Biden Can’t Do Much to Push Democrats’ Bills

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We’ve reached the point in negotiating the Democrats’ “Build Back Better” bill, which they are still trying to advance along with a bipartisan infrastructure proposal, where both outside observers and participants are saying it’s time to cut a deal — and that President Joe Biden is the one who needs to do so.

The problem? Presidents can’t actually do that. At least … not really.

Presidents do have some options in such circumstances. They can generate media coverage for almost anything they want. They can persuade members of Congress to pay attention to something. They also have a variety of stuff they can attempt to exchange for votes — appointments, executive actions that help a district or a state, publicity for a given lawmaker, and so on.

But what presidents can’t do is order any member of Congress to agree. They can’t even enforce deadlines. And while applying pressure to reach a deal can help, it can also backfire. Publicity might generate pressure to compromise, but if lawmakers don’t hear from constituents, they may learn that the president is safe to ignore. High-profile negotiations and deadlines might force an issue, but can also make any impasse harder to break.

Meanwhile, it’s not exactly clear why there’s any urgency now that wasn’t there six weeks ago. Yes, legislating always looks ugly to the media and the public. It’s possible that this has contributed to Biden’s current approval slump. Regardless: If these bills pass, the media will soon enough move on to squabbling over the next bill. The good news is that voters have incredibly short memories (to the extent they’re focused on legislating at all). So if these bills do pass and prove to be popular, it won’t matter how they were enacted or how long it took; if they wind up as unpopular laws, it will because of the substance and spin after passage.

Nor is there any guarantee that an agreement or signing ceremony will produce a short-term bounce in Biden’s approval rating, even if the bills continue to poll well. Most people just aren’t focused enough on the news to have that kind of reaction. And it’s hardly guaranteed that media coverage of such a deal will focus on the popular provisions Democrats want rather than on whatever unpopular provisions Republicans try to publicize.

None of this is a reason to abandon bills that contain provisions Biden ran on and many Democrats have tried to make happen for a long time — and which they think are important for their constituencies and the nation. But there’s no real reason to think that the electoral calendar, Biden’s approval rating, or anything else external to the negotiations make it imperative to cut a deal right now.

What’s really going on here is two things: Democrats are trying to do something difficult (see James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee on why they’re finding it so hard to legislate). And yes: We’re all a little impatient. But like it or not, these are serious fights over legitimate positions, and even though it may sometimes appear that a given senator or representative is being frivolous, overall it’s just hard to make this stuff happen. On any schedule.

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