Biden’s Agenda

Generally, questions like “can you name even one Joe Biden policy proposal?” are not being asked in good faith — actually discussing the policies can easily lead to a transition to “but he doesn’t mean it” or whatever for people determined to root for Daddy Trump to own the libs from the “left.” But anyway for those interested this is a good deep dive into what he’s actually proposing:

That conflict between what the left wants and what Biden wouldn’t give them became the dominant narrative about him in the mainstream press. Biden was defined by the things he was against, rather than by the substantial overlap between his policy ideas and those of his progressive critics. Biden is a mainstream Democrat, and as the Democratic Party has grown broadly more progressive in recent years, he is now running on arguably the most progressive policy platform of any Democratic nominee in history.

It’s a detailed and aggressive agenda that includes doubling the minimum wage and tripling funding for schools with low-income students. He is proposing the most sweeping overhaul of immigration policy in a generation, the biggest pro-union push in three generations, and the most ambitious environmental agenda of all time.

If Democrats take back the Senate in the fall, Biden could make his agenda happen. A primary is about airing disagreements, but legislating is about building consensus. The Democratic Party largely agrees on a suite of big policy changes that would improve the lives of millions of Americans in meaningful ways. Biden has detailed, considered plans to put much of this agenda in place. But getting these plans done will be driven much more by the outcome of the congressional elections than his questioned ambition.

The point about labor is interesting, because that’s one area where Biden is likely to be better than Obama at making it a top legislative priority.

At any rate, the key point here is that how Democrats do in the Senate will do much more to determine what the legislative accomplishments of a Biden administration will look like. The difference between Prime Minister Sanders or Warren and Prime Minister Biden would be pretty substantial. The differences between them as presidents would be much less so.