This week is when the tug-o-war over infrastructure will truly begin to heat up: The House will begin the debate over the bipartisan infrastructure bill today and is slated to vote for it on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told rank-and-file Democrats in her chamber on Sunday.
Democratic leaders also hope to finish up on negotiations over the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill this week after centrist Democrats threw a grenade at the initially agreed-upon two-track process of passing the reconciliation and the infrastructure bills together.
But the real fight is in the Senate, where Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have kicked up a fuss over the $3.5 trillion price tag of the reconciliation bill. That’s also where Democrats find themselves in a gridlock with Republicans who refuse to suspend the debt ceiling for the legislation.
By the way:
President Biden won’t be giving into moderates’ demands that he pressure progressives to back off of plans to pass the reconciliation package before the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The office of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, confirmed Biden’s messaging to the Washington Post.
“The White House has not asked progressives to change course,” Chris Evans, a spokesperson for Jayapal, told the Post. Evans noted there’s been no pressure to vote for the infrastructure bill “before” the reconciliation one is “passed.”
Why would Biden not be pushing the dirty hippies to give in? Well:
“Like the overwhelming majority of Democrats, progressives support President Biden’s entire Build Back Better agenda and look forward to sending both bills to his desk,” Evans added.
Joe Biden, the moderate old white guy who satisfied the moderates who couldn’t stomach Bernie or Elizabeth, has produced the big agenda that he ran on. Who is standing in the way? The “moderates” in the congress. Maybe they aren’t really so “moderate” after all? Maybe they are actually the radicals who would rather empower Republicans and Donald Trump than associate themselves with a big program to help the American people. Or maybe they just don’t care if Biden’s presidency is destroyed and Democratic majorities with it? Sometimes people are more comfortable being out of power where they can carp from the sidelines without ever having to make tough choices.
Regardless of their motives, it’s important to recognize that this time it isn’t the progressives who are standing in the way of the president’s agenda. They are with him — the moderate old white guy that none of them wanted to win. That tells you everything you need to know.