Written by: Amanda Angulo
On Tuesday, the House Democrats went ahead with President Biden’s economic plans after breaking a gridlock that threatened to unravel the party’s agenda.
After a 220-212 party-line vote, the chamber passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution and advanced a bipartisan infrastructure bill of $1 trillion. However, this is not bipartisan legislation since the Democrats wrote and approved the spending package without Republican input. Additionally, this places the Senate-passed infrastructure plan on a path straight to the final passage in the House.
The legislation will require a nonbinding vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27. The vote also paves the way for a voting rights bill, which Democrats plan to pass as soon as Tuesday.
Pramila Jayapal, the Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair, said the two proposals are “integrally tied together, and we will only vote for the infrastructure bill after passing the reconciliation bill.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in a statement on Tuesday that she is “committing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27” and would even try to motivate and “rally” her caucus to pass it. The abuse of power that Pelosi is currently doing is nothing short of surprising.
She decided to exclude Republicans due to GOP opposition on spending money and increasing taxes. The Republicans have supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill. However, they are opposed to the trillions more in spending proposed by Democrats and the tax hikes on businesses and wealthy individuals the Democrats hope to use to pay for it. Additionally, Republicans argue that the Democratic plan will further increase inflation.
Photo from: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
