Pramila Jayapal: The Loser of the Year
Everything she does creates catastrophe for the Democrats.
by Ellie Gardey
December 23, 2021, 11:20 PM
For three months, as the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal was firm in her threat: “We will agree to the bipartisan [infrastructure] bill if, and only if, we also pass the reconciliation bill first.” She was the driving force and the public face behind progressives’ mission to use the infrastructure bill as a cudgel to force Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and other centrist Democrats into passing Build Back Better. She repeatedly appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” to give attention to her strongarm tactics.
Time and time again in August, September, and October, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was forced to back down from votes on infrastructure because of Jayapal. When a reporter told Jayapal that some people believed she was “bluffing,” Jayapal, who has nearly 100 members in her caucus, said, “Try us.”
But they tried her enough, and Jayapal blinked. On November 1, she announced that she and her caucus would vote for the infrastructure bill even though Sen. Joe Manchin had not given his assurance that he would vote for the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill. Jayapal explained that she believed President Joe Biden when he said he would get Manchin on board. “The president says he can get 51 votes for the bill,” she said. “We are going to trust him.… We’re tired of continuing to wait for one or two people.”
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https://spectator.org/pramila-jayapal-the-loser-of-the-year/
