Divided Democrat Party Fight over Infrastructure Package as Time Runs Short

The divided Democrat Party is fighting over infrastructure package provisions and tactics as the time-crunch begins before the 2022 midterm campaigns.

Democrat “leaders are performing a high-wire act to keep President Joe Biden’s economic agenda alive” in which “the process of passing a multitrillion-dollar” infrastructure bill to fund far-left initiatives, such as elder care, paid leave, and fighting global warming, must “formally begin,” NBC News reports.

But there is not a consensus among Democrats on how to go about enacting the Trojan horse infrastructure legislation that currently has two tracks: The filibuster-immune reconciliation tactic worth $6 trillion and the $579 billion bipartisan bill with increasingly less support from Republicans.

“If it’s [bipartisan bill] ready to go, we should bring it to the floor and have a vote,” Rep. Gosh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said, while noting he is additionally open to a separate reconciliation tactic that ignores bipartisanship.

NBC News reports that Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), who has a tough 2022 midterm election in Central Florida, agrees with Gottheimer, “The House should vote on the bipartisan deal as soon as it’s ready — and not wait.”

Gottheimer and Murphy’s angst to get something done before the 2024 midterms heat up is not shared by far-left Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who told NBC News she and her far-left caucus have “made clear they’d vote down the bipartisan deal without the reconciliation bill.”

“It’s not just a few,” she said. “It’s dozens.”

“The two wings of the Democratic Party have struck an uneasy alliance in the hopes of delivering on both pieces of Biden’s agenda,” NBC News admits. “Progressives need the moderates to pass the larger Democrats-only package. And moderates need the progressives to pass the bipartisan infrastructure deal.”

A Democrat consultant told NBC News the divisions within the party are “creating a complicated dynamic where solving one part of the puzzle creates a problem elsewhere. The reality is the slim majorities means they might not have any other choice.”

Meanwhile, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is working to assemble the $6 trillion reconciliation package in preparation for the bipartisan deal ultimately faltering, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated she will not allow a bipartisan deal to pass the House without a reconciliation package.

Time though is running short. After two weeks of congressional recess, Congress will come back to contend with other issues, such as funding the government and raising the debt ceiling before September 30.