In a Zoom call resisting the trimming of the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill (which includes Medicare expansion) while being prepared to kill the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill already passed in the Senate, Seattle area Congresswoman and House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal proclaimed:
A lot of people have asked: ‘Isn’t something better than nothing?’ And the answer, quite simply, is no. Because when it comes down to something rather than nothing, it’s the same people who are forced to settle for nothing over and over and over again.
As my Twitter friend Melissa Quinn Amour put it, "Oh FFS." I couldn't agree more.
A $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill might be nothing to Jayapal and a reconciliation bill of say $2 trillion might be nothing to Jayapal, but it will mean a great deal to people who walk or drive over unsafe bridges on their way to see the doctor.
Yes, I have my problems with the Joe Manchins and Kyrsten Sinemas of the world who haven't advanced concrete proposals, but so-called progressives aren't helping matters either. If Jayapal truly believes nothing is better something then we won't have a reconciliation bill nor an infrastructure bill. If Jayapal truly believes nothing is better than something then we will soon have a Republican controlled Congress in which she will have little to no power to yield.
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