most committed. and i think that we are we provide the policies that are consistent with the growth and opportunity for them, and education play as gigantic part of that. i think that makes the future very, very bright. i think we learn to do some really very good things. with that i should -- as my mother would say, i should hush up and let this discussion move on. >> the u.s. house begins debate today on more than 20 bills when members meet for legislative work at noon eastern time. including a measure to award congressional gold medals to u.s. capitol police who responded to the january 6 attack on the capitol. also several environmental bills and measures dealing with transportation and infrastructure. you'll find lovely gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house here on c-span. >> washing.

host: matt lewis joins us. you can find him at matt lewis.org or on twitter. we are talking about party politics. you wrote in a recent piece that the honeymoon is over for the administration. reality has set in. why? guest: joe biden wins the presidency. that gives everyone a big boost. whoever wins the presidency thinks that they have a mandate but usually they do not. his mandate was do not be donald trump, but people who run for president have all sorts of ideas and plans, but his agenda was going to be fairly modest until he won those senate seats

in georgia. all of a sudden, he has democrats controlling both houses of congress. there was a sense of, we could be lbj. we can pass a lot of progressive legislation. it was not a good thing for joe biden. the expectations were raised. it just steamrolled republicans. it set the expectation that this would be easy. it has not been. host: you wrote that joe biden can quit trying to be fdr or lbj. he can reinvent himself and rewrite his own narrative.

he can start acknowledging that he was elected to study the ship, not -- steady the ship, not rebuild it. guest: i believe that joe biden's mandate was, do not be donald trump. it was not, pass a lot of legislation. there are progressives. i do not think that is why joe biden won the presidency. it was a presentation of folks, some of whom voted for donald trump last time. there was a sense in america that donald trump was very chaotic and we needed to return to normalcy. there is this golden opportunity

. in some ways, that was a trap for joe biden. success is measured by how much you accomplish and how many points you put on the scoreboard. the problem is that was never joe biden's raison d'etre. i think that joe biden, by virtue of being himself can do that. it is about expectations. success means passing a bunch of legislation. they might be disappointed.

lbj and fbi both had overwhelming majority of democrats to work with. joe biden has a very of -- very narrow majority. i think it is time to reset the expectations. i feared for his sake that if his success is measured solely by how much legislation he passes, it might be disappointing. host: call in this morning and let us know how you think the president can be consequential. if you voted for him, i am curious as to what you think the president can do to be consequential. or if you disagree, those that supported the president, he flipped five states.

he flipped four senate seats. so why not go for big change? >> part of the problem is, i do not think he can do it. -- guest: part of the problem is, i do not think he can do it. you are what your record says it is. i might be proven wrong, but the problem for now is that even to pass things via reconciliation --there are specific types of legislation that can pass. just to do that, he needs to have all 50 democratic senators supporting him, and he does not have that on a lot of things. just to name the most prominent

democrats who are not necessarily on board with everything that joe biden might want to pass. if he can do it, he can do it. i am skeptical of the fact that he can pass a lot of landmark legislation. when i look back at other presidents who are considered your great in recent history, i think of ronald reagan. he passed a lot of legislation and did things like tax cuts and amnesty, which may not be popular with callers today. they consequential president. when you look at what are the most important things that reagan did, there were things like winning the cold war and restoring faith in america. they are not legislative bills,

per se. these are things that encompass a lot of things, including rhetoric. that is what he does. it is a big deal and it will not require congress to make that a victory for him, if he ends up having a good showing. i am not suggesting that joe biden should give up legislation. a bunch of things via executive order. i think it is time now. he has hit a bit of a wall to evaluate what he once sprang from his presidency and maybe reset expectations. host: help explain the role that

joe manchin plays. guest: he is a u.s. senator from west virginia, a former governor of west virginia, a democrat, sort of an old-school democrat. from the days when west virginia was a predominantly democratic state. obviously a rural state that donald trump won by almost 40 points last time. politically speaking, he has different political incentives than other democrats, certainly cortez, a more progressive member. joe manchin is more conservative and old-school. he probably, on principle, has different ideas. he was meant toward by robert

byrd, the former senator from west virginia who was an unofficial or official historian and had great belief in institutions, including things like the filibuster and preserving things like the filibuster. it informs the politics today and is part of the controversy. a lot of the anger that democrats have towards him. host: you wrote this article. abortion is why never trump republicans cannot work with democrats. what does that mean? guest: there is a sense out there that those who are never trump should give up on the republican party and throw in with democrats and basically

become democrats. there is a schism. 10 people in america who are never trump conservative. most of them live in or near washington dc. i consider myself loosely part of this group. there is even disagreement among us and some never trump conservatives think that the party is long gone. therefore, we should join with the democrats and vote for joe biden. others --even elected officials, people like liz cheney or the former congresswoman barbara comstock. they tried to reform it and restore it. my argument has been -- it is a

debatable question, whether or not the republican party could ever be restored to its former glory. in terms of joining with the democrats, there are a lot of reasons not to, if you are conservative. the one issue that i think is a moral issue is the pro-life issue. the democrats -- joe biden actually was a pro-life democrat. later, he was pro-choice. he opposed using tax funding. he has reversed his position on that. even if you hate a lot of things that donald trump and the party has done, it has a vastly

different worldview. host: let's go to henry in michigan. go ahead. caller: good morning. here is the way that i see things. joe biden and the democrats have a very unique problem. that is that about 70% of the republican party is fascist. they have authoritarian leanings because of their devotion to donald trump. joe biden is a seasoned politician. messaging is the number one key. they have legislation that they are trying to pass.

they have a way to message, to get the message across to people that it is the republicans that are obstructing this progressive improvement that joe biden wants bang to build america back better. joe manchin has to do the bipartisanship route. he has to play the theater route. we have to show the american people who it is. in our social infrastructure, in our police reform, we have been retarded as a society by a small group of the american body politics. they are extremists on the far right.

guest: democracy is messy. if we had a dictator, we could do infrastructure quickly. we have a very messy system. some people might even call that gridlock. i'm not sure if he is engaging in theater. i'm not sure if we can play it out in front of the american public. kind of a permission structure. it is possible.

the one thing i do agree with is what we need is for some leadership. i do not want to criticize joe biden. i do not think any of our recent presidents have done this. we need to go to the american public. use the bully pulpit. just kind of call on the public to go over the heads of the other party. again, we live in a very polarized country right now. to push the opposing party to do the right thing. if joe biden could say, we need

to do infrastructure and went over the american public sufficiently, that would be a positive thing. it has not happened in america in a long time. host: a bipartisan block in the senate sent to sell its compromise. what is the possibility of this getting passed and signed by the president? guest: this will tell us a lot. either republicans are engaging in good faith, which is to say there are a handful of republicans, people like susan collins, mitt romney and others who are sincerely negotiating in good >> we'll leave the discussions taking place to the u.s. house about to gavel n you can find all of our "washington journal" segments at c-span.org. in the house today debate begins on more than 20 bills. including a measure toward

congressional gold medals to police who responded to the january 6 attack on the capitol. also several environmental bills and measures dealing with transportation and infrastructure. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by chaplain kibben. chaplain kibben: would you pray with me? holy god even as we acknowledge the tragedy of over 600,000 death this is pandemic has wrought on our country and the devastation it has caused around the world, help us to find a gift we are new being given. the opportunity to emerge, carefully, from the fear and anxiety covid has imposed on our daily living and rediscover the importance of our relationships one with another. what a joy it is to see someone else's whole face, to look not just in their eyes but to be graced by their whole countenance. as we dare to unmask, may we dare also toev