With Democrats in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, negotiations over President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus are in full swing.

Biden’s bill includes more spending on COVID-19 vaccines, additional funds for state and local governments and small businesses, higher federal unemployment insurance payments (from $300 to $400 per week), more generous food stamp payments (up 15 percent), an extension of the ill-enforced federal eviction moratorium, and a token amount of money for renters facing eviction and utility shutoffs.

But the portion of the bill that has received the most attention is the direct payments of up to $1,400 per person. And it is on this highly visible part that Biden and some congressional Democrats are falling into their old pattern of negotiating against themselves.