

* California clean vehicle standards restored
.
(Washington Post)

* This labor task force is interesting

though I'm not sure what will come of it. (New York Times)

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