One expert compared passing major legislation these days to a 'high-wire act.'
The $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill has been cut to nearly $2 trillion. Some concessions on major priorities of the package include child tax credit, housing assistance and climate provisions.In January, when President Joe Biden took office and Democrats secured both chambers of Congress, millions of Americans had high hopes that the laundry list of causes touted on the campaign trail would become reality.
"We're still allowing 'Big Lie' rhetoric to reign supreme when you have real issues happening out here, like the fact that there have been millions of dollars put towards this pandemic recovery yet you still have thousands of people homeless right now," she added. "It's a tale of two cities," she told ABC News."On the one hand, this Congress has impressive crisis response, and on the other, a stalemate on issues that aren't necessarily connected to that crisis."Shortly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the"single most important thing" for Republicans was to make him a one-term president.
She said the current stalemate over raising the debt ceiling provides the perfect example of McConnell's strategy. "We expect our elected officials to deal with complicated issues like that," said Jeremy Gelman, who wrote the book,"Losing to Win: Why Congressional Majorities Play Politics Instead of Make Laws.""But making it seem like your opponents don't have it together, that's good politics.
For four months under Obama, Democrats did have 60 votes in the Senate and, therefore, total control of Congress. It was during that slim window that Obamacare passed in the Senate with all 60 Democratic votes. "It's the reality we're seeing now," said Lee."They get elected in these separate states and districts, and they differ in their political priorities and coloration, so it's very hard for them to get on the same page.
"They also know that those are popular policies with their voters. They need to have solutions that they can offer in the future, and they think it's probably politically valuable to show off the Republicans as being obstructionists," he said.What makes it especially difficult to govern in the current Congress are the razor-thin margins in both chambers.
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