Turning my attention to literary pursuits yesterday, I checked the headlines for reports that Dems had worked out their differences to ram through the dystopian nightmare embedded in their prospective multitrillion dollar reconciliation bill. When news came that President Biden’s minders in the White House daycare operation had let him out for a pep talk to House Democrats in the afternoon, I feared they might be getting somewhere, but no. They wouldn’t even let him take a question from his allies in the caucus (tweet below). David Marcus comments in the New York Post column “Josiah Bartlet he ain’t: Joe Biden goes groveling.”
INSIDE the caucus:
At the end of his remarks, BIDEN offered to take questions from members but his staff jumped in.
He didn't take any questions.
— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) October 1, 2021
Speaker Pelosi sent a message to her caucus after they gave up for the long legislative day she had engineered:
Dear Democratic Colleague,
Today, President Biden honored us with his first in-person visit to our Caucus. He received a hero’s welcome! His presentation on the values of the Biden vision was warmly and enthusiastically received. We look forward to a successful enactment of the Build Back Better Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
While great progress has been made in the negotiations to develop a House, Senate and White House agreement on the Build Back Better Act, more time is needed to complete the task. Our priority to create jobs in the health care, family and climate agendas is a shared value. Our Chairs are still working for clarity and consensus. Clearly, the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill will pass once we have agreement on the reconciliation bill.
Tonight, we will pass a critical 30-day extension of the surface transportation authorization. More updates to come.
Many thanks to all in our Caucus for your energetic and principled leadership For The People.
Woo hoo! Keep nope alive.
Politico’s Sarah Ferris et al. report “‘It’s not a success’: Dems head home after infrastructure stalemate.” Subhead: “Frustrated lawmakers worry their failure to deliver either a deal on a social spending bill or an infrastructure vote could have lasting consequences.” Here are the opening paragraphs of the Politico story:
President Joe Biden deflated the air of urgency around a bipartisan infrastructure vote and tamped down liberal dreams of a $3.5 trillion spending bill in a speech before House Democrats Friday. Hours later, Democratic leaders conceded defeat — at least for now.
After weeks of trying and failing to find a legislative solution both the progressive and centrist wings of the caucus could support, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team passed a bill temporarily funding expiring transportation programs and sent frustrated members home until they can find a solution.
President Joe Biden deflated the air of urgency around a bipartisan infrastructure vote and tamped down liberal dreams of a $3.5 trillion spending bill in a speech before House Democrats Friday. Hours later, Democratic leaders conceded defeat — at least for now.
After weeks of trying and failing to find a legislative solution both the progressive and centrist wings of the caucus could support, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team passed a bill temporarily funding expiring transportation programs and sent frustrated members home until they can find a solution….
And that’s not all. They add a bit further down in the story: “While several Democrats hoped Biden’s rare appearance Friday — his first in-person huddle with House Democrats as president — would rally support for the $550 billion infrastructure bill, he actually did the opposite.”
There is more Schadenfreude for us in Samuel Chamberlain’s New York Post story “Moderate House Dems blast Pelosi, far-left after Biden spending bills holdup.” Andrew Stiles piles on in the Free Beacon’s “Pelosi’s Children: House Democrats Get Kindergarten Treatment.”
Having worked into the mid afternoon with his pep talk to House Dems, Biden went home to Delaware for the weekend to recharge his batteries. At Breitbart Charlie Spiering reports “Joe Biden Bails to Delaware After Agenda Deadlines Stall in Congress.” Sister Toldjah reads the tea leaves in RedState’s “Here’s How We Know Joe Biden’s Meeting With House Democratic Caucus Was an Epic Failure.”
An era of good feelings has not broken out among Senate Democrats either. John Fund accentuates the negative in the NR Corner post “Democrats Wonder What Schumer’s Game Plan Is.” The Manchin memo published by Politico earlier this week appears to be the source of heartache for Senate Dems. Schadenfreude alert: “Senator Elizabeth Warren, vice-chair of the Democratic conference, said she was ‘not pleasantly’ surprised by this news, in a classic case of understatement.”
David Harsanyi’s New York Post column steps back to make a few sobering points:
It is almost certain that the vast majority of Americans have no idea what is even inside the reconciliation bill. Who knows? That may be the case for most of Congress.
As of this writing, we don’t know how the reconciliation battle will play out. For Democrats, the consequence of ObamaCare was the loss of 1,000 seats nationally, including in state legislatures, and, perhaps, the presidency of Donald Trump.
Maybe they believe it was worth the price. I’m not sure what the cost will be for altering American governance in this manner with a single bill corruptly crammed through the budget process, but it will be unprecedented and, almost surely, make American politics far worse in every way imaginable.
Democrats will work something out in the end and, whatever it is, it won’t be pretty.
I should add that in its story on yesterday’s developments the Wall Street Journal posits the delay as a tactical move. The Journal story is “Biden Says Democrats Should Delay Infrastructure Vote Until Deal Reached.” I think that means they don’t have the votes to get the job done at present, which is obvious. If they did, they would have gotten it done yesterday.
UPDATE: Posted at 10:58 a.m. (Eastern), a few hours after I wrote the post above, this morning’s Politico Playbook adds angles that should be taken into account by somebody with analytical skills beyond my own.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.