The Democrats’ disadvantage

FOR WEEKS, Democrats in Congress have been trying to pull off a delicate legislative two-step with President Joe Biden’s agenda. House progressives refuse to vote for an infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support, until the Senate passes a social-spending bill. That measure has to be slender enough—negotiations have whittled it down to around half of its initial $3.5trn size—to satisfy moderate Democrats, but not so meagre that it loses progressives’ support. And Mr Biden would love it done before he arrives at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow on November 1st. His legacy hangs in the balance, and the tactics surrounding this legislative pas de deux are intensifying an argument over the party’s direction.