Opinion | Biden and the Democratic Standoff Over Spending Bills

Readers offer different perspectives on who’s at fault and how Democrats should come to agreement. Also: The Supreme Court's task.

Biden Throws In With Left, Leaving His Agenda in Doubt

Progressives flexed, but remain empty-handed. Moderates feel betrayed. The outcome of their battle could determine Democrats’ fate in the midterms and the success of the Biden presidency.

Opinion | Sinema Stars in Her Own Film

The Garbo of the Senate leaves Democrats confused and angry.

Opinion | I’m One of Biden’s Advisers. Here’s How I Think About His Economic Agenda.

For decades, politicians have rewarded wealth over work, putting big corporate interests above working families. That has to stop. 

How to Build a Paid Family Leave Plan That Doesn’t Backfire

Congress is designing a policy as part of Democrats’ safety net spending plan. Evidence from around the world suggests what works and what doesn’t.

Four Jagged Puzzle Pieces and a Few Weeks for Democrats to Assemble Them

The party must keep the government funded, stave off a default, push a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to President Biden and secure the votes for a defining climate change and social policy bill.

Opinion | This Is How America’s Richest Families Stay That Way

The longer we fail to constrain inherited wealth, the sooner the dream of a democratic society dies.

Opinion | What Democrats Need to Do Now

Moderates and progressives have a lot of shared ground to build upon.

Opinion | Why Are Moderates Trying to Blow Up Biden’s Centrist Economic Plan?

In attacking the Build Back Better Act, they are working against their own purported aims.

Opinion | Joe Manchin Doesn’t Know What He’s Missing

Infrastructure isn’t about the price tag. It’s about what the money gets us.

Opinion | Can America Afford to Become a Major Social Welfare State?

Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan raises larger questions about the kind of nation we want to be.

Opinion | Why Working-Class Parents Don’t Buy What D.C. Is Selling

In focus groups, many said work is the price of admission for eligibility for government benefits like the expanded child tax credit.

In Social Policy Bill, Businesses See a Lot to Like. They Oppose It.

Resistance to tax increases outweighs the appeal of a $3.5 trillion measure containing child care credits and other items that corporations embrace.

From Cradle to Grave, Democrats Move to Expand Social Safety Net

The $3.5 trillion social policy bill that lawmakers begin drafting this week would touch virtually every American, at every point in life, from conception to old age.

House Passes $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan for Vast Expansion of Safety Net

Democratic leaders had to haggle their way to passage, committing to moderates that there would be a vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan by Sept. 27.

Democrats Scrounge for Votes to Pass $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan

With moderates balking, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was working to secure their support for the budget. Democrats ultimately scrapped tentative plans for a vote late Monday.

Deeply Divided, House Democrats Battle Over Priorities and Politics

The House returns to Washington on Monday to try to win passage of a measure needed to protect a $3.5 trillion social policy bill from a filibuster, but fractures in the party are starting to show.

House Moderates Say They Won’t Back Budget Vote Until Infrastructure Bill Passes

The letter from nine Democrats, enough to block passage, threatens their party’s two-track plan to pass both a $3.5 trillion social policy budget blueprint and an infrastructure bill.

Opinion | The Acrobatics Aren’t Confined to the Olympics

Tokyo and Washington confound expectations. 

Opinion | No, the Unvaccinated Aren’t All Just Being Difficult

“Sometimes you have to make it too convenient so that people can’t say no.”