Moderate Dems demand Pelosi hold standalone infrastructure vote, threatening reconciliation bill

A group of moderate Democrats is clashing with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over when to vote on a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill – potentially imperiling a key part of President Biden's legislative agenda.

The House returned from its August recess this week and is holding a crucial procedural vote Monday night on rules for debate on three measures: the budget resolution that will serve as the blueprint for Democrats' tax and spending plan, the infrastructure bill and a separate voting-rights measure.

But a coalition of nine centrist Democrats has been at an impasse with Pelosi and progressive lawmakers for weeks over a strategy to tether passage of the infrastructure bill – which the Senate already passed with bipartisan support – with the roughly $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that they plan along a party-line vote.

"We are firmly opposed to holding the president’s infrastructure legislation hostage to reconciliation, risking its passage and the bipartisan support behind it," the nine lawmakers wrote in a Monday op-ed published by The Washington Post. "We can walk and chew gum, just as the Senate did. We can pass the infrastructure measure now, and then quickly consider reconciliation and the policies from climate to health care to universal pre-K that we believe are critical."

The lawmakers – including Reps. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Josh Gottheimier of New Jersey, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Filemon Vela of Texas – have threatened to oppose the budget framework unless Pelosi first brings the infrastructure bill to the House floor for swift passage.

Because Democrats have an abnormally narrow advantage in the House, it's possible the lawmakers could torpedo both the bipartisan deal and the larger reconciliation...

It's happening.

Déjà vu, Overnight Nancy Pelosi Changes House Rules to Pass Green New Deal $3.5 Trillion Spending Package While Everyone Distracted by Afghanistan

August 24, 2021 | Sundance | 3 Comments

If you remember how Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi forced former Representative Bart Stupak and the 19 Blue Dog democrats to cave on the Obamacare construct in 2010, then you have a solid reference point for what Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are doing right now.

As you are reading this Nancy Pelosi has pulled together her leadership group overnight to change the House rules for legislative passage of the $3.5 trillion Green New Deal spending package under the auspices of “infrastructure.”

This $3.5 trillion spending bill is in addition to the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that came from the Senate, and… she is using the $2 trillion budget package as the carrier for a slick “Deem and Pass” maneuver.

As we have seen before, right now Pelosi is changing the House rules to have a single vote on the current budget proposal which will include a ‘deem and pass’ provision that adds the $3.5 trillion Green New Deal spending package to it.

By voting to pass the omnibus budget bill, all House members will also be voting to authorize as passed the additional $3.5 trillion GND as a wraparound.

This means one single vote passes this massive social engineering project with more than $5.5 trillion in spending in a single bill. Thereafter the House will vote on the Senate bill separately to add another $1.5 trillion, bringing the total spending by the House before they depart to a whopping $7 trillion; forever changing the American landscape.

After several hours of discussion and conference with a group of 10 ‘moderate’ democrats led by New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer, shortly before 1:00am ET Pelosi sent the House Democrats home with a pledge to finish the rules changes and prepare for a vote today, Tuesday. The House will reconvene at noon and the votes will be whipped.

Politico has a breakdown of some insider details surrounding Pelosi’s negotiations with Gottheimer [SEE HERE]. However, in the final analysis it looks like Gottheimer and his ten moderate colleagues are going to end up doing the same thing as Bart Stupak and the Blue Dogs did with Obamacare. Which means they will likely cave and approve the bill and procedural changes.

WASHINGTON DC – […] Several of the moderates were particularly incensed by a wonky maneuver that would wrap consideration of the ground rules of debate and the budget resolution itself into one vote, rather than the original plan that required two votes to advance the spending bill. After a few of them balked at Pelosi’s initial offer, Gottheimer returned for his second round of meetings with leadership and then shuttled back to his fellow centrists. (more)

Democrats are by nature totalitarian dictators and just like Bart Stupak, Josh Gottheimer is being threatened by Pelosi and House leadership if he doesn’t go along and get his group to vote in support of Pelosi’s massive scheme. All indications are this group of moderate democrats will not hold up against the massive onslaught of pressure from the leftists now in control of the party.

In the aftermath of ObamaCare Bart Stupak (Michigan) and the entire 19 member blue-dog caucus were wiped out in the 2010 mid-term election; however, by then ObamaCare was cemented. Democrats actually lost a total of 63 seats in the U.S. House (biggest crushing defeat since 1938) and lost 6 seats in the Senate. That was the political cost to Democrats, but they won their government takeover of healthcare and college tuition.

The $3.5 trillion Green New Deal/Socialist takeover plan is tracking along an almost identical path to ObamaCare. Schemes, rule changes and parliamentarian tricks used to get passage ‘by any means necessary‘.

Georgia Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk (GA-11th CD) attempted to send an urgent clarion call for help last night. WATCH:

An Urgent Message from our good friend Rep. Barry Loudermilk.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.