The new stimulus is bad and Biden knows it. But that’s not his main concern

The president-elect could do a lot more good after Inauguration Day – but getting round Mitch McConnell could end up being more complicated than he thinks

‘Our work is far from over’ Joe Biden said of the stimulus package (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The new stimulus measure – which lacks individual financial support proportionate to the pandemic, hazard pay for first-responders, and aid to cities and states – is not a model of the humane response that the Biden-Harris administration has promised. And the president-elect, Joe Biden, has acknowledged its inadequacy, at least in part, by saying, “This action in the lame-duck session is just the beginning. Our work is far from over.”

According to Public Citizen, the United States has subsidised 0 per cent of wages due to the pandemic. Compare that to 100 percent in Japan, 87 percent in Germany, 84 percent in France, 80 percent in the United Kingdom, and 75 percent in Canada.

Beyond the failure to help systemically sustain the lives of Americans – rather than provide meagre short-term incentives and more corporate welfare – the measure does not address in any organised fashion the social and medical infrastructure that have been incapacitated by virus resurgences around the country. As the former treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, tweeted yesterday: “Any dollar that can be spent on vaccinating, testing, and bribing those who may be infected to stay home has payoffs of 10 to 1 or more and should be the biggest priority.” He continued: “The lack of support for state and local government will mean hundreds of thousands more without work, more crime, more fires, and more kids falling behind.”

This is expected to presage Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s austerity stranglehold of the Biden administration, which has the potential to not only stifle but to suffocate totally the new president. A decency agenda, as championed by candidate Biden, requires uninterrupted and comprehensive humanitarian assistance. Period.

This is the first and most major sticking point. If bold and equitable economic rejuvenation is off the table after 20 January, bipartisanship is a pipe dream. The second is the Biden cabinet. It is expected that surviving un-Trumpian Republicans – Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney – will buck their caucus if the GOP goes all in on obstruction. If the new administration is unable to appoint a real team of expert public servants because McConnell holds hostage the floor of the US Senate, Biden must acknowledge – and campaign to end – such dysfunction.

The Trump-led Republican attacks on the democratic process are unprecedented in American history. Never before has conspiracy theory hijacked not only the president but an entire major US political party.

In this climate of the losing party threatening sedition – even disunion – Biden’s bipartisan vision seems dubiously meritless, if not outright fantasy. But the former vice president would like to be judged on the success of a mission to heal and ultimately unify the American people. That’s commendable, if improbable.

Whether in or out of office, Donald Trump will continue to torment the country rather than help reconcile differences. Trump’s inability to filter his tweets as an ex-president and likely 2024 run guarantee his scorched-earth, hard-right influence on the Republican Party will not abate. If Trump has indeed cannibalized any semblance of a dignified and intelligent political party, bipartisanship will be dead on arrival.

It may be a one-in-a-million shot, but Biden thinks he has a genuine one at bipartisanship because of his Senate career and a nation yearning for peace in the aftermath of Trump. At the moment, how this could emerge is rather nebulous. After a clear popular vote and Electoral College presidential Biden mandate, the lame-duck Republicans, so far, show little willingness to negotiate with, let alone acknowledge, the president-elect.

And while the former VP has the potential to reimagine an empathetic and bipartisan presidency, the Trump administration’s horrible pandemic response – the equivalent of watching the Twin Towers collapse every day for months without vigorous defense of the nation – cannot ever be forgiven. Just as the George W Bush backlash against GOP corruption and the Iraq quagmire was generational, crossing over the 2006 midterms into the 2008 cycle, it’s still going to be the pandemic, stupid.

Democrats have an opportunity to avoid the classic incumbent president party losses in 2022 and develop a working majority. It does not depend on a unity agenda if that is unsalvageable. It depends on decency – economic dignity, intellectual honesty, and American recovery.