Biden will have no legislative agenda
President Joe Biden could face some serious problems during his remaining time at the head of the Administration. Not only will he lose his legislative agenda, but the approval of the Budget will be in jeopardy, which will once again paralyse the new fiscal year of the Public Administration.
In fact, CNN announced that the Republicans will carry out a series of investigations: "The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration's border policies, the origins of the pandemic, as well as the FBI's search at Mar-a-Lago and the decisions implemented to stop the spread of the coronavirus".
And, of course, the issue of his son, Hunter Biden, who has admitted to being a sex and drug addict, but is allegedly linked to money laundering operations and a series of shady business deals in Ukraine. The most recent information links him to a Russian oligarch, Yelena Baturina, who is heavily involved in real estate deals, the proceeds of which he is alleged to have failed to declare to the US Treasury.
The results show that the last electoral battle has been fought street by street and that the Democrats - more than Biden - continue to mobilise in order not to facilitate the hegemony of Trumpism. The result obtained in the Senate is a true reflection of the fact that there is a certain electorate that seeks the return of centrist policies.
Biden has not fared as badly as predicted; indeed, once again the polls have failed. Here the clear loser is Trump whose gubernatorial candidates, several of them, have been knocked out at the polls.
There is a certain voter who is not happy with Biden, but neither does he want the return of Trumpism with its discourse of hate, division and polarisation, and perhaps this is precisely what saved the Democratic Party from suffering a greater bloodletting.
Moreover, the British newspaper The Guardian recalls that it is almost the norm for a first-term president to suffer a heavy defeat in the middle of his term. It writes: "Barack Obama lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives in 2010, just as Bill Clinton lost 52 in 1994. Trump himself lost 40 in 2018".
There is a section of the population in the United States that is voting against Trump rather than for Biden and is doing so primarily to save democracy and prevent hate speech from ruling.
On the subject
The US president has been ruling by fiat to avoid passing certain initiatives through Congress: "He has signed 77 executive orders in his first year in office, surpassing his predecessors, former President Donald Trump, who signed 58 executive orders at the same time; former President Barack Obama, who signed 41; and former President George W. Bush, who signed 56," according to the Federal Register.
So far, the laws Biden has managed to push through are: The American Recovery Plan Act and the extension of existing COVID-19 programmes; 2) the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; 3) the bills to avoid a government shutdown and keep the federal government running; 4) the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act; and 5) the Uighur Forced Labour Prevention Act.
His immigration agenda is in flux. The impression in the US is that immigration is out of control and that both the US and Mexican authorities are overwhelmed by the situation. So far this year alone, more than two million people have been detained - on the US side - while crossing the northern border into Mexico. This is a record number, surpassing even the peak of 2000 when 1.6 million people were apprehended.
Media outlets such as CNN and the Washington Post agree that border security forces are overwhelmed by the situation while towns near the border line are forced to receive thousands of people - almost every day - making it a real challenge for public safety. NBC News, meanwhile, reports 8,000 illegal border crossings per day in Mexico.
National security expert James Jay explains that Venezuelans have escaped expulsion under the Title 42 health measure because the US has no diplomatic ties with them and Mexico refuses to accept its migrants. And without expulsions, the White House is experiencing a knock-on effect.
In 2020, when campaigning for the presidency, Biden claimed he would solve the immigration problem. When he got to the White House, he sent Congress a comprehensive bill to reform the immigration system and since then, it has not moved and remains stalled despite having the House and Senate in his favour. He has now lost that advantage.
Biden's plan to offer legal status to the estimated 11 million undocumented people in his country is also a proposal that failed to gain enough bipartisan support to become law. With the wind at his back, Biden has had a very limited legislative agenda, with the turn of the tide only paralysis awaits.
