But, of course, that makes Joe Biden a failure
Politico:
Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act will make Biden one of the most legislatively successful presidents of the modern era. We once noted that the mismatch between the size of Biden’s ambitions and his margins in Congress made it seem like he was trying to pass a Rhinoceros through a garden hose. It ended up being more like a pony, but it’s still pretty impressive.
To wit:
— American Recovery Act: $1.9 trillion
— Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: $550 billion
— Chips and Science Act: $280 billion
— Inflation Reduction Act: ≈$700 billion
That’s a nearly $3.5 trillion agenda. The scope of the issues addressed is notable: the pandemic and its economic fallout, highways, bridges, broadband, rail, manufacturing, science, prescription drug prices, health insurance, climate change, deficit reduction and tax equity.
He also expanded NATO, passed a new gun safety law and passed a bill to address the effects of vets exposed to toxic burn pits. Five out of seven of these laws — all but the two biggies, the ARP and IRA — received significant Republican support.
There’s not much debate anymore over whether Biden has been a consequential president. In the long run, his first two years may be remembered as akin to LBJ when it comes to moving his agenda through Congress.
That’s amazing.
But, as you might imagine. This is Politico so you know it’s bad for the Democrats:
The current political question is how much it will matter in the short term.
Passing legislation is no guarantee of electoral victory. All modern presidents, with the exception of GEORGE W. BUSH after 9/11, saw midterm losses two years after being elected regardless of how successful they were with Congress. For members facing reelection, voting with the president can just as easily be a political burden as a political boost. One study after the Democrats’ 2010 midterm drubbing suggested that the more a Democratic House member voted with BARACK OBAMA on his top priorities, the more likely they were to lose. Last year, Biden literally mailed checks to every American and he was repaid with lower approval ratings than any of his predecessors at this point.
In the spring, JOHN ANZALONE, Biden’s pollster, told us the political environment for Democrats was the worst he’s seen in 30 years. We talked to him this morning and his assessment has changed dramatically.
“I don’t feel like that today,” he said. “Three months ago, we were on the defensive and now we’re on the offensive.”
First, he argued, was the burst of legislation. “Part of the problem that Democrats had,” he said, “including the president, is this idea that we just couldn’t get anything done. And the fact is we got something done.”
“This president has set up in a very short time period for Democratic frontline candidates something they didn’t have a few months ago,” he said. “They were on the defensive on inflation and a host of other issues. And since then the president has helped with CHIPS and the Inflation Reduction Act and a compelling positive message: lowering drug prices, lowering energy prices, making America more energy independent, bringing the supply chain back from China, deficit reduction and making big companies pay their fair share.”
Then there’s the spate of new issues that weren’t as important earlier this year. “Republicans are out of step on abortion, guns, and Jan. 6,” he said.
“We put our last silver dollar in our slot machine and came up big,” Anzalone said. “And they were sitting there with a stack of chips and are down to just one. The turnaround is unbelievable.”
He cautioned that the change was unlikely to show up in the polls this summer. (Indeed, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll has dismal numbers for Biden, including a 37% job approval.)
“But between now and Election Day there will probably be $6 billion spent on communications,” Azalone said. “Democrats will spend about half of that. That’s a lot of money to explain what we’ve done for the American people.”
In the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove takes exception with the more upbeat Anzalonian view of the midterms. “So Democrats are pumping this latest Build Back Better incarnation big time, hoping it’ll be the life raft they need,” he writes. Rove thinks the bill can be easily picked apart and turned into an albatross. “Retiring Illinois Rep. CHERI BUSTOS claims it gives her party ‘the Big MO,’ while Virginia Rep. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER proclaimed it will ‘change people’s lives.’” he writes. “Such hyperbole won’t save Democrats; voters will see that the promises don’t match reality.” But Rove also offers this warning: “The Schumer-Manchin deal won’t save the Democrats. But unhinged GOP candidates might.”
Conservative columnist Henry Olsen agrees with pieces of the Anzo and Rove analyses. Tuesday’s results in Kansas are a blinking red light for Republicans, he writes in the WaPo, and “the national GOP should try to take abortion off the table as quickly as possible.” Like Rove, he fears that poor candidates mean that the “GOP is blowing its chance to make the midterms a referendum on Democrats.”
NYT’s Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman argue that control of the upper chamber rests on “whether Democratic candidates in crucial Senate races can continue to outpace the president’s unpopularity.”
The AP’s Seung Min Kim and Zeke Miller note a central irony in Biden’s string of recent victories: “Over five decades in Washington, Joe Biden knew that the way to influence was to be in the room where it happens. But in the second year of his presidency, some of Biden’s most striking, legacy-defining legislative victories came about by staying out of it.”
So when you look more closely he’s a real loser.