House Speaker Pelosi runs her chamber….
But she does NOT have control over the final say…..
With the tight numbers in the US Senate?
That chamber now is the decider….
And actually?
It seems to be in the hands of mostly two Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and other moderate and centrist ones….
These Democratic Senator’s will essentially have veto power over the progressive plans in the upcoming two YUGE pieces of legislation moving forward in Congress….
By limiting themselves only to things that can win the support of all 50 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, aggressive proposals such as providing a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants may never get to the starting line. Senate budget rules could knock that provision out because it is a policy item and not primarily a tax or spending issue, meaning it may not be eligible for the reconciliation process that allows bills to avoid the threat of a filibuster.
Pelosi rejected the idea that she had made any concessions to the centrists in the House, instead portraying the streamlined approach as the best way to achieving the party’s goals. “No, it’s not, it’s a clarification. It’s a clarification. But it is — look, we had a vision — we have a vision about how we go forward,” she told reporters.
Still, it’s a reversal from where Pelosi stood last year, when Senate Republicans complained that Trump administration officials too often gave in to her demands on the more than $3 trillion worth of pandemic funds approved by Congress.
For the past several weeks, most of the attention on Capitol Hill has focused on moderate Democrats, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), who demanded that Pelosi move the bipartisan infrastructure bill rather than hold it back until the more ambitious $3.5 trillion proposal cleared Congress.
Pelosi agreed to do so by late September, clearing the way for her late Tuesday to win a party-line vote, 220 to 212, to approve the resolution setting up the framework for the bigger spending bill that is expected to include funding for expanding education, child care, climate change and Medicare programs…..
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Manchin’s ability to exploit his position in the 50-50 Senate, have made pushing the most liberal policies on the table relatively pointless. After voting for the Senate version of the budget proposal, Manchin announced he would not support a final bill that actually spent $3.5 trillion.
He also has voiced opposition to Biden’s proposal to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, offering a middle ground of 25 percent.
As veteran moderates explain it, they are done with the idea of voting for provisions that expose them to political risk that are not going to end up becoming law.
“We all have to agree,” [Rep.] Costa said…..