The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed by the Senate last week, is a landmark act of emergency relief.

The bill’s largest features — $1,400 cash payments, extended unemployment aid, $350 billion for state and local governments — have attracted the most attention, but the package contains many more provisions that will make a material difference for millions in the working class, from union pension holders to childcare providers. Its additional spending on health care, rental housing, food assistance, schools, and families with children make the Rescue Plan, in the words of the New York Times, “the largest antipoverty effort in a generation.”

What does the passage of this bill, on a 50-49 party-line vote, say about the state of American politics? Within the broad Democratic coalition, the mood is celebratory, even triumphant. “Joe Biden is a transformational president,” proclaims David Brooks.“[P]rogressive and socialist organizers,” writes New York magazine’s Eric Levitz, “along with trade unions, Black churches, and other working-class organizations helped bring us to a point where *Joe Biden* is going to deliver the largest direct increase in worker purchasing power in U.S. history.”