(Bloomberg Opinion) — Democrats in Congress have lately found themselves in a strange position. They’ve been holding at gunpoint an infrastructure bill that’s bipartisan, popular with the public, and funds projects they themselves say are essential.
(Bloomberg Opinion) — Democrats in Congress have lately found themselves in a strange position. They’ve been holding at gunpoint an infrastructure bill that’s bipartisan, popular with the public, and funds projects they themselves say are essential. The reason for this obstruction is that progressives within the party would also like to advance a broader and far more partisan agenda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she’s willing to forgo urgently needed spending on roads, bridges and other public capital unless the House in due course delivers a “transformative” (her word) program of higher social spending. Her threat to the dissidents among her colleagues has been: We shall have everything, or settle for nothing. On Tuesday, her rift with the centrist Democrats was patched for the next few weeks with a promise that the infrastructure bill will be put to a separate vote before the end of next month. But nothing has really changed.
