Closer To the Edge

Congress is still - still - trying to get an infrastructure bill passed, and as of this writing, nothing has happened.  The vote on the bipartisan infrastructure had been repeatedly delayed - and that's the good news!  President Biden has been trying to broker a compromise, but progressives aren't quite there yet and moderates aren't there at all.  West Virginia's Senator Joe Manchin has made it clear that he wants no more than $1.5 trillion for the reconciliation bill and Arizona's Senator Kyrsten Sinema doesn't want to let anyone known where she is on this because she doesn't seem to know herself.  She jokes about it! 

Meanwhile, Republicans rigging the electoral process for Donald Trump in 2024 are licking their chops as they're waiting to put on the black shirts and weed out the weaklings and smash in their windows and kick in their doors.

With COVID still not quite licked yet (thought we may be getting there slowly), the economy still in a precarious place, and the debt ceiling nearing, it's going to be up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (above) to deliver in the House of Representatives while Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer has to find a way to make sure Manchin and Sinema are on board.  It's mostly Pelosi's game here, and she needs to bring the legislation before the House at just the right time so it can pass.  If she can pull this off and bring the moderates and the progressives together, she should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Otherwise, this storm before the calm, as Jonathan Capehart put it, will be more like a storm before the storm.