McManus: Promise to ‘finish the job’

Last month, I wrote about what Trump has promised to do if he retakes the White House — a list that includes deporting millions of immigrants without legal status, reversing efforts to slow climate change and repealing the federal health insurance program known as Obamacare.

So I figure I owe readers a column about the promises Biden is making: What does he hope to deliver if he wins a second term?

Part of the answer is unsurprising. In a second term, Biden says, he wants to “finish the job” — to implement the economic and environmental programs he got through Congress in his first term and then try to pass several more.

In a second term, Biden says, he would raise taxes on corporations and high-income earners, meaning anyone making more than $400,000 a year. He says he would use some of the new revenue to reduce the federal deficit and the rest to fund a long list of programs.

“Imagine a future with affordable child care, paid leave, home care, elder care and more, like every major country in the world has,” he said in Pennsylvania.

That big-government vision drew praise from progressives. It may hold less appeal for fiscally conservative independents and moderate Republicans, voters Biden is trying to woo into a broad anti-Trump coalition. Even for progressives, those proposals should come with a warning label: A second-term Biden would find it difficult to get them through Congress unless Democrats win solid majorities in both the House and Senate, an outcome that looks unlikely.

The president’s campaign pitch includes other priorities that may appeal to broader audiences. One is abortion rights. “In our view, this is the most defining issue of the election,” a Biden campaign aide told me.

But codifying Roe v. Wade in federal law is another promise that is easier said than done. To pass such a law would require at least 60 votes in the Senate or a decision to suspend the filibuster rule.

A third pillar of Biden’s campaign should be easier to deliver if he wins: his promise to protect the nation’s democratic institutions from Trump, who has said he would order the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents if he returns to the White House.

“Democracy is on the ballot,” Biden says frequently, warning that when Trump muses about ruling as a dictator, “he means it.” Anti-Trump voters who don’t love the rest of Biden’s program should vote for him, the president suggests, “not because I’m running … but because of the opposite. What happens if we lose this election?”

The president’s campaign strategists say they hope those themes can persuade voters to put aside disappointment with Biden’s economic record, especially his failure to bring high prices under control, and focus on their misgivings about Trump.

“A lot of the campaign, at this point, is making sure voters understand the choice they face — that one of two people on the ballot will actually be president next year,” the Biden aide said.

And they argue that their strategy is beginning to work.

“The momentum is clearly in our favor,” Biden said in Tampa, Fla. “People are beginning to listen.”

But that optimistic forecast should come with a caveat. A presidential election is won by electoral votes, not popular votes — and Biden is running behind in most of the six to eight “swing states” that will decide that contest.

Biden has offered an unabashedly progressive vision for how he would govern in a second term. But he’s still a long way from winning four more years in the White House.