“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.
Call Pramila Jayapal’s office:
(202) 255-3106
Get on it Seattle!
Viagra.
And tell her to stick to her fucking guns.
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.
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.
That’s an incredibly disingenuous assessment of the Progessives’ position. The antebellum Senate agreed to pass both bills simultaneously. Now they want to to renege. It’s really quite simple.
Much as it pains me to say this, I don’t care any more. Let the government shut down and let the debt limit do its worst. Burn it all down. I’m done with Democrats standing up for people that wish they could gun us down. It’s the red states that’ll get hammered and hammered hard.
As opposed to not passing anything and suffering the same electoral fate.
Have I said not to pass anything? The moderates know they can’t afford to not pass the ‘bipartisan’ bill. They know they’ll be the ones blamed for the failure of Joe Biden’s economic agenda, and for tanking the recovery.
They’ll move. Even if it means we have to compromise on the amount, they’ll find a way to get to yes on Reconciliation, so they can get to yes on what they want. So far, progressives have done pretty much all of the compromising. The very existence of a ‘bipartisan’ bill is a compromise. And the moderates have struck deals, and then loudly announced how they’re not going to honor their own goddamned agreements.
Time to stop making the mistakes of the Obama administration. No taking single-payer completely off the table before the negotiations even begin, this time. Time for them to actually demonstrate that they’re negotiating in good faith, for once.
The prefect is the enema of the god.
“ Jayapal said she was prepared for this moment by her mentor, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who taught the former activist that if she wants to achieve anything in Congress she has to know what she is willing to give up. Lee also impressed upon Jayapal that being clear with leadership on where she stands and not surprising them late in the game is also key if she wanted to be a legislator and not a bombthrower.
These are lessons Jayapal said she has taken to heart, and leadership considers her a straight shooter even when disagreements grow tense, according to Lee, who has often seen Jayapal in conversation with Pelosi and other Democratic leaders.”
well god knows he needs one.
