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Republicans Can Deliver a Knockout to Wobbly Biden – Will They?

Steve Cortez

August 9, 2021

Joe Biden is teetering in the corner. His popularity is careening downward due to the concurrent major crises he created: the border disaster and the inflation spike. Recognizing the data on this trend, amidst all the backroom machinations of the so-called infrastructure package, if the Republicans on Capitol Hill can steel themselves and see the opportunity, they can deliver a devastating knockout to Joe Biden.

Just how bad is Biden’s approval trend? Consider that his overall approval, per CNBC survey, has cratered a stunning 14 percent over the last six months, from 62 percent positive in February to only 48 percent. Given his rather stunning polling weakness on key issues, expect that overall approval to continue to slide, and likely test 40 percent to the downside this year.

On the most important issue of all, the economy, Biden’s gargantuan borrow and spend agenda sends consumer prices soaring to three decade highs, as reflected by the latest core Personal Consumption Expenditure numbers, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. This surge puts consumers in a very foul mood. CNBC also reports that only 22 percent of Americans are presently positive on the economy and optimistic on the future. Only 22 percent, that’s pathetic!

Conversely, 51 percent are negative on the present and future economy, the highest pessimism read in that poll since 2015… not coincidentally, the last time Biden worked in the White House.

Outside of the economy, Biden’s numbers similarly slide on hot-button issues. For example, the recent ABC/Ipsos poll found his approval on the issue of crime plunged to just 35 percent. On immigration, he registers just 37 percent affirmation.

This torrent of weak numbers reveals a hobbled politician, and one without the kind of hyper-loyal base his predecessor enjoyed. There are literally almost no hardcore Joe Biden partisans. Given this reality, why on Earth would the Senate GOP let this wobbly fighter escape from this corner? If the GOP can find a backbone and strike with swiftness and precision, it would effectively end Biden era and put the Republican Party on a solid trajectory toward America First electoral tidal waves in both 2022 for the Congress and then 2024 for the White House.

The 45th President see the situation clearly.

Over the weekend, Donald J. Trump sent out a scathing rebuke of the boondoggle infrastructure package and the enabling GOP ineptness. He wrote “Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is a disgrace. If Mitch McConnell was smart, which we’ve seen no evidence of, he would use the debt ceiling card to negotiate a good infrastructure package.”

A thousand times yes to this very strategy which I outlined right before the prior debt ceiling expired on August 1. As I proposed, a resolute GOP could “apply a fiscal tourniquet” to stop the borrow-and-spend profligacy that’s fueling inflation unseen since the 1970’s. But, “the clock is ticking. The window is closing. Will the GOP show the wisdom and the huevos to use the debt ceiling as a lever to stop the madness?”

So far, the signs from squish Republican senators are hardly encouraging.

For example, the always-disappointing Lindsey Graham hailed Saturday’s session as a “big day for bipartisan infrastructure.” Even if this bill focused on hard infrastructure spending – which it surely does not – then Graham and 16 other GOP Senators would still be fools to support it, knowing full well that it remains conjoined as the evil twin to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation monster that will be passed and signed as a two-for-one. Pelosi has made that coupling crystal clear, so a vote for one in the Senate is de facto a vote for both.