Sept. 1, 2021: Biden vs. The Blob

President Joe Biden ended August on Tuesday with a combative speech in which he defended his decision-making on Afghanistan, which has become by far the most controversial turn of his short presidency. He criticized Afghan national security forces for melting away in the face of the Taliban. He insisted that Americans in Afghanistan had “multiple warnings and offers to help them leave.” “Biden is fighting The Blob,” noted our colleague Alex Ward. “That seems to be the messaging here, both in and out of DC.” And, Biden is about to make a sharp pivot from fighting D.C.’s foreign policy Blob to fighting D.C.’s interest group Blob. Two weeks from today, congressional committees are scheduled to complete assembling the myriad pieces of Build Back Better into a single bill — resulting in possibly the largest package of new legislation in American history. Today we start Playbook’s series of deep dives into the major policies of the reconciliation bill by digging into the Dems’ proposals to lower prescription drug costs.