Democrats to Move Ahead on Infrastructure Vote
Democrats to Move Ahead on Infrastructure Vote
September 21, 2021 at 1:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 192 Comments
https://politicalwire.com/2021/09/21/democrats-to-move-ahead-on-infrastructure-vote/
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Playbook: “House Democratic leaders confirmed this morning that they won’t be delaying the Sept. 27 vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — even though the party’s larger $3.5 trillion reconciliation package won’t likely be ready to go by then.”
“This is a huge win for moderates in both chambers. That effectively decouples the two bills, officially spiking the so-called ‘two-track’ process that leadership hoped would enable passage of both while keeping the party united.”
“The obvious big follow-up question here: What will progressives do? Several high-profile members on the left are almost certainly going to vote against this thing — some, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have made their unhappiness with this new process abundantly clear. But the question is how many, and can leadership — and President Joe Biden — convince enough to go along with this new plan?”
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= new reply since forum marked as read
biggest single Dem Caucus in Congress.
Their huge fear is that the minute that the massively stripped down b-partisan bill is passed, almost all leverage to get even a somewhat reduced Reconciliation bill goes poof.
Even IF Manchin and Sinema do not push it off until 2022, it may well have $2 to 2.5 trillion stripped out from it as well. Almost all the climate change/green jobs/tech/renewables parts are gone from the bi-partisan bill, and Manchin is gunning to do the same for the reconciliation bill. Plus a shedload more of cuts.
Do not forget that $2.05 trillion was already stripped out of Biden's proposal for the bi-partisan bill, total new infrastructure spending is only $550 billion (the other $650 billion is just renewal of old already-passed spending programmes under Trump and Moscow McTurtle).
The Infrastructure Plan: What’s In and What’s Out (it's brutal)
Biden's original plan:
What was left after they took a 2 trillion USD hatchet to it
They already chopped almost EIGHTY percent of actual new spending out of the hard infrastructure bill
and now Manchin wants to chop another almost 60 to 70% out of the even bigger bill, one that needs ZERO Rethugs votes to pass
The total new spending on Biden's original 2 bill proposals (hard and human) was $6.1 trillion.
IF Manchin and Sinema stick to their guns and chop out $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion of of the reconciliation bill, then you are looking at a total new spend for both bills of only $1.55 trillion to $2.05 trillion instead of $6.1 trillion.
That is a truly massive 2/3rds to 3/4ers total reduction in new spending, and the vast majority will be from the parts the largest single Democratic caucus in the House (the 96 person-strong Progressive Caucus) all desperately wanted, especially things to address climate change and to help working class Americans. Pete DeFazio, the Chair of the House Transportation Committee has been very, very unhappy for ages about what the bi-partisan Senators did.
I can see many of the 96 members of the Progressive Caucus (far beyond just The Squad) going bonkers if Manchin and Sinema (as the major Dem players in the 2 guttings) succeed in stripping out 4 to 4.5 trillion USD between the 2 bills.
It may put both bills at risk, and then all hell will break loose between the 2 sides (potentially the 96 House progs versus Manchin and Sinema in the Senate, plus the 10 renegade conservadem Problems Solver types in the House).
There is a way, IF Pelosi can pare down the dissenting progs to say 10, 20, maybe even 30 and THEN enough frontline 'psuedo-moderate' Rethugs vote for the bi-partisan bill only, in order to pass it. There is a problem (of course there is, lol) with that as well, as the House Rethugs (plus the fuckstick Trump) are going full bore to try and threaten any and all House Rethugs who may vote for the bi-partisan bill:
GOP pressure to block bipartisan infrastructure bill builds in the House
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/07/politics/bipartisan-infrastructure-bill-republican-support/index.html
Speaker Pelosi is DEFFO trying to make 10,000 angels dance on the head of a pin. She is probably the only person on the planet (zero hyperbole) who can get both bills passed in the House.
members look at it as if they do not pass both bills at the same time, the other bill will have another $2 to 2.5 trillion 'nuked' out.
You are making an assumption that not passing the bi-partisan bill first means it is dead. It is not. What is dead, however, is pretty much any real leverage Biden and the rest of the caucus have to ensure a far better reconciliation bill.
Spread out over 10 years, the bi-partisan bill has only $55 billion per year in new spend on Biden's agenda, with vast parts completely or nearly completely expunged.
55 billion usd per year.
In 2020 the US government total spend was basically 120 TIMES larger.
https://datalab.usaspending.gov/americas-finance-guide/spending/
