I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, October 29th.

President Biden has landed in Europe for a high-stakes economic summit, followed by a higher-stakes climate summit.

Today he is meeting with Pope Francis in Rome. Biden probably could use some pastoral comforting

after the week he's been having with Congress, right? Still no deal on his physical and human

infrastructure package among the different factions of Democrats, a deal he was hoping all sides

would embrace when he announced a revised framework for it yesterday. Key word, I think.

Today, I'm pleased to announce that after months of tough and thoughtful negotiations, I think we have an historic, I know we have

historic economic framework. I think we have a historic economic framework. Then he changed

it to, I know, well, he may have the framework, but he doesn't have the agreement yet.

Add to that the state of Florida,

suing Biden over his vaccine mandate for federal workers and contractors, the election Tuesday

and the purple state of Virginia, which could be an indicator of the chances of Congress

flipping next year to the GOP. And oh, by the way, remember the GOP? What about the risk to

them when Biden's bills finally do pass, which they probably will, and every single Republican

has to run next year on having voted against universal preschool, a monthly child tax credit,

adding hearing aids to Medicare, climate protections when we're having extreme weather events all over the country, and maybe, still maybe,

some amount of paid family leave. Is it good for them to have voted against all of those things

once it comes to pass? With me now, USA Today, Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page.

Hi, Susan. It's hard to know where to look first today. Welcome back to WNYC.

Hey, Brian. It's great to be back with you. And let's look first at the Republicans. If we can

assume the human infrastructure social benefits bill will eventually pass. Is there any hand-rigging on the

red side of the aisle at all or in purple states or purple congressional districts represented by

...