Democrats set up chaotic end-of-year stretch
By Jordain Carney - 10/10/21 07:23 PM EDT
Democrats are facing a daunting stretch as the party struggles to get beyond internal battles to win approval of President Biden’s agenda — and deal with other crises that have effectively been punted to the Christmas season.
Democrats are entering the home stretch of the year with four big priorities: funding the government, raising the debt ceiling and passing both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a sweeping social spending measure.
It’s a stretch that could make or break Biden’s agenda and will surely set up battles for next year’s midterm elections.
“There's a lot of stress being felt, or a lot of things at stake in terms of causes that many of us fought for, for a lifetime,” Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said about the current dynamic within the caucus.
The tensions between Democrats — including moderates versus progressives, the Senate versus the House and moderates versus leadership — are increasingly boiling over. That includes a days-long shadowboxing match between Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) over Biden’s social spending measure.
Manchin and Sanders have spent days trading criticisms through the press, but Sanders brushed off a question about if they or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), another moderate Sanders has urged to be more specific, should get in the room together to hash things out.
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https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/576112-democrats-set-up-chaotic-end-of-year-stretch
