… when a Democratic White House was actually working with progressives instead of triangulating against them. But according to this, that’s exactly what’s happening.
As I write this, the infrastructure bill hasn’t been brought up as planned and pelosi was non committal about whether she would bring it up today at all. I honestly can’t see why she would.
Anyway:
Progressives in the House are revolting. Inside the White House, they’re welcoming it.
One by one, liberal lawmakers have announced that they will vote to defeat a bipartisan infrastructure bill if moderate Democrats and the White House do not offer a firm outline for an accompanying social and climate spending package as well. And just as tensions within the party were at a seeming boiling point this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned it up even further, urging House Democrats to vote against that bipartisan infrastructure bill when it is scheduled to hit the floor on Thursday.
Though some of those same progressives have loudly complained that President Joe Biden isn’t doing enough to reach out to them individually on his legislative agenda, the White House seems utterly unbothered by it.
Instead, they’re hoping that the prospect of a progressive revolt will only add to the pressure they’re attempting to exert on Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the two moderate Senators most noncommittal about supporting a party-line reconciliation bill. Two sources familiar with the White House’s messaging to progressives said that officials have made it clear to them that they are not displeased with all the talk about voting down the infrastructure package.
“I think it’s good to have drama around this because it does isolate those people who are obstructing it for no good reason other than some sort of austerity politics mentality that, when you’re in a time of crisis, just isn’t a logical position,” saidHeather Gautney, a former senior adviser to Sanders.
“We made a deal and I think they just need to keep hammering that because the tradition is to paint the progressive as hard headed and wanting to spend too much money and that’s just absurd at this point — especially with Biden where he is on all of it,” Gautney added.Ultimately, the White House wants to see the infrastructure bill passed when it is brought up. But the idea that it would be comfortable with an effort by a portion of its own party to delay and put into question one of the president’s most important initiatives would have been unheard of in previous administrations. These, however, are not normal times. And this is hardly a normal legislative calendar.
Biden and his top aides are desperately trying to reach an agreement on the reconciliation package with the two moderate Democrats. But both Manchin and Sinema have not just resisted overtures, the two have been evasive about what framework and price tag they would accept for the $3.5 trillion climate and social spending plan.
Without any material commitments from their moderate counterparts, progressives in the House have vowed to tank the bipartisan infrastructure package, believing that if it were to pass they would be removing whatever leverage they still had to ensure the reconciliation bill’s passage. They argue that both plans are part of Biden’s economic agenda — a point that the White House has increasingly echoed in public statements as well.
The White House is convinced progressives’ end goal is still aligned with theirs and see the pressure they’re exerting as ultimately helpful rather than damaging.
These bills are the mainstream position. The outliers are a handful of moderates and two Senators all of whom are operating as functional Republicans.