Washington | Joe Biden goes on the ground Wednesday to praise his great infrastructure law, painfully passed a few days ago, and which he still has to reap the fruits of on the political level at a time when his confidence rating is sinking.
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The American president chose Baltimore, a port city less than an hour’s drive from Washington, to explain why and how the United States will spend $ 1,200 billion on infrastructure.
Monday evening, in an interview on local television in Cincinnati (Ohio, northeast), the Democrat assured that it was “a matter of weeks” before the effects of this large investment plan, voted by forceps on Friday in the House of Representatives, do not make themselves felt.
He spoke on Saturday of “two to three months” before the start of construction sites in the Internet networks, but also roads, bridges, drinking water pipes, terminals for electric cars …
The stake, for the Democratic president, is that this enormous program begins to produce effects, at least political, before the legislative elections of mid-term, in a year.
This ballot, traditionally complicated for those in power, could well cost the Democrats their slim parliamentary majority.
In the meantime, all of Joe Biden’s ministers are rising to the front, and the president tries to mobilize the local elected officials of his party to ensure the after-sales service of these gigantic expenses, popular in principle but whose details remain obscure for the general public, especially after weeks of complicated parliamentary negotiations.
Another battle is shaping up in Congress on the second part of economic and social reforms wanted by Joe Biden, less concrete and perhaps even more difficult to explain: $ 1,750 billion intended to lower the cost of childcare children, pre-school education and health for the middle class.
” Tell a story “
After Baltimore, the president “will continue to do more” on the ground, assured Tuesday the deputy spokesperson of the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre.
Joe Biden certainly has in mind the experience of Barack Obama, of which he was the vice-president.
The latter had launched a stimulus plan in 2009, of nearly 800 billion dollars, with economically contrasting and politically disastrous results – the Republican opposition had recorded a strong surge in the following mid-term elections.
Barack Obama had subsequently estimated that his mistake was to forget that, beyond decisions, the president must also “tell the Americans a story which gives them a feeling of unity, a goal, of optimism.” “”
What Joe Biden is therefore forced to do, who is also surrounded in the White House by former senior officials of the Obama administration.
The President of the United States said on Saturday that he was convinced that “in 50 years, people will look back and say” This is the moment (…) when America decided to win the competition of XX1st century “”, in the face of China and climate change.
Right now, that’s another matter. Americans are most concerned about skyrocketing gasoline prices, supply issues, and a pandemic that has yet to be overcome.
Joe Biden’s trust score on Tuesday was 42.8% according to the FiveThirtyEight site, which is a synthesis of various polls. At the same stage of their terms, only two presidents in recent US history have scored worse, according to the same source: Gerald Ford, at 38.4% in November 1974, and Donald Trump, at 37, 9% in November 2017.