WASHINGTON – With his first major legislative win on track to pass Congress early this week, President Joe Biden is already looking ahead to the next policy push on his Build Back Better agenda.
His victory lap may be short-lived.
The expected passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package may give the president a tailwind as he seeks an even larger price tag on an infrastructure bill, tackles an ambitious climate change agenda and begins negotiations on his campaign pledge of comprehensive immigration reform. But the president’s decision to go it alone on his American Rescue Plan – garnering not a single Republican vote in either chamber of Congress – could sink any promise of bipartisanship as he moves on to the next big-ticket item in his first 100 days.
“I think by not making a good-faith effort, basically it’s poisoning the well for everything down the line,” said political analyst Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of The Cook Political Report.
Cook said he thought Biden had been positioned to reach a compromise with moderate Republicans given his temperament and his 36 years in the Senate.
“It will be just a strong disincentive to do business with him,” Cook said.
Biden, who pitched himself as a presidential candidate who could break through Washington’s hyperpartisan landscape, has already run into the political realities of his party’s razor-thin majorities in Congress. With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats used a legislative maneuver to…
