Ex-congressman predicts Democrats will unite to pass spending bills because 'it's popular' and failure would be 'very bad'

House Democrats
(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

House Democrats showed a modicum of unity on Tuesday, passing a budget resolution enabling up to $3.5 trillion in domestic programs to pass with just Democratic votes. But the party-line 220-212 vote came after a tense 24-hour standoff between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a group of 10 centrist Democrats, ending in a deal that ensures the House will vote on a bipartisan infrastructure deal already passed by the Senate, regardless of what happens with the larger package.

Pelosi shrugged off the intra-party wrangling, telling her caucus, "That's just part of the legislative process," an aide tells The Associated Press. But the legislative process is just getting started, and the moderate and more progressive wings of the party have some big fights ahead over the price tag for the budget and which parts of the blueprint — paid family leave, free community college, child care, expanded Medicare benefits, green infrastructure — make it into the final legislation. With no votes to spare in the Senate and few in the House, either faction could sink the entire Democratic agenda.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

When push comes to shove, "what we are going to see is the first major set of advances in the role of government that's going to be both effective and popular in a very long time," Frank predicted. "The biggest reason why this is going to go through is that it's popular with the majority. Public opinion counts more than people think, especially on big issues." On the flip side, "politically if this thing blows up, it's very bad for the Democrats," he said. "Looking incompetent is never good for a political party."

Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.