Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Friday that 50 House Democrats will oppose the $1.2 trillion “bipartisan” infrastructure bill, which is scheduled for a vote Monday.
“Pramila Jayapal told me at least 50 of her progressive members still plan to vote to sink the infrastructure bill if it goes forward Monday,” a CNN reporter tweeted. “She added that leadership taking some steps to move ahead on the big reconciliation bill is ‘not enough.'”
Jayapal is the chair of the 94-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, a powerful force within the Democrat Party.
When Jayapal was interviewed Wednesday on CNN, she explained she is concerned the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package will not pass the House if the Democrats give up leverage and pass the $1.2 trillion bill without its far more expansive cousin, which is full of far-left goodies.
“We have to deliver on the entirety of the president’s agenda,” Jayapal told CNN. “We have to deliver on child care. We have to deliver on paid leave. We have to make sure people can go to free community college. We need to make sure we’re taking out climate change. We’ve got to address housing and immigration and Medicare expansion.”
“These are critical priorities for the American people, and if we wait,” she continued, “then it’s kids. It’s working class families. It’s people across this country that voted us in because they knew that this was what we had promised, and now we’ve got to deliver.”
“Originally… progressives did not want to split the bill up at all,” she added. “We wanted one bill to go through. We knew we could do it more quickly that way. We knew it would keep everyone together and united on the president’s vision, and the decision was made to split it up into two bills.”
“Fine,” Jayapal taunted. “We didn’t like it, but we ultimately agreed to it because it was a two-track strategy. And we were very clear, three months ago … that we would go along with that but only on the condition that we pass the reconciliation bill first.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is anxious to pass Biden’s radical agenda, has instructed the House Budget Committee to work Saturday on erecting the committee drafts of the bill to appease the radical left. “But the markup is largely symbolic; it won’t settle enormous issues such as the price tag or key policy disputes. Any major changes Democrats want to make will come later,” Politico reported.
Pelosi only has 3 to 11 votes as a margin with which to pass the bill. And if there is any truth to the rumors swirling around that this is her last term, she is sure to want to end her career on a high note.
But even if everything works according to her plan, passing both the $1.2 trillion bill and the $3.5 trillion package, Biden’s radical spend and tax agenda will remain in the hands of the Democrat senators, who have signed that they will oppose the massive spending and tax increases during inflation.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø.