Ryan Grim on the Budget Reconciliation Bill: “Progressives Have Leverage”
In the byzantine parliamentary politics surrounding the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, progressives have more cards to play than in past policy fights. But corporate-backed Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema are still standing in the way.
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus pose in front of the US Capitol Building along with Senator Bernie Sanders, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
In March, Congress passed the nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan — the first major part of the Biden administration’s domestic agenda. After that, things got a lot more complicated.
The next package of reforms was split in two: a bipartisan infrastructure bill championed by some moderate Democrats, and a much larger suite of reforms progressives hope to pass using the reconciliation process. Breaking her months-long pledge to keep the two bills linked together, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week signaled her intention to de-link them — raising the prospect of a complicated showdown between different factions of the Democratic coalition.
The Intercept’s DC bureau chief Ryan Grim is a veteran of complicated congressional wrangling, having had a front-row seat for previous major policy fights, including the infamous debate over the Affordable Care Act. Yesterday, Grim sat down with Jacobin’s Luke Savage to discuss the fluid legislative and political dynamics now at play — and why the congressional left is better equipped to fight its corner than it was in the Obama years.
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