The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Biden has two infrastructure plans. That’s a mistake.

Contributing columnist|
July 21, 2021 at 3:01 p.m. EDT
President Biden speaks about economic recovery in the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

Sometimes in politics, the way you talk about an idea can have as much to do with whether it succeeds as the idea itself.

President Biden’s ambitious spending plan for infrastructure and social programs may turn out to be a pretty good example of this. If Biden’s two-track strategy ends up blocked, it may be, at least in part, because he insisted on conflating two very different things.