Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Double-Cross Gives Republicans Legislative Leverage
With the president making his motives plain, Republicans can remind the administration that, in a closely divided Washington, they have several leverage points of their own.
By Christopher Jacobs
June 30, 2021
So much for the Bill Clinton strategy of political “triangulation.” Last week, President Biden’s attempts to balance a desire to appear bipartisan and the constant demands of Democrats’ far left made Biden look feeble, while angering conservative and leftist lawmakers alike.
Hours after announcing that his administration had blessed a bipartisan Senate framework for constructing an infrastructure package allegedly for roads and bridges, Biden demanded that Congress had to pass another, multi-trillion-dollar package expanding the welfare state as a precondition for him signing the bipartisan bill he had just said he supported. In remarks in the East Room, Biden said that “if only one [package] comes to me, I’m not—and if this [i.e., infrastructure] is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem.”
Within hours, Biden’s comments had converted the legislative process into a Mexican standoff. By Saturday, with the controversy continuing and Republican senators feeling double-crossed, the White House felt the need to put out another statement by the president that attempted to clean up his Thursday comments, but did not retract or apologize for them.
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/30/bidens-infrastructure-double-cross-gives-republicans-legislative-leverage/
