The View From the White House
It\u2019s been a year since Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. And what a roller coaster of a year it\u2019s been.\n\nThe Biden administration blew past its Covid vaccination goal of 100 million shots in 100 days, only to run into the realities of vaccine skepticism, the Delta wave and now Omicron. The president oversaw an unprecedented economic recovery \u2014 including the sharpest one-year drop in unemployment in American history \u2014 but now faces the highest inflation in decades, supply chain crises and souring approval ratings. Congress passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law, but negotiations collapsed over the administration\u2019s signature Build Back Better bill, and on Thursday the Senate failed to pass any voting rights legislation.\n\nRon Klain is President Biden\u2019s chief of staff and one of the most influential members of the current administration. We discuss what the United States can learn from Asian countries\u2019 pandemic strategies, what went wrong with America\u2019s testing regime, the administration\u2019s plan for tackling inflation, what it will take to be prepared for the next variant, what Klain has learned about what private sector can \u2014 and can\u2019t \u2014 accomplish on its own, the fate of Build Back Better, what can excite Democrats for the 2022 midterms, the status of relations between the White House and Joe Manchin, how the administration is thinking about the 6-to-3 conservative Supreme Court majority and more.\n\nMentioned:\n\nThe Ezra Klein Show is looking for a managing producer.\n\nBook Recommendation:\n\nThe Gatekeepers by Chris Whipple\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.