Bill Clinton and Barack Obama-the two most recent Democratic presidents who faced new House Republican majorities after just two years in office-opened their addresses with warm words for the new Republican Speaker. (His showing among Independents was especially dismal-just 23% and 19%, respectively.)įinally, the president needed to make important decisions about his tone. The Economist/YouGov survey released at the end of January found that only 33% of the electorate approved of his handling of immigration and even fewer-30%-of his handling of crime. Biden had to decide, moreover, how to deal with issues-such as crime and immigration-on which the public has given him especially low marks. ![]() But would he open the door to negotiations in what he regards as the correct framework-crafting a budget for fiscal year 2024 and beyond? ![]() Everyone expected him to reject Republicans’ efforts to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to big cuts in government spending. The president had to choose between pleasing key constituencies pressing for expensive items such as a permanent child credit and responding to broad-based worries about the country’s fiscal course. This increase was bipartisan-17 points among Republicans, but also 15 points among Democrats. In the two years since he took the oath of office, according to a Pew Research Center survey released the day before his address, the share of Americans saying that deficit reduction should be a top priority surged by 15 points, from 42% to 57%. Biden also faced tension between ambitious new domestic policy proposals and rising public concerns about the budget deficit. Biden needed to talk about the many significant bills he had moved through Congress-without describing their effects so expansively as to undermine his credibility. The poll found that 62% of Americans think that the president has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” during the first two years of his presidency, compared to just 36% who say he has accomplished “a great deal” or a “good amount.” In a troubling sign, only 32% of Independents gave him credit for significant achievements. As Kamarck noted, a recent NBC poll found that 71% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track-a continuation of what the pollsters called an unprecedented level of “sustained pessimism.”Ī few days after her article appeared, a new ABC/Washington poll underscored Mr. ![]() First, as my colleague Elaine Kamarck has written, there is a tension between the story of accomplishment he wanted to tell and the public’s perception of how things are going. The president also faced several important obstacles. As President Biden stepped to the rostrum to deliver his address, he faced three key tasks: laying out a credible policy agenda for the 118 th Congress, integrating this agenda with his political strategy for winning reelection in 2024, and dispelling widespread public doubts about the impact of increasing age on his fitness for a second term.
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