{"id":378320,"date":"2021-11-06T18:18:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T18:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=abdff08893f524dddd55bb0f058227a8"},"modified":"2021-11-06T18:18:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T18:18:36","slug":"pelosi-and-biden-acquiesce-to-partys-right-wing-with-infrastructure-bill-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/11\/06\/pelosi-and-biden-acquiesce-to-partys-right-wing-with-infrastructure-bill-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelosi and Biden Acquiesce to Party\u2019s Right Wing With Infrastructure Bill Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\"House<\/a>

The U.S. House on Friday night passed a bipartisan physical infrastructure bill but didn’t bring the Build Back Better Act to the floor \u2014 sending just one half of President Joe Biden’s two-pronged economic agenda to the White House, with only a pledge that conservative House Democrats will vote for the party’s broader social infrastructure and climate package at a later date.<\/p>\n

That wasn’t the plan on Friday morning. When the day started, Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said<\/a> they wanted House Democrats to pass both parts of the president’s legislative agenda: the Build Back Better Act (BBB), which would invest $1.75 trillion over 10 years to strengthen climate action and the welfare state; and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF), a fossil fuel-friendly<\/a> proposal to upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges, and ports that was approved<\/a> by the U.S. Senate in August.<\/p>\n

Due to the intransigence of a few right-wing House Democrats who made last-minute demands<\/a> for additional fiscal information that could take weeks to obtain, and the acquiescence of Pelosi and Biden, a planned floor vote on BBB was shelved and reduced to a “rule for consideration<\/a>,” which was approved<\/a> in a party-line vote of 221-213. Prior to that, BIF passed<\/a> by a tally of 228-206, with 13 House Republicans joining<\/a> most Democrats in supporting the measure.<\/p>\n

Because it wasn’t accompanied by a real vote on BBB, six progressives \u2014 Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) \u2014 voted against BIF.<\/p>\n

“Passing the infrastructure bill without passing the Build Back Better Act first,” Omar said<\/a> in a statement, “risks leaving behind child care, paid leave, healthcare, climate action, housing, education, and a roadmap to citizenship.”<\/p>\n

For months, progressives have stressed <\/a>\u2014 and Democratic leaders had agreed<\/a> \u2014 that keeping both pieces of legislation linked and passing them in tandem was key to securing Biden’s entire agenda. Holding a floor vote on BIF and a mere procedural action on BBB, progressives argued<\/a> Friday, was a betrayal of the two-track<\/a> strategy that opens the door for right-wing party members who are content with the passage of BIF to further weaken, or completely abandon, the already heavily gutted<\/a> BBB.<\/p>\n

“We’re proud of the Squad for being courageous and standing up for what’s right tonight,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. “It’s bullshit that President Biden and Speaker Pelosi rammed through a bill written by a bunch of corporations but feel fine to hold off on passing Biden’s own agenda, a popular bill that would actually combat climate change and help working people.”<\/p>\n

“To be clear, the BIF is not a climate bill and the stakes of the climate crisis are too high to delay reconciliation any longer, or worse, let it die along with our futures,” added Prakash.<\/p>\n

Mary Small, national advocacy director at the Indivisible Project, said<\/a> in a statement that Bowman, Bush, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib “demonstrated enormous political courage in their continued fight to hold the line for passage of the Build Back Better Act.” <\/p>\n

“They understand better than anyone what’s at stake with this game-changing package of investments in children and families and our climate,” Small added. “Their votes showed that, unlike the corporate Democrats dead-set on derailing the heart of President Biden’s agenda on behalf of their corporate donors, they know what it means to serve the people they represent.”<\/p>\n

Even though analyses of spending and revenue conducted by the U.S. Treasury Department<\/a>, the White House<\/a>, and the Joint Committee on Taxation<\/a> have found that BBB is paid for and may actually reduce deficits, a small group<\/a> of conservative House Democrats on Friday insisted<\/a> on seeing an official score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) before they would vote for BBB.<\/p>\n

Given the razor-thin margins in Congress, Democrats can afford only three defections in the House and none in the Senate to pass BBB through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process. Meanwhile, it could take the CBO weeks to produce a score, and there is no guarantee that the holdouts will be satisfied with the results, which are notoriously arbitrary and unreliable, according to<\/a> experts.<\/p>\n

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Never forget: The CBO Director, who is a Republican, estimated that a $15 an hour minimum wage would increase the on-budget deficit by nearly $77 billion while other major economists and academics told us that a $15 minimum wage would substantially REDUCE the deficit. Not good. https:\/\/t.co\/IzgDKTCWet<\/a><\/p>\n

— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) November 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n