Disappointment awaits for viewers expecting a barroom brawl on this morning’s Sunday shows between progressives and centrists over Biden’s infrastructure plan. The lefties have shown up, spoiling for a fight, but there are no moderates booked as I write this on Saturday. Maybe they’re licking their wounds after Pelosi broke her promise to them to hold a vote on infrastructure this week — with the president’s support.
The star guest is Pramila Jayapal, leader of the House progressive caucus, who’ll take a victory lap on “State of the Union” after her wing of the party flexed its muscles and successfully blocked passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Jayapal spent the past few days insisting that she’ll accept nothing less than the Senate passing a reconciliation bill before she votes yes on the roads-and-bridges bill that’s currently languishing in the House. An informal “framework” won’t do it for her. How many of her leftist colleagues are similarly dug in?
Not all are. Another prominent progressive, Ro Khanna, will speak with “Fox News Sunday” about what it’ll take to get him to yes on the bipartisan bill. Khanna made waves earlier this week when he said that he *would* accept an agreed-to “framework” on reconciliation in lieu of the Senate passing a bill. The fate of Biden’s agenda may depend on whether most lefties in the House end up siding with him on that or whether they back Jayapal’s uncompromising position. Pelosi can probably pass the bipartisan bill if there are only 10-20 progs aligned with Jayapal, as that’s the number of Republicans who are expected to vote yes. Any more than that and things start to get dicey.
Also scheduled this morning is Bernie Sanders, who’ll grumble to “Meet the Press” that Joe Manchin’s $1.5 trillion topline number for reconciliation should be 10 times bigger. That’s what passes for the “moderate” position in today’s Democratic Party, supporting social-welfare spending that’s “only” double the amount of Barack Obama’s 2009 mega-stimulus. God help us all. The full line-up is at the AP.
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