Biden's agenda faces a divided Congress

President-elect Joe Biden really wants to “restore the soul of America.” First, he'll need to fix a broken and divided Congress.

Biden is rushing headlong into a legislative branch ground down by partisanship, name-calling and, now, a refusal by some to acknowledge his make an impression on President Donald Trump.

Democratic allies, struggling to regroup after their own election losses, harbor deep divisions between progressive and moderate voices. Republicans, rather than graciously congratulating the incoming president, happen to be, intentionally or not, delegitimizing Biden’s presidency while catering to Trump's refusal to simply accept the election results.

At the same time when the country requires a functioning government most likely as part of your to confront the crises of COVID-19, a teetering economy and racial injustice, Washington is being challenged by the president-elect to accomplish better than it has.

It’s going to be considered a hard opening.

"The country utilized to want gridlock because they saw gridlock as a way to protect them. Now the country’s actually hungry to use it and progress,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. "That’s a mandate to flip the switch.”

The idea of a Biden mandate, though, is relative, certainly embraced by Democrats who would like to push ahead with his agenda. Emboldened Republicans, though, who didn’t lose an individual House seat, however in fact extended their ranks and brushed back many Senate Democratic challengers, find their own mandate to serve as a block on a Biden agenda.

California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House's Republican leader, said the election “was a mandate against socialism," upgrading the relentless GOP attacks, despite the fact that Biden is normally a centrist Democrat.

Biden involves the presidency like few found in recent history, with a rare mixture of experience but also a potentially divided Congress.

Not since President George H.W. Bush has the White House got an executive with such a deep Washington resume. Rarely in modern times has a Democrat began an administration without a full Democratic Congress. As the House is normally in Democratic hands, the Senate is always undecided, a 50-48 lead for Republicans heading right into a Jan. 5 runoff for just two seats in Georgia that may determine party control.

Asked this past week how he'll be able to use Republicans if indeed they aren't acknowledging his success, Biden said, “They'll."

What Biden is presenting is a fresh normal in Washington that he said voters demanded from the election. "If we can decide never to cooperate, then we are able to opt to cooperate,” he explained at his election victory speech.

Much has been manufactured from Biden's relationship with Capitol Hill, where he served simply because a senator for 36 years, particularly his deal-making as Barack Obama's vice president with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Yet McConnell hasn't revived that approach mainly because he enables Trump to explore a good legal battle rooted in unfounded allegations of voter fraud, even while state officials say the elections ran smoothly and there is no widespread evidence of fraudulent voting. McConnell won his own reelection in Kentucky.

Whether McConnell emerges in the new Congress seeing that majority or perhaps minority leader with a good narrowly divided Senate, the longest serving Republican leader ever sold could have great leverage over legislation that arrives in Biden's desk.

Biden could seek a good repeat of Newt Gingrich's era when the Republican House speaker served up legislative victories for President Bill Clinton, infuriating Democrats with conservative budget and welfare bills but helping Clinton win another term.

Or Biden may find McConnell rerunning his politically charged GOP blockade of Obama's agenda. Hopes of overcoming McConnell by ending the Senate filibuster, which would allow bills to advance on a simple majority instead of a 60-vote threshold, happen to be slipping out of reach without Democratic control.

“Gingrich insisted the American people wanted it,” said Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich top aide who left the Republican Party on the Trump era. He said McConnell will move on Biden's agenda when Biden gets the nation behind him.

“That’s how you carry out it. Let's observe if Biden can do it,” he said.

But it's not simply McConnell. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of NY and even McCarthy could have oversize roles as a result of the changed cosmetic of the brand new Congress.

Biden faces a restive liberal flank, powered simply by a fresh generation of high-profile progressives incorporating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., They helped deliver his success and may well not be so wanting to compromise over healthcare, climate modification, income inequality and racial justice issues which have growing popular support.

As well, while Pelosi and Schumer have long histories with Biden, McCarthy is close to Trump, who is likely to hold much influence on Republicans actually after he leaves office. With a slimmer majority in the House, McCarthy's capability to wrangle votes suddenly matters.

“They are able to, but will they?” explained Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide and executive vice president at the center-kept Third Way think tank.

"This is a real veteran group of people. They know getting things carried out. They discover how to give up things from getting performed."

An early test for Biden is definitely the Cabinet nominations, that can be approved by a slim 51 votes in the Senate.

Republicans can also block nominees with time-consuming procedural hurdles that could quickly stall the brand new administration if top positions head out unfilled. Democrats have as much to Trump, in a few ways as payback after McConnell blocked Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

“I wonder there’s a likelihood that Mitch McConnell will Merrick Garland each and every Cabinet nominee and can force Joe Biden to negotiate on every one,” explained Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

“Trump is still going to be functioning the Republican Party. Therefore, the truth is, Joe Biden may need to negotiate every Cabinet pick with Donald Trump.”