The LA Times is out with a piece that repeats what has been spoken among and increasing number of Democrats….
Biden & Co. and the Democratic US Majority Leader Schumer teamed up with the left wing of their party to try to advance the ‘biggest spending since FDR’…(One cannot mention Schumer in the same sentence as McConnell who has miles ahead of Schumer is welding power and political manoeuvring)
Lacking a clear majority in the US Senate ?
That was foolish and spent political capital one can see lost in Biden’s poll numbers…
Going forward?
Biden and Schumer are gonna have to ‘dance’ with Senator’s Manchin and Sinema in the center and slightly to right….
And make no mistake….
Progressives are STILL gonna pursue goals that will cost the party this fall….
President Biden, a lawmaker for most his time in Washington IS learning that he is President now…
His agenda is vastly different than the place he used to work….
He cannot hide in the weeds…
He MUST produce….
And he must be able to work for what he wants by turning his back on things that might sound good , but simply are unattainable and might even be harmful for the party and himself in the end…
A year in office….
Joe Biden admits a hard lesson…
He’s the President…
Not a lawmaker anymore
“They just won’t take the hits,” said a Democratic lawmaker. “They tell everyone what they want to hear and they’re afraid to take the hits from activist groups, whether it’s on voting rights or other policy areas. And if no one is willing to take the hits, it’s anarchy.”
The scale of Democrats’ ambitious agenda was always hard to reconcile with their razor-thin congressional majorities, putting Biden’s big plans on the precipice of failure from the get-go. In an evenly divided Senate — Democrats have a majority thanks only to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote — they could not afford to lose a single vote if they hoped to pass what started out as a $3.5-trillion wish list of Democratic initiatives.
That meant agitating a single progressive senator was as dicey as alienating a moderate one. Party leaders also recognized their window was closing to enact policies they had been championing for years. Republicans have a strong chance of taking control of the House in the November midterm election, dooming any sweeping legislation for the remainder of Biden’s term. That reality put enormous pressure on Democratic leaders to aim big.
“A lot of this is a question of math and the realities and challenges of getting a broad and diverse coalition on board with one piece of legislation,” said Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, in an interview. “Ultimately, our goal is to navigate that in a way that yields good legislation for the American people. We’ve gotten two big bills done and we have every belief we’ll get Build Back Better done as well.”
The White House did not make Klain available for this story, and Schumer’s office declined to comment.
In the House, Democrats say the White House and the Senate need to follow through on their commitment to pass a bill.
“If they don’t get something done in the Senate, it’s a failure of leadership and failure of the Democratic caucus in the Senate,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles). “We got our part done — now they’ve got to get theirs done.”
But Biden, believing last year’s public negotiations hurt him politically, has pulled back, telling Democrats in private conversations aboard Air Force One that Americans “don’t want him to be the 101st senator.” Administration officials say the president and his team will still negotiate out of view. But most conversations taking place in recent weeks have been among lawmakers.
“I don’t get a sense of a lot of discussion with the White House,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said.
In hindsight, many Democrats say they believe the White House and Schumer should have steered a more moderate course if they wanted to pass anything — a fact that should have been clear to them as early as July. That’s when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Schumer signed an agreement that Manchin would only support $1.5 trillion in spending, less than half of the $3.5-trillion package working its way through Congress. Schumer appeared to disclose Manchin’s objections to no one, according to lawmakers and administration officials….
…
That approach showed that Schumer “can’t say no to anybody,” one Democratic senator said. “If you can’t make a decision [about what priorities matter most], then the path of least resistance is to let it fail and blame it on” Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz), another moderate who pushed back on the spending plan.
Many Democrats, especially in the House, believe Schumer’s reluctance to upset progressives is driven, in part, by the need to protect himself from a potential primary challenge. Others believe it was simply his broader fear of angering outside interests groups who have become experts at applying pressure on social media and on cable news shows….
…
Democratic lawmakers and some administration officials say that the White House and Schumer did not learn the right lesson from the Build Back Better debacle. Schumer and Klain coordinated an abrupt shift to voting rights, sending the president to Atlanta for a rousing speech ahead of a Senate vote on legislation that could only pass if all 50 Democrats agreed to change the filibuster rule that essentially requires 60 votes to pass legislation….
image…NationalReview
This is bullshit. It wasn’t the progressives that said no now was it?
Every member of the Senate Democratic Caucus was ready to vote for this bill except two. Does anyone remember what their names are?
I also like the fact that they don’t name names here. Who are they quoting? A Senator or House Member.
But Keith?
THAT IS THE POINT….
The TWO…..
Two DEMOCRATIC senator’s shit canned the whole 2022 Biden /Democratic ‘GO BIG ‘ Agenda…
Because the damn party and Schumer and Biden where afraid to to say ‘NO” to progressives…
Now we KNOW THAT isn’t gonna be the case going forward , eh?
AND BBB and Voting Rights crashed and burned…
We KNOW that moderate Democrats in swing districts are gonna get MORE damn attention….
They ARE who the party needs come the midterm vote….
Not ‘safe’ lefties …
We ALL know the names…
It did NOT work…
And…
Biden IS taking the beat down in his poll numbers….
Sometimes U REALLY do NOT understand politics….
What you have written makes no sense James.
Thank You….
Although my politics within the Democratic Party are very different from James’, I’ve long wondered how this leverage was going to work.
I blame both the progressives (for holding out too adamantly for too much), the conservatives (for apparently moving the goal posts every time they got a concession, such as $1.5 billion instead of $3.5), and the leadership in both Congress and the White House for sheer incompetence.
But it wasn’t the progressives in the Senate now was it. We had some grandstanding House Members from deep blue districts that could afford to vote against the initial bill to make a political statement. Even Bernie would have compromised in the Senate to get the second bill and something done. It was Joe, who clearly lied to President Biden, and that woman from Arizona that fucked this up at the end of the day. Pelosi could have delivered on anything they did in the Senate. Our main problem, they tried, because of a few progressive divas, to make sausage in public, and every time that Manchin moved the goal post, they looked like failures.
There is a special place in hell for Joe and Kristin. Hopefully they can make room for his yacht.
Incompetence??
I wonder if they have a class at the Kennedy School of Government named, “How to come to an agreement with a lying asshole who will never agree to anything because their big money donors have them by the short hairs?”
Do they have one of those classes? What were they supposed to do other than elect a few more real Democrats to the Senate to get around them?
Ok DSD…..
Yea….
There IS enough blame to go around…..
How can someone blame failure to pass voting rights on progressives? Even if progressives had agressively tried to weaken the bill to allow more voter suppression, We know with very close to 100% certainty that the bill would not have passed anyway.
Lastly, although James would prefer to believe otherwise, Biden wanted to go big on BBB. Progressives supported his agenda but were consistently willing to compromise to get the votes for passage. Neither Manchin nor Sinema were willing to compromise.
And people like James also deserve some credit for Biden’s failure to pass the bill by appropriately blaming those who were trying to help Biden, and supporting those who were obviously lying to his face.
Z?
Simple
They did NOT have the votes
They KNEW they didn’t have the votes
But they went ahead to make the progressives feel better
Republicans and Manchin where not on board
It’s THAT simple
All the ‘do the right thing’ don’t mean shit if ya don’t have the votes
Going forward?
Manchin WILL shape the final legislation
Not progressives
It IS THAT SIMPLE
The votes count
The rest don’t
And so now, Republicans will have to explain their votes. Like most people, I expect Congress to get things done, and I believe people should have to justify their vote.
Exactly Zreebs, our host, in addition to not understanding the real point of the original article he posted, has gone down his obvious obfuscation rat hole as he attempts to change the subject from his own pathetic ignorance.
After all these years you think he would have learned.
The point, make them vote no on popular pieces of legislation and see if you can drive them to the bargaining table.
But, it was never the s0-called progressives that needed to be said no to. The liberal to conservative Democrats in the Senate were ready to vote yes, with two obvious exceptions.
How this can be the progressives fault is beyond me, and how this comes down to incompetence is also. It became apparent Manchin lied to the President. We need to elect two extra Democrats in November. Right?
Explain their votes?
COME ON!
Most are supporting a crazy assed ego driven crying ex-President who can’t accept he LOST his job….
Others could care less about what people ‘think’
In the end?
Yes…
Congress WILL get ‘things done’….
Inappropriately
I never understood the voting rights gambit .
It ,of course, never had a chance unless the filibuster rules were going to be changed and Manchin and Sinema were never on board with that.
I have previously stated that I believe Biden thought all along that somehow he could bring Manchin along on a watered down bill.He couldnt.
To me?Thats the whole story.
Would you have them do nothing Jack? Actually this is another time that Manchin, a former Secretary of State who should very well understand the voting process, basically played everyone as if he was going to do something but only if it was non-partisan. Find me 10 Republicans who will help on any issue in the Senate, go ahead, I dare you.
Tell me how that is going to happen in today’s Senate? But is it Biden’s fault for trying? Really, as you frequently ask Corey Jack, “what would you do then?” What would you suggest? Having them not try to pass legislation that is popular with the vast majority of Americans? Sit there and let the minority, that represents approximately 44% of the American population, run rough shod over the majority? Do nothing?
Yesterday James wrote, in one of his basically mindless “I have to say something about absolutely everything that is posted here” comments, that “there is enough blame to go around for everyone” regarding the failure to pass BBB.
No, it comes down to two people James.
The man who told us Hillary Clinton was a lock to be the Democratic nominee in 2008 and said, “January 6th is in the rear view mirror” sagely made another earth shattering observation that is basically meaningless.
The blame sits with the other side that has pulled out its old playbook to obstruct progress until they can get the majority again. Their problem, they have a guy named Trump making it difficult for them to find the right candidates for the Senate and House.
Folks like Rand Paul and Josh “what’s his name” from Missouri do it all the time. Why Mike Lee even decided to stop the renaming of a national park in another state because I guess he could.
So, it’s not the whole story now is it. The problem is not only a dysfunctional Senate but a general population, along with our clueless moderator, who don’t understand how this stuff works. They see dysfunction and spread the blame around, when the blame firmly, in this case, rests with two people. Fuck them.
Keith?
Are you saying that Biden’s people are so stupid that they did REALIZE that Manchin wasn’t gonna budge?
Cause if you are?
Any of your James doesn’t understand politics thing is out the window….
BIDEN & Company screwed up….
No amount of cheerleading by you changes this…
Again?
There IS enough blame to go around on EVERYBODY….
James, You were consistently saying Manchin would come around and support the BBB bill. You just implied you had to be stupid to believe that Manchin would support it.
I believed that Manchin would do what he has done in the pass….
Vote to support Democratic policy….
Yes I believed that he and Biden would be able to find a middle ground….
I was wrong….
Yes he did Zreebs and now he appears to be spreading the blame around when he should be blaming his own ignorance.