Opinion by
Greg Sargent
Columnist
July 13, 2021|Updated today at 10:59 a.m. EDT
It’s a strange fact about our politics that GOP outrage is constantly treated as a stable, reliable currency, no matter how wildly and recklessly Republicans churn it out on their currency-manufacturing machine. If Republicans are outraged about something, we’re all expected to treat it as deeply authentic and momentous.
Case in point: CNN reports that GOP senators are expressing new anger at Democrats for working on a “human infrastructure” bill to pass the Senate via a simple-majority reconciliation vote, alongside the “hard” infrastructure bill a bipartisan group of senators is negotiating. Republicans are threatening to tank the bipartisan measure.
But there is zero basis for this supposed outrage. Even more ludicrously, Republicans have already staged this same outrage dance before. Plainly, Republicans are trying to bait Democrats into infighting that scuttles their agenda, which would be political suicide.
ADVERTISING
The CNN report is remarkable. Five GOP senators who have supported the bipartisan bill — which would include $579 billion in new spending and is supported by about 20 Democrats and Republicans — now say they may pull their support.
Why? As CNN reports, it’s in part because they are “expressing misgivings” about Democratic plans to move a “much-larger Democratic-only bill that would fulfill much of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.”
Democrats want to act on the agenda that won them the White House and control of Congress? Outrageous!
“It doesn’t seem the right kind of negotiating tactic to say, 'Yeah, I’ll support a bipartisan plan, only as long as I get a vote on everything else I want,’” Moran says.
Or, as Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) tells CNN: “They may not get anything if they start putting in conditions.”
Sound familiar? Republicans already pulled this stunt. Last month, when Biden pledged not to sign the bipartisan bill without a reconciliation one, Republicans threw a fit. They accused him of holding the bipartisan bill “hostage.”
Biden backed down a bit from this pledge (but without really abandoning the strategy of linking the bills), and Republicans professed themselves satisfied. So why are we going through this all over again?
This should go without saying, but whether Republicans support the bipartisan bill should turn on whether they think it’s worth supporting on its own terms. Republicans can’t demand that Democrats abandon their legislative strategy as a condition for their support. Doing that would truly constitute holding the bipartisan bill “hostage.”
The very idea that Republicans would expect Democrats to abandon this strategy as a precondition for their support for the bipartisan bill gives away the game. Republicans have always hoped the bipartisan bill would derail the possibility of Democrats going big alone later.
The thinking was plainly that if moderates got the bipartisan package, they might have an incentive to walk away from the reconciliation bill. Now that this hasn’t yet worked, Republicans say they may abandon the bipartisan one — perhaps hoping to spook moderates into pulling out of the Democratic legislative strategy — thus illustrating what this has always been about.
Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is also blasting the Democratic strategy, and as CNN now reports, he may still urge Senate Republicans to vote against the bipartisan bill, which could doom it.
McConnell has openly declared his greatest objective is to ensure Biden fails. So it’s pretty clear that the outrage over the Democratic approach is about creating a pretext to potentially accomplish that end (though McConnell may decide his senators need the bipartisan bill for their own purposes).
This is exactly why Democrats can’t take the bait Republicans have laid out. They can’t lapse into infighting that dooms their whole project.
But a source familiar with the negotiations tells me this $3.5 trillion would be on top of the $579 billion in the bipartisan bill (should it pass). Sanders hopes to push that $3.5 trillion up higher, but even if it remains there, total spending would top $4 trillion, which would be in keeping with Biden’s original proposal.
That would be transformative. The reconciliation bill includes an extension of the child tax credit, which is getting plaudits as truly revolutionary policy that will cut child poverty nearly in half. It includes huge investments in alternative energy, which may be Biden’s last chance to pass a far-reaching climate agenda, even as the problem grows more dire.
The bottom line is that the reconciliation bill is the Biden agenda. Democrats can’t let Republicans break their unity. Failing here would be a catastrophe.
Greg Sargent
Columnist
July 13, 2021|Updated today at 10:59 a.m. EDT
It’s a strange fact about our politics that GOP outrage is constantly treated as a stable, reliable currency, no matter how wildly and recklessly Republicans churn it out on their currency-manufacturing machine. If Republicans are outraged about something, we’re all expected to treat it as deeply authentic and momentous.
Case in point: CNN reports that GOP senators are expressing new anger at Democrats for working on a “human infrastructure” bill to pass the Senate via a simple-majority reconciliation vote, alongside the “hard” infrastructure bill a bipartisan group of senators is negotiating. Republicans are threatening to tank the bipartisan measure.
But there is zero basis for this supposed outrage. Even more ludicrously, Republicans have already staged this same outrage dance before. Plainly, Republicans are trying to bait Democrats into infighting that scuttles their agenda, which would be political suicide.
ADVERTISING
The CNN report is remarkable. Five GOP senators who have supported the bipartisan bill — which would include $579 billion in new spending and is supported by about 20 Democrats and Republicans — now say they may pull their support.
Why? As CNN reports, it’s in part because they are “expressing misgivings” about Democratic plans to move a “much-larger Democratic-only bill that would fulfill much of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.”
Democrats want to act on the agenda that won them the White House and control of Congress? Outrageous!
GOP crocodile tears
For instance, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) tells CNN he’s “concerned” about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s strategy. Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to move the bipartisan bill only after the Senate sends over a reconciliation one, to ensure that the latter happens.“It doesn’t seem the right kind of negotiating tactic to say, 'Yeah, I’ll support a bipartisan plan, only as long as I get a vote on everything else I want,’” Moran says.
Or, as Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) tells CNN: “They may not get anything if they start putting in conditions.”
Sound familiar? Republicans already pulled this stunt. Last month, when Biden pledged not to sign the bipartisan bill without a reconciliation one, Republicans threw a fit. They accused him of holding the bipartisan bill “hostage.”
Biden backed down a bit from this pledge (but without really abandoning the strategy of linking the bills), and Republicans professed themselves satisfied. So why are we going through this all over again?
This should go without saying, but whether Republicans support the bipartisan bill should turn on whether they think it’s worth supporting on its own terms. Republicans can’t demand that Democrats abandon their legislative strategy as a condition for their support. Doing that would truly constitute holding the bipartisan bill “hostage.”
A key tell
Democrats have linked the fate of the bills for a reason: The idea is that moderates will support a robust reconciliation package if they need it to get the bipartisan bill, and progressives will support the bipartisan bill if they need it to get moderates to back the reconciliation one.The very idea that Republicans would expect Democrats to abandon this strategy as a precondition for their support for the bipartisan bill gives away the game. Republicans have always hoped the bipartisan bill would derail the possibility of Democrats going big alone later.
The thinking was plainly that if moderates got the bipartisan package, they might have an incentive to walk away from the reconciliation bill. Now that this hasn’t yet worked, Republicans say they may abandon the bipartisan one — perhaps hoping to spook moderates into pulling out of the Democratic legislative strategy — thus illustrating what this has always been about.
Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is also blasting the Democratic strategy, and as CNN now reports, he may still urge Senate Republicans to vote against the bipartisan bill, which could doom it.
McConnell has openly declared his greatest objective is to ensure Biden fails. So it’s pretty clear that the outrage over the Democratic approach is about creating a pretext to potentially accomplish that end (though McConnell may decide his senators need the bipartisan bill for their own purposes).
This is exactly why Democrats can’t take the bait Republicans have laid out. They can’t lapse into infighting that dooms their whole project.
Negotiations among Democrats
Here’s the crazy thing: The Democratic strategy may actually work. Right now, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee are negotiating the size of the reconciliation package with an eye toward getting 50 votes for it, and moderates want to limit it to around $3.5 trillion. That’s substantially less than what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the committee chair, wants.But a source familiar with the negotiations tells me this $3.5 trillion would be on top of the $579 billion in the bipartisan bill (should it pass). Sanders hopes to push that $3.5 trillion up higher, but even if it remains there, total spending would top $4 trillion, which would be in keeping with Biden’s original proposal.
That would be transformative. The reconciliation bill includes an extension of the child tax credit, which is getting plaudits as truly revolutionary policy that will cut child poverty nearly in half. It includes huge investments in alternative energy, which may be Biden’s last chance to pass a far-reaching climate agenda, even as the problem grows more dire.
The bottom line is that the reconciliation bill is the Biden agenda. Democrats can’t let Republicans break their unity. Failing here would be a catastrophe.
