Biden Never Campaigned to Be FDR

Walter Shapiro: “It was always folly to believe that Biden and the Democrats could top the New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society with a 50–50 Senate and just three votes to spare in the House. The White House deserves some of the blame for encouraging unrealistic expectations about what was ever possible in a Congress poised on the knife edge.”

“As a result, Democrats refuse to recognize their own victories. In addition to the $1.9 trillion stimulus package, Congress is poised to approve a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and, most likely, the downsized $1.75 trillion Biden spending plan. A trillion here and a trillion there—and pretty soon it adds up to real money. It might not be LBJ’s full Great Society package, but add the three bills up, and it amounts to transformational policies buttressing the social safety net and battling climate change.”