After a political tussle lasting months, President Joe Biden has finally surrendered against Republicans as the Senate finally voted to advance a landmark but heavily compromised infrastructure bill.
If passed from Congress, the plan will be the biggest federal money investment in the public sector.
As 17 Republicans teamed up with Democrats to advance the legislation with a 67-32 vote, Biden called the Democrats’ failure of passing the original deal a bipartisanship win, reaffirming his support for compromise in Congress.
It is a time for Democrats to rely on data and embrace the services of data scientists like David Shor, who could give them advice in crucial times like these to avoid this much political conflict.
Relying on data-driven politics can save Biden time and energy, as a data scientist can make him see patterns that others cannot.
Infrastructure Bill and Biden: President is Labeling Democrats Failure a Bipartisanship Win
As the Senate gathered to vote in favor of the infrastructure bill worth $1 trillion, the Democrats are the actual losers, as they have compromised on their most important measures to cut down the overall cost of the bill.
The compromised bill contains $550 billion in new spending.
The provisions on which Democrats compromised include an investment dip in the climate change sector, including the electric car charging stations.
The climate change investment always remained a bone of contention between Republicans and Democrats, and part of the problem lies in Republicans’ belief that society would better be sustained without energy investment, a claim which they sponsored when Texas went black amid electricity shut down earlier this year.
Another Democrats’ failure includes their motivation to tax wealthy people, as Republicans have finally convinced Democrats to find alternate avenues to fund the investment.
President Biden hailed the move a win for bipartisanship, endorsing his vision of making compromises at crucial times.
These bipartisan talks were running in parallel when Republicans denied collaborating with Democrats in making a bipartisan commission to scrutinize the former President Donald Trump for his alleged involvement in the capital siege, which forced Democrats to construct a committee on their own.
When Republicans showed no intention of pursuing bipartisanship in the avenues of the national interests, Biden’s habit surrendered him in front of Trump’s men after heated bipartisanship talks.
Data Scientists Like David Shor Will Win the Day for Democrats
Democrats need to team up with data scientists to take effective and timely actions.
When Biden outlined the original infrastructure plan earlier this year, he had two options, to pass it through reconciliation or pursue bipartisanship. The ruling party preferred the latter one to incorporate maximum voices in the legislation.
Had Democrats used the services of a data scientist like David Shor, he would have better constructed the bill at the earlier stages, seeing the Republicans’ views about public spending.
Even if not going the route of reconciliation was the utmost priority of Democrats from day one, the accurate data prediction models would have helped them in allocating money to the correct projects that would have been difficult for Republicans to oppose.
Proper data science and predictive analytics studies would have incorporated Republicans’ concerns beforehand, seeing their patterns over the years.
This strategy of incorporating big data and economics would have saved the Democrats all the time that they wasted dealing with the rigid Republicans, not to mention the shame it brought to the Democratic ranks.
A data scientist would have told Democrats that Republicans often campaigned against them for sponsoring socialism, so they would never agree to a tax hike.
In fact, Republicans built their campaign on this issue, so a professional like Shor would have warned Democrats not to put these provisions if they want to pursue bipartisanship.
Biden has a habit of rejecting the advice at the earlier stages only to bite the dust later on. The same trend was seen when he rejected vaccine disinformation campaigns, just to see the problem later on.
Final Thoughts
Republicans these days are in a position to pressurize Democrats on whichever matter they want, as they see the persisting trend of Biden coming to them for bipartisanship.
If the business goes as usual, Democrats will lose their all-important White House term while making their own bids vulnerable for the mid-term elections.
Democrats need to know that they won a significant chunk of anti-Trump voters in the 2020 elections, which would not be the case in the midterm and the 2024 presidential race.
So, they need to act assertively by not always running for bipartisanship solutions and relying on data to make critical decisions.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.