It is tempting to claim that resource allocation questions are starker than ever. The classic formulation in political science is guns or butter. Today, it is vaccines, PPE, financial support to ailing businesses and the unemployed, and deteriorating infrastructure from electric grids to water systems. And those are just a sampling of expensive challenges in headlines from February. But we have been here before, and the 117th Congress is not the first to meet at a time of great national foment.

We face some of the greatest challenges in a generation. These challenges have exposed dysfunctional government institutions and outdated policies. They also present legislators with the special obligation to tone down the rhetoric and scale back the ambitions of winner-take-all policy proposals.