Everywhere you go, the corporate media are telling you that President Biden made a grave error in tying passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the reconciliation package. (You can see it in The Washington Post, The New York Times, more New York Times, Politico and Axios.)
Don’t you believe it. This is sound and fury signifying nothing. For once, we have a Democratic Administration acting as Republicans do. In other words, crafty Joe is pulling a #MoscowMitch move.
The Republicans have always known there would be a reconciliation bill with the items that Americans need but Republicans don’t think they deserve: child care, public-education spending, universal broadband, early childhood education, and more. That was going to pass with the votes of 50 Democrats plus Vice President Kamala Harris. And an infrastructure bill was going to pass — with or without Republicans. The only reason that there was a bipartisan group working on infrastructure is so that Republicans could at least get credit for doing something, and it was a chance to water it down and give something to their donor base. What you’re seeing is a warning to the squishy Senators Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin: Play ball on reconciliation or you won’t be able to brag about getting a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
So now are Republicans going to vote against the bipartisan bill in lockstep and watch as the Democrats get all the credit for an even better version of infrastructure aid folded into a reconciliation bill? Really, master strategist Mitch McConnell is going to allow that to happen?
If he does, he’s dumber than I think he is.
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