Right wing Democrats in Congress,
like Representative Josh
Gottheimer, are now finally
caving to progressive Democrats
standing their ground on
the reconciliation budget bill.
Now the reconciliation budget bill,
which could pass in the Senate
with a simple majority,
would include all of the provisions
that were stripped away from
the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Everything that would actually help
ordinary Americans like expanding
Medicare, providing funding for
elder care, child tax credits,
all of that stuff.
Now, conservative Democrats
like Gottheimer were saying that
they wanted to immediately
pass the bipartisan bill
without a pathway forward for
the reconciliation bill.
But now we have some updates that
are fascinating, including a twist
from the DCCC, which we'll
get to in just a minute, but
first a little context for you.
Earlier this month
Representative Gottheimer and
eight other Democrats sent a letter
to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
threatening to vote down
a $3.5 trillion budget resolution,
a measure that sets the stage for
the reconciliation package,
unless the House first passes
a $550 billion bipartisan
infrastructure bill that the Senate
approved on August 11.
Now, as we've talked about on
the show in great detail,
the bipartisan infrastructure bill
has some good provisions in it, but
much of it is basically corporate
handouts, which is why conservative
Democrats love it.
The business community,
their donors, they love it.
And so the conservative Democrats
thought that they could pull a fast
one on us by ensuring that
the bipartisan bill passes, and
then once that passes then they
don't have to commit
to the reconciliation budget bill.
But Nancy Pelosi is saying,
no, we need to pass both of them
simultaneously, and
if you're not playing ball you need
to fall in line,
which is shocking because that's
not typically who Nancy Pelosi is.
Just days before Gottheimer's group
sent its letter, the nearly 100
member Congressional Progressive
Caucus announced that a majority of
respondents to an internal survey
said they would be willing
to withhold their votes for
the bipartisan legislation until
the Senate also passes
a reconciliation bill.
A move that's not expected until
next month.
And so the big update today
comes from David Dayen over at
the American Prospect.
He writes that the Prospect has
learned that several of the nine
conservative House Democrats who
insisted to Nancy Pelosi that
they would not vote for
a budget resolution without a vote
on the bipartisan infrastructure
package first have flipped.
There are no longer nine dem
holdouts.
But Dayen does also caution that
this is a fluid situation,
it's very malleable and fluid, and
there's always a way of for
things to go wrong.
[LAUGH] That's the way that
I read that.
So of course, since it's fluid,
who knows what could happen.
But what's so incredible about this
is the fact that not just
progressives, but Nancy Pelosi
seems to be standing her ground.
During a private call with her
leadership team last week, Pelosi,
who has just three votes to spare,
derided the group of nine
conservative Democrats saying,
quote, this is no time for
amateur hour.
And apparently she won't budge.
She says, any delay to passing
the budget resolution threatens
the timetable for delivering
the historic progress and
the transformative vision that
Democrats share in support of
President Biden's vision to build
back better.
We must move quickly to pass
the budget resolution this week.
It is essential that
our caucus proceeds unified in our
determination to deliver once in a
century progress for the children.
I wish it wasn't just once in
a century, but
I hear what she's saying.
>> No, guys,
this is absolutely shocking.
I've literally never seen this in
quarter of a century
covering politics.
Democratic leadership backing
progressives and
attacking and intimidating
conservative Democrats.
Unprecedented, and that is literal.
So I don't know what to make of
this.
It looks like, and I'm saying this
with great trepidation because they
always pull the football- >> Yes.
>> Right? >> Yes. >> But it looks
like progressives might have swung
the pendulum of power here.
>> That's what leverage does.
>> Yes. >> When you're willing to
withhold your vote as a block for
something substantive and
something that could actually pass,
like the reconciliation budget
bill, then flexing that muscle
makes sense and it works, right.
And they have to maintain that,
right, because I personally have
a difficult time trusting
Nancy Pelosi, but if progressive
lawmakers do withhold
their vote as a block unless they
get the reconciliation bill,
that could work.
And then there's the wrinkle
to the story that I did not expect.
And I love it because you see
conservative Democrats crying about
it even though these were the kinds
of threats that were lodged
against basically progressive
challengers to
conservative Democrat incumbents.
So this is from Politico,
they're reporting that
Democratic Congressional
Campaign Chair Sean Patrick Maloney
has phoned members in recent days
to warn that their majority is in
jeopardy if they derail Biden's
broader spending priorities.
Some of those centrists who
received calls from either Maloney
or his staff, who already face some
of the toughest races in
the country next November, said
they also took his comments to mean
that their own fundraising help
from the party could be at risk.
While they said there was no direct
threat to withholding DCCC funds,
those Democrats said the warning
was implied.
>> Yeah. >> Right,
so that is fascinating.
I love how angry they are at that
again because they had no
problem with the DCCC essentially
banning any type of support to
progressives who are primary
corporate Democrats.
But if they really do hold true to
this, if they really do threaten
the funding to these corporate
Democrats, pretty impressive and
shocking, very unexpected.
>> Also completely unprecedented.
I have never in my lifetime see
the DCCC pressure conservative
Democrats.
I've seen them pressure
progressives every time,
every time, okay.
So now, number one,
they sent in Sean Patrick Maloney
to do this pressure, stunning.
Number two, they do a mild thing
about, we didn't mention anything
about resources.
But why is the DCCC calling you?
They're calling you to
obviously talk about your funding.
That's the only reason why the DCCC
would call you.
In fact, they said the DCCC's
quote, not shy about telling anyone
that we think passing Biden's
agenda is critical to our success.
That means, goddamn right we're
questioning your funding, we might
pull it if you're not on board.
Now that tells you Pelosi's
definitely in favor.
I can't believe
I'm saying these words.
>> I know. [LAUGH] >> Definitely in
favor of the infrastructure
bill that is largely progressive,
otherwise she would never send
the DCCC to threaten their funding.
And she made the one main decision.
Of course she was the one making
the decision when they were
hammering progressives for
20 straight years and
the media never told you about it.
But unlike the mainstream media,
we're fair.
I'm shocked but it is true.
DCCC did make those calls, and
she is now pressuring
conservative Democrats.
And on top of that, she then had
a couple of these holdouts come to
her Napa Valley event where she was
doing massive fundraising.
She got in trouble for that for
other reasons that
we'll talk about later.
But Carolyn Bordeaux and
Vicenta Gonzalez,
two of the conservative Democrats,
showed up at the fundraising event
and behold, they decided that
they weren't going to carry out
their threat >> Once you mess with
their funding, that's when they'll,
I mean they'll cave,
that's all they care about.
In fact, much of their legislating
is influenced by campaign funding.
Their campaign donors are the ones
who basically tell them what to
support, what to try to block.
And in this case, they are being
pulled in both directions.
And it appears that the pressure
from the Democratic leadership
here, which by the way
is also influenced by progressive
Democrats standing their ground,
is having a massive impact.
Now, let me also just note,
there's still things that can go
wrong, right.
We still have to worry about people
like Ursen Sinema in the Senate,
who continues to be a huge problem.
Who continues to speak out against
the reconciliation budget bill,
claiming that it may cost too
much money,
$3.5 trillion is just too much.
But I think what we're seeing from
Democratic leadership right now
isn't just some loyalty to
Biden and
what his alleged priorities are,
this is about self preservation.
I think that Democratic
leadership is finally waking up to
the fact that Americans hate them.
And I'm just keeping it real.
The amount of Americans who have
given up on politics altogether
because of politicians failing
to deliver for
them is pretty significant.
And so if they care about self
preservation, if they care about
doing anything to increase their
popularity among American voters,
they need to deliver material
benefits to people,
and this reconciliation budget bill
does do that.
There are important provisions in
there that would get more people
health care.
I mean, the expansion of Medicare
alone is huge, and so
this is exciting.
But as always, I caution anyone who
gets too excited because,
as David Dayen mentioned,
this is a fluid situation.
>> Okay, but
guys, more good news and why you're
seeing what you're seeing.
Pressuring conserved Democrats is
actually really easy because
they're corrupt, the only
thing they care about is money.
So if you pressure them on money
they will cave in instantly,
it'll be a wine cave in.
And in this case they took them to
Napa Valley like, hey, don't worry,
if you cave we'll get you the wine
cave and everything will be good.
And for conservative Democrats
like, okay, great, I was in it for
the bribes, so if you got bribes
I'm in, if you're going to take
away my bribes I'm out.
Okay, I get it, right.
But now I tell you that because
Pelosi does not have the same
leverage over progressives.
The just Democrats don't take
corporate pac money, and a lot of
them don't even take DCCC money.
So when they say, yeah, we're
going to withhold your funding,
Cory Bush, AOC, Jamal Bowman, etc,
go, I don't care.
We're going to vote no, and
now you got no leverage over them.
And not only that, then Cory Bush
is going to go into a protest and
AOC is going to go on television
and talk about it and Jamal is
going to do what he does, etc.
And so you think you're going to
control Rasheeda Talib,
Ilhan Omar, and the rest of them?
They can't, so now Pelosi it looks
like has made the calculation,
I can't move these progressives.
That's leverage,
that's how you do it.
That's why we started justice
Democrats.
And so she's now going
to move the conservative Democrats.
That's politics, guys, we did it.
Now look, it's not over, they gotta
pass the bill, but I'm going to
give you two other facts here.
Meanwhile, just Democrats along
with other groups,
including Working Families,
Sunrise Movement, Organized for
Justice, and even Indivisible,
are running huge ads against those
nine conservative Democrats.
Now normally when they do that,
Democratic leadership will come
down on them like a ton of bricks,
but they're not.
They're letting those ads run with
no consequences.
And in fact, as Ana told you,
when Pelosi says
about the conservative Democrats,
this is no time for amateur hour.
She's now deriding them and putting
them down and insulting them, like
she used to do with progressives.
In that bill, there's a part of
the green new deal.
Remember in the beginning when we
started Pelosi said,
it's green dream or whatever,
she didn't give a damn about it.
The reason she's moving is not
because all of a sudden she cares
about climate change or jobs or
anything else.
She moved because you all moved the
political spectrum, and she has a
new political reality to deal with.
That is amazing.
And I'll end on the guy who was
a first justice Democrat, and
you saw it here on The Young Turks.
He came on the show, and he said,
I'll be your champion.
It's Ro Connor.
And I'm giving you this quote
because he reverses the paradigm
here, he flips it.
He said to my moderate colleagues,
a vote against the Biden agenda
this week is not only a slap in
the face of the President,
it will obstruct any shot at
adopting the policies that define
us as Democrats.
Now, the establishment just buried
Nina Turner by pretending that
she's not a good Democrat.
Now Row Conners flipping that on
its head and going, well Biden's in
favor the infrastructure bill, so
I guess the moderate Democrats
are bad Democrats that are slapping
Biden in the face.
That then forces the mainstream
media, who loves Democratic
leadership, to go, my god,
I guess the conservative Democrats
are the bad guys now.
Look, I don't want to say mission
accomplished.
>> Do not say mission accomplished.
>> Okay, but guys,
those are huge steps forward.
Amazing, the pendulum is
beginning to swing.
And yes, you the TYT audience, you
had a huge role to play in that, so
thank you.