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Joe Biden will travel to La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to sell his $ 1 billion bipartisan infrastructure plan to Midwest swing state voters.
The broad legislative package to be presented by the president includes an unprecedented amount of federal investment in America’s rail network and bridges, as well as the deployment of a national network of electric vehicle chargers and expanded access. high speed broadband.
But there is a problem. Back in Washington, the prospects of bipartisan treatment they are in doubt, after last week Biden posted his ad effectively threatening to veto the legislation, unless it is tied to a more ambitious anti-poverty spending package.
This second package, known as the American Families Act, is not expected to garner any Republican support, and Democratic congressional leaders hope to pass it through a divided Senate in a party line vote through a parliamentary procedure known as to reconciliation.
The threat of a veto with a delicate veil of Biden provoked howls of indignation on the part of Republicans, including those who helped draft the bipartisan agreement, who believed the president was engaging in “bait tactics. “. He also questioned one of his main selling points: that he is an experienced Washington operator with the ability to pull off complicated legislative desires.
Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former member of Congress, said the president “jumped the gun” and added, “Presidents don’t do that. When you say we have an agreement, it usually means that everyone is in the same page, it clearly wasn’t like that. “
Jim Manley, an aide to Harry Reid, a former Democratic Senate Majority Leader in Nevada, said: “All of this could explode for many different reasons. There’s no denying that the president’s comments last week caused a bit of hiccups. ”.
Biden tried on Saturday to limit the consequences of his comments, in a lengthy statement in which he apologized for giving “the impression that he was issuing a veto threat.”
He turn abruptly it could have satisfied some moderate Republicans, but it sparked outrage among progressive Democrats, who are more excited about the $ 1.8 million anti-poverty package than the bipartisan bill. More and more distrustful of the president’s efforts to appease Republicans and Conservative members of his own party, namely Joe Manchin and Cinema Kyrsten, senators from West Virginia and Arizona, respectively.
Several members of the Left House, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, joined activists of the Sunrise Progressive Movement in front of the White House on Monday, while protesting the lack of climate measures in the bipartisan agreement. . Protesters had placards that said, “Biden, coward, fight for us” and chanted, “No weather, no deal.”
Cori Bush gathers hundreds of young climate activists outside the White House protesting the lack of climate change measures on the bipartisan infrastructure bill © Getty Images
The complicated political landscape demonstrates the difficult balancing act that Biden must perform if he wants to fulfill his campaign promise to reach the political corridor, while highlighting the concerns of a progressive left base that helped him. to place him in the White House. .
The bipartisan deal will need the support of at least 10 Republican senators, plus one Republican for every Democrat who defects and votes against the deal, to become law. Given the small majority of Democrats in the House, spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi will also have to avoid a rebellion by Ocasio-Cortez and others if the deal goes through the lower house.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday called on Biden to instruct Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Pelosi to formally “disengage” the bipartisan agreement from the reconciliation package.
“Unless Leader Schumer and President Pelosi back down their threats… Then the withdrawal of President Biden from his veto threat would be an empty gesture,” McConnell said. “The president cannot let Congress Democrats hold hostages a bipartisan bill for a partisan, separate process.”
The White House said Monday that Biden had already made his position clear and that the president would make every effort to get the bipartisan agreement and the larger reconciliation package to be signed into law.
But White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to delve into the details (including whether Schumer and Pelosi should change their spot and disassociate bills), arguing that it was up to them to advance legislation in Congress.
“The most shocking role. . . that the president thinks he can play. . . is to present the case to the American people, to the public, about how officials are working together to get them. “
Psaki added: “This is exactly where your focus will be, and certainly [he] it will work in close coordination with congressional leaders, but it is up to them to determine the sequencing of legislation. “
Capitol Hill veterans warn that McConnell’s threats should not be taken lightly and that the Republican senator from Kentucky could remove the legislation before the end of the summer. He was not part of the negotiations on bipartisan infrastructure and has not said whether he supports the resulting deal.
“[McConnell] try to wait their time to find out if they can cross the line or not, ”said Heye. “I do not spend any political capital until it is time to do so. If they have a viable agreement, that’s one thing, but until they do, he’ll be like him. “
Manley agreed, saying: “Senator McConnell touched his first hand [on Monday] when he began to actively undermine negotiations. It remains to be seen how it develops.
Manley said there were no “freelancers” in the Republican Senate caucus, adding, “In the end, they will do what McConnell asks them to do.”
Swamp notes
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