Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is urging the Democratic party to quit trying to negotiate with Republicans on infrastructure spending and go it alone.
“It’s this frankly what has become an a completely outdated idea of what is bipartisanship,” she said. “That’s the problem, when you have a couple of democratic senators who say we only want to do this in a bipartisan way, what you’re talking about is a republican party in congress .. if you’re insisting you have to get 10 votes just to avoid a filibuster … then we’re not going to be able to move forward.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and others in the Upper Chamber have said they will not vote for an infrastructure bill that Republicans do not agree too and does not support an effort by progressive democrats like Jayapal to nix the legislative filibuster.
Jayapal says Republicans are unlikely to ever come around or negotiate in good faith and so Democrats should not seek further deals.
“It was almost six weeks ago that Mitch McConnell said that 100 percent of his focus was blocking the Biden administration,” she said. “So let’s just go forward knowing we have republican and independent voters with us but we’re not going to get republicans in Congress.”
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