The kamikaze Congress

We’re not even 100 days into the Joe Biden’s presidency, and the 117th Congress has passed a $1.9-trillion stimulus on a party-line vote. That’s more money than Canada’s gross domestic product. This bill was a gusher of cash spraying money into every existing sluice of COVID relief, and every stream of federal funding, with plenty of money granted to Democratic interests. $130 billion to schools, to help them open (most schools could open without extra money). $40 billion to colleges and universities (which largely don’t need it). And $6 billion to New York’s Metro Transit Authority. Joe Biden wants a follow-up: the American Jobs Act, with a budget around $2 trillion, a long-awaited infrastructure bill that is 95 percent not infrastructure. Even the way centrist House members describe it makes it sound like it is something that voters must swallow even if it makes them cringe. “My hope is that it will yield a bill that is as bold as the votes will bear,” said Representative Stephanie Murphy, who leads the Blue Dog Democrats in the House. This spending package would also come with another tax cut — a restoration of the state and local tax deductions. This tax relief is aimed squarely at the most upwardly mobile and politically influential wine-track Democrats. Instead of reconciling itself to a centrist agenda, the House is relentlessly messaging to its left wing by passing incredibly ambitious legislation. None of these agenda items is likely to get past moderate Democrats in the Senate, such as Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, but the waft of red meat has made left-wing dogs howl.