Progressive Pressure Over the Budget Reconciliation Bill Is Creating Establishment Pushback
The pressure from pro-corporate establishment voices against the budget reconciliation bill is intensifying because progressives are, for the first time in generations, threatening to use their leverage and refuse to vote for a watered-down bill stripped of measures that would aid working people.
President Joe Biden walks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol in Washington DC as he arrives to discuss the latest progress on his infrastructure bill. (Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Way back in August, the Daily Poster told you that progressive House Democrats’ willingness to hold out for a serious anti-poverty and climate-focused reconciliation bill would likely determine the outcome of the epic battle unfolding on Capitol Hill.
We also told you that if progressives began holding out, corporate Democrats, egged on by a deal-hungry president, would revise their strategy and try to help their business donors hollow out that bill by defanging the legislative details.
One month later, all of that has proven to be true, and this conflict has now devolved into what most fights in Washington become: a clash between good policy and blatant corruption, and a deeper struggle between aspiration and lethargy.
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