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On Monday afternoon, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries practically strutted to his gaggle. Just a few days ago, Jeffries had the unfortunate task of meeting with President Joe Biden, though he declined to offer his endorsement.
But now that Biden dropped out, he had a spring in his step as he got ready to speak to reporters, as if he had been unburdened by what has been.
He gave reporters the obligatory praise to Biden and said that he would meet with Vice President Kamala Harris. The meeting, which will include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is at this point a mere formality given that nearly every faction of the Democratic Party from moderate Democrats who wanted Biden out to progressive members of the Squad to Jeffries’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi have gotten firmly behind her.
Democrats have been in a crisis mode for the past few weeks ever since Biden’s disastrous debate. Now, they are allowed to have somewhat of a clean break and focus on beating Donald Trump.
But Biden will still be president until January 20. He also remains extraordinarily unpopular for all the reasons that he stepped away: he is seen as too old, a relic of a time past in American politics.
But in deciding to hand off the baton to Harris, Biden might have a chance to create a better on-ramp for his erstwhile running mate: clear the deck by doing all of the unpopular and unpleasant work to allow Harris to not have to face those difficult questions on the campaign trail.
“President Biden's gonna continue to do his job,” Jeffries told The Independent. “We still have more work to do. We still have to lower costs, we still have to end price gouging. We have to continue to grow the middle class, defend democracy and fight for reproductive freedom.”
Of course, this is pablum. But there are very specific tasks to be finished. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington and deliver a joint address to Congress after House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited him to speak.
This comes as Israel’s war with Hamas, who continue to hold numerous hostages including Americans, rages on and has cause incalcuable suffering for the people of Gaza, and more than 38,000 Palestinians. In the past, Biden has pushed to try and have Netanyahu, who is beholden to a far-right extremist government in Israel, and Hamas to accept some type of ceasefire to no avail.
Understandably, navigating the waters of Middle East politics is treacherous territory. Siding with the Palestinians too much could be seen as a betrayal by many of the Jewish Americans voters who have historically voted for Democrats. But Biden while data show that Gaza alone didn’t hurt Biden with younger voters, it certainly didn’t help him with progressive or younger voters. But free from having to navigate the electoral politics, Biden could have the opportunity to finally get tough with Netanyahu and condition military aid while at the same time demand that Hamas release the hostages, including American citizens still held captive.
Second comes the fact that the government will run out of money on September 30 and the House and Senate will need to pass spending bills to keep the government open.
So far, Republicans are trying to include poison pills such as including bans on gender-affirming care for transgender servicemembers. Even Senator Joe Manchin, who quit the Democratic Party to become an independent, voted for two amendments in the Senate’s version in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Once the House and Senate pass their spending bills pass out of the respective chambers, they will need to go to conference. Biden--who in 2012 called transgender rights the civil rights issue of the modern era--could easily threaten to veto any ones that threaten servicemembers’ health care.
Third comes the debt limit. Remember that thing? For those who forget, Biden and now-defrocked House speaker Kevin McCarthy brokered a deal to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts. The US will have to lift it again in January of 2025. Inevitably, Biden will have to agree to some spending cuts the way he did in the last round, especially if Democrats flip the House and Republicans hope to run out the clock until January 3.
Lastly, Republicans in the Senate are holding out on a major package of tax credits, which includes a revised version of the expanded Child Tax Credit that Biden put in the American Rescue Plan. That credit sliced child poverty and Democrats wanted to include it in Build Back Better until Manchin killed the package. But Republicans are waiting out the process in hopes Trump comes back.
While some Democrats might blanche at the idea of allowing some tax cuts passed in Trump’s signature legislation to continue, they might welcome allowing some to pass in exchange for putting place a new child tax credit. And if Harris begins to climb in the polls, it gives Biden increased leverage that either Republicans take the deal or see all of the Trump tax cuts expire.
Of course, all of these are hypotheticals. But part of Biden’s argument for why he should be president is he could make deals--including unpopular ones--that no other Democrat can do. And with Mitch McConnell leaving his post at the end of the year, there is extra incentive for them to cut one last deal.
