Joe Biden: Invisible but Still Here

By soupstock @Adobe Stock

A Five-Month Long Keg Party

Kimberley Strassel points out something you might not know. President Joe Biden is still in the White House, with 5-1/2 months to go.

It would be foolish, argues Ms. Strassel in the WSJ, for Republicans “to overlook Biden’s agenda and substantial power to gild Kamala Harris’s path to the White House.”

Not that Mr. Biden will be giving many speeches on her behalf. His gifts will be transactional, the buying of constituencies.

The latest example: Mr. Biden’s embrace this week of the most destructive assault on the Supreme Court since FDR’s court-packing scheme. Ms. Harris quickly signed on to Mr. Biden’s call for term limits and an “enforceable” ethics code, winning applause from progressive activists.

Unable to campaign on an inflation-ridden economy, a chaotic border, persistent crime or a disordered world—the Biden administration has a fallback strategy: Hand out dishes of red meat to core constituencies, writes Ms. Strassel.

What was already a polished Biden re-election plan is now a gift to Kamala—and may even be worth more than his campaign-dollar war chest. The administration is throwing open its toolbox of policy promises, handouts, regulatory crackdowns and “walking around” money to earn chits, gratitude and ultimately votes.

Remember the furor when Mr. Trump’s name showed up on those election-year Covid checks? That’s infant’s play.

Policies to Conquer 

The Biden/Harris administration’s next step is its sweeping student-loan giveaway, with guidance emailed to millions of debtors to skate out of billions, continues KS.

The week before Mr. Biden’s withdrawal, his team rolled out a radical plan for nationwide rent control—threatening to strip landlords of tax breaks if they don’t cap rent increases. It’s a lure to millions of American voters struggling with mortgage and rent escalations.

Wednesday brought news that military prosecutors agreed to a plea deal of life imprisonment for three odious 9/11 terrorists, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the move “revolting,” yet the deal elicited cheers from the American Civil Liberties Union and other left-wing groups anxious to deny a future President Trump the ability to pursue the death penalty and for Mr. Biden to comply with their demand that he shut down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Joe Biden’s Gifts to America

Continuing financial gifts and federally funded campaign reminders:

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued $2.2 billion to 43,000 “farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination prior to January 2021”—part of an Inflation Reduction Act program.
• Federal departments in recent weeks larded out millions in new grants for women’s health, state climate programs, tribal fisheries, youth “skills” development, and other core Democratic demographics.
• Thousands of signs across America remind drivers the road project they are witnessing was “funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

Joe Biden’s Legacy Party

Regulators won’t be excluded from the Joe Biden keg party:

• Big Labor is getting new “worker heat-protection” rules and new prevailing-wage requirements for clean-energy projects.
• Big Green is getting chemical and air-toxin crackdowns, a new regulatory regime for national wildlife refuges, tougher offshore drilling rules, and another round of onerous efficiency standards on commercial equipment and residential boilers.
• Consumer advocates and tort lawyers are getting the latest crackdown on “junk fees” and even a possible Federal Trade Commission war against alcohol pricing.

Politics: a Blood Sport

Kamala Harris, substituting for Joe Biden, has given new life to Democrats, almost matching Donald Trump’s MAGA enthusiasm, continues Ms. Strassel:

… these White House gifts and promises are designed to smooth over cracks in the base and to tantalize activists and donors with a reminder of how beautiful another eight years of Democratic governance would be.

Basement Pandering vs Political Malpractice

By continuing to ignore the Democrat’s gifting, Republicans are committing political malpractice. Democrats are looking for Joe Biden’s unpopular agenda and the latest expressions of far-left pandering to recede to an afterthought. That’s exactly the left’s plan from now until November, warns KS:

Ensure the general public never again claps eyes on the failing octogenarian, even as he works behind the scenes to ensure key voting groups feel the thrill of progressive power. That’s how the media is getting away with presenting Ms. Harris as a fresh-faced future, rather than as an avatar of a presidential agenda that remains 15 points underwater with voters.

… the whole of the GOP needs to be engaged in a whole-of-election message reminding Americans of the ugly Biden policies of past and present, and Kamala’s promise to carry them into the future.