Gambling

Ever-hopeful, Wall Street Journal columnist William A. Galston continues to press for a compromise infrastructure plan:

The administration appears to have decided to move the entire plan through the Senate using the budget-reconciliation procedure, which requires only a simple majority. The Senate parliamentarian’s reported willingness to allow more than one reconciliation bill on a single year’s budget will encourage this strategy. But leading Republicans have indicated their willingness to do business with Democrats on pieces of the bill—road, bridges, dams, water systems, ports and airports, as well as broadband and measures to counter China’s economic rise. Why not explore the possibility of a discrete bipartisan agreement before moving on to areas where agreement is unlikely?

The administration’s apparent course is not without risks:

If the administration guesses wrong, it will unravel its gains among moderate and suburban voters and restore a Republican congressional majority. If I were President Biden, I would take out an insurance policy by demonstrating my openness to honorable compromise before going to the mattresses.

I have no particular insights into the thought processes of the Biden Administration but I would speculate that they believe that the $2.2 trillion plan (which will probably cost considerably more) will attract “shy progressives” to their banner. I believe those are just as mythical as “shy conservatives”.

Failing that it may just be the Conan the Barbarian strategy:

Warlord: “What is best in life?”
Conan: “To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”