Joe Biden urges Congress to adopt major reforms after bitter electoral setback

Joe Biden wants ” moving forward “. The American president urged, Wednesday, November 3, the Democrats to vote his major reform projects blocked in Congress by internal dissensions, the day after the resounding defeat of his party’s candidate for governor of Virginia, a poll seen as a test of its popularity.

“No governor of Virginia has ever won by being from the same party as the current president”, he stressed to the press, refusing to take responsibility for this failure, considered a pivotal moment in his presidency.

“I know people want things done, and that’s why I keep pushing very hard for the Democratic Party to come forward and vote.” his plans, one for modernizing infrastructure and the other for social and climate spending, which are the subject of intense negotiations in his party, explained Mr. Biden, returning on the night of his European tour for the G20 and COP26.

A year before the crucial midterm elections, which could completely reshuffle the cards of power, Tuesday’s loss in Virginia sounds like a stinging failure for Joe Biden, who had campaigned alongside Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe.

“A tough night for the Democrats”, summarized with Agence France-Presse (AFP) J. Miles Coleman, of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “Even though this election was only statewide, if Joe Biden is in trouble with voters in Virginia – a state he won by 10 points last year -, it is then probably also in difficulty in states like Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, which are much more disputed and where senatorial elections will take place next year ”, he stressed.

Democrats save New Jersey

Republicans could see Glenn Youngkin’s victory as a possible strategic roadmap for 2022, and perhaps even the 2024 presidential election: this newbie in politics has managed to retain the Trumpist electoral base while distancing enough from it. ex-president to win back votes in the affluent suburbs.

Little consolation for Joe Biden, the outgoing Democratic governor of New Jersey won by a hair against his Republican rival. Phil Murphy was however given largely the winner in the polls preceding the election.

The American president, whose popularity rating has reached an all-time low at this level of mandate in recent political history, with the exception of Donald Trump, must now return to Washington in the throes of Congress, since his two gigantic plans investments are the subject of interminable negotiations in its own camp between progressives and moderates.

An agreement on its Build Back Better program of social and climate reforms would represent a major personal victory.

“Political quarrels must end”

Alas, the overall bill for this plan, already halved to $ 1.7 trillion (1,500 billion euros), is contested mainly by moderate senator Joe Manchin, elected from the traditionally conservative state of West Virginia, and who has virtually a veto in Congress in view of the very thin Democratic majority.

“I can’t go home and justify [ces programmes de dépenses], I cannot vote for “, he said Monday, referring to the impact of these plans on public debt and inflation. “Political quarrels must end”, he added, with reference to the blockade imposed by the progressive democrats on the infrastructure component.

The $ 1.2 trillion program is to renovate the country’s dilapidated roads, bridges and transportation, and is supported by Democrats and some Republicans. Approved by the Senate in August, the project has since been blocked in the House of Representatives by elected officials from the left wing, who demand to vote at the same time on the Build Back Better project. They fear that the centrists will refuse to support this very expensive project after getting the check for infrastructure.