Before the ink was dry on November’s ballots, pundits were out in full force proclaiming that once again nothing would get done in Washington. Senate Republicans would block Biden and House Democratic initiatives with an eye to 2022, they said, and Democrats would propose things that would appeal to their liberal base but be dead on arrival in the Senate.
Indeed, it is likely that many Democrats and the Biden administration will make a social policy agenda their top priority—expanding health care, reforming policing, etc. At the same time, with President Trump out of office, some Republicans will look for a return to free-market, supply-side economics. This is a recipe for gridlock.
