No governing party intent on showing the voters how it is responding to their needs would ordinarily choose to do what the Democratic leadership has been forced to do with President Biden’s domestic agenda. Instead of negotiating issues one at a time and enjoying a parade of focused legislative accomplishments, Democrats have jammed nearly all the party’s domestic priorities into one sprawling piece of legislation, setting off a drawn-out fight that exposes the party’s divisions and fails to communicate what it is trying to accomplish.
Three political realities—Senate rules, the makeup of the Democratic Party, and the party’s tiny congressional majorities—have left no choice but to go down this road to an all-in-one reconciliation bill that the media have called the Democrats’ “$3.5 trillion spending plan.” Under Senate rules, reconciliation is the only vehicle for legislation that can escape the filibuster, and there simply aren’t enough Democratic votes available right now to eliminate that hurdle. The diverse coalition that makes up the party has led it to include something for everyone. And its narrow majorities have put the package at the mercy of a single defection in the Senate and just three in the House.
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