The Weird Sleeper Issue Biden Is Betting on for His Re-Election

The Strange Sleeper Issue Biden Is Banking on for His Re-Election 

President Joe Biden's re-election campaign is not yet fully underway, Democratic strategists are already preparing his 2024 messaging, and they believe they have a strange sleeper issue that can transcend party lines.

Biden will undoubtedly find himself embroiled in culture wars. Additionally, if Donald Trump is chosen as the Republican candidate, he will naturally need to provide a counterweight to Trump's MAGA style of shock and awe politics. However, the White House is also of the opinion that Biden is capable of handling dull, partisan issues on which nearly all voters concur.

Enter "junk fees," the unexpected costs that customers face when they want to buy concert tickets online or check a bag on an airline.

Biden and the White House believe that those niggling fees, which many Republicans want to keep and most Democrats want to get rid of, could be a surprise winner.

Yes, many Democrats will vote for abortion. Naturally, many moderates continue to despise Trump. But fees for junk? Liberals are wagering conservatives will not have a smart response why they figure you ought to confront an unexpected expense when you need to, say, book a get-away.

Democrats believe that the issue can actually reveal the GOP's pro-corporate ideology—cutting into MAGA messaging that has persuaded many Americans that Trump and Republicans are looking out for them—in addition to just winning over voters by attempting to save consumers a few dollars.

Biden is vying for a government-wide strategy to combat junk fees, from Congress to agencies.

His allies claim that the fact that it is tangible despite being niche is intentional.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), in an interview with The Daily Beast, stated, "The genius of Joe Biden's presidency has been to deliver changes that people feel every day."

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"It's not only the right thing to do, but it's also politically smart. She stated, "to show people that government can be on the side of people, not just big businesses."

Warren cited the $35 insulin cap and the cancellation of student loans as examples of policy issues that Americans can immediately relate to.

"Furthermore, presently garbage expenses," she added.

The most recent stance taken by Biden regarding junk fees was not spontaneous. Companies like Ticketmaster and their junk fees were in the news after a widespread breakdown of ticket sales at the start of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. In his February State of the Union address, Biden criticized airlines' unexpected fees for things like paying to sit next to a loved one or pay for baggage. “To applause, he declared, "Americans are tired of being played for suckers."

 Democrats in both the House and Senate have concurrently introduced bills that support his push and claim to be making progress.

The sponsor of the Junk Fee Prevention Act, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), stated to The Daily Beast last week that addressing this issue "has more and more momentum given the president's statements and meetings."

He stated, "The idea that we ought to abolish junk fees is an idea whose time has come."

Blumenthal motioned there might be space for bipartisan help regarding this situation — which would be important in the Senate — and he is "having discussions with a great deal of responsiveness."

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee's co-founder Adam Green told The Daily Beast that Republicans might "join the call."

Green stated, "The White House is still focused on this issue, and groups like ours will be working with the president and Congress to highlight junk fees through a series of hyper-local events this summer."

Biden has expressed his gratitude to businesses that have already adopted his push. He highlighted businesses that are eliminating so-called "junk fees" at an event this month.

Businesses like LiveNation have agreed to begin upfront pricing since the effort, and Ticketmaster has announced that it will provide users with an option to see upfront pricing. In addition, no additional fees will be charged to sit next to a child on at least three major airlines. Additionally, a not-so-subtle pressure tool was developed by the Department of Transportation to identify businesses that provide that guarantee.

The initiative has also been the focus of the messaging from the White House and pro-Biden organizations like Build Back Together, an outside arm supporting the president.

The effort fits into the larger scheme of Biden's previous policy victories, such as the infrastructure bill, which included individual projects on roads and bridges across the country on which Americans could see active progress, and the inflation reduction act, which included clean-energy tax credits and other individual policies.

There is no guarantee that the strategy of avoiding GOP factionalism will work.

Biden is currently in a very good position to leave the GOP primary field to themselves. The crowd is too high. Biden's team is strategically avoiding two indictments against the party's leader, and conservatives are increasingly targeting Biden with half-hearted impeachment efforts and investigations into his administration.

Again, Biden is not shying away from the more significant issues, such as democracy and abortion. Both were mentioned in his announcement of re-election earlier this year. Biden also targeted "MAGA Republicans" in the midterm elections, focusing on issues like reproductive rights and democracy's future.

A different strategy, on the other hand, is to incorporate some of the minor details that could be overlooked in a crowded GOP primary.

However, Biden's potential rivals are still portraying some of those fundamentals as excessive.

For instance, in an interview with Fox News Radio, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) compared the president's effort to eliminate junk fees to socialism.

Scott remarked, "Having fee control, income control, and price control sounds more like socialism than free markets and capitalism, which led to the lowest level of poverty, frankly, in the history of our country just a few years ago."

The White House is confident that this is a partisan issue, and Republicans are taking a risk to protect corporate interests at their own peril by going out on a limb. Scott may want to spin it as socialism.

In Bidenworld, the bread-and-butter strategy is currently all gravy.

Jim Kessler, leader VP at the moderate-Popularity based think tank Third Way, let The Day to day Monster know there's an undeniable system in going for buyer issues. In addition, the right combination of specific issues can have a greater impact than a few broad ideas, even though the issue may be minor in comparison to some of the grand schemes that Republican candidates will promise in 2024.

Doing things as a political leader that go beyond political partisanship and ideology is valuable. Additionally, you can do a lot of things that are very focused on the customer. Additionally, you represent the common person, "Kessler stated.

He continued, "Obviously it is not the sole strategy." It's one of his driving lanes.