Biden's whirlwind reforms might save America, but they alienate his conservative opponents

US president Joe Biden has been accused of abandoning his commitment to governing for all Americans as he rapidly pushes through policy in the face of a hostile Republican Party.

As the US president approaches his first 100 days in office, he is instigating bills on everything from climate change and tax rises to police reform.

But his failure to reconcile with Republicans has even taken some in his own party by surprise.

One moderate Democrat close to Mr Biden said he had become too eager to please the left wing at the expense of attempting to heal the divide in a post-Trump America.

“He has been pushed to the left,” the source said. “He’s being deferential to the progressives. It’s like he’s asking permission. He’s not treating it like he won the biggest election in history. He should be telling them what to do.”

Mr Biden’s first 100 days, in which he issued executive orders dismantling Donald Trump’s immigration policies, were popular with progressive Democrats, but angered Republicans.

Donald Trump predicted a crisis, and that came to pass with tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors arriving from Central America.

Republicans in Congress have also tried to block Mr Biden, including his $1.9tn coronavirus relief package, which has the approval of considerable swathes of Republican voters.

President Biden is now seeking to pass sweeping police reforms through the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The bill for another project called the ‘American Family Plan’ — to give paid family leave, childcare and free community college — could reach $1.5trn.

Critics say he has been what Republicans accused him of in the election campaign: a moderate front for a very radical agenda. Mr Biden plans to pay for this spending spree with tax rises, including raising corporation tax from 21pc to 28pc.

Capital gains tax will be nearly doubled, to as high as 43.4pc.

Last week Mr Biden also announced radical new climate change goals — cutting US greenhouse gas emissions to 50pc below 2005 levels by 2030.

He is also looking at expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, believes the president has nowhere near lived up to his pledge to “reach across the aisle”.

“For a president who ran as bipartisan, I haven’t seen that yet,” he said. “A moderate he has not been.”

He called Mr Biden’s sprawling infrastructure plan a “patchwork of left-wing social engineering programmes.”

Mr Biden has also said he is open to the idea of eliminating the filibuster — a Senate process which means most legislation needs 60 out of 100 votes, and therefore some bipartisan support to pass.

According to Mr McConnell that would lead to a “nuclear winter” in the Senate, with both sides adopting “scorched-earth” approaches.

However, progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives have been delighted by Joe Biden’s first 100 days, comparing his massive investment programmes to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. 

 

© Telegraph Media Group Ltd (2021)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]