Joe Biden gets his infrastructure win and an education on a new
The vote came after weeks of torturous negotiations among Democrats, and is likely to remain the only major piece of legislation Biden passes with help from Republicans ahead of next year’s midterm elections. A second, larger bill that would expand the social safety net and provide historic investments in combating climate change remains undone.
Yet after a string of setbacks and delays — including in the frenzied final hours before the bill passed — Biden emerged having accomplished what many had written off as impossible in a political era marred by dysfunction and mistrust. The bill represents the largest single infrastructure investment in American history.
“Finally — infrastructure week,” Biden said with a laugh as he strode into the State Dining Room on Saturday morning to trumpet his victory, an unsubtle dig at the futile, Groundhog Day-like efforts to pass a roads-and-bridges improvement during the last administration.
“We did something that’s long overdue, that’s long been talked about in Washington, but never has actually been done,” Biden said.
For the President, the experience has proved both frustrating and illuminating as he discovers just how fractious the current environment really is. People who have spoken to him over the past days describe Biden as focused and jocular — but also confused at Democrats’ seeming inability to strike an agreement on what is ostensibly a widely popular agenda.
As he celebrated the bill’s passage on Saturday morning, Biden acknowledged the fraught conditions in Congress and conceded they would not end with one bipartisan accomplishment.
“I know we’re divided. I know how mean it can get and I know there are extremes on both ends that make it more difficult than it’s been in a long, long time,” he said. “But I’m convinced the American people know that we’re committed to enhancing their ability to make their way and all do better.”
What ultimately worked was the intensive brokering of an agreement between warring wings of the party, ending a blockade by progressives in exchange for a commitment in writing from moderates to support the larger plan no later than the middle of this month.
“I spent a lot of time, as you probably heard, with a lot of people,” Biden said, describing a carefully honed process built upon developing personal relationships with his interlocutors.
“Everybody at the end of the day, I have to admit, dealt with me fairly,” Biden said. “This is probably more than you need to know, but part of the process is getting to know all the people personally again.”
After dire election results Tuesday caused a flurry of recrimination among Democrats, Friday amounted to a dramatic turnabout of fortunes for a…
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