I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Monday, February 1st.

Maybe this is what normal looks like.

I'm not talking about the snow.

Maybe this is what normal politics looks like. Or maybe not talking about the snow. Maybe this is what normal politics looks like,

or maybe it's a sucker punch. President Biden, we all know, has been calling for a new era of unity,

including negotiations on important bills in Congress between Democrats and Republicans,

something that hasn't been happening much in recent years,

as you know. Notably, when Obama was president, Republicans wouldn't negotiate on much of

anything, and Congress had years of gridlock. That led to Obama resorting to more executive orders

by the end of his term, and of course, Trump governed largely by executive order, and Biden has

gotten off on that foot, too. But on many things, you need Congress. So here we are with Biden

proposing a $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. He may have the votes, May, in the Senate, to get it

through with only Democrats. But then this weekend came a letter to the votes, May, in the Senate, to get it through with only Democrats. But then this weekend came a

letter to the president from 10 relatively moderate Republican senators led by Susan Collins of Maine.

They do support the $160 billion for COVID testing and vaccines, but are calling for a negotiation on a smaller package overall

and targeting it more narrowly to people in need, plus reducing the length and amount of

extended unemployment benefits, providing aid to schools but less aid to schools intended to help

with reopening safely

and taking out some democratic priorities that the Republicans say are unrelated to COVID relief,

like doubling the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

...