Biden wants do big things. For America and history, he should get them done any way he can.

There was a time when America faced challenges and met them, saw problems and solved them; when every negotiation wasn't a zero sum game — when everyone could walk away from the table with at least a partial win. Ambitious presidents and members of Congress passed laws that changed American lives.

That exists now only in history books. Dusty pages talk about lifting millions of elderly Americans out of poverty in 1935 with the creation of Social Security. Outlawing discrimination and driving a stake through the heart of Jim Crow with landmark 1960s civil rights acts. Giving birth to the interstate highway system in 1956 and creating Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

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Generations since have grown accustomed to Capitol Hill gridlock and nastiness. Failure to compromise has triggered 21 government shutdowns since 1976, the longest one for 35 days just two years ago. With few exceptions, the laws that do make it through are weak tea.

According to the Pew Research Center, a full third of the bills in the last Congress were so-called ceremonial statutes commemorating coins or renaming post offices, the highest rate of insubstantial lawmaking in a decade.

Enter Joe Biden

Into this cauldron of inertia, enter Joe Biden. At 78, after decades in the Senate and as vice president, he seemed like a safe institutionalist choice. But so far, he might as well be wearing a T-shirt saying, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

Biden is ready to do big things, both to help America and to revive its reputation in the eyes of the world. He has already commenced to redefine "bipartisanship" as what most Americans want, as opposed to whether a bill in Congress can get support from both parties. That's a huge departure right there.

So is the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Biden and his party muscled through with Democratic votes but "bipartisan" support out in the great American beyond. Biden's American Jobs Plan is even bigger and enlarges the concept of infrastructure to include health system infrastructure, such as caregivers. He's also got an American Families Plan in the works, and that's hardly the end of what he plans to do, or what some Democrats in Congress are fomenting.

Democrats have razor-thin majorities in Congress, and Republicans are in lockstep opposition. But Biden's COVID-19 rescue package, with its direct payments and child tax credits, could actually reduce the number of Americans living in poverty by a third, and polls show the public loves it.

The administration argues that there's similar broad support for his plans to invest trillions in roads and bridges, green infrastructure and more drivers of social change — spending economists say will boost job growth and Biden says will keep America competitive with China.

What else? Where to start?

Biden has been communing with presidential historians about legacy building to rival the landmark legislative accomplishments of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has won a parliamentarian's ruling that he says means Democrats could pass several more bills by majority vote. That's vital in a 50-50 Senate where Democrats can't muster the supermajority needed to break Republican blockades-by-filibuster, but where they do have Vice President Kamala Harris to get them to 51 votes.

To qualify for passage on a simple majority vote, bills must have an impact on federal spending or revenue. That encompasses a surprising range of Democratic priorities, among them legalizing undocumented "Dreamers" brought to the United States as children, creating a public insurance option, lowering the Medicare eligibility age and reducing prescription drug prices. And, of course, it comfortably accommodates Biden's infrastructure package and the tax increases he wants to finance it.

Vital for our future: This isn't your ex-president's 'Infrastructure Week.' Biden plan is big, serious and paid for.

Biden and Democrats are also pushing broad election reform based on the uncomplicated, accessible premise that voting should be easier and not harder for Americans. What's not to like? The same can be said of tightening gun laws, as mass shootings continue with tragic regularity. Though popular and badly needed, these bills will be tough to pass without Republican cooperation or dramatic changes — even death — to the filibuster. The president is finally softening on that paralyzing Senate tradition. Could he get holdout Democrats Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia to relent? Maybe. He needs to try.

Legislate for the ages

The subtext to all of this is the 46th president's desire to drive a stake through the heart of Ronald Reagan's admonition 40 years ago that government is the problem, not the solution. Biden has done the spade work for the virtue of big government by smartly demonstrating how Washington can organize vaccinating the nation in a deadly pandemic.

The price tags on Biden's plans are high, but they are not the only indicator of the scale of his thinking. When he was Barack Obama's vice president, Biden famously told Obama it was a BFD when he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And it truly was, but what kind of name was that for such a big-deal law?

ACA endures: Obamacare, for all its health insurance flaws, survives Trump, repeal, replace and COVID-19

It soon became known (tarred?) as Obamacare, a name chosen by Republicans, and not because they anticipated it might someday become popular. The point was, Democrats were not in the mindset of legislating for the ages (or heading off scorn when, inevitably, care did not become affordable).

Biden has learned from the branding failures of the past. The titles of his initiatives reflect their scope and aspirations. They sound grand, and thank goodness. With resolve, luck and marginal House and Senate majorities, there may be a few landmark laws still to be written for the history books. And he will be able to prove, in what he frames as an existential global battle between autocracy and democracy, that "democracy works."

Jill Lawrence (@JillDLawrence) is commentary editor of USA TODAY. Gregg Zoroya (@greggzoroya) is an editorial writer for USA TODAY.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID, jobs, fairness: Biden should not delay ambitious agenda