Biden, Zelenskyy, and Pence hail Senate passage of package containing Ukraine aid



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. President Joe Biden, and former Vice President Mike Pence have all heralded the Senate's passage of a package that contains Ukraine aid.

The package, which also included various other items in addition to the Ukraine aid, passed in a bipartisan 79-18 vote.

Biden has pledged to sign the measure.

"The need is urgent: for Ukraine, facing unrelenting bombardment from Russia; for Israel, which just faced unprecedented attacks from Iran; for refugees and those impacted by conflicts and natural disasters around the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti; and for our partners seeking security and stability in the Indo-Pacific," the president said in a statement. "I want to thank Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, and all of the bipartisan lawmakers in the Senate who voted for this bill."

Zelenskyy conveyed his gratitude toward "Majority Leader Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell @LeaderMcConnell for their strong leadership in advancing this bipartisan legislation, as well as all US Senators on both sides of the aisle who voted in favor of it."

Pence also expressed support for the Senate's move to pass the package. "Tonight, with a strong bipartisan vote in the US Senate, our nation’s elected representatives have taken a stand for American leadership. I commend the Senators and Members of Congress who voted to stand with Ukraine and Israel and took action to send a message of American strength and resolve to Communist China. I urge President Biden to sign these important measures into law," he stated in a post.

GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who strongly opposed the package, has noted that he thinks the "bill will prolong a bloody conflict and cost more Ukrainians their lives, even as their cause is righteous."

— (@)

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Horowitz: Meet the new GOP … same as the old



"As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." —Proverbs 26:11

It’s not called the grand old party for nothing. The more things change, the more they stay the same. On Tuesday, the House GOP conference voted overwhelmingly to either keep the same leaders or to offer them promotions. The Senate followed suit on Wednesday.

Before all the votes are counted and we even know the full makeup of the House GOP Conference, Republicans rushed to hold leadership elections on Tuesday to coronate the existing leadership team before opposition could be mobilized. For the top two leadership positions, the House overwhelmingly voted to elevate Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise – the current minority leader and whip respectively – to the positions of speaker and majority leader. Scalise ran unopposed because nobody thought they could even muster opposition to him, and former Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs challenged McCarthy for speaker. McCarthy won 188-31.

While it is pathetic that less than one-seventh of the conference voted for change, it should be noted that 31 votes were actually a strong showing for Biggs, because it demonstrates that McCarthy is nowhere near the 218 votes he needs to secure for the Jan. 3 floor vote. Still, it’s disquieting that most Republicans don’t see a need to change leaders immediately.

Ironically, McCarthy and Scalise rose to prominence in June 2014 after the GOP failed to learn the lesson from the original conservative revolution against the establishment – even predating Trump. In one of the most shocking upsets of all time, an economics professor with little money knocked off then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Virginia primary for his House seat. Just nine days later, rather than engaging in any introspection, the caucus voted to elevate then-Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy to the position of leader.

McCarthy and Cantor were cut from the same cloth, except McCarthy is less intelligent on policy issues than Cantor. Along with Paul Ryan, they wrote a book, “Young Guns,” outlining their weak corporatist vision for the party. Yet after Cantor was defeated in his own primary, they elevated McCarthy to leader, and then the remaining gun, Paul Ryan, became speaker a year later.

At the time, former Rep. Raul Labrador challenged McCarthy for the position and was backed by then-Rep. Ron DeSantis. "Promoting, by acclamation, a member of the very Washington leadership that has failed to bridge the divide with Republicans outside Washington struck me as exactly the wrong response," Labrador wrote in a letter to House Republicans. Well, eight years later, Labrador knocked off a RINO to become attorney general of Idaho, DeSantis became America’s most conservative governor in Florida, but McCarthy is still the GOP leader.

Down-ballot, things got even worse. Scalise’s move up to majority leader left a vacancy for the position of whip. So, who won the position? Rep. Tom Emmer, the man who ran the NRCC and produced the most underwhelming results for a GOP midterm with a Democrat president since 1962. Emmer recently co-sponsored a green card giveaway to Big Tech companies. Their reward for flooding our labor market with more foreign workers is to fast-track them with green cards. This is the man who will be counting the votes!

For the number four position, conference chair, incumbent Elise Stefanik was challenged by a Freedom Caucus member, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds. Stefanik won 144-74, which demonstrates that even after so many years of gains, conservatives still only compose about one-quarter of the GOP House members.

What about in the Senate? Surely enough Republicans would support getting rid of the fossil Mitch McConnell, right? Think again. It’s even worse in the house of lords. Only 16 Republicans voted to even delay the election until after the Georgia runoff. Then, only 10 Republicans supported Rick Scott over Mitch McConnell. Which again demonstrates what I’ve been saying for years – Democrats enjoy a de facto 90-10 majority in the Senate. So, Senate elections are moot anyway, because we are light-years away from a conservative majority.

As if to prove the point, just minutes after winning reelection, McConnell told the media how eager he is to work with Biden and touted all the liberal bipartisan victories he handed to Biden during the first two years.

\u201c- Grandmas are being arrested for singing at abortion clinics\n\n- Over 1000 political prisoners arrested\n\n- Parents declared domestic terrorists\n\n- Hardly any diesel & exorbitant cost of living\n\nAnd GOP @LeaderMcConnell leadership wants to work w Biden on infrastructure\u201d
— Rachel Semmel (@Rachel Semmel) 1668624955

McConnell then proceeded to stay neutral in the civilization fight over marriage by not whipping, as leader, against the gay marriage bill. Twelve Republicans voted for cloture on the bill, and most others aren’t exactly hopping mad that it will pass.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Conservative pundits, talk show hosts, columnists, and strategic thinkers must ask themselves what they plan to do differently to change or leave this party. Clearly, what they are doing is not working.

Abortion activists send 'special message' to Brett Kavanaugh's wife and children, post picture outside their school



Ruth Sent Us, the far-left group that publicized the addresses of conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices, sent the family of Justice Brett Kavanaugh a "special message" on Wednesday.

The message was delivered on the same day an armed man, Nicholas John Roske, was arrested near Kavanaugh's home. The man told authorities he wanted to kill Justice Kavanaugh.

What did Ruth Sent Us do?

After announcing more protests outside the homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, and Kavanaugh, Ruth Sent Us posted a picture of a billboard outside of the school where Kavanaugh's daughters attend.

"A special message for Ashley Kavanaugh and your daughters — this billboard was on your school grounds. We feel for you," the far-left org said.

The group added that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican lawmakers "aren't worried for your safety."

The claim is patently false. In fact, the Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan bill that would extend police protection the immediate family members of Supreme Court justices.

A special message for Ashley Kavanaugh and your daughters — this billboard was on your school grounds. We feel for you.@LeaderMcConnell and the GOP aren’t worried for your safety. They worry only for the expensive Supreme Court they rigged, and their own power. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/g3n5fgjNZW
— Ruth Sent Us 🪧 (@RuthSentUs) June 8, 2022


The message and picture generated even more outrage against Ruth Sent Us. The group was accused of "targeting" Kavanaugh's family.

House Democrats are blocking the Senate bill passed last month that would extend security protection to Kavanaugh's immediate family. Their refusal to pass the bill takes on new significance if pro-abortion activists begin to direct their ire at families of Supreme Court justices.

Anything else?

In a separate tweet, Ruth Sent Us denied sending the armed man that police arrested.

"We offer our thoughts & prayers to Brett & Ashley Kavanaugh after a California man arrived by taxi near their home, armed with a gun & knife, then called the police on himself to confess his murderous rage against the abusive alcoholic 'Justice'. We didn’t send him," the group said.

However, Ruth Sent Us infamously posted the addresses of conservative-leaning justices on the internet after a leaked opinion draft indicated the Supreme Court had indicated to overturn abortion precedents.

And while it is not clear if Roske found Kavanaugh's address through Ruth Sent Us, Roske told investigators he did, in fact, find it online.

"Roske stated he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice after finding the Justice's Montgomery County address on the Internet. Roske further indicated that he had purchased the Glock pistol and other items for the purpose of breaking into the Justice's residence and killing the Justice as well as himself," the arrest affidavit says.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson writes, 'I do not hold a position on whether individuals possess natural rights'



Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who will almost certainly be confirmed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, said that she does not have a position on whether people have natural rights.

"I do not hold a position on whether individuals possess natural rights," the jurist wrote in response to a written question from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Jackson pointed to the Declaration of Independence when she was asked to, "explain, in your own words, the theory prevalent among members of the Founding Fathers’ generation that humans possess natural rights that are inherent or inalienable."

Jackson wrote that, "The theory that humans possess inherent or inalienable rights is reflected in the Declaration of Independence, which states: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'"

Regarding Jackson's lack of a position about the issue of whether individuals have natural rights, GOP Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana tweeted, "Ketanji Brown Jackson denies the first, self-evident truth of America!"

Ketanji Brown Jackson denies the first, self-evident truth of America!https://twitter.com/EdWhelanEPPC/status/1509946533302747139\u00a0\u2026
— Rep. Mike Johnson (@Rep. Mike Johnson) 1649018790

"No big deal, that’s only the fundamental creed of the republic," tweeted BlazeTV host Steve Deace of "The Steve Deace Show."

"There is no Constitution without natural rights. If you can't even say they exist you have no business interpreting it," Nate Madden, who serves as GOP Rep. Chip Roy's communications director, tweeted on his personal Twitter account.

Roy called out Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who plans to vote in favor of confirming Jackson: "Hey @SenSusanCollins - do you believe this? Assuming not - justify your vote for her? CC: @LeaderMcConnell."

In June 2021, GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans who voted in favor of confirming Jackson to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Graham announced last week that he will not vote to elevate Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court, but Collins announced that she will support confirming Jackson to the nation's high court. Murkowski announced on Monday that she will support confirming Jackson.

President Joe Biden nominated Jackson to fill the vacancy that will arise when Justice Stephen Breyer retires.

After 11 Republicans helped overcome a procedural hurdle, Senate Dems voted to raise the debt ceiling by $480 billion



The U.S. is saddled with trillions of dollars in national debt but Uncle Sam will likely get the green light to keep spending because the federal government is on track to increase the debt limit.

The measure approved by the Senate on Thursday would increase the statutory debt limit by a whopping $480 billion, a figure which the Treasury Department estimates would be sufficient to enable the government to keep borrowing through at least Dec. 3, according to the New York Times.

Now the bill will head to the House of Representatives, and once it passes there, it will head to President Joe Biden.

Sixty-one Senators, including 11 Republicans, voted on Thursday night to overcome a filibuster — that vote tally was 61-38.

Roll Call reported that those 11 GOP lawmakers included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the following 10 others: John Barrasso of Wyoming, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, and John Thune of South Dakota.

BREAKING: The Senate votes 61-38 on cloture on a bill that would raise the debt limit by $480 billion. Eleven Repub… https://t.co/xeRQ4U0B4F

— Roll Call (@rollcall) 1633651887.0

After those 11 Republicans voted to advance the measure, the Senate chamber voted to increase the debt ceiling in a 50-48 party-line vote. No GOP senators voted in favor of passage, according to Roll Call.

Earlier on Thursday GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas noted that back in August McConnell was one of the GOP senators to sign onto a letter declaring that they would not vote to increase the debt ceiling.

"We, the undersigned Republican Senators, are letting Senate Democrats and the American public know that we will not vote to increase the debt ceiling, whether that increase comes through a stand-alone bill, a continuing resolution, or any other vehicle," the letter declares.

Just over 2 months ago, @LeaderMcConnell was the FIRST signature… saying “we will not vote to increase the debt cei… https://t.co/9VEZeyRGtd

— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) 1633635694.0

Sen. Josh Hawley says  'Biden's entire defense and foreign policy team must resign'



Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a tweet Wednesday that President Joe Biden is responsible for "the worst foreign policy debacle since Vietnam" and that the president's defense and foreign policy team needs to resign.

"This is the worst foreign policy debacle since Vietnam, due to Joe Biden. He has lost the confidence of the American people and the ability to lead. Biden's entire defense and foreign policy team must resign, and there must be a full congressional inquiry," the Republican lawmaker tweeted.

"In the immediate term, we must focus on getting Americans trapped in Afghanistan out safely. That should be our top priority," he said in another tweet.

This is the worst foreign policy debacle since Vietnam, due to Joe Biden. He has lost the confidence of the America… https://t.co/usrdyZ3lS7

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) 1629309300.0

The Taliban has swiftly taken over Afghanistan and the U.S. is currently scrambling to evacuate American citizens and others from the country.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said during a Wednesday press briefing that the swift collapse of the Afghan army and government had not been anticipated.

"There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days," he said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that a "fair amount" of the defense materials supplied to Afghanistan by the U.S. have fallen into the Taliban's hands.

President Biden indicated during an ABC News interview that there was not a way for the U.S. to withdraw "without chaos ensuing." Biden remarked that "the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are requesting a classified briefing or call next week with the Gang of Eight regarding various aspects of the situation in Afghanistan.

In a letter to President Biden, the Republican congressional leaders said that they want to learn about "The number and location of U.S. persons currently located in Afghanistan, and the methodology to determine such a number and location." They also want to be briefed on "the Administration's plan to evacuate U.S. persons outside of Kabul who cannot travel safely to the city," and other similar issues.

The Gang of Eight refers to the chair and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees plus the four leaders of the two congressional chambers, according to Ballotpedia.

.@LeaderMcConnell and I demand that President Biden brief Congress on his plan to evacuate all American personnel i… https://t.co/9uuK2dwFJF

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) 1629328847.0

Republicans blast Biden for 'unmitigated disaster of epic proportions' in Afghanistan: 'Why is Joe Biden in hiding?'



The Taliban overtook Afghanistan with relative ease and lightning quickness. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikistan, and American personnel was forced to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Kabul on helicopters. The presidential palace in Kabul was "handed over" to the Taliban on Sunday. Republican lawmakers are hammering President Joe Biden and his administration on the U.S. withdrawal, which has been labeled as "an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions" and compared to the capture of Saigon.

Biden, who is at Camp David on a scheduled vacation, issued a statement on the dire situation in Afghanistan on Saturday, where he placed blame on his predecessor for the much-maligned withdrawal. Former President Donald Trump responded to Biden's accusations by saying the current president "gets it wrong every time on foreign policy."

It wasn't only Trump who slammed Biden and his administration for the disheveled withdrawal from Afghanistan; several Republican lawmakers also torched the president.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): "Joe Biden has been commander-in-chief for seven months – the current failure in Afghanistan falls squarely on his shoulders. His lack of leadership during this pivotal moment has been shameful – it has only served to embolden our adversaries and let down our allies."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.): "Ashraf Ghani has fled and Joe Biden is hiding. Pathetic. Why is Joe Biden in hiding? He should immediately address the nation and answer for the catastrophic situation in Afghanistan. Conference calls between cabinet secretaries and senators don't cut it in a crisis."

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio): "America's in crisis. Afghanistan's in chaos. Why's Joe Biden on vacation?"

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas): "This is an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions. This will be a stain on Biden's presidency and he will have blood on his hands."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.): "This is Joe Biden's Saigon. A disastrous failure on the international stage that will never be forgotten - meanwhile Joe is on vacation."

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.): "No person who calls themselves the President of the United States should be on vacation while the world crumbles down around them. The dereliction of duty continues."

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: "No wonder he is hiding at Camp David. No teleprompter can give him the answers to the questions he would be asked today. What a disaster."

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): "When the Biden Administration announced their Afghanistan pullout plan, several of us on the Intel Committee told them their predictions of what would happen next were complete fantasy. We are now witnessing how true our warnings to them were."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): "It is only a matter of time until al-Qaeda reemerges in Afghanistan and presents a threat to the American homeland and western world. President Biden seems oblivious to the terrorist threats that will come from a Taliban-run Afghanistan."

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): "The Biden Administration's botched exit from Afghanistan including the frantic evacuation of Americans and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul is a shameful failure of American leadership. The United States had the capacity to avoid this disaster."

The Biden Administration’s botched exit from Afghanistan including the frantic evacuation of Americans and vulnerab… https://t.co/n29wOKgUeq

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) 1629052471.0

Two House Democrats even torpedoed Biden's handling of the withdrawal, as reported by Fox News.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas): "There's no way to hide it. The situation in Afghanistan is another shame on this admin. Withdrawal was never going to be easy but it didn't need to come to this. The US must do everything in its power to help our partners & allies to safety & protect our national security."

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.): "As a Gold Star son of the Vietnam War listening to the White House briefing on the Afghanistan War withdrawal, my heart particularly aches for the thousands of Gold Star families of an eerily similar and painful episode forty-six years later."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to spin the U.S. withdrawal out of Afghanistan by saying, "The President is to be commended for the clarity of purpose of his statement on Afghanistan and his action. The Taliban must know the world is watching its actions. We are concerned about reports regarding the Taliban's brutal treatment of all Afghans, especially women and girls."

The official Twitter account for the White House tweeted on Sunday, "This morning, the President and Vice President met with their national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the draw down of our civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies, and the ongoing security situation in Kabul."

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell urges Americans to get vaccinated ASAP — or risk another shutdown



Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is imploring unvaccinated Americans to get the COVID-19 shot or risk repeating last year's shutdown.

What are the details?

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that McConnell urged Americans to ignore what he said was "demonstrably bad advice" from pundits and proponents of an anti-vaccine agenda.

During his weekly Capitol Hill news conference, McConnell said, "If there is anybody out there willing to listen: Get vaccinated. These shots need to get in everybody's arms as rapidly as possible or we're going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don't yearn for — that we went through last year. This is not complicated."

McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, added that it "never occurred" to him that "we'd have difficulty getting Americans to get the shot."

He tweeted a video of his remarks, and captioned it, "Get vaccinated! These shots need to get into arms as rapidly as possible, or else we're gonna be back in a situation this fall like what we went through last year."

At the time of this reporting, the video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.

Get vaccinated!These shots need to get into arms as rapidly as possible, or else we're gonna be back in a situati… https://t.co/OKc8fwnkR8

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) 1626811730.0

What else?

Last week, McConnell made similar remarks during last week's conference, saying, "I'm perplexed by the difficulty we have in finishing the job. We're in the red zone, but we're not in the end zone yet."

"We need to finish the job and part of it is just convincing the American people of the importance of doing this," he added.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Miss.) joined McConnell during the conference and added, "We are not nearly in as bad of a place as we were, but we're not nearly in as good a place as we would all like to be."

June polling from Fox News found that 55% of Republicans surveyed said that they received the vaccine compared to 78% of Democrats and 59% of independents.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Delta variant now accounts for 83% of known U.S. COVID-19 cases. The increase, the outlet reported, is "primarily occurring in areas with lower vaccination coverage."

McConnell torches Democrats' $3.5 trillion 'human infrastructure' bill as progressives complain it's not big enough



Senate Democrats have put forward an infrastructure proposal that is "wildly out of proportion to what the country needs right now," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday.

McConnell's comments come the day after Democrats came to an agreement on a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package that will address President Joe Biden's so-called "human infrastructure" priorities. These policies including expanding Medicare, free community college tuition, national paid family leave, extending Biden's revamped child tax credits, and various climate change policies watered down from the Green New Deal.

"Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters at a news conference announcing the plan Tuesday.

The $3.5 trillion bill will advance in the Senate along with a $1.2 billion bipartisan deal for "hard infrastructure" — funding for roads, bridges, and other projects traditionally thought of as infrastructure improvements. There are two "infrastructure" bills because Republicans would not support a broad spending package costing upwards of $4 trillion, but the White House badly wanted to have a token bipartisan agreement to show the American people.

As a compromise, Democrats decided to split their priorities, using a dual track strategy to advance parts of an infrastructure package Republicans might find acceptable in one bill and advancing the other via budget reconciliation, a process that lets them overcome a GOP-led filibuster and advance spending-related bills with a simple majority vote.

"We are very proud of this plan. We know we have a long road to go. We're going to get this done for the sake of making average Americans' lives a whole lot better," Schumer said.

Negotiations were fraught for weeks and it remains uncertain whether Democrats will ultimately be able to send either bill to President Biden's desk.

McConnell's remarks reflect how Republicans may be preparing to walk away from the bipartisan agreement because Democrats are demanding it be paired with the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell slammed Democrats for proposing trillions of dollars in new spending as inflation rises at the fastest rate seen since the 2008 financial crisis.

"Just this morning we learned that runaway inflation is continuing to hit working American families and hit them hard. Consumer prices spiked in June considerably more than had been forecast. Inflation is up 5.4 percent year-on-year, the fastest jump in about 13 years. Stunningly, it's up 0.9 percent just month over month," McConnell said.

"What Democrats say they want to force through this summer through reconciliation would make our current inflationary mess look like small potatoes," he warned.

Republicans and economists all warned that Democrats’ last massive spending spree would hurt Americans. Sure enough… https://t.co/ODn5ZzVOla

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) 1626187240.0

If Republicans kill the bipartisan deal, Schumer would still have the option of combining the two bills and passing all $4.1 trillion of Biden's infrastructure priorities in one budget reconciliation package. But the real problem for Democrats are internal divisions within the party.

The democratic-socialist Senate Budget Committee chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and many of the most progressive members of the House Democratic conference had hoped for a more expansive $6 trillion bill — for many of them $3.5 trillion is not enough spent. But moderates in the Senate, namely Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) would not support spending so much and Democrats in a 50-50 Senate could not afford even one defection from the reconciliation package.

Sanders ultimately agreed to the $3.5 trillion compromise once it included Medicare expansion, but other progressives in Congress are dissatisfied. Sanders reportedly held a call to brief lawmakers with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a leading progressive in the House. Together they informed progressives that the deal would not include all of their priorities, leading at least one lawmaker to say "many in the squad and squad adjacent will vote no."

One progressive reacting to news tn: "This is a capitulation by progressives as just yesterday Sanders and Jayap… https://t.co/p1mXibko6w

— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) 1626231692.0

As progressive support remains in doubt so too does moderate support. Manchin remains noncommittal until Democrats put forward a plan to fully fund their priorities.

"I think everything should be paid for. We've put enough free money out," Manchin told reporters.

In a statement on the $3.5 trillion deal, Manchin reiterated that he is "very interested in how this proposal is paid for" and said he will reserve judgment until he's had the opportunity to read the bill.

My statement on the Senate Budget Committee's $3.5 trillion infrastructure package: https://t.co/qstcR85flP

— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) 1626271409.0


The "deal" achieved is very much in limbo, which is why Biden is scheduled to meet with Senate Democrats Wednesday to rally support for the agreement.

".@potus looks forward to attending the Senate Dem Caucus lunch today to continue making the case for the duel [sic] track approach to build the economy back better by investing in infrastructure, protecting our climate, and supporting the next generation of workers and families," White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Wednesday.

.@potus looks forward to attending the Senate Dem Caucus lunch today to continue making the case for the duel track… https://t.co/Jp32QKRPA0

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) 1626260758.0