Biden is quietly running the political table

As the ancient Chinese philosopher — and founder of Taoism — Lao Tzu presciently noted: “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” Presently, this seems to be as true as a political strategy as it is an adage to live by. For, don’t look now, but newly elected US President Joe Biden is quietly running the political table.

Modern US political history makes it quite clear that it is in times of great crisis and upheaval that major domestic policy initiatives are fought for and won. Whether it is Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression, Lyndon Johnson in the tumultuous 1960s or Ronald Reagan following the debacles of Vietnam and Watergate, whenever there is significant peril to the republic, the American people seem to opt for more ambitious and decisive policy answers to their ills.

Biden, coming to power in the midst of a pandemic that has now claimed more lives (540,000-plus) than every war America has fought in except the Civil War, has followed in this modern political tradition. In crafting (and Congress this week enacting) his monumental $1.9 trillion “American Recovery Plan,” Biden is the surprising heir to the bold domestic initiatives of FDR, LBJ and Reagan.

The COVID-19 recovery plan, which passed both houses of Congress largely unscathed, provides direct payments of $1,400 for America’s middle and lower-classes; fully 85 percent of the population is eligible for the funds. It injects vast amounts of federal money directly into the US economy, bolstering it as America tenuously begins to move toward an end to the lockdowns that have so blighted the global economy.

The plan provides significant extra funding for state and local governments, which in America’s federal system have been on the front lines, dealing first-hand with the economic, educational and social impacts of the pandemic crisis. Crucially, in the short term, the plan allows a $300 a week stipend for the jobless to continue until September.

Despite the legislation getting through Congress largely on Biden’s terms, progressives in his own Democratic Party do have some grumbles. A massive increase in the federal minimum wage (to $15 an hour) had to be shelved. Likewise, under pressure from moderate Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia — the de facto swing vote in an evenly divided Senate — the extension of unemployment benefits was lowered from $400 a week to $300.

But this is to quibble. Despite operating in an era that both parties readily acknowledge is toxically partisan, Biden — quietly, calmly and with great skill — managed to maneuver his vastly ambitious plan through a 50-50 Senate and a House of Representatives with the smallest majority in modern history.

How did the new president accomplish the seemingly impossible? First, he held the whole of his own disparate caucus together. The final vote on the plan in the Senate, 50-49, illustrates his mastery of the Democratic Party. He lost not a single party vote over the most monumental piece of legislation since at least Obamacare. Ironically, the tiny majorities in both chambers greatly contributed to party unity. Both Democratic progressives and moderates knew that to be disloyal would mean that no expansive recovery legislation would pass at all, that they would be tarred with the brush of being a “do-nothing Congress,” and that retribution would await them in just two short years in the 2022 midterm elections. Put simply, given the electoral math, it was now or never for the Democrats.

However, perhaps even more importantly, Biden quietly, effectively and persuasively made a point of involving his Republican foes in the legislative process. In total contrast to the Trump era, Biden last month invited a group of 10 Republican senators to negotiate regarding the possibilities of a bipartisan deal. While the two sides never came close to reaching a concord (the Republicans proposed a stimulus of $618 billion, only a third as large as the president’s), it was the very act of negotiating that mattered. Rather than trashing his opponents as a public relations exercise, the new president sought their counsel, took them seriously, and made it clear that he would do so in the future. In lowering the political temperature from the feverish days of the Trump era, Biden hit upon a winning legislative formula.

Next up for the White House is a huge $1 trillion infrastructure bill, designed to repair America’s aging roads and bridges, while extending high-speed internet connectivity throughout the countryside. Fortuitously for him, this is an issue where Biden has a good chance of picking up at least some Republican support, as many of the beneficiaries of this largesse (especially in rural areas) are natural GOP voters. Once again, given both the tight Democratic political math and his quiet desire to test the waters of bipartisanship, there is a more than even chance the new president could claim victory for another historically significant piece of legislation.

All you need to know about the operational differences distinguishing the last two presidents is that Donald Trump demanded that his name be placed on the federal checks being given to his hard-pressed countrymen, while Biden could care less about this. Perhaps quietude is, after all, a winning political strategy.

• Dr. John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be contacted via chartwellspeakers.com.