The Washington Post - USA (2021-12-22)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR

Liberals are furious.
Their hopes of enacting an
expansive domestic policy bill
focused on health care, education
and climate change have been
dashed. They blame Sen. Joe
Manchin III (D-W.Va.), arguing
he failed to keep his word to
negotiate in good faith with the
White House before announcing
his opposition to the package on
“Fox News Sunday.”
And they are in no mood, at the
moment, to think about scaling
back their policy ambitions in
hopes of getting some part of
what they want into law follow-
ing Manchin’s proclamation that
he “can’t get there” on President
Biden’s Build Back Better propos-
al.
“Why do we have to acquiesce
to what members of another
party think we should be doing,
what so-called moderates think
we should be doing, what so-
called independents think we
should be doing? All of that
represents a status quo,” said
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).
“Our status quo is rooted in
racism, sexism and classism, and
us not passing Build Back Better
or scaling it back dramatically,
even more so than has already
been done, is going to dispropor-
tionately harm people of color,
women, the poor, children and
seniors.”
The intense frustration ema-
nating from the most liberal
members of Congress adds an
extra layer of complication for
the White House and Democratic
leaders who are scrambling to
find a path forward to save some
of the roughly $2 trillion domes-
tic policy bill Manchin torpedoed
over the weekend.
Whether liberals’ public pro-
nouncements that they are done
scaling back their priorities is
just pique talking or a firm deci-
sion will be just as key to what the
party can accomplish as whether
Manchin comes back to the nego-
tiating table.
Some, like Bowman, said they
saw Manchin’s announcement
coming back in November, when
House leaders and Biden pushed
House Democrats to enact a bi-
partisan $1.2 trillion infrastruc-
ture bill favored by moderates
with the promise that the party

would “get there” on the social

policy and climate change bill.

Bowman and a handful of

other liberals voted against the

spending for roads, bridges and

broadband, arguing it was their

only leverage for keeping people

like Manchin at the table.

Now, these lawmakers are tak-

ing an I-told-you-so stance.

“No one can really be promised

a Manchin vote,” Rep. Alexandria

Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” adding

that fellow Democrats had been

“strung along” by the senator.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

(D-Calif.) tried to project opti-

mism Monday during an event in

her hometown of San Francisco,

noting that Democrats have to

keep trying to find a way forward.

“Well, we never give up,” Pelosi

said. “This will happen, it must

happen, and we will do it as soon

as we can. There are conversa-

tions that are ongoing, but we

cannot walk away from this com-

mitment. The Build Back Better

is about transforming our soci-

ety.”

Talks have begun on narrow-

ing the scope of the roughly

$2 trillion proposal in hopes of

preventing a complete failure —

and a list of broken promises to

voters.

But liberal leaders said they

don’t see much of a point in

negotiating with Manchin, por-

traying him as untrustworthy

and never clear about what he is

willing to support.

Instead, they plan on pushing

Biden to take unilateral action

through executive orders.

“No one should think that we

are going to be satisfied with an

even smaller package that leaves

people behind or refuses to tackle

critical issues like climate

change. That is why it is now

incumbent on President Biden to

keep his promise to us and to the

American people by using the

ultimate tool in his toolbox: the

tool of executive actions in every

arena immediately,” Rep. Pramila

Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs

the Congressional Progressive

Caucus, said in a call with report-

ers Monday.

She said the CPC’s executive

board plans to discuss the issue

before engaging with the White

House. Among the ideas: cancel-

ing student debt owed to the

government or keeping in place a

pause on student loan payments

enacted at the start of the pan-

demic; lowering the cost of medi-

cal supplies, such as insulin; and

targeting fossil fuels to combat

climate change.

But even if Biden was to ag-

gressively use executive orders to

implement liberal priorities, he

would not be able to accomplish

nearly as much as Congress could

through legislation.

White House press secretary

Jen Psaki said that while Biden is

not hesitant to use the presiden-

tial power, “the benefit of legisla-

tion is obviously it makes it

permanent.”

She added that liberals should

not lose faith in the negotiations,

telling reporters the president’s

message to them is, “We need to

work together to get this done,

and he’s going to work like hell to

get it done.”

Liberal leaders first want to

see Manchin formally vote

against the Build Back Better Act

passed by the House last month

so voters can hold him to account

rather than allow him to “take

the easy way out and announcing

his position on Fox News,” one

aide to a liberal member said,

speaking on the condition of

anonymity to discuss private de-

liberations.

Senate Majority Leader

Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said

Monday that the Senate would

vote on the bill.

“Neither that delay, nor other

recent pronouncements, will de-

ter us from continuing to try to

find a way forward,” he wrote to

his colleagues.

But Manchin has made clear

he’s not worried about a floor

vote or any backlash over his

decision in West Virginia, a state

Donald Trump won by almost 40

points in 2020, arguing that as a

conservative Democrat from a

red state, he’s not going to vote

for policies unpopular back

home.

“I think I still represent the

centrist wing of a Democratic

Party that has compassion but

also has reasonability,” he said

Monday in an interview with

West Virginia’s MetroNews ra-

dio.

He also said liberals should

stop pretending the party has

big majorities in both chambers

and can do whatever it wants.

The six members of the

“Squad,” a group of younger

representatives of color, have

expressed particular exaspera-

tion with Manchin, portraying

him as overly influenced by cor-

porate America and noting that

his family runs a coal business at

a time when the party is trying to

move the country away from

fossil fuels.

“This has nothing to do with

his constituents. This is about

the corruption and self-interest

of a coal baron,” Rep. Ilhan Omar

(D-Minn.) tweeted Sunday.

But the group is also directing

blame at Democratic leaders for

pushing the infrastructure bill

through without first passing

the Build Back Better agenda.

Last month, all six — Reps.

Bowman, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar,

Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ayanna

Pressley (Mass.) and Cori Bush

(Mo.) — voted against the infra-

structure bill. Their stance was

criticized by some of their Dem-

ocratic colleagues, including

dozens in the Congressional Pro-

gressive Caucus, for not stand-

ing by the president at a critical

decision point, according to sev-

eral members who participated

in an hours-long CPC meeting

Biden called in to last month.

“Of course we have every right

to be furious with Joe Manchin,

but it’s really up to leadership

and the Democratic Party who

made the decision to get us to this

juncture and how we’re going to

move forward,” Ocasio-Cortez

said Monday on MSNBC. “I think

right now that Democratic lead-

ership has a very large number of

tools at their disposal, the presi-

dent particularly, and it’s really

about time that we take the kid

gloves off and we start using

them to govern for working fami-

lies in this country.”

Bowman echoed that senti-

ment and said it was time for

senior Democrats to start paying

more attention to members who

represent voters who put Biden

in the White House rather than

moderates from states or dis-

tricts where he is less popular.

“That’s the question, do we

have the respect of leadership

throughout the House and Sen-

ate in the White House, as newer

members of Congress, and is

some of that subconscious dis-

crimination, part of us not get-

ting the respect we deserve even

though we are duly elected mem-

bers of Congress,” he said. “Man-

chin is exhibit A, him and what

do you represent are the true

problems of the Democratic Par-

ty, a party and a Congress an-

chored in the 1960s and ’70s and

not evolving into the 21st-centu-

ry, vibrant, multiracial economy

we’re supposed to be.”

Some liberals who went along

with the plan to pass the infra-

structure bill, counting on Biden

to deliver on their priorities, said

they still have hope.

Asked whether she regrets

building support to send the

infrastructure bill to the presi-

dent’s desk last month, Jayapal

said it was a question that she’s

“gone over in my head a million

times.” Ultimately, she said, do-

ing so kept negotiations with

Manchin going.

“I don’t have a regret. I under-

stand that different people can

read this differently, but I really

believe that had we not passed

the infrastructure bill, that would

have been the day that the sena-

tor said Build Back Better was

dead,” she said.

[email protected]

Irate liberals don’t want to shrink ambitions for Manchin

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) heads to a Capitol Hill meeting Dec. 15. White House and Democratic

leaders are trying to save some of the Build Back Better Act, which Manchin rejected over the weekend.

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