As Biden Aims To Pass 2 Big Bills, Things Are About To Get Really Complicated

In the days and weeks just ahead, the elected leaders of our federal government will perform a series of ritual dances that few Americans will understand.

You may turn away with a dismissive gesture or a rolling of the eyes. But these seemingly arcane exercises will, in fact, represent — and may even resolve — real conflicts over national issues of enormous importance.

At stake are the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, trillions more in a spending plan for the next decade and even the degree of difficulty citizens will encounter when next they try to vote. The outcome will be a turning point for the Biden administration's first year in office and may have a powerful influence on the midterm elections looming in 2022.

Profoundly important as all these substantive matters are, much of the impending day-to-day debate and media coverage will use a kind of procedural and political code.

There will be much talk of the "Byrd Rule," mentions of a "carve-out" and possibly a "nuclear option."

Bear with us, because it's all about stuff that makes a difference.

Most of the focus will be on the Senate, where it takes 60 votes to break the tactic known as the filibuster before proceeding to any significant legislative action.

With the Senate parties evenly split, the challenge of getting 60 votes is next to impossible. It took months of exhausting negotiations to get the current infrastructure bill.

There is no chance of a similar compromise on President Biden's $3.5 trillion spending plan that covers a host of other priorities, which Republicans oppose. Yet without action on the bigger package in the Senate, Democrats in the House of Representatives probably can't hold their fragile majority together on infrastructure.

So, right now, Democrats are grinding through the infrastructure debate in the Senate with Republican help before leaving for August recess.