Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina President JOE BIDEN’s legislative sausage making has not been a particularly pretty sight. A massive revamping of the social safety net, an historic investment in climate change, and a major injection of money into infrastructure have been cobbled together by different factions, linked by distrustful lawmakers, and held hostage by the slimmest of voting margins. And yet, the betting money among top Dems — at least on Friday afternoon — was that, in due course, it will all get passed. The question is when? Hoping to speed up matters, Biden’s close adviser MIKE DONILON issued a memo today to the Hill and Democratic stakeholders, making the case that the Biden framework wasn’t just generational policy but a winning case for the 2022 midterms. “Since the bills were introduced in the spring, polls have consistently demonstrated strong and unwavering support – including among majorities of Independents,” Donilon’s memo reads. “Not only are voters in battleground states and districts more likely to vote for members who support the plan by a 17-point margin, they are more likely to vote against those who oppose it by a 10-point margin.” On the surface, the Donilon memo is standard fare; a compilation of poll numbers that tell a now-familiar story — that Biden’s agenda is broadly popular and that its individual parts are even more so. What stands out are the subjects emphasized. Whereas, over the summer, the administration leaned into prescription drug reforms, in this memo the onus is on two other areas. “Voters want the government to step up and help reverse the course of climate change” it reads, and “people want to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations.” The other notable feature is the timing. The memo comes amid persistent concern that the longer Biden’s agenda lingers, the more likely it is that a lawmaker or 20 will get cold feet. That prospect seems even more acute as TERRY MCAULIFFE’s candidacy seems more endangered in the Virginia gubernatorial election. The time to act is now, the Donilon memo practically screams. Indeed, its subject line is: “Americans Want Their Members to Act.” For those who lived through previous piqued legislative battles, these exhortations feel eerily familiar. “Deja vu,” as NADEAM ELSHAMI, House Speaker NANCY PELOSI’s former chief of staff, put it. Back in 2009, Democratic leadership threw a number of compromises against the wall in hopes of finding commonality between the liberal and centrist wings on Obamacare. But ideas like allowing states to opt out of a public health insurance option, or giving those 55 and older the chance to buy into Medicare didn’t stick. And so Pelosi — with her members reeling from SCOTT BROWN’ s win in the Massachusetts Senate race — made a separate calculation: that the caucus could be convinced doing nothing at all was amoral and politically imprudent. They passed the bill. This go-around, Democrats once more dropped the more popular provisions from their agenda, at least for now. Biden’s framework does not call for Medicare prescription drug price reform or paid paternity leave. And while it would result in corporations and the wealthy paying higher taxes, it does so without raising top tax rates. Still, progressives seemed poised to support it. And once more it’s the think-of-the-broader-good approach — the central theme of the Donilon memo — doing the trick. “Look at what you are leaving on the table,” is how Elshami put it. To underscore his point, he spotlighted one provision of the framework that’s gotten little coverage but would likely do wonders in ensuring that the votes would be there for passage. The bill permanently extends funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which had been set to run out of money at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. Four years ago, it was uncertain whether Republicans, including those who’d previously supported it, would vote to reauthorize the program. In one vote in the next couple weeks, that uncertainty could be lifted forever. “It’s mind boggling,” Elshami said. “If you fought these fights for a while, it’s like ‘check, moving on.’” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you KATRINA R. SMITH, researcher? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. Or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098. | 
