The infighting between Democrats over the massive $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and $3.5 trilling budget reconciliation package was democracy at work, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday.
During Psaki's daily press briefing, a reporter asked whether or not United States President Joe Biden had "lost control" of his party. The question was raised after the fact that Democrats have continued to fail to agree on two major pieces of legislation has become widespread knowledge.
Democracy at Work
The major piece of information that lawmakers continue to struggle to agree on is the legislation's price tag. In her response, Psaki defended the situation by arguing that Democrats discussing and fighting amongst each other was the surest sign of democracy in the country's federal government.
"I know it feels foreign because there wasn't much that happened over the last couple of years. But how it works is the American people elect their elected officials, the president of the United States puts forward a bold and ambitious proposal, and then everybody negotiates about it," Psaki said, vaguely referencing former President Donald Trump's administration, Fox News reported.
Psaki said that Democrats had different points of view regarding the legislation and argued that democracy was a messy picture. The situation comes as progressive House Democrats have expressed their opposition to the infrastructure bill, which was already passed in the Senate unless it goes together with the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, which faces opposition from other lawmakers.
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The press secretary's comments came on the same day that the House was expected to vote on the infrastructure bill, which could still go either way. Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal said they had enough votes to keep the bill from being passed and urged moderate Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin to cooperate with them.
On Thursday, it was revealed that Manchin talked with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to tell him that he only supported the reconciliation bill if it had a price tag of $1.5 trillion. Manchin and Schumer came to an agreement in late July to discuss the massive bill and set a limit to its funding, the New York Post reported.
Criticism of Biden
The situation also comes amid Psaki's defense of President Biden after the Democratic leader was accused of acting Trump-like. She said that a growing number of people have slowly started to see Biden becoming similar to the Republican businessman in terms of leading the country.
A French foreign minister previously said Biden reminded him of the former United States president during negotiations over the submarine deal with Australia. Jean-Yves Le Drian said in early September that Biden had made a "brutal, unilateral, and unpredictable decision," which was in line with what former President Trump would generally do.
Title 42 is another topic that is getting widespread criticism, the majority of which is also felt by Biden. Psaki argued that Title 42 was a "public health requirement" and was necessary due to the coronavirus pandemic to curb the spread of the infection, Yahoo News reported.
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