“My gut feeling is that it doesn’t line up with transformative issues on the scale of Social Security, the Securities Exchange Act, the Federal Housing Administration, the Civil Rights Act of 64,” David M. Kennedy, historian at Stanford University and author of “Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945.”
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“They’re just not in this league,” he said.
Mr. Kennedy noted that Mr. Roosevelt has a large majority in Congress, while Mr. Biden’s party is barely in control – and with deep internal disagreements.
“The Democratic Party today is much more fractured with all kinds of divisions,” Kennedy said. “It’s proving very, very difficult to get this body of Democrats in both houses to legislate consistently.”
“The package is much smaller, more modest and that was to be expected,” he added.
Mr. Biden’s accomplishments — however shrunken in the eyes of some — could also prove to be his legislative high point. After the final votes were tallied, Mr. Biden made a video call to his longtime adviser, Steve Ricchetti, to congratulate a few dozen Roosevelt Room employees.
The president, who is vacationing in South Carolina, told them they had changed the world and made a difference for American families, according to an administration official.
But even as the White House celebrated the legislation on Friday, the final deal was largely signed off by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and two center Democrats who were holdouts, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. . In an emailed statement, Mr. Manchin’s office took particular credit for the legislative victory on Friday, announcing the House’s passage of the “Manchin Inflation Reduction Act.”