Two 70-year-olds fighting for Capitol Hill: US politics about to get dirty again
One day before midterm elections that could usher in a new era of divided government in Washington DC, US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump will hold competing rallies in a final effort to mobilise supporters.
Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and his wife Rebecca speak with talk show host John Fredericks next to Fredericks' bus with an image of former President Donald Trump before the start of a campaign event at Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Newtown, Pa., Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Biden, whose sagging popularity has made him unpopular in several swing states, will travel to reliably Democratic Maryland on Monday, where the Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore is widely expected to win back the Republican-held governorship.
Trump, meanwhile, is headed to Ohio to campaign alongside the Republican Senate nominee, JD Vance, who emerged from a crowded field of candidates on the strength of Trump’s endorsement.
Weighed down by voter frustrations over rising prices, Biden’s Democrats fear they could lose control of one or both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s elections.
That would spell the end of Biden’s legislative agenda – including Democratic priorities such as abortion rights, family leave and climate change – and open the door for two years of Republican-led investigations that could potentially damage the White House.
A Republican-led Senate could also block Biden’s nominations for judicial or administrative posts.
Billionaire Elon Musk, whose purchase of Twitter has Democrats worried that it could unleash a wave of disinformation, tweeted on Monday that “independent-minded voters” should vote for a Republican Congress “because shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties”.
If Republicans secure a House majority, they plan to use the federal debt ceiling as leverage to demand that Biden accept deep spending cuts.
The US Treasury is expected to hit its $US31.4 trillion ($A48.5 trillion) borrowing limit in 2023 and any protracted stalemate that risks a default on the US government’s debt could roil financial markets.
A Republican Congress would also seek to make the 2017 individual tax cuts passed under Trump permanent.
That law slashed top-line tax rates on corporations, a permanent feature that Democrats failed to reverse with control of Congress over the last two years.
Control of Capitol Hill would give Republicans the power to block aid to Ukraine but they are more likely to slow or pare back the flow of weapons and economic assistance to the country than stop it.
