Office hours: What should Biden do to get his agenda back on track?
The stakes couldn't be higher. You play Biden's chief adviser.
I don’t know about you, but every day that goes by with Biden’s (and America’s) agenda stalled in the Senate causes me headache and heartache. Mitch McConnell is doing everything in his power to run the clock. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema seem to be doing whatever they can to help McConnell. Biden’s approval ratings are dropping. The window of opportunity is closing.
So here’s today’s Office Hours discussion question: What should Biden do to get his agenda back on track? Assume you’re Biden’s chief of staff and his most influential advisor. What exactly do you advise? (As usual, I’ll be responding to your suggestions and questions, from 10 am to 11 am PT, 1 pm to 2 pm ET. Along the way I’ll tell you what I’d advise).
Great ideas and very thoughtful takes. Thank you! Before I dive in today, though, let me give you mine. If I were advising Biden, I’d obviously focus on Manchin and Sinema. But I'd emphasize that the two of them want different things.
Manchin, for example, is willing to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma – a hugely popular idea that would save the government (and consumers) hundreds of billions a year. But Sinema is dead-set against this because she’s in the pocket of Big Pharma – one of her major sources of campaign money. (Manchin is also pushing his own plan to tax prescription opioids, which Big Pharma and Sinema are against).
On the other hand, Sinema supports putting a price on carbon pollution – which Manchin, from a coal state (and with his own coal interests) firmly opposes. Manchin also wants to nix tax rebates for clean energy, and almost all other climate measures in the bill.
So I’d approach each separately, offering carrots and threatening sticks. (Obviously, go easy on the sticks because you don’t want either to switch to the Republican Party -- which would mean Biden can't get anything done.)
In exchange for Manchin’s support of climate policies, Biden might offer billions in economic development for West Virginia – everything from federal tax rebates to corporations investing there to extra funding for public schools and universities. And gently threaten that if Manchin doesn’t accept the deal, Biden will make it public, so West Virginians will know what Manchin has rejected to protect dwindling coal jobs and his own coal interests.
With Sinema, it’s all about attention and money. I’d advise Biden to quietly offer her the full support of the DNC in her 2024 reelection campaign (and threaten that if she doesn’t cooperate, she gets nothing), or, if she’s interested, the next major cabinet job that opens (but not HHS, given her connections to Big Pharma). Meanwhile, find out from her and her closest friends (if she has any) what other ambitions she might have (who knows? she may dream of becoming US ambassador to France).
At the same time, I’d advise Biden to very quietly court a few Republican senators (Susan Collins, for example), offering whatever he can. Remember, he needs only one Republican defection to eliminate Sinema’s and Manchin’s bargaining leverage.
What do you think?
Friends, I've got to head off now. Please keep this dialogue going. And, once again, many thanks for participating in this experiment.