Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) had it exactly right when she explained that families in her district, and this translates throughout the county writ large, are concerned about inflation and keeping their kids in school and the cost of healthcare, specifically on the point of prescription drug prices. She also said that the administration and Democrats should focus on a few things and do those few things well. Under promise and over deliver, she said, which is something that we all strive for in our jobs. However, that doesn't work if you're a politician these days. Your entire existence revolves around over-promising and under-delivering.
President Biden has an overall approval of 43 percent, in which 'dismal' would be an understatement and 72 percent feel that the country is on the wrong track after his first year in office. Mr. Biden campaigned on bringing the country together and that simply hasn't panned out. The problem has been two pronged with Democrats trying to do too much at once and Republicans obstructing on any all legislation with the exception of tax cutting.
Senator Bernie Sanders described it correctly that 5 months of fruitlessly negotiating with two senators in back rooms was a waste of time. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) isn't going to be for any climate legislation (and 'no,' don't give him the pen to write the legislation) and as NBC's Kristen Welker stated, no one knows what Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is for (and 'no' she shouldn't have been censured).
Senator Sanders advocated for a strategy, as did Representative Slotkin, of putting smaller bills on the floor for a vote, and in the case of the Senate, it's more of an imperative given the Democrats' slim majority.
With an issue like Medicare being able to negotiate prescription drug prices so that Americans will pay less is a no brainer. Why doesn't it get done? Because it's always included in bigger bills with provisions that have no way of passing, hence sinking the entire bill.
Smaller wins to achieve incremental change is the course they're suggesting which makes complete sense but this is the United States of Attention Deficit Disorder and if we don't get it when we want there are bound to be some dissatisfied customers.
This brings us back to a bit of the 'why' as it pertains to President Biden's approval ratings. Chuck Todd explained that it was a coalition that elected Joe Biden and not the push from a large, passionate base. In electing Biden, it speaks to Americans' practical nature of government covering the basics moving the country forward. But in catering to and governing a coalition, it's inevitable that there will be over-promising and under-delivering because there are too many fragmented interests to placate everyone.
Politics is the art of compromise, but if politicians compromise one agenda for another in a coalition it will leave many dispirited and unenthused, which is what we're seeing now. "Shellacking" territory is where Mr. Todd put it in his mid-term tracking meter. We'll just say this to that, before everyone gets out their 5-gallon cans of varnish, there's a lot that can happen between now and November.
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As we stated last week, you want to see Democrats and Republicans united? If Russia incurs into, invades, strikes, attacks or vacations in Ukraine, it will cut to the quick and you'll see a unified response. And make no mistake Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was correct in saying that it will have larger implications for world order. If the Putin Regime is allowed to invade Ukraine without repercussions, what's to stop China from doing the same to Taiwan? The secretary was also correct that what ever Putin's intention, diplomacy has to be completely exhausted in a way to find a way to avoid bloodshed.
It seems unthinkable the prospect of a land war in Europe in the year 2022. Then again, an archduke was assassinated and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, from there...
Will it come to that? We certainly hope not and that hope lies within the fact that the fortunes of all countries are too intertwined that the ripple effect would be too great. That said, our eyes are wide open.
Panel: Symone Sanders, fmr. VP Chief of Staff; Kristen Welker, NBC News; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Carlos Carbello, fmr. Republican Congressman
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