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President Biden's first moves will include undoing Trump's legacy
Jon Lieber, Managing Director of the United States for the Eurasia Group, shares his insights on what to expect from President Biden's first 100 days:
It's Inauguration Day. And you can see behind me the Capitol Building with some of the security corridor set up that's preventing people like me from getting too close to the building, as Joe Biden gets sworn in as our 46th president. Historic day when you consider that you've got Kamala Harris, the first woman vice president, the first woman of color to be vice president.
So, what do we expect over the next 100 days? Well, Biden's got a lot on his plate. Putting together a COVID response, which is going to include some element of a coronavirus fiscal stimulus to make sure that the vaccine process gets going more smoothly and get more money in the pockets of Americans to avoid further economic dislocation. He also has to get a lot of his cabinet nominees confirmed, which is going to be not impossible to do in a 50-50 Senate, controlled by the Democrats. But it just could take some time to get things going, as inside the Senate, they are still trying to organize the rules to determine how they're going to come to a power sharing agreement.
The final piece of Biden's first 100 days is going to be undoing a lot of Trump's legacy. And that means a number of executive orders aimed at trade, aimed at immigration, aimed at the environment. You're going to see Biden reenter the Paris climate accord right away. And we're going to see a lot of Trump regulations that were done in the last, say, six months or so of his presidency be undone through something called the Congressional Review Act. So, that's going to take up a lot of time.
Probably by the middle of the year, Biden will have most of his personnel in place, he'll have done at least one big fiscal stimulus, and he'll be gearing up for longer term investments in both healthcare and energy infrastructure. So, stay tuned.
Biden's controversial Defense pick may need bipartisan support
Jon Lieber, Managing Director of the United States for the Eurasia Group, shares his insights on US politics this week:
First question. Why is Biden's nomination of Lloyd Austin for Secretary of Defense controversial?
It's controversial because Austin has not been out of the military for the required seven years that are needed, under the National Security Act of 1947, to ensure civilian control over the Department of Defense. As a result, he'll need a waiver from Congress in order to serve. This would be the second waiver that Congress has approved in the last four years with the first one coming for Trump's Secretary of Defense, General Jim Mattis. That was justified at the time because Congress was a little concerned about President Trump and really wanted somebody with a steady hand like Mattis on the till. But Biden has other options, including Michele Flournoy, who has a lot of supporters in Capitol Hill. And so, you're seeing some Democrats suggest they may not be willing to give a waiver this time. Austin may require a lot of Republican votes in order to get confirmed.
Second question. Any update with the new stimulus package?
I wish. This has been going on now for six months. There's been very little progress made. What seemed like a compromise of about a $900 billion stimulus where bipartisan members from both chambers of Congress rallied around that was then mostly embraced by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has been basically rejected by House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader McConnell, who are kind of circling around each other trying to get a deal right now and not coming to any conclusion. Time is running short. Congress is supposed to adjourn for Christmas on December 18th. They could potentially come back after Christmas to finish a deal if they don't have one in hand by then. But unemployment insurance starts running out at the end of the month and time's getting really short for Congress to act here.