How to renew America’s democracy

FOR PRESIDENT JOE BIDENHR to sign a this week was an economic gamble—on inflation, the Federal Reserve and the capital markets. But politically, it was a dead cert. The Democrats, though in control of Congress and the White House, can pass only rare budgetary bills, under a procedure known as reconciliation. Any other legislation could be blocked by a , which requires a bill to muster a supermajority of 60 Senate votes. Because covid-19 is unpredictable, the stimulus had to be big enough to deal with new variants. Because the administration might not get another chance, the plan smuggled in pet priorities. Because, under the rules, it was not subject to scrutiny in Senate committees, Republicans made no contribution. It is a terrible way for the world’s leading democracy to pass laws.Congress is not the only political institution under strain: elections are, too. After Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, some Democrats thought the result was manipulated by Russia. After Mr Trump’s defeat in 2020 a large majority of Republicans accepted his baseless claim that the vote had somehow been stolen. Motivated by that conviction, Republicans in 45 states have since introduced bills to tighten . For their part, Democrats in the House have already passed 1, which if enacted would rein in state Republicans, by imposing federal voting standards instead. But the bill will not get through Congress as long as the Senate has the filibuster.