As we’re five months into the Biden administration some good things are happening, with some long run problems looming on the horizon.

The improving economy with increasing job numbers and declining unemployment is welcome. There is a sense of optimism across the land as vaccinations increase and people feel safe to travel, with social activity approaching normal. 

There are positive signs on the foreign policy front as well. The Pew Research Center shows a dramatic improvement in America’s image abroad, especially with our traditional European allies. With publics of 12 nations surveyed, a median of 75% express confidence in Biden compared with only 17% for Trump last year. Trump’s foreign unpopularity is illustrated by the contrast between Biden’s warm welcome and the infamous photo-op during which Trump rudely pushed aside the president of Montenegro so that he could be front and center.

Trump’s “America First” philosophy included leaving the World Health Organization, breaking with the Paris Climate Accord, and breaking the Iran Nuclear Deal, even as Iran was living up to its end of the bargain. The renewed relationship with our allies, including sending one billion doses of the vaccine to developing countries, is a welcome change in direction.

Nevertheless, there remains European skepticism, specifically whether America can be trusted in the event of a change in administrations.

On the domestic front, with the recent enactment of the COVID-19 bill that received no Republican support — but for which many of them are taking credit — the economy was given another shot in the arm. But it appears that future Biden accomplishments will be limited, if not ended. Police reform, gun safety, the voting rights bill, the John Lewis Voting bill, and even the infrastructure bill, are all in trouble — even with a Democratic majority in the House and an evenly split Senate that is a majority with the ability of VP Harris to break a tie. 

It would seem that these issues would at least garner some Republican support — under more traditional circumstances, that is. Like LBJ who was able to get reluctant colleagues to support the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Medicare, Biden is a creature of the Senate with a history of working with Republicans. He expressed confidence that he would be able to garner Republican support for difficult legislation.

But there is a catch to his optimism. Today’s Republican Party is vastly different than that of decades ago, and the country is more deeply divided. Republican leadership has ceded control to the “elephant in the room,” Donald Trump, the man who lost the presidency, lost the House, and, even according to Senate Minority Leader, McConnell, is responsible for losing those two Georgia Senate seats and for the January 6 insurrection.  

So even as McConnell himself — not just Democrats and some elements of the press — blames Trump for the condition of the Republican Party, how can Republican politicians cede party leadership to Trump? It is well known that it’s because enough rank-and-file Republicans across the nation still support Trump that even those Republican politicians who know better, nevertheless, fear for their careers. They believe that they simply must echo the Trump line to survive.

The net result is that even with Biden’s long history in the Senate and his personal relationships with long-time Republicans, he cannot count on Republican support for any bipartisan success. If there is any doubt, recall that McConnell explicitly made clear his opposition to Republican senate support for any major legislation.

We have seen this show before.

Upon Obama’s election in 2008, McConnell explicitly informed the nation that his number one objective was to make Obama a one-term president. Republicans would concede him nothing that could be construed as a victory. They refused to cooperate to make affordable health care available to the uninsured, and bucked every effort to get the economy out of the Great Recession.

Obama used his political capital to enact the Affordable Care Act and to get the economy out of the Great Recession. Although he won a second term, Republicans managed to extract a heavy price. The media, including NPR, shamelessly echoed Republican talking points — death panels and “endangering Medicare.” 

Though helpful, the stimulus that Obama managed to get through was inadequate. Democrats were hammered for three election cycles, and Obama was criticized during his entire presidency for “the slowest economic recovery” in the nation’s history.

The Republican strategy worked; delay, obstruct, and blame the president for lack of progress.

While as Obama’s VP, having been victimized by the Republican strategy, Biden was having none of it this time. When Republican counteroffers to his COVID-19 relief plan were clearly designed only to delay and obstruct, the Senate used the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill with their fifty Democratic votes and VP Harris to break the tie.

So why can’t they do this with Biden’s infrastructure bill? Because West Virginia’s Senator Manchin insists that there must be Republican support for the bill. Why not break the filibuster to pass the other bills that don’t affect the budget? Several senators, led by Manchin, don’t want to do that either.

Manchin insists that it is preferable to have Republican support. It is, but it’s clear they won’t get it. As frustrating Manchin’s as position is for Democrats, they know that without that Democrat from a very red state, it would be McConnell that would be leading the Senate.

As much as any state, West Virginia needs improved infrastructure, including the expanded version. Inexplicably, Manchin nevertheless opposes these bills without Republican support. He is working for it, and claims that he can get it — not likely. 

The only hope for any of Biden’s remaining program appears to be a modest “roads and bridges” infrastructure bill, without so much as an additional dime paid by corporations that would benefit from it.

Delay, obstruct, and blame the president for nothing getting done.  We have seen this show before.

— John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Saturdays in the Monroe Times.