Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said Wednesday that the Biden administration and Senate Democrats should stop playing “patty-cake” with Republicans and “move now” on an infrastructure bill that includes proposals to deal with climate change.
The self-described democratic socialist shared a tweet from Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) reacting to a Politico article in which White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy acknowledged that some climate change-related proposals “may not end in the final version” of infrastructure legislation.
“An infrastructure package that goes light on climate and clean energy should not count on every Democratic vote,” tweeted Heinrich.
“Yep,” concurred Ocasio-Cortez before adding, “Mitch McConnell and the Koch brothers are not worth setting the planet on fire for. I know some Dems may disagree with me, but that’s my unpopular opinion of the day.”
On Tuesday, Biden abruptly broke off negotiations on a $1.7 trillion compromise infrastructure package with Senate Republicans led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). However, a bipartisan group of senators — including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) — are working on a proposal of their own valued at around $900 billion.
“Pres. Biden & Senate Dems should take a step back and ask themselves if playing patty-cake w GOP Senators is really worth the dismantling of people’s voting rights, setting the planet on fire, allowing massive corporations and the wealthy to not pay their fair share of taxes, etc,” a frustrated Ocasio-Cortez tweeted later Wednesday.
“During the Obama admin, folks thought we’d have a 60 Dem majority for a while. It lasted 4 months,” the lawmaker continued. “Dems are burning precious time & impact negotiating w/GOP who won’t even vote for a Jan 6 commission. McConnell’s plan is to run out the clock. It’s a hustle. We need to move now.”
Ocasio-Cortez also approvingly quote-tweeted MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who wrote: “An ‘infrastructure bill’ that isn’t climate-focused is quite literally not worth passing because climate is the central infrastructure challenge we face, full stop.”
“Common sense. Thank you,” Ocasio-Cortez reacted.
While Senate Democrats could theoretically use the parliamentary process of reconciliation to pass an infrastructure bill without GOP support, Manchin has signaled he will not vote for any package that does not have Republican input.
“We need a bipartisan infrastructure bill,” Manchin told “Fox News Sunday” this past weekend. “We most definitely need that. And infrastructure is something that’s been delayed for far too long by past administrations, so it’s time for us to move forward.
“There’s a lot that’s been done with the COVID bills that we’ve put out that basically overlap in some areas of infrastructure, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done and I think we can come to that compromise to where we’ll find a bipartisan deal,” he added. “I’m very, very confident of that.”
Manchin previously drew the wrath of fellow Democrats when he announced Sunday that he would oppose the sprawling Democrat-led election reform bill known as the For the People Act.
“Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it,” Manchin wrote in an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail newspaper.
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June 10, 2021 at 05:40AM
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AOC begs Biden, Dems to stop playing 'patty-cake' with Senate GOP - New York Post
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