Libs without a mandate spoil Pelosi plan

 Rick Newman:

Liberal Democrats think they’re having a moment. They’re tying up President Biden’s legislative agenda because it doesn’t tax the rich enough or lavish adequate spending on the needy. Since Democrats have tiny majorities in both the House and Senate, a few defectors can squash Biden’s entire plan. Liberals are reveling in their leverage.

They shouldn’t be. The so-called progressive wing of the Democratic party may have enough heft to block action, as it has with the so-called bipartisan infrastructure plan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has twice delayed a vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill because a handful of progressive Dems say they won’t vote for it unless both houses commit to a much bigger bill on social welfare and green energy. The Senate already passed the infrastructure bill and Biden desperately wants it. So for the moment, progressive obstructionists possess the power of no.

But progressives don’t have a mandate from voters, and they can’t make anything happen on their own. The 2020 presidential election settled this, when the unexciting centrist Joe Biden squashed firebrand progressives Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primaries. In the general election, moderates and independents were key swing voters helping Biden oust incumbent Republican Donald Trump.

After Biden dispatched Sanders and Warren in the primaries, they campaigned for him, hoping to claim some ownership of a Biden administration, should Biden win. Now they want payback. Progressives led by Sanders in the Senate and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington in the House are demanding that all Democrats commit to Biden’s gigantic $3.5 billion tax and spending bill, as a condition of their votes for the infrastructure bill. By linking the two bills, progressives are tying a hostage to the train tacks—the infrastructure bill—and driving the train straight toward it. They’ll only pull the brakes if Democrats commit to the massive $3.5 trillion bill at the same time.
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Not only do they not have a mandate for this legislation, but they also do not have the votes in the Senate to pass the whole package anyway.  This is starting to look like Kamikaze liberalism.