President Joe Biden just pulled off a major end-run around the Republicans
Joe Biden has been getting legislation passed for decades, so he understands the primary tenets of making it happen. One of those tenets is that if you’re not sure whether you have the votes, one way to make sure you have the votes is to make that legislation so popular that there’s a political cost for anyone who votes against it.
President Biden already has the votes for his infrastructure and jobs bill. The House is a given, and the Senate can pass it through reconciliation with 50+1 votes. Manchin is already publicly leaning toward going along with this, with the caveat that it either has to be “bipartisan” or Senate Republicans have to signal that they’re not going to get on board no matter what.
So today, Biden held an event in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Why there, and not a larger or more recognizable city? Because the infrastructure in Lake Charles is falling apart, and so the Republican Mayor of Lake Charles supports Biden’s legislation. Because Biden was able to set up this event with the Mayor, it put pressure on Louisiana’s two Republican Senators to tag along – and while they may not end up voting for it, they did fist bump Biden today, which validates what he’s trying to do.
So now Biden has already made this legislation “bipartisan” by getting a Republican Mayor loudly on board – even though he doesn’t get to vote on it. And Biden roped two Republican Senators into sorta kinda validating the legislation, meaning there will be a cost for them with Louisiana voters if they turn around and vote against it.
But really, what President Biden is doing is making his infrastructure legislation far more popular with the American people, meaning there will be a political cost for every Senator who doesn’t vote for it. Manchin will end up getting on board because he sees the opportunity to take credit for delivering infrastructure to the people of West Virginia. Some GOP Senators will be tempted to get on board because they don’t want to take the heat for voting against fixing collapsing bridges.
All that Biden had to do was find a Republican Mayor willing to stand next to him and loudly support the infrastructure bill, and now we’re off to the races. Of course in legislative terms, even “the races” still means a deliberate process that will take weeks and months, not days, to pass. But Biden basically ensured today that it will indeed end up passing. He knows what he’s doing.
