The White House jettisoned months of planning from agency staff as their initial plan could fuel criticisms that the administration is pushing new spending programs too aggressively. The budget will not include President Biden’s campaign pledge to enact a public option to create a government-run health insurance program, or his pledge to cut prescription drug costs, the people said. ...The article also says that the proposed measure will not include measures to reduce prices on prescription drugs, an extremely popular measure on which Biden campaigned and which is part of his electoral mandate.
[With the expansion of health insurance in the Administration's American Families Plan that has already passed,] The number of uninsured Americans would drop by about 4.2 million people if these subsidies are made permanent, according to estimates by the Urban Institute, a centrist think tank.
But that measure falls short of the more expansive public option Biden touted as a centerpiece of his domestic policy platform during the presidential campaign. Biden’s campaign touted that plan as ensuring that 97 percent of Americans would have health insurance.
This article is obviously a trial balloon to see how willing the Democrats are to swallow these rollbacks of his campaign program. Cenk Uygur and the TYT crew make their own unapproving diagnosis of this White House signal in this segment, whose on-screen title is "Biden Budget Has Jack Squat for Progressives" 05/22/2021:
In addition to the items quoted from WaPo above, their list of disappointments include the following elements of Biden's own political program on which he campaigned:
- No cancellation of student loan debt (Biden had suggesting cancelling up to $50,000 of individual student debt)
- Increasing the estate tax on the wealthiest
- Lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 55
My own feeling is that at this point in late May, the Biden-Harris Administration is in "Obama-Biden" mode, holding legislative majorities in both Houses of Congress but stalling out on getting even their very popular proposals passed.
To the extent that the Democrats are seriously committed to passing constructive policies that benefit large numbers of people, they need to put some real pressure on their weakest links like Prime Minister Joe Manchin to eliminate the Senate filibuster rule and pass their programs. The Democratic Party also needs to rapidly build up local Democratic party structures and set up a very strong get-out-the-vote operation in 2022. And for various reasons - commitment to the rule of law, racial justice, partisan ambition - they have to get the "For the People" voting-rights act passed as quickly as they can.
One of the sad legacies of the Obama-Biden Administration is the excuse that "we'll have more bites at the apple" when postponing efforts to pass important legislation. That administration enjoyed control of both Houses for only its first two years. Obama as President was definitely Better Than Dick Cheney and Better Than Trump. But after eight years as President being repeatedly stymied by an intransigent Republican Party in Congress, Donald Trump became President with Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress.
And if Biden pulls a silly Third Way stunt like this, we can safely assume he's switched from FDR mode to Grover Cleveland mode, i.e., back to the Biden the Crime Bill Guy and Biden the Debt Collector Guy: As State of the Union Nears, Congress Plays Musical Chairs New York Times 01/22/2011.
A year later, even the pathetic Third Way ConservaDems who had advocated this were admitting that the stunt "didn’t exactly spark the results they hoped for during the rest of the year." But they proposed to do it again in 2012 anyway! (Allen McDuffee, State of the Union: Will Republicans and Democrats sit together? 01/23/2021)
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