POLITICO Playbook: Progressives grow angsty over Biden

[Dr. Fermento]

There are four must-reads this Sunday morning, and they’re all
on the same theme, one that always frustrates the Biden White
House: progressive angst over the direction of policy.

CNN’s Maeve Reston notes that the “gulf between progressive
ambition and the legislative reality means there is all-but-
certain friction ahead between [President JOE] BIDEN and the
restive liberal wing of his party,” and that “hopes of achieving
real reforms on thorny issues like gun control, voting rights,
police reform — and now even infrastructure — have proved
elusive.”

POLITICO’s Laura Barrón-López details how Biden will miss his
self-imposed May 25 deadline for passing a police reform bill,
and what it means for the future of that legislation. On
Tuesday, May 25 — the one-year anniversary of GEORGE FLOYD’s
murder — Biden will meet with Floyd’s family at the White House.

The Washington Post’s Dan Balz explains how “[a]t home and
abroad, President Biden is confronting what it means to lead a
changing Democratic Party,” and says Biden soon “will have to
make some difficult choices about the unfinished parts of his
economic and domestic agenda” as he faces “pressure from the
left on voting rights, immigration, racial injustice, guns and
the filibuster.”

The WSJ has a pair of good pieces on the same general subject.
One previews the coming Biden budget, which will disappoint
liberals by not including progressive health care priorities.
The other explores pressure from the left on Israel and policing
reform, which is causing some indigestion for House Speaker
NANCY PELOSI and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER. (Though
it didn’t get much attention, members of The Squad almost
scuttled a Capitol security bill on Thursday.)

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/05/23/progres
sives-grow-angsty-over-biden-492969