Biden Holds Basement Meeting Begging Dems for Help, But Lawmakers Walk Out Baffled
The civil war engulfing the Democratic Party escalated this week, with President Joe Biden under fire from both the centrist and the far-left factions of his caucus over the $1.75 trillion social-spending and climate bill he begged them to pass.
Biden met privately with holdout House Democrats in the Capitol basement on Thursday afternoon and implored them to support his bill, the Washington Examiner reported.
“I need you to help me. I need your votes,” the 78-year-old career politician said during the hourlong meeting, according to an unnamed source.
Biden turned up the pressure by claiming that their refusal to support his equity-infused social welfare package masquerading as an “infrastructure bill” would hurt their party in the 2022 midterm elections, according to the Examiner.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week,” he said.
The stalemate is due to a tug of war between moderates — who are alarmed by the jaw-dropping price tag on Biden’s $1.75 trillion bill — and the Democratic Party’s far-left cabal, which wants even more tax dollars earmarked for leftist welfare programs.
The progressive bloc is still furious that the current framework was slashed in half from Biden’s original, bloated $3.5 trillion proposal.
The Examiner reported that Democratic lawmakers “expressed a combination of resignation and disappointment” over the revised legislation at the Biden meeting.
The streamlined package includes expanded child care programs as well as “the largest effort to combat climate change in American history,” according to a White House news release.
Naturally, the Biden administration is pushing a variety of “racial equity” measures cloaked as environmental initiatives.
An additional $100 billion is allocated to fast-track asylum processing amid the daily flood of illegal aliens barraging the country.
NOW – Large migrant caravan has left Tapachula, Mexico for the US.pic.twitter.com/EprRkn62iv
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 23, 2021
This is infuriating. They will get a better welcome than our veterans. They will also be better taken care of than our homeless veterans. The border needs to be shut down until we get our homeless crisis under control. LA is exploding with homelessness! #FUBAR pic.twitter.com/9KEF2xICJA
— Code of Vets ™ (@codeofvets) October 23, 2021
Biden’s begging and pleading were all for naught, however, as House Democratic leaders once again delayed voting on the bill Thursday night after being unable to secure enough votes.
House does not have the votes to pass the infrastructure bill. That vote is off for tonight. House will consider ANOTHER stopgap version of the surface transportation bill and send that to the Senate tonight. Surface transportation pgms expire Nov 1.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 28, 2021
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, expressed frustration over the impasse.
“I tried to tell anybody who would listen that we didn’t have the votes,” Jayapal told reporters, according to Politico.
Progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona slammed centrist senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona for obstructing the Democrats’ far-left agenda.
“I think everyone is very clear that the biggest problem we have here is Manchin and Sinema,” Gallego said, according to Politico. “They don’t trust them. We need to hear from them that they’re actually in agreement with the president’s framework.”
We did not come to Congress to watch our entire agenda get torpedoed by corporate lobbyists, billionaires, and coal company owners hellbent on screwing over the American people.
It’s time to bring to the floor a bill that prioritizes people over corporations.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 28, 2021
This is the second time in two months that the House infrastructure vote was pushed back amid intraparty rifts.
It’s a humiliating blow to Biden that underscores that he lacks the political capital to push his agenda through despite Democrats controlling the White House and the House of Representatives.
As it is, this is not the first time — and it won’t be the last time — that Biden has resorted to begging.
In August, he pleaded with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase global oil production to counteract soaring gas prices in the United States. OPEC promptly rejected his request.
Biden’s flaccid display of political might underscores that he’s failing to deliver on his hollow promises to unite his party and the country.
With his poll numbers in freefall, it’s no wonder that former President Donald Trump is champing at the bit to run for re-election.
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