Battered Democrats emerged from an Election Day thumping divided on Capitol Hill, with liberals pushing for expansive social spending legislation and centrists refusing to provide the votes to move it to President Joe Biden’s desk.
In Virginia, the Republicans swept, flipping the governor’s mansion, the House of Delegates, and winning contests for lieutenant governor and state attorney general. In New Jersey, the GOP nearly picked off the governor and ousted the most powerful Democrat in the state Senate. Democrats in Congress responded by finger-pointing. Liberals blamed centrists for the electoral implosion, arguing voters rejected their milquetoast agenda; centrists claimed voters rebelled against a party that drifted too far left.
“I think that the results show the limits of trying to run a fully 100% super moderated campaign,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading Democratic liberal from The Bronx, said in remarks posted to social media.
“Nobody elected [Biden] to be FDR, they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos,” countered Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a prominent Democratic centrist from Virginia who represents suburban Richmond, in an interview with the New York Times. She was referring to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democratic president who enacted Social Security and ushered in a major expansion of the federal government during the Great Depression.
After months of disarray, Democrats in the House could unify around a pared down version of Biden’s social spending package and with the goal of kicking it to the Senate. The original price tag on this “reconciliation” legislation was $3.5 trillion, but it was expected to come in around $2 trillion by the time it cleared the House. Congressional Republicans unanimously oppose the bill in any form.
BIDEN IMPLORES DEMOCRATS TO VOTE ‘YES’ ON BOTH SPENDING PROPOSALS
Agreement on social spending would pave the way for passage of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure that passed the Senate in August with nearly 20 Republican votes. It has languished in the House since, with liberals refusing to provide the votes to send it to Biden for his signature unless centrists support the president’s partisan and more expensive “Build Back Better” social spending bill.
However, even if divided House Democrats finally reach consensus, taking the win on the bipartisan infrastructure package and sending the larger social spending bill reconciliation to the Senate, the infighting between centrists and liberals that is roiling the party is poised to persist. The social spending bill as it is shaping up in the House is likely to be too costly for Democratic centrists in the Senate, leading to additional negotiations, floor votes — and intraparty sniping.
“How can I in good conscience vote for a bill that proposes massive expansion of social programs when vital programs like Social Security and Medicare face insolvency, and benefits can start being reduced as soon as 2026 in Medicare and 2033 in Social Security?” Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and the face of centrist opposition to Biden’s social spending proposal, said during a news conference.
“How does that make sense? And I don’t think it does,” he added. Manchin’s concerns are shared by another Democratic centrist, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. And because Democrats control a 50-seat “majority” that rests on Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote, both Manchin and Sinema must sign off on the reconciliation package for it to pass, given the unanimous Republican opposition. The bill is not subject to a filibuster.
Democratic infighting over Biden’s social spending bill began almost from the moment the legislation was introduced.
Neither House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California nor Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York control enough votes to pass legislation minus the support of their centrist and liberal blocs. And although Senate Democrats cooperated with each other on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, House liberals refused to support the legislation until their demands for a robust reconciliation package were met.
Providing Biden a big win for his agenda in advance of an overseas trip to Europe to meet with key U.S. allies proved insufficient motivation to break the logjam, as did the threat that the Democrats’ failure to govern would sink the party’s candidates in key off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere. The electoral disaster that ultimately unfolded does appear to have instigated Democrats to make one adjustment that might foster party unity.
Rather than holding out for a bicameral agreement among centrists and liberals on Biden’s social spending package, Pelosi is forging ahead with plans to pass a bill that satisfies House Democrats and puts the onus on Senate Democrats to respond. Pelosi’s strategy includes simultaneous approval of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation. If the speaker can whip the votes to get it done, tension between liberals and centrists could abate.
Democrats who represent competitive constituencies have been frustrated with liberals for taking the popular bipartisan infrastructure bill hostage in exchange for them taking tough votes on legislation their voters do not necessarily support. Meanwhile, liberals representing states and districts where the breadth of initiatives proposed in the social spending package enjoy broad support are angry that what they view as a minority faction of their party is controlling the agenda.
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On Friday afternoon, Democrats were still struggling to bridge the gap.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” a House Democratic aide said. “Pelosi keeps doing this. If the votes were there, they’d be there.”
