President Joe Biden saw American sickness on two fronts - a disease of the national spirit and one caused by the raging coronavirus, and he saw optimism, which is something leaders must always see.
The persistent epidemic, a tough hand in Congress, a terrible finale to an overseas conflict, and mounting anxieties for the survival of democracy itself have all played a role in Biden's ambitious objectives. Biden did achieve a public-works triumph that will be remembered for a long time. The fissures in America, though, are deeper than the pavement.
Joe Biden's 1st year in presidency
In this midterm election year, Biden is up against raging divides, and a Republican Party that believes the 2020 election, which has been thoroughly scrutinized, verified several times, and found to be fair by all standards, was stolen from Donald Trump. The basic widespread myth of a rigged vote has been used to justify state after state to change election laws, fuelling even more division and dissatisfaction.
His requirement to vaccinate or test for most major businesses was struck down by the Supreme Court. Payments to families that had reduced child poverty ended on Friday, with no guarantee that they would be renewed. Biden's historic attempt to strengthen the social safety net was thwarted in Congress. People under the age of 40 have never witnessed inflation like this before.
Only two days after Biden delivered a stinging speech in Atlanta, his voting rights legislation hit a snag when Democratic Senator Krysten Sinema of Arizona revealed her opposition to modifying Senate rules to allow the measure to pass with a simple majority, as per AP News.
Joe Biden was the angrier he's ever been during a visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday. With his voice rose, he swore to fight "as long as have a breath in me." Biden's presidency had just seen another major pillar, one he believed would be his legacy to the civil rights movement, relegated to legislative limbo.
His bill to overhaul the way Americans vote was tossed out with his $1.7 trillion Build Back Better social spending proposal. It was Democrats in Congress that stopped him in both situations, not Republicans.
Regardless of how they feel about Biden's program, Americans are puzzled about why he can't seem to accomplish anything. After all, in 2020, a record 81 million Americans voted for his platform, and Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress. Surely, they believe, that was a command to act.
Biden's failure is due in part to his inability to control his own fragmented party, but it is also due to Congress's long-standing slowness. Most Americans are dissatisfied with their legislative branch. The current Gallup approval rating for Congress is 20%.
This is up from a low of 9% under the Obama administration. Since 2005, it has not received more than 40% approval. Rather from being the legislative engine that transforms America, it has all too frequently become the graveyard of great ideas over that period. Most laws, with the exception of those related to government revenue or expenditure, require a supermajority of 60 votes to pass the Senate's 100-seat upper house, which is a political mountain to climb, according to Telegraph.
Half of Americans are frustrated with the Biden presidency
A new CBS News survey released on Sunday found that half of those polled were dissatisfied with Joe Biden's presidency, just days before he completes his first full year in office. Overall, respondents in the CBS News poll tended to have a pessimistic outlook on the country's current status.
Nearly seventy-five percent of those polled said America was performing "somewhat" or "very" badly in general. The majority of Americans believed Biden's handling of the economy, immigration, race relations, crime, inflation, policing, and Afghanistan was unsatisfactory. People also seemed to lose faith in Biden's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, one of the few aspects of Biden's administration that people have remained positive about thus far.
Respondents were similarly split on how much Biden cared about the problems and needs of "people like you," with 45 percent believing he cared to some degree and 54 percent doubting it, The Hill via MSN reported.
Related Article: Joe Biden Urges Senate Democrats' Unification To Pass Voting Rights Bill; Mitch McConnell Rips the President's Speech
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