Obama's biggest mistake, he said in 2012, was thinking that the job of the presidency was "Just about getting the policy right" rather than telling "a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose." Biden began his effort to fashion such a story when he took a victory lap on Saturday after his infrastructure bill cleared the Congress, notching a hard-fought win on a $1.2 trillion piece of legislation. Biden says the infrastructure will improve Americans' lives in the months and years to come.
The legislative win sets up a series of challenges for Biden, both in promoting the new deal and at the same time continuing to push for a long-argued-over $1.85 trillion social safety net and climate bill, which would dramatically expand health, family and climate change programs.
To correct past messaging mistakes, the White House is planning an aggressive sales campaign for the infrastructure bill, with Biden planning trips across the U.S. to speak about the impacts of the legislation.
Biden, for his part, insisted Saturday that Americans could start to see the effects of the infrastructure bill in as little as two to three months.
In contrast to the 2009 stimulus, Buttigieg told NPR, Biden's infrastructure bill is "About both the short-term and the long-term." "There will be work immediately and for years to come," he said.
While he's selling the infrastructure bill as evidence that Democrats can deliver, Biden still will have to contend with ongoing dickering on the other items on his agenda - the social spending bill.
Unlike the infrastructure bill, which passed with the support of 19 Republicans in the Senate, the social spending package is facing unified GOP opposition, which means Biden will need every Democratic vote in the Senate to get it across the finish line.
