Biden\'s six months in power: America\'s internal worries and the Democratic Party\'s foresight

Biden's six months in power: America's internal worries and the Democratic Party's foresight

　　 On July 20, local time, US President Biden took office for half a year, and one-eighth of his four-year term has passed.

　　 However, on the day Biden was in power for six months, the atmosphere in the West Wing Office of the White House was extremely tense. Twenty-five cabinet-level officials and 18 senior government officials sat tightly around here, as if the entire Biden administration was racing against time.

On July 20, local time, Biden and his cabinet officials held a meeting in the West Wing Conference Room of the White House. On July 20, local time, Biden and his cabinet officials held a meeting in the West Wing Conference Room of the White House.

　　 "Time is passing. We all know this." A senior White House adviser told the media, "Of course the president also knows this."

At the moment, Biden’s term of office is three and a half years left, but the advisers around him are always full of urgency and crisis. Next year, they will almost certainly be dominated by the Congressional mid-term elections, and the Democratic Party may lose most of their seats. The resistance of Congress to advance its agenda may increase further.

　　 At the July 20 meeting, White House Chief of Staff Klein also emphasized the importance of the coming weeks. At present, they are formulating strategies to deal with a series of difficult challenges: the new crown cases have surged again, inflation has increased, border immigration has increased, and the prospects for the passage of infrastructure plans are unclear...

　　 Internal worries

"Since taking office, President Biden has taken action to resolve the crisis facing the country, promote vaccination to overcome the new crown epidemic, provide urgently needed help to American families, and make transformative investments to save and rebuild the economy." White House Press Secretary Pusa based The 20th summarized Biden's six months in power.

　　 It is undeniable that since Biden took office, the severe epidemic situation in the United States has gradually eased, and the sluggish economy has shown signs of recovery. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US unemployment rate in June was 5.9%, and 850,000 new jobs were created, which is the strongest monthly increase since August 2020. At the same time, around the first 100 days after Biden took office, the death rate of the new crown in the United States has also fallen to the lowest point since the beginning of the epidemic.

Commuters wearing masks in San Francisco, USA, July 19, 2021 local time. People's Vision, local time, July 19, 2021, San Francisco, USA, commuters wearing masks. People's Visual Map

　　 Despite this, the Biden administration is already facing many challenges only at the domestic level. Among them, the main problem lies in the rapid spread of the delta mutant strain and the ineffective promotion of new crown vaccination, which has led to a new outbreak in the United States. According to CNN on July 20, citing statistics from Johns Hopkins University, with the surge of new crown cases in 44 states across the United States, the number of new confirmed cases per day in the United States has increased over the past seven days. Weekly increased by 66%, an increase of 145% from two weeks ago, and the number of hospitalized cases of new coronary pneumonia increased by 26% from last week.

　　 In addition to being affected by the mutated virus, the renewed surge in confirmed cases of the new crown also reflects the Biden administration’s ineffective promotion of vaccination. Although he announced the completion of the 200 million doses of vaccines on the occasion of taking office 100 days, but the recent vaccination trend has slowed down. Biden failed to complete 70% of adults before July 4th to get at least one dose of COVID-19. The goal of the vaccine. Currently, more than half of the American population has not yet completed two doses of vaccination.

　　 Another issue that has caused headaches for the Biden administration is the constant influx of immigrants on the southern border of the United States. Different from the tough immigration policy of the former President Trump, Biden relaxed the restrictions on immigration, which caused a large number of immigrants to stay at the US-Mexico border, which in turn triggered a "humanitarian crisis." According to the latest data released by the US Customs and Border Protection on July 16, since 2021, US border law enforcement officers have arrested more than 1 million illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border.

　　 Currently, Biden's immigration policy has aroused strong opposition within Congress. According to the New York Post, Republican Representatives James Comer and Jim Jordan issued a report on July 20 accusing Biden of creating a "security, humanitarian, and public health crisis" on the southwest border of the United States. The report also said that from the first day in office, President Biden has put illegal immigration first and Americans last.

On July 7, 2021, local time, illegal immigrants arrived in the United States on rafts in the Rio Grande, Texas. People's Vision. On July 7, 2021 local time, illegal immigrants arrived in the U.S. on rafts in the Rio Grande, Texas, U.S. People's vision

　　In fact, not only did the bipartisan lawmakers in Congress fail to reach a consensus on immigration policy, but they eventually or failed to reach agreement on the protracted debate over the infrastructure bill. According to a Reuters report on July 21, the White House and Congressional negotiators are trying their best to save the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Previously, Republicans in Congress refused to increase funding by strengthening tax enforcement, which is one of the key ways to raise funds for this infrastructure project.

　　 It is worth noting that the United States may have fallen into a war of attrition involving extreme partisanship. Ted Johnson, a researcher at the Brennan Center for Judicial Studies at New York University, told the Guardian that the fierce partisan disputes over voting rights, national security policies, law enforcement and gun policy reforms, and even the state of race relations all show that Biden is trying to defend The "soul" of America's future is largely uncertain.

　　Foresight ahead

　　 The "sense of urgency" and "sense of crisis" of Biden's team not only stems from the "internal worries" currently facing the American society, but also reflects their "foresight"-worries about the mid-term congressional elections next year.

　　 Right now, Democrats only hold a small majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. The Democratic Party is worried that if the current domestic turbulence continues until next year's midterm elections, the Democratic Party's dominant position in Congress will be threatened. CNN commented that from a historical point of view, the political party of the current president tends to perform poorly in midterm elections. At the same time, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, Biden has only visited a few states since taking office.

　　 The Guardian also predicts that in next year’s midterm elections, the Democratic Party may lose seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, making it more difficult for Biden to implement the bill in Congress. Based on this inference, we can also understand to a large extent why the Biden administration needs to race against time to advance various agendas after only half a year in power.

　　 Analysts further look forward to saying that in the 2024 US presidential election, it is not ruled out that Biden will lose to the comeback Trump or another "Trump-like" populist. Michael Bronin, executive director of the German think tank Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in New York, told The Guardian, “When we are talking about the midterm elections and the 2024 election, Trump Still under consideration". Bronin explained that the danger of this problem is that it is similar to a kind of "political yo-yo effect", which is the policy implemented by the former when changing from one president to another. , Bills or abandon all previous efforts, everything needs to start from scratch.