After months of standstill and tedium, we’re finally getting a sense of the endgame for Joe Biden’s infrastructure package. And what it could amount to is a moment of truth for the burgeoning progressive and socialist bloc in Congress.

Let’s rewind and remember how we got here. Biden got probably the best press of his life after signing into law the flawed but significant $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill in March, not all of which was driven by a need to prop up an ailing Ancien Régime in Washington. In fact, Biden genuinely earned praise by doing two uncharacteristically un-Biden-like things: he put deficit concerns to the side, and quickly jettisoned pointless negotiations with Republicans designed only to waste time and cut the size of the bill, unnecessary given Democrats’ slim but total control of Congress. Cue FDR comparisons. Cue pronouncements of the birth of a new world.

Months later, Biden and his team bafflingly decided that, for the next big piece of Democratic legislation — a bill designed to jumpstart the economy further by finally repairing the country’s long neglected infrastructure, while dealing with priorities like climate change and child care — they would do the exact opposite on both counts.