BIDEN
MY TIME
For the first time in 10 years, Democrats have the
White House and Congress. So what’s next? BY HENRY HOUSTON
T
he last time Democrats had both
chambers of Congress and the
White House, Barack Obama had
overcome the odds and had been
elected the first Black president.
When Congressman Peter De-
Fazio recalls those two years of
Democratic Party control, he says
Obama made a mistake in econom-
ic recovery after listening “to that
jerk Larry Summers” when pushing for the Troubled
Assets Relief Package (TARP) legislation during the
Great Recession, which resulted tax cuts too small to
notice and minimal job creation.
Summers was President Bill Clinton’s treasury secre-
tary, and during Obama’s first year served as the director
of the National Economic Council.
DeFazio says TARP cost the party dearly in 2010. The
party lost the House and wouldn’t be in the majority
until 2018. The congressman says he remembers former
Congressman John Mica (R-Florida) telling him after the
2010 election that the Transportation and Infrastructure
committee chair would have been DeFazio’s if the
8
J A N U A R Y
2 1 ,
2 0 2 1
Democrats had done real infrastructure investment
and created real jobs during those two years. Eight years
later, DeFazio became the chair when Democrats took
the House.
After four years of the Trump administration, two
of which were dominated by a Republican Congress,
President Joe Biden and the Democrats have retaken the
White House and a slim majority on Capitol Hill. Biden’s
first days are crucial for setting the tone for the next four
years, because those early days could set the pace for his
presidency, says Chris Stout, an Oregon State University
associate professor of political science.
And two of Oregon’s federal delegation will be there
to help: DeFazio and Sen. Ron Wyden.
With help from the slim Democratic control in Con-
gress, Biden will work on COVID-19 relief legislation,
economic recovery bills that include investing in the U.S.’s
infrastructure, addressing voters’ rights and elections,
as well as Trump’s likely trial in the Senate.
The Democratic Party is in a different ideological place
compared to 2008, Stout says, in part because of Sen.
Bernie Sanders’ previous presidential campaigns and
Biden’s diverse cabinet picks. With this arsenal, Biden has
the opportunity to not to sign an easy legislative victory
like a COVID-19 relief bill but also push for progressive
policies.
To avoid a Republican midterm takeover in two years,
DeFazio says, Democrats have to strike right away, and
move quickly and aggressively to restore the middle class
and create new jobs, proving to the Americans who voted
for Trump that Democrats can create a strong economy.
In the upper house of Congress, Wyden has spent much
of the past four years criticizing the Trump administra-
tion and Republicans. His critiques include saying the
Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government
in July 2017; defending Portland Trail Blazers basketball
player Enes Kanter’s criticism of the Turkish government
in March 2019; and openly calling Trump “a clear and
present danger” to the U.S. and its democracy on Jan.
13 via Twitter.
Wyden is now the chair of the Senate Finance Com-
mittee and agrees with DeFazio that Congress has to
move strongly on the economy. And he says the Senate
can address both the COVID-19 ravaged economy and
convict former President Donald Trump of inciting the
insurrection in the U.S. Capitol at the same time.
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M