If you believe that the Senate bipartisan infrastructure proposal is just part of a whole—that some of President Biden’s spending can pass in there under regular order, and the rest in a larger reconciliation package—then you might see it as a benign way to boost Biden’s bipartisan deal-making capabilities without sacrificing anything. As I’ve written, there’s not yet enough trust among the Democratic caucus for Biden to make that sale.
But if you see the bill as not wholly additive but subtractive, you might reject it on its own terms. We haven’t heard this critique much from progressive opponents of the proposal; mostly they talk about the lack of climate mitigation or other policies, and how passage of a second bill later is not guaranteed. But there’s an extremely valid concern about the substance of the bipartisan package.
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