Checks and Balance: Agenda bender
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2021
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In his first one hundred days Joe Biden looked ruthless, but his ambitious legislative agenda has since hit a wall. A series of crucial votes are expected in the coming month. Is gridlock inevitable?
Sarah Binder of George Washington University says Congressional logjam has become the norm. The Economist’s Lexington columnist James Astill profiles Krysten Sinema, the Senator who may yet break the deadlock.
John Prideaux hosts with Idrees Kahloon and Jon Fasman.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Harry Truman ran for re-election in 1948, complaining of a do-nothing Republican Congress. |
| 0:08.5 | The 80th Congress actually passed 388 laws, 44 more than the one that ended last year. |
| 0:15.3 | Sarah Binder of George Washington University has shown that the likelihood of congressional |
| 0:19.5 | deadlock on a given issue has doubled since Truman's time. |
| 0:23.7 | A do-nothing Congress is now the norm. |
| 0:27.7 | Michigan State University's Matt Grossman estimates nearly half of the most significant |
| 0:32.0 | domestic policy changes made since World War II came in a 15-year period, beginning in 1961. |
| 0:39.3 | Grossman attributes this hyperactivity to the long experience President Kennedy, Johnson |
| 0:43.6 | and Nixon had of working in Congress. |
| 0:46.4 | Before Joe Biden, the President selected after 1976 had served less than 80 years in Congress |
| 0:52.0 | combined. |
| 0:53.8 | Joe Biden alone spent 36 years in the Senate. |
| 0:57.4 | I don't know anybody who counts votes better than me, he's said. |
| 1:01.8 | But now his agenda also seems to be stalling. |
| 1:04.8 | Is this another do-nothing Congress? |
| 1:08.1 | This is Chex and Balanced. |
| 1:09.9 | I'm John Prado, the economist to U.S. editor and each week we take one big theme shaping |
| 1:18.4 | American politics and explore it in depth. |
| 1:24.0 | Today, it's Congressional gridlock inevitable. |
| 1:39.3 | In his first 100 days Joe Biden looked ruthless, but since then his ambitious legislative |
| 1:44.7 | agenda has hit a wall. |
| 1:47.6 | A series of crucial votes are expected in the coming month. |
... |
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