Page 910 - Leverage News Today

Of fiscal insanity. daniel strauss is a cnn correspondent "the new republic." you write extensively about congresswoman jai poll, the standoff and sinema and manchin have the leverage but she shouldnt be counted out in this staring contest. do you think shell win? >> i mean, she does. shes -- ive never seen the progressive wing of the democratic party so determined as they are now on capitol hill. and, you know, it comes in the face of these two conservative lawmakers who we are pretty familiar ...

>> on infrastructure, it seemed like the plan all along from progressives was to have some sort of leverage here. that now seems to be slipping away if they go ahead with hard infrastructure before human infrastructure. bernie sanders weighing in here for a lot of progressives. listen to what he said. >> we have to pass the reconciliation bill. and my fear is that if the dual track agreement is broken and we only pass the infrastructure bill in the house, i suspect we will never get to reconcili...

Leverage that we have here in the senate to pass the reconciliation bill will be largely gone. i think the one hope we have is to say, look, you guys want to pass the infrastructure bill. i want to pass it. you want to pass it? you have to deal with reconciliation, you just cant keep slow-walking this thing. >> the democrats have work to be done. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is publicly telling democrats that they need to raise the debt ceiling but hes blocked another pathway. yesterda...

Package on thursday. they seem to be able to do it at this point, and they have some powerful backup from the former founder of the caucus in the house, bernie sanders. hes the senate budget committee chairman. he begged his fellow progressives in the house not to vote yes on the bipartisan infrastructure package until they know definitively what the reconciliation package is going to look like, and they have buy-in from all the moderates that are currently holding back. ryan nobles, cnn on capi...

What nancy pelosi is doing is saying, "trust me. im nancy pelosi. ill give us the leverage. and trust me, well get joe biden behind us to get the package that youll be happy with at the end of the day." progressives are saying, "i dont trust you." i look at how much power a nchin and a sinema have when you have a 50/50 senate. might not be many moderat left in america, buthe two in the senate are as powerful as the president right nown terms of dictating the deal. that has progressives frustrate...

Specifically, they changed their minds and went along with the rapid withdrawal. and their argument was -- and this is very important to understand -- we had only 3,500 troops there. that was a low. and they both concluded that this was not sufficient leverage with the taliban to achieve anything. and i think military experts would agree on that. thats just not enough. and so, they changed their point of view on this. now clearly, there was a lot of hydraulic pressure from one commander in chief...

A real window into what these conversations are like. what could be offered. i asked the press secretary what leverage does the president have with democrats? what good political or substantive could he offer to try to bring sides together. one of the great challenges is the very nature of the disagreement between a joe manchin and a kyrsten sinemas the cold state of west virginia and manchins concerns about entitlement. those are not easy divides to bridge. there arent simple answers or it alre...

Too important to fail. democrats need to be rallied around that idea, the white house says. if this goes down to defeat, cr them. >> jim vandehei, the president isnt going to beg, twist arms, force people. at the same time, ill ask you the same question, the consequences of not moving forward on these two key pieces of legislation, are democrats aware of that? are they talking about that? what are they saying biden needs to do to get this over the line? >> theyre hyper aware of it. even coresswo...

On not only what senator sinemas number is, but what kind of deals shes made. are there going to be red lines with the bernie sanders set that have been taking out? we just dont know the answer to that, but progressives have made it clear they dont want to lose their leverage. they think if they vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, that leverage is gone. >> and like congressman gottheimer said, progressives wont back down. were fighting the peoples fight and well vote for the build back b...

Were going to get this done. what is the top line number going to look like? what is going to be included in there? she has been unable to do that because, so far, those senators, sinema and mancn, refused to do it. they put her in a tough position. >> jonathan lemire, oiously bernie sanders and others are worried about losing the leverage, i understand that, in terms of negotiations. but is president biden and nancy pelosi discussing with progressives and democrats as a whole the conquences of ...