Biden poised for major Hill victory but faces some flashing red lights

By most conventional measures, President Biden should be riding pretty high.

He is about to score his first major legislative victory, pumping nearly $2 trillion—a staggering figure—into the economy to deal with the pandemic. A new ABC poll shows 68 percent of those surveyed approving of his approach to the crisis, a figure that includes 35 percent of Republicans. And he says every American will be able to get a vaccination by the end of May.

Yes, but: The Senate and House passed the giant packages without a single Republican vote. What happened to Biden’s talk of bipartisanship?

The Biden team felt that Republican offers were way too low for any meaningful compromise. They were wary, after Biden’s experience in the Obama administration, of having marathon talks that ultimately led to nothing. They were also hellbent on moving quickly, given the fragile state of the economy and the ticking clock on jobless benefits.

Yes, but: Republicans say the bill is a Christmas tree with all kinds of costly ornaments that have little to do with the pandemic.

That’s true. There’s $86 billion targeted for a taxpayer bailout of nearly 200 union pension plans on the verge of collapse. And more than $100 billion in tax credits for families with children, which expires in a year but could later be made permanent. That would boost the Democrats’ longtime goal of drastically reducing child poverty.

Republicans haven’t mounted an all-out assault on the Covid bill, as they did on ObamaCare, because they know it’s popular. Plus, elections have consequences.

Yes, but: Won’t people resent all this extra spending, and couldn’t it overheat the economy?