Progressives will be more than happy to vote against the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. It contains all kinds of fossil fuel subsidies and other bad stuff. The only way it passes the House is if the Senate also approves Build Back Better.
Tell that to the members of Congress who voted to throw $8 trillion at the Pentagon over ten years (compared to $3.5 trillion for Build Back Better).
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The big tent provides opportunities for all manner of fools though they seem to prefer sitting in the wings.
Yeah, I mean, god, why can’t these ‘progressives’ just understand that if they just capitulate completely and give Manchin and Sinema a win, the ‘moderates’ in the party will be happy to, you know, completely ignore the reconciliation bill and refuse to vote for anything the progressives want?
Why can’t they just be happy with an inadequate bill that gives the Republicans both political cover on their vote and lets them campaign on how the Democrats failed to deliver basically anything beyond what the Rs agreed to all along?
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How can the Progressives in the House trust any of these “Centrists”, they won’t tell anyone what they want to cut. Kill the GOP Infrastructure Bill, it doesn’t even pay for itself.
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Yes, let’s let two senators and a dozen representatives renege on a deal and dictate what the rest of the party can or cannot do. That has worked out so well in the past.
I’m guessing you get your hot takes from the NYT.
“These Democrats” are the so-called moderates.
It is interesting how quickly the MSM, and some of the commenters here, adopt the narrative that it’s the progressives sabotaging Biden’s narrative, when it is obvious that it’s Manchin and Sinema, advising the dozen rebels in the House, who are trying to sabotage Biden’s Build Back Better.
Why? To burnish their credentials as “moderates.”
They don’t even have a coherent alternative. It’s political theater substituting for policy.
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Call Pramila Jayapal’s office:
(202) 255-3106
Get on it Seattle!
Viagra.
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And tell her to stick to her fucking guns.
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Well, I agree with some of your points, but let’s start with a little bit of a level set. I really don’t need to be lectured about Biden. I was for him from the day after Charlottesville. I started contributing to his campaign before it was announced and stuck with him through the dark days of the early primaries and all the “gaffe” nonsense about him here at TPM, as well as other sites. Can I assume your support of Joe is as deep and consistent?
Now, as to the bills. The hard infrastructure bill has over a trillion dollars in it, with the appropriations committees ready to move quickly once it is signed. You talk about a “tiny” $550B in new spending. I will let others decide if that is a tiny amount, but the total amount is over a trillion, with close to half coming from money initially appropriated for other purposes that was not needed and would have lapsed unused. I have no idea why anyone would not focus on the total amount of available money, except if they wanted to distort or just didn’t know. I assume you didn’t intend to distort.
I absolutely agree with you, however, that it takes time to get big infrastructure projects going. I had some experience with that in a prior life and have discussed precisely that issue a few other times at TPM. As the old French general said to his gardner, “That is why I want the trees planted now.” The political point is not when those visible, critically necessary projects will be completed, but when they will begin.
I think both sides of the Democratic (Big D) divide here are playing a dangerous game that imperils not just their Congressional majority, but bringing Trump back into power in 2024 by crippling a Biden presidency. I assume that once the Biden folks understand everyone’s red lines, the president will put his deal on the table and tell Schumer and Pelosi to run with it. I assume you will support Biden in that. 
It’s not what they fight for, or even that they fight, it’s the ineptitude with which they do so.
Instead of taking the 80% win for poor people, they want to risk getting 0% arguing about the 20%…this stage is about pragmatism and getting the bill passed, not digging in heels and accomplishing little beyond noise to perpetuate re-election and a repeat of the dance (if and when Dems ever get a majority again).
Running on “I turned my nose up at anything less than a unicorn” may turn out to be more difficult than they understand.
LOL, I guess you can do that too!
But it wouldn’t be an 80% win for poor people. It’d be a 10% win for poor people, immediately undone and turned into a 100% loss when it’s used to get the Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, gets the Jan 6 investigation shut down, and Joe Biden brought up on bullshit Impeachment articles that somehow get at least 58 votes to convict.
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal is my congressional representative. I have emailed her urging her caucus not to let perfection be the enemy of the good. That said, it will not help the “moderates” if this bill is not passed - they need it as much as the Progressives do and I believe in the skills and abilities of Pelosi to bring these parts of the coalition together. If she cannot do it, no one can.