House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) indicated in a meeting with her colleagues that her and President Biden’s two-track plan for passing both the bipartisan infrastructure legislation and the sweeping $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill may be sunk.
The Democratic leader told her caucus that she would still put the bipartisan bill to a vote on Thursday but reconciliation would not be ready to put on the floor this week despite her previous announcement. The decision to basically decouple the bills came after Democratic leadership realized they’d have to pare down the $3.5 trillion price tag for moderate Democrats who threw the two-track plan into jeopardy, according to multiple reports on the meeting.
While a failed vote on the bipartisan bill would surely produce a slew of “Dems in disarray” type headlines, it may be a saving grace for Democratic leadership. They’d have a few more weeks to finish reconciliation in a way that satisfies everyone, and heighten the chances of passing both bills then without the pressure of this arbitrary deadline.
Meanwhile, Democrats are scrambling to figure out how to fend off a government shutdown and a full-on disaster with the national debt caused by GOP senators who voted against the legislation to keep the government funded and suspend the debt limit.
Follow our live coverage below:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) indicated in a meeting with her colleagues that her and President Biden’s two-track plan for passing both the bipartisan infrastructure legislation and the sweeping $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill may be sunk.
The Democratic leader told her caucus that she would still put the bipartisan bill to a vote on Thursday but reconciliation would not be ready to put on the floor this week despite her previous announcement. The decision to basically decouple the bills came after Democratic leadership realized they’d have to pare down the $3.5 trillion price tag for moderate Democrats who threw the two-track plan into jeopardy, according to multiple reports on the meeting.
While a failed vote on the bipartisan bill would surely produce a slew of “Dems in disarray” type headlines, it may be a saving grace for Democratic leadership. They’d have a few more weeks to finish reconciliation in a way that satisfies everyone, and heighten the chances of passing both bills then without the pressure of this arbitrary deadline.
Meanwhile, Democrats are scrambling to figure out how to fend off a government shutdown and a full-on disaster with the national debt caused by GOP senators who voted against the legislation to keep the government funded and suspend the debt limit.
Follow our live coverage below:
If this is true then I’m not sure if what to think at this point. Doesn’t seem likely that the progressives will cave. Also doesn’t seem like Pelosi would set this up and fracture her caucus on purpose given that the so-called moderate faction is so small. Maybe it’s an acknowledgment that the Senate’s rules have so warped our democracy that nothing else can be done. Though I think at this point keeping the Dems united in the face of today’s GOP is more important than passing these bills. Biden’s done a great job uniting the party and it would be death to see it all taken down by these self serving chaos agents posing as centrists. I say it’s all or nothing.
I see. It’s now an arbitrary deadline.
Democrats as a party just don’t really want our votes, is that it?
O’Donnell had David Plouffe and Jonathan Capehart on last night and they picture they drew is 180 degrees different than what I see on TPM today.
I will always go with the knowledge that Gloom-derived mouse-clicks from gloomy stories are always more effective ($$$$$-wise) than the less-paid-attention-to work in the trenches by the people in position to work and negotiate on the bill…even people like Sinema and Manchin…
I think the problem here is that progressives have ALWAYS caved in the past. However, in the past, progressives (almost) always lacked any leverage - which is why they caved. The moderates are so used to progressives caving that they expect it to happen even though the progressives now have leverage.
I think that the moderates have miscalculated. The only move left is for progressives to prove that they really are willing to walk away from the table.
Doing that will unleash a media firestorm about how Biden’s agenda is dead, presidency ruined, etc. And it might be right. But I also think it is the only way we get anything approximating the 3.5T that we need in reconciliation - so it is the right call.
This week will be a rollercoaster - but it is probably just the beginning.
Edit: some evidence backing up my supposition that moderates have (hopefully) miscalculated progressives’ resolve: