(WASHINGTON) — “I don’t know where in the hell I belong,” Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, said Tuesday when when asked about possibly switching parties amid his stubborn bargaining with frustrated fellow Democrats and President Joe Biden.
Manchin said people approach him “every day” about doing so, and that it would be an easy decision. But he insisted he won’t, speaking out in a revealing interview with Economic Club for Growth Chairman David Rubenstein.
“Is that the purpose of being involved in public service? Because it’s easy?” Manchin asked. “Do you think by having a “D” or an “R” or an “I” is going to change who I am?” he said, adding he didn’t believe Republicans would be any more pleased with him than Democrats are right now.
He called being the only statewide Democratic public official in his home state “very lonely,” but said he understands why his constituents mostly vote for Republicans.
“My little state has never complained. We’ve done all the heavy lifting — we’ve done the mining, we’ve made the steel, we’ve done everything it took for this country to be a the superpower of the world,” Manchin said. “And all of a sudden they took a breath and looked back and we’re not good enough, we’re not clean enough, we’re not green enough, we’re not smart enough, so to hell with you. So, they said, ‘Well, to hell with you, too.'”
With Democrats holding onto a razor-thin margin in the Senate, Manchin has emerged as a pivotal player in Democratic efforts to pass the president’s agenda.
He said he doesn’t think there is anything “fun” about being the decisive vote in the Senate — but it’s led to breakfast meetings at Biden’s Delaware home and given him the upper hand in driving the direction of the massive social spending package, including what amounts to a veto power over provisions he doesn’t like.
That includes sticking to a much lower $1.5 top-line price tag for the social spending package he set at the start — something Democrats and Biden are still negotiating with him about this week, months later.
He commented on Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision in June to use the fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to bypass Republican blocking efforts.
“I don’t think we should be running the government through reconciliation, because it’s not lasting,” Manchin said he told Schumer.
He also reaffirmed Tuesday that he’s opposed to changing the Senate’s filibuster rule — just days after Biden himself suggested he could support exceptions for fundamental Democratic priorities such as voting rights and election reform — and maybe more.
While that would give Democrats breathing room to pass key agenda items, without Republicans keeping the measures from even getting a vote, Manchin said it’s important that the minority party retains some political power and that all sides pursue bipartisanship.
And he offered some behind-the-scenes color about how he’s been bargaining with Biden, who’s eager to secured his support.
“The president and I had this conversation, I said, ‘Mister President, I don’t know who put this out, but that’s screwed up,'” Manchin said, speaking about a proposal to help pay for his spending plan by having the IRS track annual transactions of $600 or more from individual bank accounts. After GOP backlash, the administration last week backed off the idea to catch tax evaders, raising the triggering amount to more than $10,000.
Manchin wasn’t happy.
“Do you understand how messed up that is?” he said he told the president. “This cannot happen. It’s screwed up.”
“He says, ‘I think Joe’s right on that,’ Manchin told Rubenstein. “So, I think that one’s going to be gone.”
(WASHINGTON) — Three of President Joe Biden’s major nominees were confirmed to ambassadorships by the Senate on Tuesday.
Former Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who left office in 2019, was confirmed as ambassador to Turkey, while former Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico was confirmed to be ambassador to New Zealand.
Cindy McCain, the wife of late GOP Sen. John McCain, was confirmed to the rank of ambassador during her tenure of service as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
All three nominees were confirmed unanimously.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, asked for unanimous consent to confirm Cindy McCain. Kelly was mentored by John McCain prior to his death in 2018 and won his Senate seat last year. Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, also of Arizona, was presiding over the Senate when the nomination was confirmed and was visibly excited.
Flake and McCain were some of Biden’s most ardent Republican supporters during the 2020 presidential election. They were censured by the Arizona Republican Party in January for their staunch criticism of former President Donald Trump.
“When I began in the Republican Party officially, the Republican party was the party of inclusion. It was the party of generosity. It was the party of ‘country first,'” Cindy McCain said of the censure. “We have lost our way and it’s time that we get back on track.”
“I truly hope that as things progress on, and we get further away from this mess that occurred, that we can do just that,” she added. “We can get back on track and remind everyone that we are here for the country and not our party.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Border Patrol agents at the center of a controversy stemming from their use of horses to block Haitian migrants from entering the U.S. have not yet been questioned more than a month after the incident took place, according to a law enforcement official.
Images of mounted patrol agents using their horses to push back migrants, mostly Haitian, stirred national controversy as an unprecedented number attempted to cross the Rio Grande into the small border town of Del Rio, Texas, in September. The Department of Homeland Security launched an internal investigation into the matter shortly after the images came out.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised a swift investigation into the horse patrol over a month ago, assuring lawmakers it would yield findings days later. As of publication, and despite multiple requests for comment from ABC News, the administration has not publicly announced any findings.
Preliminary findings from Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility have been handed over to the Justice Department to determine if criminal charges are warranted, according to two officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.
One law enforcement official said the internal investigation could not proceed, and the agents directly involved could not be interviewed, until the U.S. attorney makes a determination.
Referrals to U.S. attorneys are common in federal law enforcement personnel matters and do not necessarily indicate that criminal charges are being considered. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, which includes Del Rio, declined to comment.
“The investigation is ongoing,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “The Department is committed to a thorough, independent, and objective process. We are also committed to transparency and will release the results of the investigation once it is complete.”
Advocates for both migrants and the agents have been frustrated with the pace of the investigation so far.
Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center, said a central concern is that the government has deported potential witnesses to federal police brutality in the time it has taken to conduct the investigation.
“[The delay] creates an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ issue,” Tumlin said. “That was their intention.”
Over the two-week period that migrants surged into Del Rio, border officials stopped about 29,000 of them, according to the Department of Homeland Security. More than 15,000 either returned to Mexico on their own or were sent to Haiti on rapid expulsion flights. About 1,800 were placed in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and some 13,000 were released on conditions to report back to authorities.
Jon Anfinsen, a Border Patrol agent and union leader, confirmed the mounted patrol agents remain on administrative duties, which he said has impacted the unit’s ability to perform their normal patrol work.
The horse patrol appears to be back up and running in Del Rio, Texas, despite silence from the Biden administration on the results of the internal probe. Use of the horse patrol was stopped at the Del Rio International Bridge in the days following the confrontations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was unequivocal in announcing the end to the use of Border Patrol horses in Del Rio last month, calling it a “policy change.” DHS officials clarified at the time that it was only a temporary suspension.
“The secretary also conveyed to civil rights leaders earlier this morning that we would no longer be using horses in Del Rio,” Psaki said at a Sept. 23 White House press briefing. “So that is something — a policy change that has been made in response.”
A CBP official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly disputed Psaki’s characterization.
“They pulled all horse patrol agents for maybe a day or so to process,” the official said referring to the administrative duties agents are required to perform when migrants flood the area. “Then it was right back to normal sector-wide, with the exception of a couple more agents under scrutiny.”
A photo posted to the USBP Del Rio Sector’s Facebook page on Oct. 7 shows Border Patrol agents on horseback detaining a group of men huddled on the ground.
(WASHINGTON) — Brihanna Sims, a 27-year-old school bus driver and mother of a 7-year-old daughter, faces a financial pinch each summer when the number of routes are scaled back.
In summer 2020, classes held virtually because of COVID-19 meant even fewer routes and more strain. Although she received the Child Tax Credit before this year, the regular monthly payments and larger sum from the expanded Child Tax Credit became a “safety blanket” for Sims and her daughter, Addilynn, Sims said.
“She doesn’t have to see me stress about, ‘Oh my goodness, I didn’t get enough hours this month. Am I gonna make enough? Am I gonna make rent? Are we gonna be OK?'” Sims said.
Under a provision in the American Rescue Plan, 39 million families are now eligible for the expanded Child Tax Credit, according to the IRS, but the current program is set to lapse at the end of the year. President Joe Biden had proposed extending it through 2025, but it now may be extended only one additional year as Democrats pare back their social spending package amid pressure from moderates to cut the cost of the president’s plan.
Emma Mehrabi, director of poverty policy at the Children’s Defense Fund, said the monthly payments have benefited children, parents and caregivers in different ways — from monthly rent to groceries to newly established savings accounts.
“They’ve never experienced this type of income predictability each month, that has maybe given them a little bit of extra boost, a sense of security and relief and joy,” Mehrabi said.
Mehrabi also said the monthly payments, rather than the smaller payouts that used to come only during tax season, can make a life-changing difference.
“That can mean something to somebody who has felt disillusioned and fearful of the government,” Mehrabi said.
The first Child Tax Credit payment alone lifted 3 million children above the poverty line from June to July, according to a Columbia University study.
Kris Cox, deputy director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the expanded program is an opportunity for the U.S. to get up to speed with other nations.
“Many other developed countries have had child allowances that recognize that parents and families have particular financial obligations to raise children,” Cox said.
“We know that kids who grew up in homes with more income are healthier, that they do better in school, that they earn more as adults,” Cox added. “It’s just so important to give children a strong start in life.”
Sims said she’s being realistic and planning for what happens if the expanded Child Tax Credit payments disappear.
She also channels her energy into activism, volunteering for a coalition in Minnesota called the Barbershops and Black Congregation Cooperative that works to inform people in the community about political figures and policies, including the Child Tax Credit.
“Right now, I am preparing myself for things to go back to the norm,” Sims said. “Going back to that kind of budget that I had before, and putting a real tightening on things. But I’m also keeping myself positive that maybe this can change.”
(VIRGINIA) — With just over a week to go until the last day of voting in Virginia and New Jersey, former President Barack Obama is joining each state’s Democratic nominee for governor on the campaign trail Saturday, hoping to motivate the party’s base to turn out in their state’s off-year general elections.
Always held the year after a presidential election, the statewide and legislative races in both states are seen as bellwethers for the nation’s political landscape going into the midterms. A strong showing by Democrats could assuage party fears about 2022, but if Republicans make gains, it will serve as a warning shot for Democrats as they try to connect with voters in the post-Trump era.
Obama isn’t the first top surrogate to hit the trail with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is hoping to secure Virginia’s top executive post for a second time after leaving office in 2018. First lady Jill Biden stumped with both Democrats last week, and Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned with McAuliffe Sunday and Thursday, respectively.
“Let’s be clear about who this man is. He has the life experience, the professional experience, the experience in this state. … he walks his talk, he is a fighter,” Harris said of McAuliffe. “When you elect somebody or governor, you want to make sure you really know who they are. Well, we know who Terry is.”
Acknowledging how close the race is between McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, she added, “We got to make it clear that we’re not taking anything for granted. You know, four years ago, there was a lot of folks who said, ‘Oh, if I don’t vote, everything will be alright. It wasn’t alright.”
McAuliffe also has an event planned with President Joe Biden in deep blue Arlington on Tuesday. While Biden and McAuliffe have been friends for over 40 years, the president hasn’t stumped with him since late July. Earlier this month, McAuliffe acknowledged Biden’s approval rating has taken a hit since then.
“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know. The president is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia, so we have got to plow through,” he said at a virtual rally.
Those headwinds appear to be hampering McAuliffe more than Murphy, according to public polling.
A September poll from Monmouth University showed Murphy with a 13-point lead over his Republican opponent, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, among New Jersey registered voters. Ciattarelli has taken aim at Murphy’s handling of the COVID19 pandemic, arguing the Democrat’s policies have been too restrictive and the state’s economy has suffered for it. But according to Monmouth’s poll, half of registered voters have more trust in Murphy to handle the pandemic.
On the economy and taxes, issues that have been front and center in Ciattarelli’s campaign, the Republican fares better against Murphy.
In Virginia, however, the gubernatorial race is neck and neck. A Monmouth poll out Wednesday showed McAuliffe and Youngkin, a former private equity executive, tied among registered voters, and for the first time in the university’s polling of this race, Youngkin leads in one probabilistic likely electorate model.
(NEW YORK) — Soviet-born businessman Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, was found guilty Friday of making unlawful campaign donations totaling more than $350,000 to two pro-Trump super PACs and a GOP congressman in 2018, acting as a straw donor for a wealthy Russian who wanted to enter the burgeoning marijuana market in the United States.
Co-defendant Andrey Kukushkin was also convicted in the case, which was tried in a Manhattan federal court.
The illegal donations overlapped with Giuliani’s quest in Ukraine to unearth information that could damage then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, an effort in which Parnas allegedly positioned himself as a middleman.
“In order to gain influence with American politicians and candidates, they illegally funneled foreign money into the 2018 midterm elections with an eye toward making huge profits in the cannabis business,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said of Parnas and Kukushkin. “Campaign finance laws are designed to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections — unencumbered by foreign interests or influence — and safeguarding those laws is essential to preserving the freedoms that Americans hold sacred.”
As he left court, Parnas was heard saying “I’m upset, but i want to get back to my wife and my kids. We put up an incredible fight.”
Parnas was also convicted of using a shell company, as well as money belonging to his associate Igor Fruman, to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican and pro-Trump political action committees. Fruman previously pleaded guilty in that case.
The defense portrayed Parnas as “in over his head” but not someone who willfully violated any laws.
Parnas was arrested two years ago at Dulles Airport holding a one-way ticket to Vienna. He now faces up to 45 years in prison.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court will take up the Texas abortion law on the merits next month in a rare highly-expedited case that could definitively resolve the fate of its six-week ban and unprecedented enforcement mechanism.
SB8 will remain in effect for the near future until the Court issues its decision, which wouldn’t typically be expected for weeks to months after a case is argued.
The justices granted the request of Texas abortion providers and civil rights groups to hear the case before lower courts ruled on the law.
They also said they would also examine the question of whether the U.S. government, in the separate case, could even seek an injunction against a state law like Texas’.
Oral arguments are set for Nov. 1 — one month before the court is already set to hear a milestone abortion rights case out of Mississippi.
The court said it deferred a decision on the Justice Department’s emergency request for the court to put SB8 back on hold and that it would wait for oral arguments before taking action. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — For reporters in Washington, it’s a frequent refrain from President Joe Biden on the status of negotiations with lawmakers on his domestic agenda: “I won’t negotiate in the press.”
But Thursday evening marked a shift from the strategy of playing his cards close to his chest. The president was unusually candid at a CNN town hall, laying his cards out publicly, and unafraid to call out moderate Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on the roadblocks they’ve created in the talks.
The decision was perhaps a calculated one, as the White House counts down the days before Biden departs for a major climate summit in Europe, at which the president hopes to have real domestic progress in hand to encourage other nations to adopt similar measures.
Early Friday morning, Biden hosted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the White House for breakfast, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joining remotely, the three leaders already back at the bargaining table.
Pelosi later told reporters Friday that Democrats are nearing a deal on their two major agenda packages.
“We have a couple of outstanding issues that just need a decision,” she said, describing a deal as within reach. “I think it’s very possible,” she added.
Biden’s town hall capped off what has been the most momentous week of negotiation in months, with the president acquiescing to losing some key programs from his initial $3.5 trillion wish list, in order to meet those moderates calling for less government spending. The acknowledgement of the concessions could send a signal to Democrats that a deal on the package, which has been whittled from Biden’s $3.5 trillion wish list to just under $2 trillion, is imminent.
“I do think I’ll get a deal,” Biden said, in summary of the movement in recent days.
That deal has not been easy in coming. Biden admitted some painful cuts to his programs at the town hall, but the lifelong politician, who campaigned on his ability to reach bipartisan deals, said some losses were inevitable.
“Hey look, it’s all about compromise. You know, it’s – ‘compromise’ has become a dirty word. But it’s bipartisanship and compromise still has to be possible,” Biden said Thursday.
One of those compromises – losing the corporate tax rate hike Biden has long pushed for.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to get the vote,” Biden said. He was blunt in pinning the blame on a lone hold-out in his caucus.
“Senator Sinema is opposed to any tax rate hikes for corporations and for high earners,” Biden said, offering an unusual amount of insight into his talks with the moderate Democrat.
Later Thursday, a White House official clarified that Biden meant it would be challenging to get enough votes to raise the corporate tax rate, but that other proposals, such as a tax increase on stock buybacks, or instituting a tax on billionaires’ stock holdings, could make up the difference, ensuring the package, which will likely to top out just under $2 trillion, would not add to the federal deficit.
Biden also wasn’t shy in pulling back the curtain on his conversations with moderate Manchin. Admitting that the plan to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision “a reach” at this point in the talks, Biden revealed Manchin’s thinking, and said he could settle for $800 vouchers to cover dental work.
“He says he doesn’t want to further burden Medicare so that — because it will run out of its ability to maintain itself in the next number of years. There’s ways to fix that, but he’s not interested in that part, either. But, look, Joe — Joe’s not a bad guy. I mean, he’s a friend. And he’s always, at the end of the day, come around and voted for it,” Biden said.
Biden also for the first time admitted that his proposal to guarantee 12 weeks of paid family leave will be cut significantly.
“It is down to 4 weeks,” Biden said, in a frank assessment. “And the reason it’s down to 4 weeks is because I can’t get 12 weeks.”
Biden also confirmed that two years of free community college is falling victim to the downsizing. He offered an increase to Pell grants instead, and vowed to continue to fight for the program.
“I promise you, I guarantee you, we’re going to get free community college in the next several years, across the board,” he said, adding jokingly that his first lady Jill Biden, a community college professor, would insist on it.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Two top prosecutors in the Justice Department were added several months ago to the ongoing federal probe examining sex trafficking allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The Washington-based prosecutors, one with expertise in child exploitation crimes and the other a top official in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, have been on the Florida-based case since at least July. In recent months, they joined a team in Florida that’s been looking into whether Gaetz violated federal law by providing goods or payments to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex, sources confirmed to ABC News. The news of the new prosecutors was first reported by The New York Times.
Gaetz has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement to ABC News on Thursday, a spokesperson for Gaetz said, “Congressman Gaetz is innocent. The former DOJ official who tried to extort him is guilty. No number of political operative prosecutors at a politically weaponized DOJ will change this.”
The news comes just days after a federal judge in Central Florida granted a request from attorneys representing former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, Gaetz’s one-time self-described “wingman,” to delay Greenberg’s sentencing while he continues to provide prosecutors with information about his activities in connection with the ongoing federal probe.
Greenberg in May pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who also had sex with her when she was underage, and agreed to provide “substantial assistance” to prosecutors as part of their ongoing investigation.
“This is obviously not a normal situation,” U.S. attorney Roger Handberg told the judge earlier this week in requesting a delay in Greenberg’s scenting. “Mr. Greenberg is a prolific criminal.”
“Mr. Greenberg was not alone,” Handberg added. “This is an unusual situation with a number of lines of investigation we are pursuing.”
ABC News previously reported that Gaetz’s former associate had been steadily providing information and handing over troves of potential evidence in the sprawling probe, including years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, sources said.
Private messages first reported by ABC News potentially shed light on how Greenberg allegedly met women online who were paid for sex, and allegedly introduced them to the Florida congressman and other associates. The messages, first reported by ABC News in August, appear to show Greenberg texting with a woman he met online in September 2018 and discussing payment options. Greenberg also appears to ask the woman, who was of legal age, if she would take drugs; he then sets up a get-together with himself, Gaetz, the woman, and one of her friends, the messages appear to show.
Amid the ongoing investigation, Gaetz has remained active in Congress and has forcibly pushed back against the DOJ and the media. During Thursday’s House Judiciary hearing, Gaetz questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland on whether there are prohibitions against DOJ officials who have been “partisan committee staff” members working on criminal investigations. Todd Gee, one of the two new prosecutors added to the Gaetz investigation, previously worked as a House Homeland Committee staffer for Democrats during the Bush Administration.
Greenberg’s sentencing is now scheduled for March 2022, a date the judge said would be a “deadline we have to meet.”
(NEW YORK) — In January, when President Joe Biden took office and Democrats secured both chambers of Congress, millions of Americans had high hopes that the laundry list of causes touted on the campaign trail would become reality.
They had promised action on voting, elections and policing reform, on immigration and infrastructure. They touted sweeping programs now in Democrats’ social spending bills, addressing issues they said Americans care about most, from child care to climate change.
But this week’s failure by Senate Democrats’ latest effort to even start debate on a voting rights bill, their first piece of legislation to pass the House, is just the latest blow to Biden’s campaign agenda and the vow Democrats made to preserve Americans’ most fundamental right in the wake of the 2020 election’s “Big Lie.”
Many Democrats who expected more are frustrated.
“You’ve got real Americans that have spent time and energy in promoting supporting these plans,” said Domini Bryant, a social worker in Houston told ABC News. “I don’t have time to deal with the political rhetoric that is happening in our world right now because all that is happening is real people — real working people — are getting dumped on.”
“We’re still allowing ‘Big Lie’ rhetoric to reign supreme when you have real issues happening out here, like the fact that there have been millions of dollars put towards this pandemic recovery yet you still have thousands of people homeless right now,” she added.
It’s no secret Biden and congressional Democrats are having trouble with their own self-imposed deadlines — such as missing policing reform by the anniversary of the death of George Floyd in May, although a majority of Americans say major changes are needed to policing.
Since Democrats control both Congress and the White House — why haven’t they been able to achieve their legislative priorities? With Biden’s approval rating sinking, and congressional midterms nearly one year away, experts ABC News spoke with are predicting Democrats could pay a high price for their perceived inaction.
“Most Americans believe that government should be helping solve our problems and that compromise is better than obstruction,” said Jennifer Lawless, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. “But the incentives for our elected leaders to do compromise has dissipated, creating a vicious cycle where we’re seeing less action on what the average American wants. By the same token, there’s also a very, very little incentive for the elected leaders to deliver moderation, because there’ll be primary, and they’ll lose.”
Frances Lee, a political scientist and professor at Princeton University, said that although this Congress is deadlocked on high-profile legislation, it has been productive in responding to coronavirus crisis, pointing to the American Rescue Plan passing in March — although it did so without any Republican support.
“It’s a tale of two cities,” she told ABC News. “On the one hand, this Congress has impressive crisis response, and on the other, a stalemate on issues that aren’t necessarily connected to that crisis.”
GOP’s strategy of obstruction
Shortly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the “single most important thing” for Republicans was to make him a one-term president. McConnell would go on to do everything possible to prevent Obama from achieving major legislative wins.
“And that’s basically been the strategy that the Republicans have employed for the last 12 years,” said Lawless.
“It doesn’t matter if the Republicans could also claim credit for something that will be good for the American people or advance the economic interests of their state or their district. Republicans are now viewing any Democratic victory as separate and apart from their own interests,” she said. “This has now become a sort of permissible way to govern, whereas prior to that point, I think most legislators would not have wanted the American people to know that they were more interested in obstructing than they were in governing.”
That kind of strategy makes bipartisanship and cooperation exceedingly rare, experts said, and in many cases, not even pursued, which has heightened internal strife in the parties.
“Thirty years ago, forty years ago, if you had two members of your own party who weren’t in love with a bill, you’d cross party lines and you’d see if you could find some allies there, but that’s just not a viable strategy anymore,” she added.
She said the current stalemate over raising the debt ceiling provides the perfect example of McConnell’s strategy.
Republicans for months have said that Democrats would need to act on their own to raise the debt limit because they have total political control of Washington and are planning to pass a multi-trillion social and economic package with zero input from Republicans.
“They’ve made the case to their constituents and to Republican voters across the country that doing nothing is better than governing from the ‘socialist left,'” Lawless said.
Democrats, meanwhile, have argued raising the debt limit is a bipartisan responsibility, in part, because it covers spending that already took place under the Trump administration with unified GOP support.
“Republicans just have to let us do our job,” Biden said in a speech last month on the nation’s debt limit. “Just get out of the way. If you don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don’t destroy it.”
A recent poll from Politico/Morning Consult suggested that public opinion may not push either party to change direction. Overall, 31% of registered voters said they would mostly blame Democrats if the country defaults on its debt, while 20% said they would primarily blame Republicans. Thirty-nine percent said they would blame both parties equally.
“We expect our elected officials to deal with complicated issues like that,” said Jeremy Gelman, who wrote the book, “Losing to Win: Why Congressional Majorities Play Politics Instead of Make Laws.” “But making it seem like your opponents don’t have it together, that’s good politics.”
Loyalty to the filibuster
With a majority in the House of Representatives and Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, Democrats could, in theory, pass their legislative priorities without Republican support.
But not while the Senate filibuster rule stands in their way.
While legislation dealing with the budget can go through the reconciliation process and pass without GOP support, as was done with the American Rescue Plan in March, the Senate requires 60 votes for “cloture” — to end debate on a piece of legislation so it can proceed to a final vote, which then, in most cases, requires a simple majority to pass.
In short, without 60 Senate votes, a piece of legislation doesn’t even have a chance of being voted upon.
“That means that unless there is complete unity among Democrats in the Senate, the bill is already a non-starter. Every single member can hold a package hostage for their litmus tests,” Lawless said. “And on bills that can’t go through the reconciliation process, without 10 Republican votes, they’re dead on arrival.”
For four months under Obama, Democrats did have 60 votes in the Senate and, therefore, total control of Congress. It was during that slim window that Obamacare passed in the Senate with all 60 Democratic votes.
Progressives in 2021 argue Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who call themselves moderates and have staunchly opposed ending the filibuster, should help carve out an exception to push over the line key reforms, especially on the fundamental issue of voting rights, that they and fellow Democrats were elected to pursue. But Manchin and Sinema have refused to budge, arguing making an exception could backfire if Republicans take back control of the Senate.
“They’ve certainly articulated legitimate reasons why they are reluctant to make these exceptions,” Lawless said. “But in this political climate, it seems tone-deaf not to do it.”
Democratic infighting
While Americans might expect that unified government — as Democrats have now with the White House and Congress — Lee said that it’s more normal for parties with total control to face hurdles delivering on their agendas.
As evident by Democrats’ current stalemate on the social spending package, Lee argued parties are not as unified on many issues as they might claim to be with voters.
“It’s the reality we’re seeing now,” said Lee. “They get elected in these separate states and districts, and they differ in their political priorities and coloration, so it’s very hard for them to get on the same page.”
House progressives have vowed to vote against a bipartisan infrastructure bill — which received 19 GOP votes in the Senate — unless a deal is reached with Senate Democrats and the White House on a larger spending package involving social policies which they plan to pass through budget reconciliation.
“We make these promises to people, and they’re expecting us to deliver on them,” Jayapal told CNN this month.
Every unified government since the Clinton administration has failed on at least one of its top priorities due to internal dissent, not due to the filibuster, Lee said.
Gelman added that party leaders will pursue policies they know will fail — as Senate Democrats did on voting rights — in order to make a political statement.
“They also know that those are popular policies with their voters. They need to have solutions that they can offer in the future, and they think it’s probably politically valuable to show off the Republicans as being obstructionists,” he said.
Razor-thin margins
What makes it especially difficult to govern in the current Congress are the razor-thin margins in both chambers. Comparing this Congress to the previous ones with the unified government, Lee said the current political climate is more difficult than most because there are “no votes to spare.”
Democrats and Republicans currently have 50 seats each in the Senate, with Harris serving as the tie-breaker vote. The margins are tight in the House too, where most legislation needs a simple majority, with 220 Democrats and 212 Republicans.
“Parties have trouble advancing bold legislation even when conditions are more favorable — and they’re just not very favorable for either party right now,” she said.
She compared the current margins to those under former President Bill Clinton when tried to reform health care in 1994, but without 60 votes to end a GOP filibuster, the effort failed.
Lee said it’s the norm for “about half of all a party’s agenda items to fail,” so Americans should actually expect those failures to be higher in a Congress with super narrow majorities as is the case now.
With critics saying Republicans are playing a game of chicken on the debt ceiling, experts say Democrats are also playing a dangerous game with their political future.
“If with unified control the Democrats are unable to push forward Biden’s agenda, then it’s hard to imagine that they’ll get anything that they want between 2022 and 2024,” Lawless said.
Unprecedented polarization?
It’s also a time in Washington of arguably unprecedented polarization, in the wake of the 2020 election and Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
With the influence of cable news, and social media, lawmakers can get stuck in an echo chamber with their own supporters instead of trying to appeal to a broader cross-section of the country.
“We’ve reached a point in time where our political communication is so partisan and so polarized, that it’s hard even to blame the average American for not knowing the alternative viewpoint,” Lawless said. “They’re not exposed to it.”
Despite the division, experts said compromise remains the most effective way to pass changes in the world’s greatest deliberative body.
“We’re constantly sort of bombarded by messages from the politicians themselves that everything’s so divisive,” Gelman said. “But the reality is, legislating in this system of government requires bipartisanship.”
Greg Lee, a technology consultant in Columbus, Ohio, who used to identify as a Republican but is now votes Democratic, said the American people are left to suffer while lawmakers on both sides take things to political extremes.
“They’re not doing a good job of balancing their constituents needs with their desire to be reelected,” he said. “Congress should be a collaborative body, not a win at all costs game.”
