Claudia Gonzalez Corrales*
Perhaps the reason for the smiles in the Oval Office could be related to the midterm elections on November 8, in which none of his party’s (Democrats) senators have yielded to the Republican candidates in their race for the position in Congress.
Contrary to the criteria of specialists and polls that were forecasting a “red wave” (of the assumed majority that the conservative political force would reach) and amid a rising cost of living for Americans, Biden’s team questioned historical trends in which she ranks Losing power seats in the legislature.
Though the House of Representatives was dominated by Republicans (with 222 out of 435 seats), Democrats retained control of 51 Senate seats (out of 100) not to come at the expense of Vice President Kamala Harris’ crucial vote, which he won in the first half of the government has already set in 26 times.
However, those same results mean that, beginning in January 2023, the president will have to maneuver the remaining two years of his term in a more divided Congress that will complicate the implementation of his agenda.
According to Wesley Leckrone, a professor at Widener University in Pennsylvania, Republicans will do whatever it takes to block any success, and therefore it will be difficult for Biden to approve the federal budget.
For his part, Steven Smith, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, said the conservatives’ goal will be to demonstrate that the Democrats cannot govern in a context where politicians are eyeing the 2024 election to have.
ADMINISTRATION WITH SIGNS OF LIFE?
According to Carlos Ciaño Zanetti, a specialist at the Cuban Center for International Political Research (CIPI), told Prensa Latina, in the second half of 2022 the government began to pass various regulations, such as the Law for Reducing Inflation, although they were not in was to the extent that the President intended.
In August, the White House announced it would forgive nearly 40 million citizens some of the debt they incurred for their college tuition, a plan that the Congressional Budget Office said will cost about $400 billion over 30 years.
But the order came up against two court rulings issued in recent weeks, effectively halting the program, which must wait until February for a Supreme Court review to see if it will be able to implement the initiative already sought by more than 20 million resume Americans. .
Last June, Biden signed the bipartisan firearms control law into law, a month after the Robb Elementary School massacre in the city of Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead in what became the second deadliest shooting at an educational institution in the United States states.
Other tragedies that shocked the country occurred last month when a man belonging to the Lgbtiq+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) community killed five people and injured 25 at a club in Colorado while six workers from a Virginia store were killed when the manager opened fire on them.
THE SECOND MOST YEAR FOR THE USA
According to the Gun Violence Archive organization, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in three consecutive years in the United States, and so far in 2022, 43,668 people have died from the use of firearms.
In the current year, there have been 639 incidents in which four or more people were shot dead alongside the attacker, putting this nation on track to reach about 675 by the end of December.
Statistics for 2021 closed with 690 mass shootings nationwide, up from 610 in 2020 and 417 in 2019, making 2022 the second-highest year since researchers at the Gun Violence Archives began tracking the data.
During this time, the President spoke out in favor of a ban on assault weapons and in a speech at the end of August called for action “so that our children learn to read in school instead of learning to bend over and take home.”
The fact of the matter is that many Americans hold their Second Amendment right to carry lethal devices sacrosanct, even though attacks of this nature have left few places across the country unscathed, and studies have warned of just how many people do it every day.
The year 2022 was also marked by increases in hate crimes based on sexual orientation, political violence (increased particularly after the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021), and even certain groups called on the government to be more effective in combating terrorism, domestic violence, and threats so-called white supremacists.
Another issue that got the president’s feet shaking was criticism of his handling of the immigration crisis on the border with Mexico, particularly in the wake of Title 42, a legacy of the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021) that imposed the expulsion of undocumented migrants allows immigrants into the United States without giving them opportunities for asylum.
There were expectations that the President would repeal the order when he took office (January 20, 2021) given his campaign promises to build a more humane immigration system.
However, amid litigation, his administration extended the ordinance, which was criticized by immigrant advocates and public health experts, until November when Judge Emmet Sullivan called the ban “arbitrary and capricious” and ruled that its application should be dropped.
In theory, Title 42 will be in effect by the 21st of this month, but conservative-minded states are resorting to legal mechanisms to uphold it in the name of “border security,” even as analysts consider the official justification for its existence as of March 2020 obsolete . : the suspected health risk amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
THE WHITE HOUSE OF GALA
The first official visit the Democrat has organized since taking office was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron, who was touring the White House for the second time in four years.
Unlike the last visit in 2018, when he was received by Trump, this time there were no headlines about planting a tree that later died, nor an episode like the one in which the US ruler shook off his alleged dandruff counterpart, but better yet, the spotlights were on them shaking hands.
The Élysée leader arrived in Washington in the last days of November and his presence was interpreted as a diplomatic way to eliminate the threat of a trade war with the European Union, mainly as a result of the anti-inflation law.
The rule, which Biden presents as a major achievement at every opportunity, provides up to $7,500 million in subsidies for electric vehicle buyers and implies privileges for US-made vehicles.
This question was considered a stroke in the so-called Old Continent, since France and Germany are pioneers in the production of these cars.
Between flashes and hugs, those in power stepped before the press to reiterate that Paris is Washington’s oldest partner and therefore “unconditional friends.”
Macron, who previously called the regulation “protectionist” and “super-aggressive” and indicated that the White House risks “fragmenting the West,” agreed as Biden announced, “There are changes that could be made Facilitate the participation of European countries.
BIDENS 80 CANDLES
The US President turned 80 on November 20, becoming the first in the country’s history to go down in history at that age and speculation about whether it will affect his political future to the point of preventing it was to run for a second term in the House of White.
The president of the self-proclaimed “most powerful nation” has starred in episodes shaking hands in mid-air, falling during a performance looking for a congresswoman who had been dead for a month, getting lost on stage without exactly knowing what to do forgets names and had to wait for a “saving hand” to grab his arm and lead him to a chair.
As a report from the CNN channel shows, the fact that the Democrat is the first octogenarian in the Oval Office is something few around him would want to emphasize because, had he prevailed in the 2024 general election, he would have done it 82 years during his inauguration and 86 years at the end of a second term.
For Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, Americans want a “slow and steady” leader who gets things done and offers a reassuring presence, a far cry from his predecessor’s attitude of chaos, midnight tweets and insults .
Even Republican politician Newt Gingrich mentioned the need to learn to stop underestimating Biden, believing him to be the “almost inevitable” candidate from the blue-colored ranks for the next election.
For the time being, however, the head of state prefers to keep his announcement as to whether he will stand for re-election on hold: “I hope my wife and I can go away for a few days between Thanksgiving and Christmas to make a decision.”
Beyond speculation, the truth is that he rebounded in the polls after only 38 points had scored percent approval.
Some recent polls put this indicator between 42 and 45 percent, which remains stable after the midterm elections.
However, it’s important to remember that Biden’s popularity dropped from 48 percent a year ago to 60 percent when he took office.
Polls in October showed that more than half of Americans oppose the current president or his presidential candidate, but the Democratic nomination appears as an option on the table to be resolved early in the New Year.
To that end, the president is trying to remind voters concerned about his age of his accomplishments, but it remains to be seen if that will shrug off the backlash that is now fueling concerns about his health and mental functioning.
rmh/cgc
*Journalist with the North American newsroom of Prensa Latina