Zeeshan Aleem: These House Dems called Speaker Pelosi's bluff. America will be better for it.
So Jayapal decided enough was enough and that she had to draw a line. “We are now in the verify stage. This isn’t about trust. This is about verify,”to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday in regard to dealing with the centrist Democratic holdouts. “And the only way to verify is to pass the reconciliation bill first as was articulated, and then we will happily come back and vote for the infrastructure bill.
On Thursday Jayapal took a stand, in a break from recent tradition. Consider how progressive Democrats once fiercely advocated for including the public option in President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but ultimately agreed to back it without that vital provision. This time, by contrast, they stood their ground.
“There’s a long history of progressive Democrats saying they will do a thing and it petering out,” University of Chicago political scientist Ruth Bloch RubinThursday. “This may be the first time that Democrats are taking their threats more seriously.” The new confidence is a testament to the leftward shift of the party — during the Obama years, House progressives were often seen as out of touch with policy realities and at odds with the president; during this administration, the president leans on the bigger progressive caucus within the House to defend his policy ideas. And while theduring the Obama years, they now command just a fraction of the power they once did.
It also speaks to the Democrats’ increasing confidence that sweeping social spending appeals to the public and is not something for which they should apologize. That instinct should serve them well with both these pieces of legislation: The infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better ActHouse progressives could still have some major obstacles ahead.
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