The Philadelphia Inquirer: Like ‘pushing a heavy rock up a steep hill.’ Even under Biden, Democrats’ plans face big obstacles.

by Jonathan Tamari

WASHINGTON — Democrats will soon get what they’ve long dreamed of: President Donald Trump will leave the White House. But even once President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month, many of their other hopes face extremely difficult roads to reality.

Biden will come to power with the smallest House majority in modern history, and will face a narrowly divided Senate where, no matter who leads the chamber, Republicans will still hold influence over what can advance.

So as Biden confronts twin health and economic crises, vows to rebuild the country, and aims to tackle climate change, any legislation with a chance to succeed will have to hold together the wide-ranging and sometimes unruly Democratic coalition — and likely need support from some Republicans.

Those dynamics weigh against some of the more ambitious and politically risky policies that some Democrats had envisioned pursuing if they had also decisively won the Senate. They might make even smaller legislation a slog. Much depends on the outcome of a pair of Senate runoff elections in Georgia next month, where Democrats could win control of the chamber — but with the slimmest possible margin.

He compared advancing bills to “pushing a heavy rock up a steep hill.”