Newt Audio Update: Will Joe Biden have it Easy with Congress? Not so Fast

Tristan Justice wrote an interesting piece for the Federalist that looks at what President Joe Biden is going to have to work with in governance. Tristen points out that in the beginning of the Barack Obama administration, Democrats held a 79-vote majority in the House of Representative. Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi only has a 10-vote majority, which is a lot hard to work with. Over in the Senate, when President Obama was first elected, The Democrats had a 59 to 41 majority, which then became 60-40 with Arlen Spector switching parties. By contrast right now, Biden enters his initial term with a Senate even in party representation — and Vice President Kamala Harris making the difference. It seems to me that this vast difference in voting blocs give you a flavor for how much different an environment it will be for President Biden than President Obama. And remember, President Obama managed to govern sufficiently far to the left. So, at the end of the first two years Democrats lost voting control of the House. So, it’s a much more complicated environment than people are aware of, and despite the best efforts of the news media to convince us that there’s only one future, it will be much harder for President Biden to immediately pass one-sided legislation. I thought I’d just share that with you. I thought you might find it fascinating.

– Newt


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Transcript:

Tristan Justice in the Federalist wrote something really interesting that gives you a flavor of what President Biden’s positions like right now that he’s been inaugurated. Tristen points out that in the beginning of the Obama administration, they had a 79-vote majority in the House. Today it’s a 10-vote majority. In the Senate, The Democrats had a 59 to 41 majority and when Arlen Specter, the Republican in Pennsylvania switched, it became a 60-40 majority. By contrast right now, they are tied in the Senate with the vice-president of making the difference. It seems to me that those pieces of data give you a flavor for how much different the environment’s going to be for President Biden than it was at the beginning of President Obama’s term. And remember, President Obama managed to governance sufficiently far to the left that at the end of the first two years they lost the house. And there was a 63 seat pickup in the house by the Republicans and just overwhelming switch. So fascinating things going on here.
The other thing that I think is equally interesting is that apparently even by the various polls that are out there with all of the beating he’s taken in the media President Trump is leaving office with a higher approval rating than George W. Bush had when he left office. So it’s a much more complicated environment than people think. And despite the best efforts of the news media to convince us that there’s only one future. I thought I’d just share that with you. I thought it was fascinating.