The Biden Democrats have made fewer permanent changes to the law than their predecessors in the previous two Democratic administrations, those of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. There’s no big new program such as Obamacare. What the Democrats have done instead is spend a lot of money. That’s not great and restoring spending restraint is never easy. But it’s not nearly as difficult as undoing a law.
And while Republicans did much worse than they had expected in the elections, they did well enough that Biden won’t be able to enact new liberal legislation in the next two years — not, at least, without giving conservatives something in return.
The legislative picture during the remainder of Biden’s term is going to look much the way it would have if the red wave of Republican dreams had materialized. More Republican senators would have meant a slower pace of confirmation for liberal judges, slightly more moderate appointees and somewhat more Republican-friendly budget deals. Wave or ripple, though, liberal initiatives are going to come via executive action. A Republican Senate would have led to more pushback against such moves, but would not have stopped them (any more than it did when Obama faced a Republican Senate in his last two years in office).
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