Biden on its way to global summits, aims to pass the domestic agenda

President Joe Biden promised to show the world that democracies can work to meet the challenges of the 21st century. As he prepares to deliver this message at a few global summits, his case may depend on what is happening in Washington, where he is rushing to complete a major domestic legislative package.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden promised to show the world that democracies can work to meet the challenges of the 21st century. As he prepares to deliver this message at a few global summits, his case may depend on what is happening in Washington, where he is rushing to complete a major domestic legislative package.

On its way first to Rome and then to Glasgow, Scotland, Biden will be pressured to deliver concrete ideas to stop a global pandemic, increase economic growth and halt the acceleration of climate change. These efforts may seem a little high for a few two-day gatherings with the participation of the global elite and their surroundings. But it is written right into the slogan of the group of the 20th meeting in Rome: “People, Planet, Prosperity.”

Biden made East Room remarks on his domestic agenda on Thursday, casting legislation as a choice between “leading the world or letting the world pass us by,” before boarding Air Force One for the trip to Europe.

It was a reflection of his promise to bring American diplomacy in line with the interests of the middle class. This has tied any success abroad to his efforts to get Congress to advance his environmental, tax, infrastructure and social policies. It may be harder to get the world to commit to his stated goals if the Americans refuse to fully embrace them, one of the risks of Biden’s choice to consolidate its domestic and foreign policies.

Before leaving Washington, Biden slammed the House Democrats for standing behind a $ 1.75 trillion ‘scaled-down’ framework that he believes could pass the 50-50 Senate. It was still to be seen whether lawmakers would embrace the package or send Biden back to the negotiating table as some key priorities such as paid family leave and steps to lower the cost of prescription drugs were removed from the bill, which will be paid with increased taxes on the country’s richest and businesses .

“We are at a turning point,” Biden told lawmakers, according to a source familiar with his remarks. “The rest of the world is wondering if we can work.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked the trip as she tried to gather democratic votes around the $ 1 trillion separate infrastructure package, in an attempt to build support for a vote Thursday before Biden arrived in Rome.

“When the president gets off that plane, we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress,” she said. “For us to be successful, we must be successful today.”

Biden’s journey abroad comes as he faces an increasingly pessimistic nation at home and deteriorates his view of his handling of the nation’s economy. According to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 41% of Americans now approve of Biden’s financial management, down from 49% in August and a sharp turnaround since March, with 60% approving.

Overall, Americans are divided in Biden, with 48% approving and 51% rejecting his handling of his job as president. Only about a third of Americans say the country is heading in the right direction, also a marked drop since earlier in the year, when about half said so.

One consequence of Biden’s decision to link his domestic and foreign policies so closely is that both are now at the mercy of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, whose votes are crucial in a Senate equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. Biden aides have, among other things, hoped for an investment of more than $ 500 billion to combat climate change in the United States, which will help persuade China and other nations to make their own investments in renewable energy.

“It would be very, very positive to get it done before the trip,” Biden said Monday.

But as the talks continued, administration officials began to downplay the significance of Biden’s spending plan, which is still hovering in limbo instead of being locked down. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stressed that the president can still operate the phones from Rome, the city that gave birth to the word “Senate.” She suggested Wednesday that foreign leaders may look beyond ongoing talks in the back room with U.S. lawmakers to assess Biden’s commitment.

“They do not look at it through the prism of whether there is a vote in a body of the legislature before boarding a plane,” Psaki said.

To reach an agreement that has had a perilous journey so far, the president begins his journey abroad with an expert in the power of prayer. Biden, the country’s second Catholic president, will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday in a visit that is partly personal to the intensely religious commander-in-chief and partly political, especially around issues of climate and confrontation with autocracies.

Biden will also pay a visit to the Italian hosts of the G-20 summit before sitting down with French President Emmanuel Macron. Biden is trying to close a rift with France that was created when the United States and Britain agreed to supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, replacing a French contract in the process.

Biden is also expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who just a few days ago withdrew from threats to expel Western diplomats and whose purchase of Russian ground-to-air missiles has lifted his country’s participation in the F-35. the fighter program.

In these and other meetings, Biden is expected to address the Iranian nuclear threat and Iran’s announcement that it could return to talks in Vienna next month.

He is also set to continue pressuring wealthier U.S. allies to step up their commitments to share COVID-19 vaccines with lower- and middle-income countries. Some nations have been slow to deliver ambitious promises, and others have largely stayed on the sidelines. Biden will argue that the pandemic cannot end until vaccines are widely available, and that democracies cannot allow Chinese and Russian vaccine diplomacy – which often comes with strict ties – to take root globally.

Biden will have little interaction with the two most significant American rivals, as China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin only attend the summits because of the pandemic threat. These two leaders are critical of broader climate issues in a time of rising energy prices. China has pledged to increase coal mining ahead of the winter, while Russia’s natural gas reserves give the country some political power over parts of Europe.

In addition to the policies and personalities that will be prominent in Biden’s journey, the President will seek to argue for democracy itself, arguing that essential aspects – fair elections and representative government – are superior to autocracies in good times and bad. .

On his way to Scotland on Sunday night for the climate summit, Biden will lead a large US delegation, which he hopes will showcase the United States’ plans to address the threat of climate change. It is a sharp turnaround from former President Donald Trump that pulled the United States out of the Paris climate deal.

Biden is set to deliver an important speech on climate change and try to regain the mantle of American leadership. One of the main objections to moving away from oil and other fossil fuels has been cost, but the president has made the claim that nature is already demanding a price with extreme weather from climate change.

The president noted in a Monday speech in New Jersey that storms, floods, fires and other disasters exacerbated by climate change have already cost $ 100 billion this year.

“We want to address the root cause of ever-increasing extreme weather and devastation: the climate crisis – we have a climate crisis,” Biden said.

___

Miller reported from Rome. AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.