In a closed door meeting with her
caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
urged house democrats including
progressives to vote in favor of
the budget reconciliation bill and
of course the bipartisan
infrastructure bill, also known as
the corporate handout bill.
Now, she is expecting a vote on
these bills by the end of the week,
on Thursday specifically, although
she's trying to keep her powder dry
as they say in politics and
not announce a specific date as
she has in the past.
Now, Pramila Jayapal is very much
part of the negotiations,
considering the fact that she's the
leader of the progressives and she
continues to disappoint us today.
Now, Pelosi told democrats at
Tuesday's morning caucus meeting
that hopefully by midday they will
be able to freeze the design
of the reconciliation bill.
She said leaders are waiting for
Manchin and another key democrat,
senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona
to weigh in on final provisions
over climate change and lowering
prescription drug costs and
by the way more on that in just
a minute, and the immigration
provisions which remain in flux.
Now, Pelosi said that the next step
is to bring the Biden package
to the rules committee.
She plans on doing that by
Wednesday of this week,
meaning tomorrow,
which would pave the way for a vote
as soon as Thursday on the bill as
well as a companion $1 trillion
dollar infrastructure package.
Remember that infrastructure
package is not really $1 trillion
it uses money that was
appropriated specifically for
COVID and has a little over $500
billion dollars in new spending.
The remarks were conveyed by
a person familiar with her comments
who requested anonymity to share
details about this private meeting.
Now, really the big question is,
where does Joe Manchin stand,
right?
And Joe Manchin, even with all
the concessions that he got from
the Biden administration,
from the corporate wing of
the Democratic Party still refuses
to commit to voting in favor of it.
He claims he's waiting for
the congressional budget office to
weigh in on how this would impact
the overall federal budget.
Manchin said he's open to voting
for a final bill
reflecting Biden's big package
that moves our country forward.
But he said he's equally open to
voting against the final product as
he assesses the sweeping social
services and climate change bill.
And of course he's got these
massive conflicts of interests
since he profits so handsomely off
of the fossil fuel industry,
particularly coal.
Jake, I'm going to go to a quick
video of Manchin from today and
then we'll open it up.
Let's watch.
>> Basically it's time to do
something.
The presence over there.
He went there, he asked for
something before he left and
everyone ignored it.
I didn't ignore it.
I thought it's something that we
could have been done.
It was very easy ask just vote for
the bipartisan infrastructure bill
has a tremendous amount of clean
energy in it would have helped an
awful lot and it does an awful lot
more than we've ever done before.
They couldn't even do that because
they were saying it's not the
perfect is going to be the enemy of
the good if we don't sit down and
be rational about what we're doing.
>> So there you have it Manchin
continuing to apply pressure on
progressives and representative
Jayapaul is about to deliver, so.
>> Yeah. All right, first Pelosi
progressives to give up.
Of course, of course she does.
Look, if you watch this
show regularly,
you will see that we're almost
never wrong about these things.
And I'm not saying that in
a bragging way, I'm saying that so
you can see with your own eyes
exactly what happens in politics.
And that you could see that it's
all theater, it's all fake, right?
So Pelosi pretended to be with
the progressives all along.
We were the only ones who told you
she's not with them, she's going to
run out the clock and at the end,
pressure them to give
Manchin what he wants and
that's exactly what happened.
So that's happening right
now today.
Okay, number two, there is upside
here warfare, we don't take
like one random side including, by
the way, the progressive side and
say, no, no, progressive
legislators are always right.
People are used to that here in
America because our media is so
terrible.
So mainstream media supports
corporate politicians no matter
what, right wing media supports
Trump supporting republicans,
no matter what.
We don't do that here.
Okay, so now the good news is it
looks like they're going to have
a written bill in the House.
And so now Biden is saying yes,
the senate will definitely pass
that version.
That House version they're about
to pass, okay.
>> There's no promise that that
will actually happen.
>> No, there's a promise from
Biden, okay.
>> There's a promise from Biden,
but that really means nothing.
>> No, no, that's okay.
I totally agree.
That's what I'm trying to get to.
>> Yeah. >> So Manchin,
on the other hand says I
do not promise it.
He was very clear in his press
conference, he said it is equally
likely that I will vote, No.
So later when Jayapal,
as you're going to see now,
she said, I trust and
love these people.
My God, they would never,
a politician lying a corporate
politician lying it would never
happen my beloved Democratic
colleagues, right?
Well, later Manchin will say
I didn't lie, I told you before you
surrendered that I wasn't going to
necessarily vote for your bill.
And then Biden will say,
Joe Joe Joe.
He could apparently called
him Joe Joe.
>> It's very cute.
>> Okay, hey Joe Joe you promised
those rascally progressives,
you remember.
And Manchin at that point we'll
pretend to get offended
about something that happened in
the meanwhile.
You need to say, well I was going
to, but I wasn't I didn't even say
it though, I wasn't but
I would have had a good faith, but
since they did X, Y Z,
I can't do that anymore.
So they're getting rooked and
played as hard
as you could possibly get played.
And the planning here has been
atrocious.
>> It has, yeah. >> So right now
the ship is this close to sailing
and it doesn't look like there's
any progressive revolt at all.
So Manchin is about to get
everything he wanted.
>> That's exactly right.
And you're right in terms of
progressives lacking any strategy.
Progressives did in fact
have leverage because we're talking
about the corporate wing of
the Democratic Party and
their corporate donors endlessly
salivating over the pork in
the bipartisan infrastructure bill,
which would of course go to them.
That's why they're
salivating over it.
But the worst part about all of
this is the lack of leadership for
the Progressive Caucus.
And without further ado I give you
Representative Pramila Jayapal,
let's watch.
>> This week we will have votes on
both the infrastructure bill and
the bill back better act together,
which is what we've called for
for weeks.
So we finally got what we've been
saying and we're glad that people
listen to us.
>> He was saying,
trust me on Thursday though.
>> But we didn't have the bill and
he did not ask for
us to vote on that day.
He said I need votes on both bills
and we have been saying for months
we are not going to vote just on an
idea or a promise or a framework.
We're going to vote on legislation.
The minute we have legislation,
we can look at it.
Our members can decide
whether it is good enough,
which we feel very good about,
then we will pass both bills.
And I think that is what we've been
saying for weeks.
I don't understand why anyone
is confused about it.
>> I take offense to the way that
she framed it there because she's
lying.
This was not their strategy
from the jump.
Their strategy initially was
to refuse voting on the bipartisan
infrastructure bill until there was
passage of the reconciliation bill
in the Senate.
Now they've complete, like she's
completely surrendered and
she's saying now we're going to
vote on both bills and pass both
bills before we get passage of the
reconciliation bill in the Senate.
Even that stripped down pared
back reconciliation bill.
We still don't have a commitment
from Joe Manchin,
but Pramila Jayapal was saying,
well, Biden promises that he'll
get it done in the Senate.
So we're going to go ahead
and do this.
Okay, well,
that is a change in strategy.
That's why people might be
a little confused as she put it.
But don't act like this has been
a consistent strategy among
progressives and all of a sudden
people are confused and
don't know what's going on.
No, you changed what you were doing
and it's very clear to everyone
paying attention.
>> So look,
I know in Washington everything is
about personal allegiances.
So which side are you guys and
which politicians side are you?
We're not on any politician side.
So I like Jayapal, I've met her,
she's a very nice person and
she's definitely a real
progressive, okay.
But she's wrong here.
And furthermore in this case,
she's crossed the line.
What she's saying is not true.
It is definitively not true.
They said that they would not pass
the infrastructure bill in
the house until the reconciliation,
a bigger one pass the Senate,
not in the House pass in the Senate
because that was the whole point of
that trade.
Now she's pretending that they
didn't say that and
they meant that they're going to
pass them together in the House.
Well, that's just flat out not
true.
And we're not going to tell
you that it's true.
And I don't know if that's what her
expectation is that the media is
just supposed to work for
her, okay.
And by the way,
John Berman I credit him.
He actually asked really good
questions in that CNN interview and
he held her to account.
So she had to give this
ridiculous answer.
Now, the second part of it is the,
as I told you earlier, the fact
they're going to have a written
bill at least is something,
cause it's tangible.
Now, what's in the bills?
I think pretty bad to approaching
terrible.
So we'll get to that later.
But at least they'll have
a written bill.
Okay, now then comes the question,
who's right and who's wrong?
Jayapal says here if you get pass
the fact that she's not telling the
truth about the order of things.
But it's okay.
Let's say that they were going to
pass it, it looks like
they're going to in the House,
they're going to give them both.
Then it's going to go to the Senate
as a written bill from the House,
concrete, will they vote on that
bill and pass it?
She says Biden says
definitely, okay.
And I'm telling you right now,
no way.
Now you're going to get to see on
your own who's right and
who's wrong?
I'm telling you right now.
The minute they pass
the infrastructure bill,
that's a corporate backed bill.
They lose all leverage instantly,
they have literally zero leverage.
I wish it weren't the case, but
that's the case.
And so what does Manchin
going to do it?
What any sensible negotiator
would do.
I change my mind.
In fact, I didn't
even change my mind.
I told you ahead of time that I was
equally likely to vote No, and
you're an idiot and
surrendered to me anyway.
I mean look, it's uncomfortable,
but it's true.
Who would surrender to a guy
who said I might not even give you
what you want.
How is that a negotiation?
No, that's just the surrender.
That's all it is.
You can pretty it up and
you can get offended at us for
calling it what it is.
But it's at this point like
embarrassingly obvious.
>> Yes. >> So is Manchin going to
vote yes and Sinema going to vote
yes on that house version of that
concrete bill?
My guess is no, they will not.
The only thing they'll do is
they'll then strip it
out even further.
It's already sucks.
And they'll strip out more
provisions than anything that hurts
their corporate donors even $1.
And then they'll say now you could
vote on this piece of trash that we
hand it back to you at the House.
And then that way we'll all get to
do fake marketing about what
historic bill was.
And if you don't vote for
it will browbeat you and
say my God these guys are no,
well the deal is off.
If they're not going to vote on the
piece of garbage we gave them or
they won't pass it at all and then
they'll laugh their ass off at you.
>> Okay. >> And when that happens,
Jayapal should no longer be the
leader of the Progressive Caucus.
That's obvious.
The only thing that would prevent
that is the feelings of the people
in the Caucus.
Now if I'm wrong though,
if she gets that concrete written
bill pass.
I think it still sucks, but at
least she would be right about that
and you give her credit for that.
>> I don't even really think we
need to wait and see what happens
with the pare down reconciliation
bill to make a decision about
chronology of Jayapal's leadership.
Her leadership has been awful.
There has been a lack of strategy,
an unwillingness to use the
leverage that progressives have.
And I think that the worst scenario
is very likely and that worst
scenario is that they're going to
pass the corporate handout bill and
possibly not get passage of
the reconciliation bill,
which with everything that's been
taken out of it, there are still
some important provisions right,
including universal pre K something
that is not being means tested,
something that applies to everyone
universally, right.
So that's huge.
I mean that's essentially
childcare.
And we've talked
about the childcare provision and
how that's lacking and everything.
But what's also interesting Jenkins
is during that same interview on
CNN Jayapal was asked about
Representative Ro Khanna who is
also a Progressive, he's part of
the Progressive Caucus.
And just last weekend he was doing
his rounds on the Sunday shows
giving his interviews about
the reconciliation bill.
And I thought the way that
Pramila Jayapal answered questions
about his appearances was telling.
So let's just quickly watch that.
>> One of the things I saw over
the weekend was your colleague and
member of the Progressive Caucus,
Ro Khanna went out into
the Sunday shows.
And he said on Sunday, which is
before you've announced now, you're
crystal clear your yes on both
bills you want the vote right now.
Congressman Khanna said it Sunday,
he basically said it first and
after he said it, Ron Klain who is
the White House chief of staff who
according to politico and
others you've been in conversations
with pretty intensely for
the last month.
Ron Klain sends out not one,
not two, not three tweets gushing
over over Ro Khanna and
one of them is a retweet of of
Gene Sperling that said thank you
for your leadership, Ro Khanna.
And I just was, it struck me
as the White House picking members
of the Progressive Caucus that
they're more happy with their.
>> Well look, I mean
people are going to do
whatever they're going to do.
I represent the caucus.
Most of our members have stayed
with not getting out in front of
the caucus, but if somebody wants
to say they're going to vote for
the bill, that's fine when we say
yes, we say yes, when we say no,
we say no and people should learn
that that I don't say that unless I
know I have the votes.
>> So why did Khanna do
that though?
Because that is true,
Ro Khanna gives these interviews.
He says that he's a yes vote on
the honestly stripped down
reconciliation bill and so
it was that, I know it's ridiculous
to think that progressives
even have any strategy considering
the lacking strategy in this whole
reconciliation debate, but
did Ro Khanna go out there and
like basically take it for
Pramila Jayapal ahead of time?
>> No- >> What was that?
>> Look I don't know for sure and
we could settle it because
Ro Khanna is going to be on
the show on Friday.
So we'll ask him.
But it looks like Jayapal was not
happy that Ro Khanna went out
first.
>> Right.
>> And so but it doesn't really
matter because if you're
the leader, you just say yeah,
he's not the leader I am and
I speak for the caucus and
you have to back that up.
It has to be true, right?
And if so if Rho or
anybody else had said yes we're
going to take both from Manchin and
I'm the leader and
that's not where we're at.
I come out tomorrow and
we'll go no we're not and
that's it, we're done with it.
And then his
points become irrelevant.
So it just takes strong leadership