Yesterday, congressional Democrats began to show more backbone and said they would not pass a new coronavirus bill — organized around the expansion of a small-business loan program — unless it included a national testing program.

We’ll see if they stick to it.

Democrats don’t control the Senate or the White House, so obviously they can’t dictate every aspect of the coronavirus response. Given this reality, they have won some important concessions in recent weeks, including much more help for unemployed workers. But Democrats have more political leverage than they’ve been willing to use so far.

When Barack Obama was president, congressional Republicans recognized that the president’s party would take much of the blame for problems in the country. As a result, they often adopted a tough (and sometimes cynical) negotiating stance.

During the Trump presidency, Democrats have not been willing to be so tough, even in the service of policies many nonpartisan observers believe would help the country. Democrats insist that they will have more chances — that the scale of the virus crisis means that Trump and congressional Republicans will be desperate to pass yet another bill in coming weeks and that state aid and election protection can be added to those bills.

Perhaps. At some point, though, Democrats will have to decide when they’re going to stop accepting bills that they know fall short of what the country needs.