POLITICO Playbook: Progressives grow angsty over Biden

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