Politics / December 16, 2024
Biden’s Final Monkey Wrenches
His goal is to sabotage Trump’s ability to see his policy agenda implemented.
In the dying days of Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration has made it its mission to do everything possible to frustrate Donald Trump’s ability to implement his policy agenda when he arrives in the Oval Office next month.
Unlike in 2016, when Barack Obama’s outgoing administration brazenly labeled Trump as illegitimate and promised resistance to his incoming administration, there is almost a resigned, defeated calm in Washington after Trump’s resounding victory in November. Democrats who threw everything they could at Trump and Republicans, smearing them as threats to democracy, have found that a majority of Americans have stopped listening and have rejected their foolishness.
So, will they simply go quietly into the night, accepting the fact that Trump’s in charge now? No; these are the Democrats we’re talking about.
A White House memo from Chief of Staff Jeff Zients states that the administration will “sprint to the finish line and get as much done as possible for the American people.”
Trump has announced the new Department of Government Efficiency, co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, promising to use it to cull the size of Washington’s bureaucratic state. Predictably, Big Government Biden wants to stymie this effort. For example, since working from home is all the rage in Washington these days, his administration finalized a contract with the American Federation of Government Employees union to ensure that the 42,000 employees of the Social Security Administration can telework instead of returning to the office.
When it comes to one of Trump’s top policy issues — tackling illegal immigration and securing the southern border — the Biden administration has acted in underhanded ways to frustrate progress here as well.
During Trump’s first term, he worked to get as much of the border wall built as he could, having to work against the constant efforts of congressional Democrats to prevent him from doing so. When he left office, some 400 miles of the border wall had been built, with materials already acquired for continuing that construction. Upon taking office, Biden immediately stopped those construction efforts, and now, with mere weeks remaining in his presidency, his administration is rushing to auction off that massive amount of border wall construction material before Trump takes office.
As one border patrol agent explained, “They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points. The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.” This is not only a massive waste of taxpayer money, but it’s also intended to slow down Trump’s border wall construction efforts severely, protracting the process as long as possible.
Biden is also spending as much money as he can on his green energy boondoggle before he leaves while working to limit Trump’s ability to reverse his anti-fossil fuel energy agenda. Trump has threatened to repeal Biden’s infamously named Inflation Reduction Act, specifically targeting wasteful green energy spending.
When it comes to hampering fossil fuel development, the Biden administration is bending the rules regarding congressionally mandated fossil fuel exploration leases within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). That doesn’t make Alaska’s Republicans happy. “These leases should be executed in good faith along the established historical processes,” Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy stated. “Obviously, the Biden administration in the past four years has just been brutal on Alaska. And, you know, they’re in the twilight of their term here. But nonetheless, they’re going to continue to double-down on denying Alaska opportunities, denying our people opportunities, denying America the opportunity to potentially get some more oil [exploration] going to the future.”
Even Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski charged, “It’s a fitting finale for an administration that has routinely allowed Iran, Venezuela, and other adversaries to produce their resources, regardless of the consequences, while attempting to shut everything down in Alaska.”
As for the judiciary, Senate Democrats have run a full press campaign to allow Biden to appoint as many judges as possible before his term ends. Republicans have been able to slow this effort down somewhat, but Biden will end his term having installed more federal judges than Trump did in his first term.
Fortunately, Biden was prevented from being able to install his choice to head the National Labor Relations Board. Lauren McFerran will not take the seat, thanks to former Democrat Senators Joe Manchin
