Seriously?
What do these people get paid for?
It’s déjà vu all over again: Democrats are once again slogging through a week with no clear path forward on their core agenda.
And more than a third of House Democrats aren’t even in Washington.
The scene: Capitol Hill is largely in a holding pattern on Democrats’ voting rights push until after President Joe Biden’s big speech in Georgia later today. But with other party members beyond Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) not sold on weakening the filibuster, the Democrats must confront the likelihood that they’re again ratcheting up public attention to an issue that they’re likely to come up short on.
By the way: Here’s a handy cheat sheet to all the rules changes Senate Democrats are mulling amongst themselves. Read it here.
If you haven’t heard much about how Dems might revive the social spending legislation since Manchin pulled the plug on talks in December, that’s because there’s been little indication of any movement there. Manchin and other Democrats weren’t on the same page last week on whether talks were even happening.
Why this all matters: The repeated cycle of hyping up expectations and then falling short risks alienating and demoralizing Democrats’ base voters. Their argument is that it shows they’re pulling out all the stops and fighting for Biden’s agenda, but it also has the effect of hammering home that the party’s majorities aren’t big enough to get these ambitious priorities done….