Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Democrats are delusional if they do not to pass President Joe Biden’s big social spending bill.
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said it’s unrealistic for lawmakers to think Democratic voters will come out in force if the party fails to deliver on a raft of popular issues like free pre-kindergarten, the extended child tax credit and climate change.
“It is actually delusional to believe Dems can get reelected without acting,” she said on Twitter, ticking off a list of progressive priorities in the $1.8 trillion Build Back Better plan. “We must act now.”
Ocasio-Cortez accused Democratic lawmakers of using the stubborn opposition of kingmaker moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., as a crutch to avoid pushing the measure forward.
“People want to ‘but Manchin’ everyone to death, but learned helplessness is not a disposition that inspires confidence or support,” she said. “The president has tools at his disposal.”
The original deal between the White House and various Democratic factions called for Congress to work simultaneously on a bipartisan infrastructure plan and also the bigger Build Back Better plan.
But with both bills stalled, Biden and Democratic leaders pushed progressives to first pass the approximately $1 trillion infrastructure bill and trust him to get the social spending plan done.
AOC and a handful of progressive allies rejected that deal, believing that the bigger bill would wind up stalled indefinitely.
That’s what appears to be happening. Manchin has given an ever-shifting litany of reasons he won’t vote to pass the bill and seems to be moving further away from any deal, not closer toward it.
Progressives say it’s time for Biden to put Manchin and others on the hot seat instead of letting him hold their agenda hostage.
“It’s time for (Biden) to deliver,” she said bluntly.
