Biden defends his first-year record as agenda stalls: ‘I didn’t overpromise’
Because Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., oppose parts of the BBB, including the child tax credit, Biden said his best option is to break up the bill and pass what he can while Democrats still have a majority in both chambers.
“I think that we can get support for $500-plus billion for energy and the environment,” Biden said. “And I know that the two people who have opposed on the Democratic side support many of the things that are in there. For example, Joe Manchin strongly supports early education.”
“So I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now and come back and fight for the rest of it,” he added.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the latest casualty of Biden’s domestic agenda — a major set of voting rights bills — was taking its last breath before dying later tonight in a Senate vote where it is certain to fail.
But there, too, Biden promised he would not give up despite long odds of success. And he praised the work of Vice President Kamala Harris, who made voting rights legislation an early piece of her leadership portfolio.
Asked point blank whether Harris would be his running mate in 2024 if he seeks reelection, Biden didn’t hesitate: “Yes,” he said.
Biden defended his administration’s handling of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and promised not to return to early pandemic-era shutdowns.
“We’re not going back to lockdowns, we’re not going back to closing schools,” he said.
But while Covid deaths are down and vaccines are plentiful, it’s also difficult to see how exactly the Biden administration has succeeded when it comes to the coronavirus.
Six months ago, Biden declared “independence” from Covid in a major Fourth of July speech. At the time, the average number of new cases per day nationwide was around 12,000. On Tuesday of this week, more than 1.7 million new cases were reported.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/biden-defends-his-first-year-record-as-agenda-stalls-i-didnt-overpromise-.html