Once he became president, Biden held a meeting with historians that led to speculation that he could be another FDR. Times columnist Ezra Klein explained that Democrats had wised up about how impossible it was to negotiate with Republicans.

Among the items on the progressive to-do list were an expansion of the Supreme Court, statehood for places expected to vote for Democrats, a higher minimum wage, higher income-tax rates on high earners, a federal overhaul of election law, an amnesty for illegal immigrants, a ban on assault weapons, federal Medicaid funding for abortion, and measures to increase union membership. None of it has happened.

When the New York Times endorsed Biden in 2020, the first two policies it mentioned in praising his “bold agenda” were his plans to create a government-run insurance option for middle-class Americans of working age and to lower the age of eligibility for Medicare to 60. Both, the Times cheered, would move us toward “universal health care.”

Neither even made it to a vote. Instead, Biden has enacted subsidies to patch some holes in the last big move toward universal health care, Obamacare. This repair job on an Obama accomplishment is one of the major victories in the new spending bill that has Democrats so thrilled.