Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted they are “on a path” to a deal despite her delaying a vote in the House on the $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill, as in-fighting broke out among the top moderate and progressive Democrats.
Pelosi suspends infrastructure vote as Democrats quarrel
Quarreling among top progressive and moderate Democrats over the $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill, forced Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to call off a planned vote and resume negotiations.
Despite Pelosi’s promise to secure a vote on Thursday, the House Speaker insisted to reporters that the Democrats are “on a path” toward a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, despite progressive’s vowing to vote “no” and less they get everything they want in a larger spending package, ABC reported.
The source of disagreement among Democrats
The stalemate with the infrastructure bill in the house was driven by a schism among Democrats on a second bill involving the Senate. Multiple progressives vowed to oppose the infrastructure bill unless the Senate passes the $3.5 trillion spending package, Politico reported.
But moderates are opposed to the price tag of the roughly $3.5 trillion spending package aimed at funding social safety-net programs, an expansion of Medicare, and battling climate change, allegedly financed through tax increases on corporations and wealthy Americans, the Washington Post reported.
Which Democrats are warring?
The individuals within the warring camps, on the moderate side are Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ). On the progressive side is Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
“It would mean decimating vital, important programs for working families,” an irate senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said. “Obviously we could not do for the children what has to be done. We cannot do for seniors what has to be done. We would not be able to do paid family and medical leave.”
“The planet is at stake,” Sanders added. “We got four or five years before there is irreparable harm, and clearly $1.5 trillion would make it absolutely impossible for us to do what has to be done.”
Jayapal told progressive legislators in a call that the terms for passing the infrastructure bill in the House is Senate approval of the full $3.5 trillion spending package.
Representative Cindy Axne (D-IA) slammed the party for not “moving forward with one piece of the comprehensive agenda that we’ve been crafting over the past six months” and trying to force both bills as a single deal, the New York Times reported.
“All-at-once or nothing is no way to govern,” Axne said, adding that the separate passage of the infrastructure deal would be “the largest investment in rural broadband in U.S. history.”
