The chaos surrounding President Joe Biden’s spending agenda is a reminder for Democrats that even when you control the White House and both chambers of Congress, brute force is no substitute for legislative compromise.
The president’s agenda stalled Thursday evening when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed a vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure package over fears it would fail, despite vowing to bring it to the floor by Sept. 30. That pause wasn’t caused by Republicans but by separate factions of the Democratic Party.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, promised to sink the proposal unless Pelosi brought it to the floor in tandem with Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. But that looks increasingly unlikely as the White House and centrist Senate holdouts Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona continue their standoff.
THREE IN FIVE BACK BIDEN ON INFRASTRUCTURE AND BLAME GOP FOR PENDING DEBT CRISIS
Historically, Pelosi has avoided bringing bills to the floor without knowing she has the requisite number of votes to pass the legislation.
Biden himself met with House Democrats Friday afternoon to lobby support for moving forward with the bipartisan plan, but Jayapal still said on Friday afternoon she did not expect a vote to take place later that evening. Biden also signaled to reporters that a deal had not yet been reached.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s in six minutes, six days, or six weeks,” he said before departing the Capitol. “We’re going to get it done.”
Two senior Democratic officials expressed serious concerns to the Washington Examiner about the party’s inability to form a compromise to advance Biden’s agenda. Those officials placed equal blame on progressives and the “mod squad,” claiming the former was “missing the forest for the trees” while the latter put their own careers ahead of the best interests of the party and their constituents.
DEMOCRATS: DON’T CALL IT DISARRAY
“President Biden’s economic plan is one of the most transformative pieces of legislation the U.S. has ever seen,” one official stated. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework will modernize our nation’s bridges, roads, and highways, boosting economic efficiency in the process. Similarly, the Build Back Better [budget reconciliation] plan will make historic investments in American workers and families.”
That person said “failing” to deliver those proposals, especially with it being Democrats and not Republicans who killed the bills, would mark a major violation of Biden’s campaign economic promises and would guarantee the party loses its congressional majorities in the 2022 midterm elections.
John Podesta, a former top adviser to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, gave an even starker warning to Democrats, noting that a failure to pass the bills “would signal a complete and utter failure of our democratic duty and a reckless abdication of our responsibility.”
Jason Grumet, co-founder and president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, told the Washington Examiner the “new absolutism of the Progressive Caucus is the dynamic that is responsible” for stalling Biden’s plans.
“During the Trump administration, the faces of both parties radicalized, and the Republican Party has been dealing with that challenge of having a caucus of 20, 40, 50 members — whether they were Tea Party or Freedom Caucus — that were just not going to work with the majority,” he explained. “The progressives have always been very vocal, but this is the first time in a while that they’ve exhibited the same kind of rigidity that I think has been more common for a faction of the Republican Party, and the Democrats aren’t good at it yet, or they just don’t really have a lot of experience with this dynamic.”
Grumet suggested that the reason the Progressive Caucus is “being so aggressive at the moment” is twofold.
In his eyes, the “bad energy” flowing over from the Trump years “combined with the economic realities in response to the pandemic have kind of coalesced around a big moment for government intervention.”
Grumet additionally predicted the “reality” will set in among Democrats that “moderates, as Speaker Pelosi said, are the majority makers.”
He closed by noting the “legislative rigidity” currently on display is a much more effective strategy in the minority than in the majority.
“If your goal is largely to stop government from doing things — it’s a pretty good resistance strategy, but it’s not a particularly effective creation strategy,” Grumet concluded. “There’s always been the sense of, ‘Oh, the conservatives are tough, and the progressives are wimps, and the conservatives hold their line, but the progressives always fold.’ There’s a reason for that. You can be absolutist and stop something from happening a lot better than you can be absolutist and get something to happen, and I think that’s really become clear in this negotiation.”
Democratic officials previously told the Washington Examiner they expected congressional leadership, in the interest of reaching a deal, to lower the top-line number of the reconciliation package from $3.5 trillion to a figure that Manchin and Sinema would accept. Manchin previously proposed a scaled-down bill worth $1.5 trillion to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Fox News reported Friday the White House was lobbying the centrists on a $2.1 trillion total.
The White House has been trying to get Manchin and Sinema to agree to a $2.1T reconciliation deal, but the framework is not enough for progressives to vote for the bipartisan bill. Biden now traveling to the Hill is a significant part of this effort to get it done.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) October 1, 2021
However, Sinema departed Washington earlier in the day. Her office confirmed she returned to Phoenix for the weekend but would continue to engage in “remote” negotiations with the White House.
It’s worth noting that public polling on Biden’s proposals remains positive.
A survey published Thursday by Navigator found that 3 in 5 people supported the $3.5 trillion infrastructure proposal. The party vote found 60% of independents supporting the plan, compared to 89% of Democrats and 30% of Republicans. Those numbers did not change when respondents were specifically informed the plan “would be paid for by increasing taxes on the top 2% of income earners, raising taxes on those earning over $1 million a year from selling stocks and bonds, known as capital gains, raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5%, and cracking down on tax evasion.”
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An even larger share, 66%, thought that it was “urgent” Congress passes the legislation, including 69% of independents.
