No chance. Joe Biden has no intention of running again for President.
But the moment he announces he won’t stand again he will become a lame duck President, unable to get anything through Congress. He believes, with some justification, that he has done a good job of promoting a progressive agenda, against the opposition of an extreme and unreasonable Republican Party.
His achivements include:
- $1.9 trillion Economic Stimulus Act to grow the US economy after Covid, including extensions to welfare and unemployment programmes
- $783 billion investment in green energy and tackling the impact of climate change, including creating a Green Investment Bank, Rejoined the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. A ban on new oil and gas extraction in the Alsaka wilderness, and stopping the Keystone XL gas pipeline
- $281bn reduction in prescription price costs, plus additional $44bn to extend Medicare. Rejoined the World Health Organisation
- 15% corporate minimum tax rate for companies with higher than $1 billion of annual financial statement income, raising $222 billion, plus a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks worth $74 billion
- $80bn for IRS for modernisation and tax enforcement
- Pardons for all Americans with historical marihuana possession convictions
- Establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday to mark the end of Slavery
- Bipartisan gun control Act, expanding backgrounds checks and restricting gun ownership by people with a history of domestic violence
He also passed a bill of student debt relief only to have to blocked by Republican judges.
Given the way the GOP have blocked any progressive legislation this is a might set of achievements. He is not the most popular Democract President but he doesn’t care about popularlity. He cares about legacy, he is an old man in a hurry. .
Clearly he has a plan to introduce new legislation which will be his legacy before he announces his retirement. My guess is that this is will include the reinstatement of Roe vs Wade and a new Civil Rights Act to tackle voting abuses.
He might just be able to get these measures through a GOP controlled lower house. These are popular measures, and there are enough Republican congress members in swing states who are up for election in 2024 and who could be lent on
But either way this is a win for Biden. If he gets it through he is a hero, if the Republicans block it they are committing to fight the next set of elections on the wrong side of American opinion
If I am right Biden will stand down some time next Spring, probably indicating someone like Raphael Warnock as his preferred successor.
This is his plan – to give the Democrats a candidate who can win 2 elections and appoint multiple Supreme Court judges, and force the Republicans to fight next years elections with unpopular policies, and probably Donald Trump as their criminal candidate
That will be his real legacy. That, and some sick Dark Brandon memes.
Meanwhile as Trump faces legal battles, including 89 separate indictments in 4 criminal trials, plus multiple civil cases against himself, his businesses and his family’s the world of nightmare Trump art has gone into over drive
We also have some lame De Santis fan art, which is just sad
This isn’t fan art. This is from an official De Santis nazi rally campaign ad
