What Does Biden Want?

In his Washington Post column Henry Olsen critiques the present “COVID-19 relief” bill:

Biden has merely put a happy face on a strongly progressive agenda. Many of his executive orders — including canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and reentering the Paris climate accord — simply repeal former president Donald Trump’s actions. House Democrats have introduced the administration’s comprehensive immigration bill with no substantive GOP input, and they are also pursuing a ludicrously partisan rewrite of election law (H.R. 1). Initial talks with a group of 10 Republican senators over a compromise to Biden’s $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill have fizzled. Democrats are now moving to pass the massive proposal using the reconciliation procedure that allows a fiscal bill to pass the Senate with only a majority vote instead of the 60 votes needed to surmount a filibuster. Biden’s nice talk can’t wholly mask this nakedly partisan drive.

and observes:

Good negotiators follow a few simple rules. First, get leverage and use it to shape the contours of the deal. Second, have something on the table that you can give up that the other party values a lot. Third, use initial negotiating sessions to feel your adversary out and get a sense of their priorities and temper. Do this, and any deal will likely result in you getting more of what you want than if you act rashly.

Biden’s behavior so far follows these guidelines perfectly. The reconciliation process gives him leverage: Talk or you’ll lose everything. The bill itself is so filled with liberal wishes and so excessive in size that even some Democratic economists have criticized it. Biden could cut the bill in half and still end with more than enough aid to help those struggling because of the pandemic. And the initial discussions with the 10 senators provided a sense of what they want (a smaller, more targeted bill) and their temper (they really want to get to yes). All of this bodes well for a deal in early March — if Biden wants one.

which raises the question: what does Biden want? Or, more precisely, what does he want more? Does he want to unify the country or the Democratic Party? I’m betting it’s the latter and that, as he moves left, the center of the party will move left faster. I don’t believe that the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party will be satisfied with $1.9 trillion or $10.9 trillion in additional spending—they’re taking the position that numbers don’t matter, that there is no amount the federal government might spend that will have adverse consequences.