Why Mitch McConnell is the big winner on the infrastructure bill

Preserving the filibuster is a high priority for McConnell, NBC News reported last month — so high that it was worth it to him to give up his usual tactics of obstructing Democratic governance just this once. Otherwise, moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) might have been tempted to succumb to progressive pressure and vote to end the rules that allow a minority party to obstruct the majority. “It becomes a very clear demonstration that blowing up the filibuster is not necessary to get big things done,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) explained last month.

In other words, passing the infrastructure bill might have strengthened McConnell’s hand in fighting against new voting rights legislation and other liberal priorities. He gets that benefit at virtually no cost to himself or his party, using $1 trillion in taxpayer money. And he doesn’t really lose anything in the process — most of the stuff that’s in the bipartisan infrastructure bill could’ve been passed in a majority-only reconciliation package, if simply passing stuff had been all Democrats wanted to do.