The New York Times admitted Tuesday the crumbling bipartisan infrastructure plan “is exposing cracks” in the Democrats.
“The brewing fight, which pits progressives against moderates more aligned with the president’s tactics, is exposing cracks in the party’s fragile strategy for enacting its economic plans,” the Times wrote.
President Joe Biden and Republicans stuck a $1.2 trillion deal that excludes far-left “wish-list items that Republicans have rejected, such as universal preschool and community college access, a health care expansion and a broad effort to combat climate change.”
“But progressive House members,” the Times continued, “have begun questioning the depth of that commitment, particularly after Mr. Biden walked back a threat he made to condition the narrower bill on the more costly one.”
The Times noted the lengths to which far-left Democrats are willing to go to trounce establishment Democrats priority of passing a deal with Republicans.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told the Times, “The president can say he’s bipartisan, he can go out and support the deal, but at the end of the day, if he wants it, he’s going to have to support our priorities.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) also explained that “it’s really important to know that nothing is going to get accomplished by doing that,” she said about Biden’s efforts to promote the bipartisan plan across the country. “It’s clear a majority of the Democratic caucus, whether progressive or not, is interested in delivering, and that delivery will only happen if the progressives are on board.”
But Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) disagreed with his party members and told the Times the Democrats should not focus on the far-left’s priorities and pass a narrower, bipartisan bill.
“We’re going to do what we should have done from the start, which is to try to pass this good bipartisan bill, and then Democrats, as the majority party, will try to legislate,” Malinowski said, “There’s no need for drama around that.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) echoed Malinowski by suggesting the bipartisan deal is “something we should celebrate by getting it passed as quickly as possible.”
The bickering among the Democrats has caused Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who agreed with the bipartisan deal, to take a step back Monday, saying he “is pleased with the bipartisan framework agreed to by the Senate and President Biden,” but “is profoundly disappointed to see [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and other Democrats engage in political hostage-taking.”
Tillis’ comments comes as Pelosi has said no bipartisan bill will pass the House without the second reconciliation package, a statement that greatly pleased the far-left and further cracked the Democrat Party.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.