Ocasio-Cortez Gets Meaningless Concessions On Funding Socialism
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shouldn’t try to spin some throw-away language in a rules package as a meaningful victory when it is nothing of the sort.
By Christopher Jacobs
January 4, 2021
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and others on the socialist left applauded minor changes in the rules package the House of Representatives adopted on Sunday for the new Congress. They say it paved the way for enacting the Green New Deal, single-payer health care, and other items on the socialist agenda. But the “concessions†House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., granted amount to meaningless window dressing.
The Left’s Strategy
In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s opening session of the 117th Congress, the socialist left rallied around a movement to “Force the Vote.†This movement, which included a website, #ForceTheVote hashtag, virtual town hall, and other measures, intended to push the House of Representatives to vote on single-payer health insurance in the coming Congress.
The #ForceTheVote movement attempted to pressure socialists like Ocasio-Cortez to withhold their votes for Pelosi’s re-election as speaker unless Pelosi gave a public pledge to bring single-payer to the House floor. The strategy arose in large part because House Democrats lost seats in November, giving them a narrower majority this Congress and giving each Democratic member of Congress more leverage.
Because House rules require the speaker to obtain a majority of votes of the entire House—435 members, assuming no vacancies—only a handful of defections would have jeopardized Pelosi’s re-election as speaker.
more
https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/04/ocasio-cortez-gets-meaningless-concessions-on-funding-socialism/
