Ocasio-Cortez Warns Democrats Could 'Dump' $3.5 Trillion Infrastructure Bill
By: Darragh Roche (MSN)
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has warned that congressional Democrats could "dump" the president's $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and not hold a vote on it.
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a news conference to introduce legislation that would give the Department of Health and Human Services the power to impose a federal eviction moratorium in the interest of public health, on Capitol Hill September 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. Ocasio-Cortez has warned the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill may not get a vote.
Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday that the Build Back Better bill, which would also expand the social safety net, could be dropped after the House of Representatives votes on Thursday on a separate bipartisan package, which would invest $1.2 trillion in "traditional" infrastructure.
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Progressives including Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents New York's 14th district, have said the passage of the two bills must be linked and suggested they will not vote for the bipartisan package unless the larger bill also advances.
Ocasio-Cortez said on Wednesday the "vast majority" of Democrats supported the $3.5 trillion plan, but a minority opposed it.
"A very small handful of Democrats, about 4 percent of the party, are trying to essentially split these two priorities up," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez went on: "And what they want to do is split them apart, force a vote on the first one [the $1.2 trillion bill], and because we have such narrow margins in the Senate and the House, you know, the read that we have is that they'll just dump the second one, leave the other one out to dry and just never actually vote on it."
She added: "So, the way that we bring our two parts of the caucus together is by saying, 'You know what, my bill is bound up in your bill and your bill is bound up in my bill.'
"So, do I love this very—what I would argue—conservative, underfunded bill? No. But I will vote for it if we pursue them both together. But what we should not take is this approach, which is what people are trying to do by forcing a vote tomorrow on an under-considered, under-amended bill by itself by saying, 'We wanna force this vote right now and it's either my way or the highway.'"
Ocasio-Cortez said the two groups in the Democratic Party should work together on the issue, but she also warned about Thursday's vote on the bipartisan package. The $1.2 trillion program was approved by the Senate in August with bipartisan support.
"I do not believe- we do not have the assurances necessary to believe in good faith that reconciliation will pass if infrastructure passes tomorrow."
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) September 30, 2021
"If we vote for this bill tomorrow, Rachel, I want to be very clear about this," she said. "If we vote for this underfunded, too small infrastructure bill alone, instead of voting for it with the rest of the president's agenda, if we vote for it alone, it could make our climate crisis worse and it risks being the only or the last substantive piece of legislation that we will pass."
"I do not believe—we do not have the assurances necessary to believe in good faith—that reconciliation will pass if infrastructure passes tomorrow," Ocasio-Cortez said.
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Lock in that tree hugger vote...............
More virtue signaling bullshit LOL
Another AOC tantrum ..... nana nana boo boo ... rub your face in dog poo
Come on guys, democrats have been eating a lot of shit for two months.....give them a break. Even a dirty dog deserves a drink once in a while!
They haven't eaten nearly enough; as they are continuously coming back for more. Maybe they like it?
I'm with you on that!
Me too!
Any piece of legislation —especially when costing trillions— is almost certainly filled with pork and will be largely wasted due to incompetence and corruption.
The people (the electorate) should demand that the federal government slow-the-fuck-down in its spending and focus on legislation that has a clear, specific objective with well-considered justification for the expense.
Right now the only thing that mitigates this endless massive spending is partisan gridlock. Fine. Albeit far from ideal, that is the only thing that seems to have any teeth.
So, you narcissistic, arrogant members of Congress, break your legislation down into sensible, cohesive, focused packages which contain a process of oversight and the ability to remove funding if the expected metrics (determined by mandatory audit oversight) are not achieved. Produce a bill on electric vehicle infrastructure. One on day care support. One on education. etc. Independent bills, each with oversight that enable ceasing failed programs and detecting corruption with the funding.
If you cannot do that, then I prefer that you sit on your thumbs and do nothing. (Or, better still, resign and allow new-blood to come in and attempt to do better.)
They managed to do it. That bipartisan bill is still ready to go!
The bipartisan bill still has too much waste in it; but it at least deals with real infrastructure roads, bridges, and highways.
And these days .... rural broadband
Don't remind me. In our area we get to pay more for crappy internet through ancient cable lines (installed 41 years ago- I feel old) because the area I live in is considered "well off"; so poorer areas in downtown GR can have high speed internet at lower rates.
Comcast has informed us that unless the local/state/federal government pays them to replace our cable lines (that Comcast owns) they won't as it is too cost prohibitive; and they have to replace all of the cable lines downtown with high speed fiber optics.
Maybe the bipartisan infrastructure bill will finally get my area new cable lines? (Not likely as we are very, very, very conservative as a whole).
Something we can agree on.
No bill hits the floor unless it has 2,500 pages to it - all reminiscent of the Obama Care Act where everyone had to vote on it before they could read it.
Sickening, is it not?
Actually, yes, it is…