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Rashida Tlaib Accuses Pelosi Of Committing An Act Of ‘Betrayal’

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A showdown is happening in the Democrat Party and it has House Speaker and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi squaring off with the people some believe are the future of the party.

Months ago Speaker Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Democrats promised progressives that the bipartisan infrastructure bill currently being debated in Congress would only be passed if another, $3.5 trillion, spending bill was done alongside it.

Now some progressives believe that the Speaker and Democrat leadership have reneged on that promise, The New York Times reported.

Liberal Democrats dug in on Tuesday against voting for a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill this week, angrily rejecting a decision by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to push the bill forward before the party could resolve bitter disagreements over a sprawling social policy and climate package.

The day after Ms. Pelosi signaled she would follow through with a Thursday vote on the infrastructure plan, the backlash reflected deep mistrust in the Democratic ranks that is threatening to derail President Biden’s domestic policy agenda.

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At the heart of the impasse was a lack of clarity from moderate and conservative Democrats about what they would accept in the broader social safety net package, which has hamstrung negotiations led by Mr. Biden and Democratic congressional leaders to unify the party around a plan that can pass both chambers. Without a compromise, progressives say they cannot support the smaller, Senate-passed infrastructure plan, which omits many of their top priorities.

Count many of the Squad members, like Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, among those who do not approve of that plan.

“Let me be clear: bringing the so-called bipartisan infrastructure plan to a vote without the #BuildBackBetter Act at the same time is a betrayal,” she said on Twitter. “We will hold the line and vote it down.”

“This is not the time for half measures or to go back on our promises,” she said.

And New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hammered some of her fellow Democrats when she appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC Tuesday.

“We have a vast majority of Democrats, about 96%, that are in agreement of the entire agenda. Now, a very small handful of Democrats, about 4% of the party, are trying to essentially split these two priorities up,” she said. “And I personally don’t think it’s an accident that the ones that a lot of lobbyists love are in the much smaller, underfunded bill, that don’t make prescription drugs easier to buy and more affordable, etcetera.”

And she said she believes that she knows the plan that Democrat leadership has.

“What they want is to split them apart,” she said. “force a vote on the first one, and because we have such narrow margins in the Senate and the House, the read that we have is that they’ll just dump the second one. Leave the other one out to dry, and just never actually vote on it.”

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The 30-year-old representative, and many of her progressive colleagues, believe the only way forward is to pass both bills at the same time.

“The way that we bring our two parts of the caucus together,” she said, “is by saying, ‘You know what? My bill is bound up in your bill, and your bill is bound up in my bill.’”

But Speaker Pelosi faces a tough challenge as moderate Democrats are balking at the $3.5 trillion price tag on reconciliation. But some say that the price tag is already a concession on their part and they do not want to give anymore.

“Should we tell young people of this country, ‘sorry, taking on the crisis of climate change just isn’t that important’? Should we tell working families, ‘sorry, we’re not going to make child care affordable’? $3.5 trillion IS the compromise. Let’s get this done,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Twitter.

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“We have worked very hard to develop legislation which finally meets the long-neglected needs of the working class. $3.5 trillion is already the compromise — we must pass the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill in tandem,” he said in another tweet.

This showdown is one to watch.

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