Nine Democratic U.S. Representatives signed an op-ed in the Washington Post Aug. 23, stating that they will vote on the leadership’s $3.5 trillion Green New Deal and family aid bill (the “Hyperinflation Act of 2021", it might be called) only after a House votes on the $1 trillion infrastructure legislation from the Senate. These are members of the so-called Problem Solvers Caucus and in effect, original authors of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, such as it is. They write: “There is a standoff with some of our colleagues who have decided to hold the infrastructure bill hostage for months, or kill it altogether, if they don’t get what they want in the next bill – a largely undefined $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.” The anti-filibuster reconciliation bill is not really undefined: It includes all the Green New Deal subsidies and restrictions and mandates for renewables and EVs, etc., which the moderates in the Senate took out of Biden’s original “infrastructure” plan.
Nancy Pelosi is clearly leading the 100 or so Green fanatics in the House against the moderates, insisting she’ll not allow a House vote on the infrastructure bill until after the Senate has drafted a Democratic-only $3.5 trillion in “green” spending and incomes policy, and passed it. This will occur, if at all, in the Fall. Unless it does, Pelosi is prepared to put the infrastructure bill on the table (kill it), although it has bipartisan support in both Houses.
