(Washington) This week, Joe Biden recovered from COVID-19 and garnered crucial support for his projects in Congress. And the American president, who really needed this good news, does not intend to let fears around a recession affect this rare alignment of the planets.
Posted at 4:00 p.m.
When the 79-year-old Democrat tested positive for coronavirus last week, the news was added to a series of misfortunes: inflation at its highest in 40 years, approval ratings at their lowest and a parliamentary majority. so narrow that it seemed impossible to materialize the ambitious projects of the Head of State.
But now on Wednesday, Joe Biden was officially declared free of COVID-19 by his doctor and emerged from his isolation to be cheered by White House staff in the “Rose Garden” of the presidential residence.
“Now I can go back to the Oval Office,” Biden rejoiced to applause.
In addition to getting rid of the virus, the president learned that day that the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans are tied and hardly ever cooperate, had passed a bill providing $ 52 billion to restart production semiconductors in the United States.
This text – approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday, giving the president another legislative victory – provides for the creation of thousands of highly skilled jobs and will help reduce the United States’ dependence on factories mainly located in Asia. .
The law aligns perfectly with one of Joe Biden’s top priorities, as he aims to restore the kind of state-supported research and development that he believes will determine whether the United States is able to remain competitive in the face of global warming. China.
” Right path ”
On Wednesday, another surprise was announced: the unpredictable senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat whose vote is crucial for his camp, had decided to support a text of legislation allocating 369 billion dollars to green energy projects and initiatives for the climate, and $64 billion for health spending at the state level.
Not only did Joe Manchin ultimately choose to support the project, but he also shrewdly announced his decision only after Republicans were tricked into voting for the semiconductor bill – which some of them didn’t. never would have done had they known the Democrats were about to pass a second, much larger round of spending.
Mr. Biden, although weighed down by an approval rating of less than 40%, therefore judges that his famous optimism will eventually prevail.
“I know sometimes it seems like nothing is happening in Washington,” he said Thursday.
Politics “can be slow, frustrating and sometimes even infuriating”, he added, but “the hours, days and months of hard work of people who refused to give up eventually pay off”.
And the president does not want the possibility of a recession, which hovers over the American economy, to spoil the relative celebration.
As statistics showed the US economy contracting for a second straight quarter, Mr Biden argued that his country was not truly in recession, and his team was scrambling to ensure that the term was not at the heart of all conversations.
“The way we see things is that we are not currently in a recession or a pre-recession,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
And Mr. Biden assures him: “We are on the right path”.
“There’s going to be a lot of talk today on Wall Street and among pundits about whether we’re in a recession. But if you look at our labor market, consumer spending, business investment, we see signs of economic progress,” he said.