As crises recede, Biden’s agenda faces uphill climb

The sense of urgency behind the president’s big infrastructure bill is waning, while other legislative priorities have stalled. With a thin margin in the Senate, Democrats may have to lower their ambitions.

One day, he’s Franklin Roosevelt, seizing the reins of government amid raging crises and wielding big initiatives in his first 100 days in office. The next, he’s Jimmy Carter, up against inflation, gas lines, and stubbornly high unemployment.

Or so it may have seemed for Joe Biden in the early days of his presidency. Indeed, it has been a historic time, an abrupt turn from four unorthodox years of Donald Trump and the shock of Jan. 6. 

Under President Biden, the twists and turns have continued – most sharply, perhaps, when a top health official warned of “impending doom” amid COVID-19 spikes, only to suddenly announce weeks later that fully vaccinated people could go maskless in most settings.

Around the country, the lifting of restrictions has almost led to peals of “Happy Days Are Here Again.” But the subsiding of the pandemic, while welcome, may also have dampened the sense of urgency around Mr. Biden’s agenda, especially the now-reduced $1.7 trillion American Jobs Plan – an infrastructure bill loaded with liberal Democratic priorities. Republicans are reportedly set to make a counteroffer worth nearly $1 trillion, a sign of life in negotiations that earlier this week seemed near collapse.

Another headwind comes from the news of budget surpluses in some states, a result of federal pandemic relief, and the decision by 23 GOP-led states to end enhanced federal unemployment benefits, to entice workers to fill jobs. 

But the real grit in the gears is the long-building polarization of Washington politics. And it’s not just the inability of Republicans and Democrats to strike a major deal that’s weighing things down. Intraparty differences – at times seemingly as big as those between the two parties – are also hindering the parties’ ability to meet in the middle.