The week in Bidenomics: a return to normalcy

Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman gives us the score in this week in Bidenomics.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: All right, sound the sirens. We're almost at the weekend, but before we get there, we're going to bring in Rick Newman to talk about "The Week in Bidenomics," and let's just all say thank you, Lord. Normal is back.

RICK NEWMAN: We're getting there. We're getting closer, anyway. I watched the first Biden press conference yesterday, Adam, and I was listening for what Biden had to say on the economy. And guess what? No reporters asked him about the economy, as if the economic situation is no longer newsworthy. They wanted to know about the migrant situation at the southern border, the filibuster in the Senate. Is Biden going to run for a second term in 2024.

And I think that reflects the fact that we are actually kind of getting back to normal. We know we have a long way to go with vaccinations, and we still have people getting sick and dying from COVID, but we are also starting to see a turn in the economic numbers. We saw a big improvement this week in initial unemployment claims. Many economists think we're going to start seeing some really impressive job gains in March, April, and May. Banks are saying, they're noticing that spending is way up on credit cards. Consumer confidence today jumped to an eight-year high.

So it does seem that we are getting closer to something that might feel like normal, especially since it now looks like most adult Americans might be vaccinated by the beginning of the summer.

- Rick, talking about those vaccinations, we heard that new goal out from President Biden yesterday now is aiming for 200 million shots during his first 100 days, obviously double, than what he was initially going for. What do you make of that? And I guess clearly, that's a big win for Biden during his first 100 days.

RICK NEWMAN: I think Biden snuck us a Mickey on this a little bit. What we now know is that it's probable that we were going to hit that pace of vaccinations, 200 million shots, by Biden's 100th day no matter what. I think what Biden is doing is under promising and over delivering. I think he deliberately set a low bar for success so that there'd be a good chance that he would be able to say he met the target ahead of time, and now he's raising the target.

Nonetheless, look, 200 million shots by his 100th day, that's good news. I mean that is what it's going to take to get back to normal. So I think Biden, he's framing it to his advantage, and I think the press is giving him a pass on this one so far.

ADAM SHAPIRO: He kind of or did he not, throw down the gauntlet when it comes to the filibuster? He didn't want to release the strategy, but they got to move fast, especially when you consider some of the senators, at least on the Democratic side as well as the Republicans, but to hold the majority, some of them are kind of elderly. I'm sure they're saying a prayer every night that everyone stays in good health.

RICK NEWMAN: Well, yeah. And the one Senator that people care most about is Pat Leahy, the Democrat of Vermont. Because if he were to leave office, Vermont has a Republican governor who would presumably appoint the Republican. But I might take a different outlook on Biden's remarks on the filibuster, Adam. I think he was really hedging. I mean, he didn't say get rid of the filibuster. He said he wants to go back to the talking filibuster, the type we saw in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which I'm sure is on your DVD shelf.

We're not going to do that. I mean, that's just not going to happen. This is a matter of great intrigue for the press corps because the filibuster stands in the way of Democrats doing much of what they want to do. I don't think there's likely to be any change in the filibuster. I mean, Joe Manchin, that centrist Democrat, he said he doesn't want to change it, so you don't even have 50 Democrats willing to change it. This is a fascination inside the beltway. I'm not sure many people care beyond the beltway.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Real quick, I'm looking at my DVD shelf, and "Reefer Madness" and "The Wizard of Oz." Don't try to draw any conclusions about that. But I do want to ask you, as they move forward, is there going to be compromise between Democrats and Republicans? Is this guy really united the way he was talking about in the press conference, especially on infrastructure?

RICK NEWMAN: I mean, I think Biden is talking the talk on bipartisanship, but everybody knows Republicans in the Senate, in particular, just don't want to give him a win. Why would they want to do that? So the strategy for the big infrastructure bill that's coming seems to be to maybe break it into a few different bills. Perhaps one of those might be small enough and have enough things that Republicans support that could get up to 60 volts in the Senate and therefore, be a bipartisan bill. But Republicans know the game. They want Biden to say he got bipartisan support, and they don't want to give him that.

The last thing I'll say here, Adam, Biden, his line is, I am getting bipartisan support, but from Republican voters, not from Republican members of Congress. I think that's a pretty good line. I think Biden is also overstating it a bit, but that's going to be the key in the 2022 midterm elections. Will some Republicans or Independents vote for Democrats because they like the job Biden is doing, and that's a play he's making right now.

ADAM SHAPIRO: All right, Rick Newman, with our update in "The Week in Bidenomics." Thank you, and we'll be right. back.