we're back! and in a reasonable amount of time lol. this yr will be a two parter bc like i think the midterms should be a separate post.
but anyway, 1970! so um, going into 1970, president sorensen had a major legislative victory and had successfully negotiated an end to the vietnam war. he was confident! but both of these wins would end up backfiring on him over the course of the year. no one rlly cares about foreign policy that much so the most pressing of these was the economy, and like, as it turned out all those budget hawks were kinda getting vindicated as the skyrocketing debt and stagnated economy began to truly take its toll and a recession looked to be on the horizon. to fix this, the president would propose the economic stabilization act, which would have funded jobs programs and infrastructure but more critically give the executive branch widespread powers to "restabilize" the economy. it was this key aspect of the bill that made it controversial, cuz like, no one wanted a recession yea but like even less people wanted what was percieved as one step away from COMMUNISM!!! that was the line the gop took anyhow, as they lambasted the president as a bolshevist who wanted planned economics here in america.
first chairman of the ussa
so of course billy dane and the gop would spend every single moment they had fighting this bill. and like even with byrd on the side of the president for now, dixiecrats and other moderates werent happy with the idea of the president being able to unilaterally enact price controls. it was a sign of what was coming that the bill barely made it through the house, with a measly 226 ayes. so when the bill entered billy's domain he would tour the democratic side of the senate floor looking for anyone who was willing to oppose the president's "socialist agenda". by the end of the day, the vote for cloture would fail, and the bill was dead in the water. the gop took this as a massive win, their first major victory against the president achieved and riding on that high, they would work with conservative democrats to pass a tax cut on the wealthy, claiming that their bill was what would truly fix the economy. a demoralized democratic party (and one that didnt want to explain why they voted against a tax cut) put up minimal resistance, and the bill would pass by wide margins. "but wait" u ask, "didnt they want to balance the budget? wasnt this whole thing due to the skyrocketing debt??" good question!
billy.
ofc, as i said before, the economy wasnt the only thing not going to plan. the good news for sorensen was that his plan to get troops out of vietnam by the end of the year was a success! in fact we were ahead of schedule, with the last us forces leaving the nation in august. unfortunately for the president, though, the north vietnamese would shockingly (obvious sarcasm is obvious, lol) immediately break the peace a month later on september 20. south vietnam was like kind of prepared because they obviously knew this was gonna happen but not like prepared in a "able to win this on their own" way. they were on the backfoot, to say the least. they would demand north vietnam be held accountable in the un, of course, but the ussr would veto any measure to the effect. needless to say, this was a pr nightmare for the dems? like, everyone who was opposed to this deal would feel immensely vindicated about it, as the president was labeled a traitor and a coward who let our boys die for nothing. some warhawks even proposed re-entering the war, though this wouldn't go anywhere any time soon, not with the way the congress was at the very least.
i just think this picture's like rlly funny lol
of course, it wasn't all bad. the president would be able to focus on and pass a different bill, the urban restoration act. promoted by sorensen and close ally robert kennedy, the bill would allocate funding for urban restoration zones which would be locally controlled and would invest in their communities. the urzs were based on a program in nyc that was proving successful, and the ura would too prove successful. it passed with bipartisan support as it was seen as much less bolshevist than the esa, and it would do wonders across the nation. especially successful were pittsburgh and philly, as governor cartnell would work with the president and local officials to make sure that the provisions of the act would be as efficiently carried out as possible, leading to a massive reduction in crime and homelessness in those cities. despite all this though, inflation was choking americans' pocketbooks to the point that real gdp growth actually decreased, and all this urban restoration would in turn serve to suck out prosperity from the rural parts of the country. all in all, the sorensen administration was achieving great things, but was also fueling an anger that was sure to come to a head in the midterms. but! thats for next time. byeeee!!!!