Progressives arrive at their "put up or shut up" moment

Claiming the Biden mantle has many progressives feeling like they are more than justified in drawing a hard line. “I just feel like we’re the closest to actually having the President’s back and what he wants to get done,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), a former Progressive Caucus co-chair. “We’re just, you know, probably a little more willing to put some capital, some human capital, to get it done.”…

In a lengthy statement released Wednesday evening, Manchin said a $3.5 trillion bill—which Biden requested—would be the “definition of fiscal insanity” and suggested it would “reengineer the social and economic fabric of this nation,” both of which have been Republican talking points. (It should be noted that, while the bill colloquially is referred to as the $3.5 trillion bill, Democrats promise that they’ll offset the cost with revenue-raising policies, meaning it could actually cost $0.)

But if Manchin’s intention was to make the case for just the bipartisan bill, it had the opposite effect. Progressives already didn’t trust centrists like Manchin to advance the broader bill if they first passed the infrastructure measure. Now they know that’s exactly his gambit.

“After that statement we probably have even more people willing to vote no,” Jayapal told reporters, adding this dig at Manchin: “I assume he is saying that the president is insane, because this is the president’s agenda.”