The Biden bulldozer may have to slow down

TWENTY-FOUR hours is a lifetime in American politics, goes the saying in Washington. And there is no doubt that US President Joe Biden - who served for more than four decades in political office in Washington and who now approaches his first 100 days as president - would agree.

Indeed, only a few weeks ago, Democrats and friendly pundits were comparing the new White House occupant to president Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal plans, president Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society programme, and even to president Abraham Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation. Joe was going Big, they pronounced, creating rising expectations about his presidency.

After all, the new Democratic president has succeeded in passing an ambitious fiscal programme - the US$1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) in Congress, a huge legislative victory - that together with the US$3 trillion stimulus package approved last year, was expected to help eradicate the Covid-19 pandemic and start reviving the American economy.