OPINION:
We all just witnessed what President Joe Biden did to America in his first 100 days in office — inflation, crisis at the border, abandonment of Keystone pipeline jobs, threats of Supreme Court packing, and a more divided America.
So, what will the next 100 days look like? It just so happens that Mr. Biden’s 200th day in power coincides with the beginning of Congress’ summer recess in early August. Since the passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in March, Mr. Biden’s agenda has been stalled amid Democratic disarray on Capitol Hill. And unless the logjam is broken soon — which is highly unlikely — the Biden White House is going to enter the fall with absolutely no signature accomplishments to point to.
The key watch words for the Democrats as we head into Memorial Day weekend are desperation and division. As the days and weeks creep by and the pressure to produce mounts, how will Mr. Biden and the Democrats react? After their Middle East messaging fiasco last week, it’s clear that division in the Democratic ranks is smoldering. Tacking to the center would surely make the radicals erupt, but bowing to their demands once again would probably do more harm than good to Mr. Biden’s stated legislative priorities.
The president’s big talk about an FDR-like transformational presidency has collided with political reality — he doesn’t have the votes in Congress for anything close to that. The reason Mr. Biden’s agenda is in such a dire predicament to begin with is because he cowered to his radical base right out of the gate instead of listening to the American people.
As his base was ordering him to open the border, close pipelines, pack the Supreme Court, kill the filibuster, grant Washington, D.C. statehood, raise taxes, and champion unprecedented massive trillion dollar spending proposals, the American people delivered a divided Congress and slim electoral victory with an unmistakable message: Seek unity and don’t reverse the successful Trump America first agenda. The message so far has been ignored.
Everyone on the left has failed Joe Biden. The mainstream media blew sunshine instead of truth; his advisers said don’t let a crisis go to waste instead of get vaccinated and get on with your lives; and senior congressional Democrats angled for billions in pork projects instead of rebuilding our economy. No one had the guts to say buck “The Squad” now or risk a failed presidency.
The best advice for Mr. Biden would have been just to get as many people vaccinated as possible, open schools, get people back into their jobs and then get out of the way. But sadly, Trump Derangement Syndrome made that impossible — squandering the former president’s economic recovery proved to be an irresistible temptation.
Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have decided to prioritize rushing the creation of a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol to boost Democrats politically in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections.
By contrast, the 9/11 Commission wasn’t created until 14 months after Sept. 11, 2001 and the final report wasn’t issued until July 2004 — almost three years after the terrorist attacks. The reason Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer want this commission holding partisan hearings for them as soon as possible is to distract from their radical agenda being an unmitigated failure for America. These dysfunctional Democrats would rather investigate former President Trump than do their jobs.
Mr. Biden’s out of touch agenda is already on life support — and there are objects rapidly approaching that won’t make it any easier to get it moving. The next jobs report is coming out in less than two weeks. More evidence of sluggish job creation and high unemployment on account of Biden’s socialist big government binge will all but kill his plans for tax increases.
And right on the heels of the jobs report is the next Consumer Price Index report on June 10. If the report shows sustained inflation and an overheating economy — which all signs point to — Mr. Biden’s next colossal spending initiatives like the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan will be dead in the water.
As these reports get digested, the opposition to progressive initiatives like reimagining policing and the disastrous S.1 “For The People Act” will only stiffen. The idea that moderate Democrats are going to vote to outlaw Voter ID laws and make it harder for police to do their jobs as violent crime spikes, the economy sputters and the border spirals out of control is absurd.
Before long, President Biden is going to have to stand up to his radical base and attend to the needs of the American people. The president got embarrassed by Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over the recent violence in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas. The sorry display of an off-the-rails Democratic Party siding with a terrorist group over our closest ally in the region will not be forgotten anytime soon.
With help from their allies in the biased media, the Democrats are trying to assure everyone that everything is running smoothly — when it’s clearly not. From gas lines, to approving Vladimir Putin’s pipeline, to allowing teachers’ unions to determine policy, to feckless leadership, the next two months are make or break for the Biden agenda. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
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