Sen. Bernie Sanders is banking on a special procedural maneuver to move left-wing proposals past the Senate if he becomes elected president in 2020.
The Vermont independent’s team believes it can bypass the filibuster by employing budget reconciliation rules, according to an Axios report on Friday. Sanders would dictate that his vice president then would throw out any challenges to the “Green New Deal” and “Medicare for all” that were not germane under Senate rules, assuming Sanders could muster up 50 senators to go along with the plans.
The idea comes as moderate Democrats in the Senate have warned they would stand up to the democratic socialist’s policies. “He’s not gonna get that,” West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said about Sanders’s most left-wing proposals. “Bernie has a little different, unusual approach to fixing [the country’s problems], more so than what I could be acceptable with.”
Sen. Doug Jones, another red-state Democrat, said he did not believe Sanders would be able to get proposals such as jobs for all and college for all passed in the Senate. “I can’t imagine any of those getting the sufficient votes to even get a majority,” Jones said. “Much less getting 60 votes.”
