Lawless: Shocked at What Progressives Were Willing to Give Up

Lawless: Shocked at What Progressives Were Willing to Give Up

University of Virginia political science chair Jennifer Lawless appeared on GoLocal LIVE as the Biden administration scrambled to roll out a new framework for a $1.85 trillion reconciliation bill, as the centerpiece of the President’s agenda — a bipartisan infrastructure package — also hangs in the balance.

“As far as the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill are concerned…I do think there’s a general sense now that there’s a framework that will pass this week. We know there’s bipartisan support for the infrastructure bill — it now seems for the social spending bill, everything that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema wanted out is out — and there’s enough left for the progressives in the House to get on board,” said Lawless.

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“No one likes the way the sausage is made — at the end of the day, we have almost two trillion dollars in additional social spending which should make most Democrats happy. The process certainly revealed some problems in the Democratic Party," she added. 

Lawless compared the infighting among the Democrats to a rift among the GOP more than a decade ago — but said that the Republicans' internal dynamics then still did not come close to the Democrats’ issues today.

“I think the closest recent example is when all the Tea Party members got elected in 2010 and they basically decided to form their own caucus in the House and made John Boehner’s life completely impossible. They were civil Libertarians on a lot of issues, which made it difficult renewing pieces of the Patriot Act and other privacy protections that were going up against national security concerns,” she said. “But certainly in recent history, this is the most egregious in terms of one party not being able to get itself on the same page.”

“Some of the items that were on the cutting room floor, are things quite frankly I’m shocked the progressives were willing to give up — I get it’s important to pass the bill and they have no choice, but the bill doesn’t include paid family or medical leave, which was not only a centerpiece of Biden’s campaign but something that the House under Democratic leadership has been pushing now for well over a decade,” said Lawless.