PRESIDENT BIDEN FACES INTERNAL LEGISLATIVE TUSSLE DESPITE RECONCILIATORY EFFORTS
The US President is heading abroad in spite of internal legislative tussle.
President Joe Biden is heading abroad, just at the moment when his hopes for a historic legislative legacy at home seem headed for a wall.
For all the talk among Democrats of Biden assembling a Rooseveltian legacy, the moment was always going to come when his vast political agenda would hit the blockade of Washington's uncompromising political calculations.
Recent days have chastened Democrats who dreamed of using what may be a brief two-year window of congressional power to forge the most fundamental economic and political change for a generation.
Biden had a strong start to his presidency. The country is awakening, albeit with a few economic hiccups, from a pandemic that has never been closer to ending thanks to his rollout of vaccines developed during the previous administration. He's restored decorum to the White House, and his approval ratings are above 50% consistently -- a level never reached by ex-President Donald Trump.
But the reality of a 50-50 Senate, the ideological tension in the Democratic coalition and a Republican Party transformed into Trump's personality cult have brought Biden to a moment of truth.
His bipartisan effort to forge an infrastructure deal with Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia finally expired on Tuesday. The setback followed Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's announcement that he would not vote to outlaw filibuster rules or to pass a huge voting rights bill. Each blow put a new hole in soaring progressive ambitions that always seemed a leap ahead of reality.
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