The internal disagreements that are hindering progress.
The latest Biden approval ratings don’t just tell us how people currently feel about the president (spoiler alert: It’s not good), but also that disagreements are brewing among the Democrats. With 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer to have a new candidate for the 2024 Presidential election, we know something’s not quite right in the party. But the disagreements aren’t just among the voters; arguments are also drawing divides among the party’s lawmakers.
Of course, it’s normal for politicians to go toe to toe, even within the same party; the moderate and liberal Democrats have long been at odds about their positions on important policy matters and they continue to battle it out as they try to move the nation forward. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin go head-to-head on the “Build Back Better” plan and the intra-party blame game has begun in response to the recent Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade, one thing is clear: Disagreements are leading to inefficiencies within the government and preventing important work from getting done. It would be fair to fear whether this is spelling doom for the party.
We know it’s hard to keep track of all the chaos of political developments and disagreements, so we decided to sum up some of the most important ones for you.
Roe v. Wade
The recent reversal of Roe v. Wade threw millions of women in harm’s way, stripping them of their bodily autonomy. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision, the Democrats couldn’t quite agree on the right path forward. Even though they saw this move coming thanks to the leaked document from May 2022, the Democrats didn’t get around to building a consensus on how they would respond when doomsday arrived. Now, they don’t have enough votes to be able to codify the changes they want, so they are stuck hunting for other solutions. While some Democrats have erred on the side of restricted action, others were keen to employ executive action to protect women’s rights. Even after President Biden passed an executive order to build in some protection for healthcare providers and women, progressives continued to hold the line that this was not nearly enough. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris said Congress needs to ensure abortion access and some reformers wished the President had taken more aggressive steps to ensure court reform. All in all, this means there’s one party trying to get women their rights back, but stuck in a stalemate with conflicting opinions.
Minimum wage
Recently, the federal minimum wage got its first boost since 2009. Back in 2009 (yes, 13 years ago, back when President Barack Obama was just stepping foot into the White House ), the minimum wage was increased to $7.25. Now, one would naturally think that a minimum wage set 13 years ago is obviously outdated and it should be a no-brainer to get lawmakers to raise it to a standard that reflects the reality of the day. However, that’s not the case. Eight members of the Senate Democratic Conference voted against a $15 minimum wage in President Biden’s first stimulus package. The consequence? The average American suffers as the federal minimum wage still stands at $7.25.
Infrastructure bill
Back in October 2021, the Democrats missed their self-imposed deadline to vote on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. And that was only one little piece of the giant Democratic battle caused by the disagreement on President Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan. As some members of the party tried to push through the infrastructure bill without the broader package that dealt with social policy and climate change, liberal Democrats strongly refused to support the half-baked package. Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, wrote: “Let me be clear: bringing the so-called bipartisan infrastructure plan to a vote without the #BuildBackBetter Act at the same time is a betrayal. We will hold the line and vote it down.” Eventually, senior White House leaders tried to rally the liberal Democrats for support and the infrastructure bill was signed into law in November. Meanwhile, Build Back Better was buried in the archives of bills that never passed.
Medicare expansion
A significant part of the Build Back Better plan was healthcare expansion (yup, high time). But, with some Democrats refusing to sign onto a bill that costs $3.5 trillion, it was necessary to find ways to cut back on medicare expansion expenses. However, then Democrats disagreed with each other on what part of the expansion is most important: Should they expand coverage to reach more poor adults or offer additional healthcare benefits to older people across income levels? Add to that the fact that the bill also aimed to clamp down on rising drug prices (God knows that’s necessary!), and you have quite the dilemma. At least four House Democrats expressed strong opposition to this. The result? A brilliant deadlock. The Build Back Better plan never made it past the debates, and there’s no Medicare expansion happening as a result right now.
