Of course the Democrats should agree on Biden’s proposed $1.75 trillion spending plan and pass the bi-partisan infrastructure bill, which is on hold in the House. Anything else is petulant, and political suicide.
The “drama” of the Democrats in-fighting with Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema shrinking Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) agenda from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion; Senator Bernie Sanders saying he won’t vote for BBB unless it contains things like prescription drug pricing reform; and Congressmember Pramila Jayapal saying the Progressive Caucus won’t vote for BBB unless it contains things like paid family leave has become ridiculous in a 50-50 Senate. The proper, politically smart, response is to elect more Democrats in 2022 so two “moderate” Democratic senators can’t torpedo a popular, needed landmark piece of legislation.
Clearly, the U.S. should lower prescription drug prices. Clearly, we should depart from the club of six countries in the world which does not have paid family leave. Equally, we should incentivize electric utility companies to switch to renewable energy. However, it has become clear that the Democrats don’t have the votes to do this. No Republicans will vote for BBB. And while the Democrats have the mechanism to avoid a Republican filibuster — Reconciliation — they don’t have the votes without Manchin and Sinema.
