Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

Tensions Flare as Moderate Democrats Bring House to Standstill

August 24, 2021 By The Editors

By gary718 @Shutterstock

Associated Press in Washington reports tensions are flaring as moderate Democrats threaten to withhold their votes for Biden’s multitrillion dollar budget plan. AP writes (abridged):

Confronting moderates, House Democratic leaders tried to muscle Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle, working overnight to ease an intraparty showdown that risks upending their domestic infrastructure agenda.

Tensions flared and spilled into early Tuesday as a band of moderates threatened to withhold their votes for the $3.5tn plan. They were demanding the House first approve a $1tn package of road, power grid, broadband and other infrastructure projects that has passed the Senate.

Despite hours of negotiations at the Capitol, the House chamber came to a standstill and plans were thrown into flux as leaders and lawmakers huddled privately to broker an agreement. Shortly after midnight, leaders announced no further votes would be taken until Tuesday’s session.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, implored Democrats not to miss this chance to deliver on the promises Biden and the party have made to Americans.

“Right now, we have an opportunity to pass something so substantial for our country, so transformative we haven’t seen anything like it,” Pelosi said, according to a person who requested anonymity to disclose the private comments.

Pelosi told the party it was “unfortunate” they were discussing the process when they should be debating the policy.

“We cannot squander this majority and this Democratic White House by not passing what we need to do,” she said.

With Republicans fully opposed to the president’s big plans, Democratic leaders were trying to engineer a way out of a potentially devastating standoff between the party’s moderate and progressive wings.

Pelosi’s leadership sought to persuade lawmakers to take a procedural vote to simply start the process and save the policy fight for the months ahead, when they will be crafting and debating details within the full $3.5tn budget proposal.

Powerful committee chairmen urged their colleagues to move forward.

But it soon became clear that moderates were not on board and as soon as one meeting broke, other private sessions were convened, including in Pelosi’s office. At one point, takeout food was delivered. A night of scheduled votes came to an unexpected standstill.

Nine moderate Democrats signed on to a letter late last week raising their objections to pushing ahead with Biden’s infrastructure proposal without first considering the smaller public works plan that has already passed the Senate. Other moderates raised similar concerns in recent days.

“I’m bewildered by my party’s misguided strategy to make passage of the popular, already written, bipartisan infrastructure bill contingent upon passage of the contentious, yet-to-be-written, partisan reconciliation bill,” wrote Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a leader of the centrist Blue Dog caucus, in the Orlando Sentinel.

“It’s bad policy and, yes, bad politics.”

In the narrowly divided House, every vote matters and a few dissenters could conceivably end the Democratic majority’s hopes for passing any proposal. With most of Biden’s domestic agenda at stake, it’s unimaginable that Pelosi would allow an embarrassing defeat.

That’s especially true because the package is stocked with priorities like childcare, paid family leave and a Medicare expansion that are hard-fought party goals. It also comes as the president is already under criticism over his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The $3.5tn budget resolution is at the heart of Biden’s “Build Back Better” vision for helping families and combating climate change and is progressives’ top priority, largely financed with tax increases on the rich and big business.

But the moderates insist Congress quickly send the smaller, bipartisan infrastructure measure to Biden so he can sign it before political winds shift. That would nail down a victory they could point to in their re-election campaigns next year.

“The House can’t afford to wait months or do anything to risk passing” the infrastructure bill, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a leader of the nine moderate mavericks, said late last week.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, underscored Biden’s support for Pelosi’s plans. Psaki deemed it a “healthy debate” within the party and said that it was “a high-class problem to have” as Democrats debate the particulars of the legislation.

Progressives were more forceful. Cori Bush, of Missouri, said the budget “isn’t a political pawn. It’s an opportunity to deliver on our agenda … We are not here to play politics with people’s lives – we are here to pass transformative policies.”

Republicans said the $3.5tn effort fails to address “the crisis that American families are facing” and would lead to higher inflation and deficits.

“The inflation crisis, the border crisis, the energy crisis, the Afghanistan crisis – this budget only makes it worse,” said Jason Smith of Missouri, top Republican on the House budget committee.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • House Democrats Fail to Block Border Security
  • House Democrats Deliver Republicans a Gift
  • Moderate Democrats Outnumber the Left Wing by 2 to 1
  • Democrats Debate Like Animal House Report Card Day
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
The Editors
The Editors
The Editors
Latest posts by The Editors (see all)
  • Are California Politicians Abetting the Violence? - June 11, 2025
  • Democrats Slowly Realizing Transgender Campaign Was a Mistake - June 9, 2025
  • Memorial Day Remembrance - May 26, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • “The Losses are Taking a Toll on Their Health”
  • “The Great Object Is that Every Man Be Armed”
  • My Battle-Hardened Stock Market Strategy for the Worst of Times
  • How about Hiring Erik Prince to Crush the Drug Cartels?
  • Mises and Rothbard Finally Get Their Due
  • Who Will Pay the Price for LEDs?
  • Democracy: The Most Dangerous and Insidious Effect of Majority Rule.
  • DONBAS: Russian Tanks Face Gauntlet of Death from Javelin Wielding Ukrainians
  • “An Epic Struggle Over the Definition of America”
  • Yes! Money Can Bring You Happiness

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah
  • Oil Prices Spike as Markets Brace for Potential Middle East Conflict
  • Is Private Capital Appropriate for 401(k)s?
  • US Underground Natural Gas Storage Capacity Grew in 2024
  • Trump Revokes Biden Policy on Snake River Dams
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement Special Bonus: God Only Knows
  • US Secures LNG Export Deals Worth $200 Billion
  • High-Voltage Cable Crunch Hits Global Electrification
  • May PPI Lower than Expected
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #20: Life in Reverse

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah
  • Is Private Capital Appropriate for 401(k)s?
  • Strikes Expose Israel’s Hidden Drone Operations Inside Iran
  • Even If You Don’t Golf: Part 2
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement Special Bonus: God Only Knows
  • Private Equity: Moody’s Warns There’s Ample Cause for Concern
  • Your Survival Guy: Castle Hill, Newport
  • Containerized Missiles and the New Rules of War
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #20: Life in Reverse
  • America’s Silent Army with 423M Guns

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives