House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to swallow a Senate-passed border funding bill over the loud objections of the Left should be a warning sign to 2020 Democratic presidential contenders as 10 candidates gear up for another debate.
After the Senate on Wednesday voted 84-8 on a package of funding to address the situation at the southern border, Pelosi had no choice but to abandon efforts by liberals to add additional provisions to the bill.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fumed:
Under no circumstances should the House vote for a McConnell-only bill w/ no negotiation with Democrats. Hell no.
That’s an abdication of power we should refuse to accept. They will keep hurting kids if we do.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 27, 2019
As Pelosi has signaled to the social media sensation repeatedly, in one way or another, expanding the House Democratic majority is not contingent upon pleasing Ocasio-Cortez and her allies, but on maintaining and adding more seats in competitive districts. As such, moderate Democrats have significant sway within the House caucus.
This is a reality that any Democratic president will have to face. There’s a better than even chance that Republicans will maintain control of the Senate in 2020. But even if Democrats win the Senate, at best, they’d have a narrow majority that would include seats in traditionally red states held by relatively centrist Democrats.
Those Democrats are not going to buy into the sweeping agenda being promised by the likes of Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. Thus, any legislative agenda of a new president will be severely constrained.
The multitude of promises — free healthcare, free college, student loan forgiveness, affordable housing, Green New Deal, guaranteed jobs — are never going to be enacted by the kind of Congress that the next president is going to have to deal with. But those sweeping promises are setting up Democratic voters for massive disappointment should their party actually win back the White House.
