Joe Biden’s Obsession With Bipartisanship Doomed His Presidency From the Start
Joe Biden’s obsession with bipartisanship for its own sake made him a risky bet as leader. Now, with the prospects of the Build Back Better bill seemingly waning, it may have unraveled his presidency.
President Joe Biden delivers closing remarks during the virtual Summit for Democracy in Washington, DC. (Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Biden agenda is, unofficially, dead.
Officially, the Build Back Better (BBB) bill, once the centerpiece of Joe Biden and the Democrats’ ambitions, has merely been “shelved.” But with West Virginia senator Joe Manchin now nickel-and-diming Biden on even extending the Child Tax Credit — meant to be the most popular and uncontroversial part of the party’s agenda, and to date the only major new policy introduced by Biden — it’s hard to see how it could make a comeback between now and the midterms.
There’s a lot you could say about this. But as someone who’s spent more than the average person delving into the long history of Biden’s political career, what comes to mind is how depressingly predictable all this has been.
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