Without the House GOP turning their backs on BIF, the progressives may not have had enough leverage to stop the vote from taking place. All but the most conservative House Republicans were facing significant pressure from business groups, including the U.S Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, to support the bipartisan infrastructure package. There are 56 members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, half Democrats and half Republicans, who vowed to work together to break through Washington’s gridlock. A good portion of the centrist group’s Republican members planned to follow GOP leadership orders and vote against BIF last week, House GOP sources told RealClearPolitics.
There are nearly 100 members of the progressive caucus, but it’s unclear exactly how many would follow Jayapal’s directive to sink a popular spending bill that all Democrats back on the merits. Before the progressive revolt, the BIF was poised to pass alone, untethered to the BBB measure and with support from a large group of House Republican moderates. Pelosi, having secured a major accomplishment to tout in next year’s midterms, would likely have later deemed the sweeping BBB bill as too heavy of a lift and eventually let it die on the vine with little in the way of a public eulogy…
If Democrats can’t reach an agreement and both bills fail, the House GOP strategy was a stroke of genius. But if Democrats end up passing the BIF and a more narrowly tailored BBB, it will amount to trillions in new spending that will be difficult to reverse in the years ahead. Under that very plausible scenario, House Republicans will be at least partly responsible for both empowering progressives and helping to transform their aspirational agenda into reality — together a big win for the Biden presidency.
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