(FiveNation.com)- The House Democrats passed the massive “Build Back Better” welfare spending bill on Friday morning. And its passage is one more example of how Nancy Pelosi will play one side against the other, shift allegiances where it suits her, and strong-arm her caucus to get what she wants.
It also revealed that the so-called “moderates” in the Democrat caucus aren’t moderates at all.
The “moderate” Democrats demanded the CBO score the bill before they vote for it. But even after the CBO determined that the White House and Pelosi’s claim that the massive spending bill was “fully paid for” was untrue, these “moderates” fell in line and voted for the monstrosity.
In the end, only one Democrat voted against it, but not because it cost too much, but because Democrats slipped in the repeal of the SALT cap.
If this all seems familiar, this is the exact playbook Nancy Pelosi used to ram through Obamacare in 2010 – playing both sides where it suited her and strong-arming her caucus to fall in line.
Ultimately, Pelosi said and did whatever she needed to get Joe Biden’s agenda passed, just as she did for Obamacare.
To get the progressive socialists on board, Pelosi played hardball – threatening to tank the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the garbage BBB bill was passed first. Then she changed course and let the bipartisan bill come to a vote before the garbage bill. She seemingly caved to the moderates by allowing the CBO to score the monstrosity. But it wasn’t a cave. She simply did what she needed to get her so-called “moderates” to fall in line.
As with Obamacare, as the weeks crawled on without a vote, Nancy Pelosi did what she had to do to get some kind of legislative win. When she called for a vote on the bipartisan bill, the progressives were furious. Lucky for Pelosi, there were enough Republicans to help push it over the top even without the rebelling progressives.
Some Republicans believed that passing the bipartisan bill would take the pressure off the so-called “moderates” and make them less likely to vote for the monstrous Build Back Better bill. They were wrong.
Who knows what kind of threats and deals Pelosi finagled behind closed doors to get the so-called “moderates” to run their necks into the noose and vote for the Build Back Better monstrosity. But whatever she did, it worked.
Now the fate of the bill rests solely on West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin. Will he cave as easily as the so-called “moderates” in the House? Or will he stand fast and vote against it?
