Joe Biden’s reforms threatened by his own camp in Congress – 20 minutes
Joe Biden dreamed of having a “transformative” presidency like that of Franklin Roosevelt. It promises to be complicated. If everything had started well with the vaccination campaign and the gigantic Covid recovery plan voted in Congress, the American president, who arrived in the United Kingdom on Wednesday evening for the G7, is now facing a harsh political reality. And resistance from centrist Democratic senators.
This week, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin indicated that he would not support the sweeping electoral reform proposed by the Democrats to counter restrictive laws passed by about 15 State Republicans. Manchin – like Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema – also refuses to put an end to the “filibuster”, which requires having 60 votes out of 100 in the Senate to avoid parliamentary obstruction. Which, in a Congress more divided than ever and facing Republican leader Mitch McConnell, signs the death warrant for most bills. Reforms of infrastructure, police, immigration, ecological transition … The hour is ticking for Joe Biden, with the Miderms of November 2022 already looming.