Not only are House Republicans fed up with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) tactics, but House Democrats are as well. Pelosi had big plans this week to pass several bills including three major bills to seal the deal on several of Joe Biden’s campaign promises. These bills would fund the government, infrastructure, and the economy (at least how Democrats are messaging it), but not everybody is on board.
As usual, Congress has waited until the last possible minute to vote on their government funding bills in order to manufacture a crisis and make their pork-filled bills “must pass” legislation. If no funding bills are passed by Thursday night, the federal government will shut down leaving thousands of federal workers in the lurch. Knowing that a brand-new spending bill would not pass the Senate, the House decided to pass a continuing resolution (CR) which simply continues the previous funding into the next year. However, Pelosi just couldn’t keep her hands off of it. House Democrats included a provision to increase the debt limit AGAIN to allow for new spending in the future. This was a poison pill for Republicans. It passed along party lines in the House but failed a cloture vote in the Senate. They are going back to the drawing board.
Increasing the debt limit would pave the way for the next two bills. Pelosi was happy to receive the Senate-passed infrastructure bill and thought it would be smooth-sailing to Biden’s desk. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Progressive Democrats continue to be a thorn in Pelosi’s side They decided to hold the infrastructure bill hostage to move forward a $3.5 trillion “economic recovery” package. Progressives are still bickering over what all should be included, but the bill is largely based on Biden’s socialist Build Back Better Agenda. This would include the largest tax increase in American history to the tune of $2.1 trillion. Taxpayers would be funding “woke” policies like amnesty for illegal immigrants, universal pre-K, and Green New Deal provisions. You can read all of the House Budget Committee’s markup provisions here.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are gearing up to use the reconciliation process on the Build Back Better plan. This would allow the bill to pass by 51 votes instead of the usual 60 votes. However, they are facing two major obstacles: moderate Democrats and the Senate parliamentarian. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kirsten Sinema (D-AZ) are not happy with the $3.5 trillion price tag, so Democrats, including Biden, are trying to schmooze them. So far, they have been unflappable.
Then, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is trying his best to fit unrelated policy matters into the bill. When spending bills fall under reconciliation guidelines, all provisions must be fiscal only without a change in policy. His attempt to give massive amnesty to eight million illegal immigrants was struck down the first time. Now, his plan B is being reviewed. Currently, if an illegal immigrant entered the United States before 1972, they are able to apply for a green card. He proposes to change that year to 2010. While this seems like a policy change, the parliamentarian will have the final word.
That leaves infrastructure in the balance. Although Senate Democrats and Republicans claim to have reached a compromise, the infrastructure bill leaves taxpayers with a price tag of $1 trillion. Only $110 billion will go toward true infrastructure projects. It still pushes forward radical left ideology. Democrats’ new buzzword, “equity,” is written 64 times throughout the bill. They also try to “fix” racism and gender discrimination by forcing equal opportunity mandates and biased trainings. As bad as that sounds, for the radical leftist House Democrats, this is their worst-case scenario, which is why they are pushing so hard for their Build Back Better plan.
The turmoil for House Democrats has left this week’s schedule for votes up in the air. Will Pelosi be able to avoid a government shutdown and pass the President’s agenda by the end of the week? We hope not. Eagle Forum will hold Congress accountable by scoring against these bills and keep you informed of their movement.