Hundreds of guests, a full fanfare and flags galore in the gardens of the White House: Joe Biden signed Monday under a gigantic infrastructure plan, a rare brightening for an unpopular president. “This is my message to Americans: America will move forward again and your life will change for the better,” said a visibly cheered up president.
In front of him, parliamentarians, members of his government and trade unionists frozen, despite the sun of this late November afternoon, which did not prevent them from applauding and cheering the various speakers. Joe Biden, faced with bad economic news and disastrous polls, wanted this ceremony to illustrate his vision of an America capable of consensus, a land of “possibilities”.
The law, painfully passed ten days ago by the House of Representatives, devotes 1,200 billion dollars to the renovation or construction of bridges, roads, terminals for electric cars, water pipes. It should also make it possible to develop public transport and high-speed Internet. All, according to Joe Biden, will put America in a position to “win the competition” against China – the US president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping were also to participate in a virtual meeting Monday evening.
Trump’s failure
The text garnered votes from the Republican opposition, to the chagrin of Donald Trump – the billionaire also wanted to launch a major infrastructure program, which never saw the light of day.
The former president blasted the 13 elected Republicans who voted in favor of the text in the House of Representatives. One of his followers, Marjorie Taylor Greene, even called them “traitors”, and circulated the phone numbers of their offices.
In fact, few opposition leaders on Monday on the lawns of the White House, despite Joe Biden’s insistence on welcoming the fact that this law was supported by elected officials from both parties, in a country where partisan divisions are white-heated. Rob Portman, Republican senator from Ohio, has spoken well, but he does not have to fear reprisals from pro-Trump: he will not stand for re-election in 2022, in a midterm legislative election that s ‘announced very complicated for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
Bad polls
While Joe Biden’s plans are popular with Americans, his confidence rating has steadily declined since the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan this summer. The latest Washington Post and ABC channel opinion poll, released Sunday, puts the US president’s confidence rating at 41%. Only 39% of Americans approve of its economic policies, and 70% of them consider the economic situation in the United States to be bad.
The world’s leading economic power has taken off with a bang, it is also experiencing a surge in inflation and supply problems, while the White House has not, as it promised itself, completely turned the page on the pandemic. What weigh on the daily life of this middle class to which Joe Biden continues to promise better days.
The surge in prices also complicates another major project of the American president, less consensual than the infrastructure plan: 1.750 billion dollars in social spending and aid for the energy transition, which must be examined this week by the House of Representatives , then be voted on by the Senate.
There, it is impossible to count on the support of the Republicans, some of whom cry out for “socialism”, the worst possible scarecrow in the American political imagination. It will be necessary to convince the most central Democratic senators, and in particular Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona), both present at the ceremony on Monday. The second, very discreet in public, surprised by speaking, and Joe Biden paid tribute to her in his own speech.