President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, with Republican help, are poised to spend $3.5 trillion during decades-high inflation.
“Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act will make Biden one of the most legislatively successful presidents of the modern era,” Politico Playbook writers Ryan Lizza and Eugene Daniels wrote.
Although congressional Democrats have only a four-member majority in the House and a one-member majority in the Senate, Biden has been able to pass a substantial legislative agenda. It is also notable that Biden has spent so much during the first half of his term in office. This includes:
- The $1.9 trillion American Recovery Act, Biden’s coronavirus relief bill
- The $550 billion so-called Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
- The $280 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act
- $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act
As Politico noted, these expenditures amount to roughly $3.5 trillion and address many leftist priorities such as “the pandemic and its economic fallout, highways, bridges, broadband, rail, manufacturing, science, prescription drug prices, health insurance, climate change, deficit reduction and tax equity.”
This spending has followed as Americans continue to reel from record-high inflation.
Biden has also expanded NATO to include Sweden and Finland and passed gun control legislation.
Although congressional Democrats bear much of the responsibility for passing Biden’s legislation, congressional Republicans often gave Biden the necessary votes to advance the 46th president’s agenda.
For instance, 13 House Republicans and 19 Senate Republicans gave Democrats the necessary votes to pass the so-called infrastructure bill.
Fourteen Senate Republicans and many House Republicans voted for the CHIPS Act.
Believing that a reconciliation bill was not being negotiated, Senate Republicans voted to pass the CHIPS Act. This eliminated any leverage Republicans had to block the Inflation Reduction Act.
With no remaining obstacles, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced their legislative framework and now stand poised to pass the bill in the Senate. The bill will likely be voted on this coming week.
This failed strategy led many Republicans to admit they lost to Democrats.
“We got our ass kicked. It’s just that simple. Looks to me like we got rinky-doo’d. That’s a Louisiana word for ‘screwed.’ And we got our ass kicked. That’s the way my people back home see it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said, “Yesterday’s announcement by Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer showed again that too many Senate Republicans unfortunately trusted Democrats and got duped. Some are pretending to be shocked. It’s not shocking at all.”
Republicans’ cooperation with Democrats’ agenda also extends to major domestic and foreign policy.
Fifteen Senate Republicans and 14 House Republicans voted with Democrats to pass gun control.
Only two Senate Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rand Paul (R-KY) opposed expanding NATO to include Finland and Sweden.
Politico compared Biden’s legislative success during the first two years of his presidency to that of the president who passed the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society welfare programs.
“There’s not much debate anymore over whether Biden has been a consequential president. In the long run, his first two years may be remembered as akin to LBJ when it comes to moving his agenda through Congress,” Politico wrote.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.