The high stakes help explain why Biden’s struggle to enact his ambitious agenda is about more than a legislative wrangle and why it seems unbelievable to outsiders that the biggest roadblock comes from Democrats rather than Republicans.
After Biden admitted Friday that his big infrastructure and spending plans had hit a “stalemate,” Democrats spent the weekend battling over the scope, cost and timing and the corporate and individual tax hikes for the wealthy needed to pay for measures that will define the President’s term.
Progressives had warned they would scupper the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, a centerpiece of Biden’s broad push for national unity, if they don’t also get a vote on the $3.5 trillion bill to remake the social safety net. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday evening gave in to pressure from the group by announcing she would bring up the infrastructure bill on Monday, as previously agreed with moderates, but would not call a vote on it until Thursday.
Earlier, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the House Progressive Caucus, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that “the speaker is an incredibly good vote-counter. And she knows exactly where her caucus stands.”
“The votes aren’t there,” Jayapal said.
The issue with the progressive gambit is that there are few signs that moderate Democratic senators iike West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema are yet anywhere near signing off on the $3.5 trillion package. At a minimum they have signaled they would accept a much smaller bill, that might be unacceptable to progressives who originally wanted to spend $6 trillion. Pelosi’s move merely pushed the moment of truth back a few days.
One House moderate, Rep Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, earlier foreshadowed Pelosi’s shift — though offered a different timeline.
“The bottom line is, what’s important — and the speaker communicated this to all of us yesterday — is that we vote on it early this week. And that’s going to happen,” Gottheimer told Tapper.
This congressional choreography may appear confusing and as dysfunctional business as usual in the capital for many Americans. But the events of the coming days will help shape the path of the country in the years ahead. They will help decide whether Biden will succeed in his bid to use government to alleviate poverty and trigger social…
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