Good Plan

 I like Josh Marshall's idea here, that we should not engage with bad faith arguments from Republicans. Obama wasted much of the first two years of his presidency waiting in vain for McConnell's band of neo-nullifiers to come around and compromise. The essential lesson of 2009-2011 was that Republicans settled on a strategy of delay and obstruction; at the time it was referred to as "Lucy and the football" - which Marshall references. The constant moving of goalposts meant that precious time was wasted waiting for Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe to somehow come across with their vote. It never happened, and Biden was a witness to that.

As with so many things, it hinges on the Georgia Senate races. If Biden can get to 50 voters with Harris as the tiebreaker, then there is a possibility he can cram through a massive budget bill that accomplishes as much as possible. Tax increases on the wealthy; massive green infrastructure; pandemic relief. He could also force tough votes on DACA and some other issues with McConnell unable to shield his members by refusing to schedule votes. 

If Democrats don't win in Georgia, it becomes easier and harder. Easier, because it will all be within the executive branch, harder to achieve real change for the same reason. 

One thing that is increasingly clear, though Marshall doesn't center this in his argument: there should be no space for concern-trolling the Biden Justice Department for investigating Trump's crimes. Congressional Republicans - with a handful of exceptions - excused Trump's lawbreaking and, most importantly, his politicization of the Justice Department at every turn. They refused to even hear witnesses in the impeachment trial. They have zero credibility on issues of the use of executive levers of power to punish political opponents. This is absolutely not to say that Biden should force his Attorney General to prosecute Trump and his cronies. Career investigators should decide on the merits whether to indict Trump, his children and his cronies. The merit of these offenses of manifestly clear.

Fuck Republican handwringing over prosecuting a former president for crimes he committed.