The infrastructure bill and budget reconciliation were allowed to pass by both Republican and Democrat leadership (McConnell and pelosi as well as Biden) because it will be a series of stories that dominate the news cycle for a while as Delta variant news ramps up.
McConnell still has control of his caucus, and 19 republicans didn’t just vote for this because they were convinced by the loser moderates who came up with the infrastructure bill.
Both Republicans and democrats win here, and can avoid pressure to shut things down, extend UI, etc., and the positive press will fizzle out by the time 2022 comes around.
Edit: for the record, I think the change in CDC mask guidance was specifically rushed to overshadow negative headlines on inflation, unemployment/won’t someone think of the business owners, and Palestine.
I think this is a little bit of fitting data to a conclusion rather than fitting a conclusion to data.
Like sure you might be right, but the more likely explanation is that Biden and Democrats campaigned on the things in these bills and are now trying to pass them.