Biden Notches BFD Bipartisan wins, now comes the hard part

If it’s not clear by setting — fifty state flags on the South Lawn of the White House, an 800-person cheering ground, dais filled with senior congressional leaders, Republican allies Peace, employers and his vice president — President Joe Biden had a candid message at the signing ceremony for his $1 trillion infrastructure bill: That’s a damn big deal.

“My message to the American people is: America is transforming again! And your life will change for the better! ” an animated Biden told a crowd of nearly a thousand gathered in the blazing autumn sun, some of whom chanted “JOE! HAPPY! JOE! , just before signing the legislation on Monday afternoon. “This legislation is a blueprint for rebuilding America — it leaves no one behind.”

“Things will turn in a big way!” Biden said.

His remarks not only support the revival of America’s roads and railways, but also the country’s bipartisan spirit – something Congress proposes could go far beyond the infrastructure package. the largest in half a century.

“Remember this day — remember we can come together!” Biden said. “And above all, remember what we did for the American people when we really got together.”

But when he celebrates his victory for his age-old faith As for the strength of consensus, every indicator is clear but the staging of the ceremony that Biden’s ability to convince Americans that more damn deals are being done is far from guaranteed.

Most Republicans participated in the passage of the bill, many of whom were surrounded by death threats, skip the ceremony. Most Americans, the majority of them tell pollsters they support the bill, said Biden accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” in his first ten months in office. And a growing number of Biden supporters, both inside and outside the administration, are telling The Daily Beast that his ability to sell his bid is far from guaranteed.

A longtime Biden ally told The Daily Beast: “There is a moderate level of anxiety about whether people really care. “Republicans are adept at convincing voters that fantasies, ‘important racial theories’ and whatever the hell, will materially affect them and their families. .”

The physical benefits of the act — replacing every pipeline in the US, expanding broadband internet access to rural US, whitewashing the country with electric vehicle charging stations, biggest investment for public transit in history — very simple and extremely popular.

“Real improvements to infrastructure really aren’t that hard to sell,” the Biden ally said, “but with COVID and the supply chain problems and crazy difficulties that he faced in the last few months, that would be a tagline.”

Biden has already begun working on the bipartisan “sell” phase of the infrastructure bill, officially known as the Infrastructure Jobs and Investments Act but perhaps better known as the Infrastructure Framework. bipartisan infrastructure (BIF). Minutes before signing, Biden issued an executive order calling the bill a “one-time investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness,” creating a task force to enforce it. law.

This week, he will be visiting a bridge in New Hampshire that needs to be replaced for almost a decade, followed by an electric vehicle factory in Detroit, both of which would benefit from components of the law.

But the rest of Biden’s domestic agenda — a massive $1.8 trillion social spending package that covers issues ranging from preschool and renewable energy investment to open expanding Medicare and reforming the immigration system — still held during an internal meeting led by one of the featured speakers at Monday’s ceremony.

Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who boasted in his remarks that passing the bill was proven wrong growing public consensus that far-reaching legislation “is no longer viable in the Senate today,” was given the main spot on Monday’s program as a gesture of goodwill, a source familiar with the event’s planning said. . But there’s still enough frustration with Sinema’s refusal to assist with the mediation package that her choice of outfit – a slim cardigan on a windy 45-degree afternoon – has given some White House staffers a boost. little satisfied.

But while the president remains “disappointed by the negativity and infighting,” as White House press secretary Jen Psaki said before the event, the ongoing stalemate over popular law is untenable. a single Republican vote is no excuse not to “celebrate bipartisan success.”

“Whether people come or not,” said Psaki, “it is their choice.”

Every speaker at the event emphasized the “historic” nature of the law, both in terms of its increasingly rare bipartisan passage and in terms of the struggle lasted for many years to pass meaningful infrastructure legislation. Vice President Kamala Harris assessed this bid as a successor to the completion of the Hoover Dam and the construction of the interstate highway system.

“Indeed, today is a historic day,” Harris said.

But even Harris made clear the stakes of passing the mediation package, calling the infrastructure bill “part one in two.”

“The work of building a more perfect union doesn’t end with railroads or interstates,” Harris said, “and it won’t end now.”