Member-only story
Progressives must continue to hold the line.
Killing bills if necessary is leverage, and progressives in congress need to remember that.
As I have already discussed before, progressives in congress delivered yet another blow to Nancy Pelosi and the Biden administration, following the announcement of a supposedly agreed upon framework for the reconciliation bill. After the only guarantee they had was essentially Biden’s confidence that Manchin and Sinema would agree to vote for this shell of a bill even after all the concessions that had been delivered to them, talks at the meeting between Pelosi and the progressive caucus seemingly deteriorated rapidly. The meeting ultimately ended with Rashida Tlaib walking out, followed by a tweet that read:
“I am not going to sell out my district for a bill that was written by the fossil fuel industry and championed by two Dem senators who bow down to Big Pharma & corporate polluters.”
Of course, this wasn’t the only humiliation handed to democratic leadership. Nancy Pelosi was reportedly kicked out of the meeting by caucus chair Pramila Jayapal, and stalked off without saying a word to the press who were waiting. Bringing the bills to the floor…
