How the White House plans to show its work

Over the next few weeks, President Biden and his administration will barnstorm the country — and internet — with events to educate and energize voters ahead of the midterms.

President Joe Biden watches from Kiawah Island in South Carolina as House Democrats pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which he will sign into law this week. Photo courtesy of Twitter/@POTUS

FIRST THINGS FIRST

For all the talk of Democrats in disarray, party leadership pulled off quite the legislative feat: In consecutive weeks, they got every member of the House and Senate to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, the $700 billion climate, health care and tax bill that the White House views as a down payment on President Joe Biden‘s broader economic agenda that perished last year.

President Biden will sign the bill into law tomorrow ahead of a celebration at the White House next month. And while August is known as silly season in American politics — when lawmakers are back home, presidents are on summer vacation and editors fill their news holes with all manner of piffle — the administration plans to flood the zone through next month with events aimed at shifting voter perceptions ahead of the midterms in November.

“There’s been an enormous frustration for years and decades among Americans that when it comes to Washington, special interests have always won and they have always lost,” a senior administration official said. “Under the president’s leadership, the tables have turned.”

Another official added that congressional Republicans will be forced to defend voting against popular provisions in the IRA like capping insulin at $35 for people with private insurance and the GOP’s statewide anti-abortion extremism after the Supreme Court in June overturned the federal right to abortion care.