WASHINGTON — From the moment he took office, Joe Biden made combatting a raging pandemic the central focus of his presidency, deploying a wartime effort to distribute vaccines and laying out attainable goals to assure the public of progress.
Just over 100 days later, other challenges have moved to the forefront.
Eased concerns in the U.S. about the pandemic have led to heightened demands from key constituencies – particularly among progressives – for major action on gun control, policing changes to curb racial discrimination, overhauling former President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies and more.
Biden is pushing the most dramatic expansion of the federal government’s social safety-net in decades. He won Congressional approval in March of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue bill loaded with spending to help the poor. He’s now proposed a $4 trillion transformation of the U.S. economy with plans to rebuild infrastructure, invest in green technology, expand caregiving for…
