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From the first minute in the White House, Joe Biden began to fulfill his campaign promises, reversing through executive orders the isolationism that the previous president had voted in the areas of the environment (Paris Agreement), health (WHO), protection of minorities. and migrants, in addition to reaffirming interest in good relations with allied countries, especially the Atlantic Alliance. But not everything went smoothly in the first month of the new administration, from mistakes, course corrections and false accusations.
While Donald Trump continued to occupy the time and media space of congressmen due to the consequences of the “incitement to insurrection” for which he was tried in the Senate, the Biden administration focused on the greatest and most urgent challenge, the approval of a package of $ 1.900 million of stimuli to face the pandemic. The former senator used the chevrons of 36 years of experience in the upper house of Congress to try to reverse the polarization of American politics and restore bridges with the Republicans.
Biden promised unity on this issue and received ten senators from the opposition party. Yet faced with the Republicans’ $ 618 billion counterproposal, which he called inadequate to meet the country’s needs, he indicated that he was prepared to move forward anyway. With a trick: he says that his proposal has the bipartisan support of the Americans, an argument he reiterated Tuesday night, during the CNN program in which he was approached by citizens.
In addition, the approval of the plan in the Senate will prevent normal operation, invoking a “conciliation budget”, legislation that can be approved by a simple majority. Republicans on Monday showed their displeasure that Biden would do without them in his first major legislative initiative: In a letter sent to Senate leaders, Republican leaders of Senate committees with jurisdiction over the law criticized the “completely partisan process” and they asked to be heard.
Congress has already committed $ 4 billion to fighting the pandemic. Many Republicans question the need for an additional 1.9 billion, and the proposal to raise the minimum wage from $ 7.25 an hour to $ 15, included in the plan, also creates divisions among Democrats, especially between two senators from the ward conservative, Joe Manchin. . and Kyrsten Sinema, who has already led Biden to admit to negotiating what was once his flag. “I support the $ 15 minimum wage,” he said on CNN. “But it is an open topic for debate,” he added.
Related to the pandemic, there are two issues that also leave bitterness in the administration. MP Kamala Harris said the new team found a national vaccination plan and had to “start from scratch.” Also Biden, who has promised to vaccinate all Americans who want it by the end of July, complained that there were no vaccines available when he took office.
Both statements caused outrage among Republicans. Scientific advisor Anthony Fauci corrects: There was a plan, but it was “quite vague” and “poorly coordinated.” As for the lack of Values This was because at that time the doses had been distributed to the states, according to Biden’s transition team, which had requested that the second doses be administered.
The other issue is the reopening of schools. The Democrat had promised to reopen most schools during the first 100 days, and meanwhile, spokeswoman Jen Psaki went so far as to say that in these accounts there would be schools that would receive students one day a week. Biden now claims that he wants most schools through eighth grade to have face-to-face classes and acknowledged a communication error.
It was in the communications team that the first scandal and resignation of the Biden era occurred. Deputy spokesperson TJ Ducklo threatened an Axios journalist who was preparing a text about his love affair with another journalist, in the context of the relationship between journalists and sources. Ducklo may have threatened to “destroy” the journalist, leading to his suspension (contradicting Biden’s promise that disrespecting his employee for someone would lead to “termination at this time”), but he himself ended up firing him.
It was not only in domestic politics that reality overturned theory. Turkish President Recep Erdogan scored points by taking advantage of an ambiguous phrase in a State Department statement to deflect the army’s failure to rescue kidnapped military personnel to accuse the United States of supporting the PKK terror group.
If the controversy with Turkey seems naive, the announced arms sale to Egypt is the passing of a sponge by Trump’s “favorite dictator”, al-Sisi. Last year, Biden had asked the Egyptian autocrat for “no more blank checks”, reaffirmed the leadership of democratic values, and now approves a $ 200 million arms sale to a regime that has arrested an activist’s relatives for days. with dual nationality. .
