BY RICK MORAN | P J MEDIA
AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
Late on Friday night, the presidency of Joe Biden hung in
the balance as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan
Infrastructure Framework (BIF) to the floor for a vote.
The issue was in doubt. While the Progressive Caucus
agreed to vote for the measure, their assent was based on a deal Pelosi reached
with more moderate Democrats in the House. The moderates would vote no later
than November 15 on Biden’s other massive spending measure—a $1.75 trillion
social spending bill.
But the deal failed to convince the radical “Squad”
members to vote for the BIF. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman,
Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley were perfectly
willing to torpedo Biden’s agenda then and there and make him a one-term
president.
But Pelosi, the Democratic Party, and Joe Biden were
rescued by 13 Republican House members who wanted some pork to show the folks
back home that it wasn’t all fun and games in Washington and that Congress
actually did some work every once in a while.
NROs Philip Klein calls the act “a betrayal.”
The federal government already spends more than enough on
infrastructure to meet our needs and the COVID-19 bailout money left many
states awash in cash. Despite promises, only a small portion of the bill focuses on traditional
infrastructure such as fixing roads and bridges and the legislation (soon to be
law) will add $256 billion to deficits. It will also help grease the
wheels for the passage of the larger multi-trillion welfare bill that will expand
Medicare and Obamacare, initiate a federal takeover of preschool and child
care, and impose economically devastating tax increases on individuals and
businesses.
Politically, it’s unclear what Republicans are thinking.
Biden entered this week reeling from a devastating rebuke of his presidency by
voters in areas of the country thought to be reliably Democratic. He headed
into the 2022 election year a wounded animal, and Republicans stood to make
major gains. Now, they tossed him a life raft and allowed him to put bipartisan
gloss on his radical agenda.
Here are the names of the 13 Republicans who voted with
Pelosi and Biden:
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick
Representative Don Young
Representative Fred Upton
Representative Adam Kinzinger
Representative Jeff Van Drew
Representative John Katko
Representative Tom Reed
Representative Andrew Garbarino
Representative Nicole Malliotakis
Representative Chris Smith
Representative David McKinley
Representative Anthony Gonzalez
Many of those Republicans are retiring. But does that
give them leave to undermine their party just three days after a surprising
tremendous victory at the polls repudiated Joe Biden and the Democrats, and
their massive spending plans?
What he said.
Voting for this bill is exactly the same as voting for
Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending monstrosity. By passing the BIF, the way
was cleared for the less radical Democrats to embrace the social spending bill.
If the infrastructure bill had gone down to defeat, there’s a good chance that
the less radical Democrats would have refused to pass the social spending bill,
handing Biden a defeat from which he would be unlikely to recover.
Now Biden will be able to appear as both Santa Claus and
Mr. Bipartisanship. That’s a pretty good look going into 2024.
