Democrats divided on budget bill strategy

WASHINGTON — House Democrats will end their summer break Monday, amid rising tensions, to try to pave the legislative way for the most ambitious expansion of the nation's social safety net in a half-century.

But the divisions emerging over an arcane budget measure needed to shield a $3.5 trillion social policy bill from a filibuster are exposing deep strains in the Democratic Party over ideology, generational divides and the fruits of power and incumbency.

The stalemate by now is well known: Nine moderate or conservative Democrats have rebelled against party leaders and say they will block consideration of the budget blueprint necessary to allow the social policy measure to pass this autumn with only Democratic backing unless the House immediately votes on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill. A broader coalition of 19 Blue Dog Democrats also want the infrastructure vote to come as soon as possible.

The clamor for a quick victory on infrastructure, both for congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden, has only grown louder amid the anguish over Afghanistan. Democratic leaders hope to pass a rule Monday night for debating the budget measure, the infrastructure bill and an unrelated voting rights bill, with final votes scheduled for Tuesday.

"Our country desperately needs this direct reinvestment in our crumbling infrastructure. We also desperately need to prove our dysfunctional government can actually work," said Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii, one of nine Democrats at odds with party leaders.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi and dozens of progressive Democrats are equally adamant that the infrastructure vote will happen only after the Senate approves an ambitious bill that includes universal preschool, two years of free community college, paid family leave, federal support for child care and elder care, an expansion of Medicare and a broad effort to convert the fossil fuel economy to one based on renewable, clean energy.

The left-right divide, however, oversimplifies the swirling undercurrents that are roiling the Democratic Party.

Moderates also have allied with Shield PAC, founded by Democrats ousted in November from Republican-leaning districts, to push back on efforts to tar all Democrats with the slogans of the left. Some have backed a new pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel, determined to thwart the party's emerging Palestinian rights movement.

On Friday, yet another centrist group, No Labels, began airing an advertisement backing Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, one of the nine holdouts on the budget who is being challenged by a young liberal, Jessica Cisneros, in the coming primary season. The ad extols him for "fighting for the Biden agenda," though arguably he is now trying to hold much of it up.

The idea, moderates say, is to inoculate the party from slogans like "Defund the Police" that were effectively used against swing-district Democrats in November and stop progressive gains before divisions in the Democratic Party grow as deep as they have been in the Republican Party. The issue is more about tone and cooperation than ideology, said Mark Mellman, a longtime Democratic strategist and pollster, who helped found the Democratic Majority for Israel and its PAC.

"There's nothing revolutionary about 'Medicare for All,' moving to a clean energy economy, a $15 minimum wage," he said. "There's a lot of consistency around the general direction of policy. But the rhetoric is different."

The efforts have left liberals feeling aggrieved and worried that the Democratic establishment is actually hurting the party — by sapping the vital energy of younger voters. Young liberals like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman not only defeated Democratic stalwarts to win their seats in New York but also have captured the imagination of the next generation, said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman and strategist for Justice Democrats, which promotes insurgent progressive candidates.

The establishment's efforts are showing results. One of the left's political heroes, Nina Turner, lost a House special election primary in Cleveland this month after Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the most senior African American in Congress, and Mellman's group swooped in to prop up a little-known but more conciliatory candidate, Shontel Brown.

In New Orleans, the favored progressive candidate in the race to replace Rep. Cedric Richmond, who joined the Biden White House, also lost.

Liberals say the moderates, not the progressives, are now the ones standing in the way of Biden's agenda, by provoking the House's stalemate and threatening the social policy bill in the Senate.