republican support. then they started quarreling with each other. at one point progressives took the infrastructure bill hostage stalling it for a massive tax and social spending plan which by the way a democrat killed not a republican at the end of the year. democrats failed to move on campaign issues like police reform, gun reform. canceling student debt and voting rights legislation. with razor thin majorities some say democrats need to lower their expectations. that may mean going for less, right? breaking up build back better. making it into smaller pieces. maybe some of which can pass. whether we talk about paid family leave or some of the other incredibly popular pieces of it. they probably also need to fix their messaging, dana. recently a fox business poll revealed that if americans have to vote today more would vote for a republican over a democrat by about 4 points.
plan. it is doable in a bipartisan way. take that victory. and then, let s go do we know they are not going to go to the human infrastructure because of the adjustments of the tax code. i have known that from day one. but we can still go there you the process knowing we will probably have to go to reconciliation. and then, do what we can afford to do. so, that is where manchin s red lines began and didn t stop there. as manchin accused house democrats of holding the bipartisan infrastructure bill hostage, he held countless meetings with the president, progressive caucus, and democratic leadership in an effort to ham ourt an agreement on build back better. on november 19th, the house finally passed the build back better bill with assurances that it would get quick consideration in a path to get through the senate. including, from manchin. i feel very good about this. um, you know, there was a framework that was agreed to. the vast majority of this bill is preconferenced with senat
and the build back better have been decoupled. we ll see now if the moderate house democrats are as committed to this agreement as the progressives were through the last one because the moderates were treated horribly when they had an agreement. and the progressives held this infrastructure bill hostage. they did not shoot that hostage, figuratively speaking, of course. they did not shoot it, but bottom line is, i m still conceptually. the senate is going to control this process because whatever they pass out of the house will not become law. i m told there s an $80,000 threshold now for the state and local bernie sanders said no way to that. that s a gift to higher-income people. so joe manchin and bernie sanders are going to have their say. it s going to look very different. there s a long road ahead, congress. thank you so much for your time. i want to head to jessica dean hanging out with me the entire hour. i know there s still votes going
months ago, also pass through the house and sent to the president s desk. the way to look at what s happened the last 36 hours or so is more like the ncaa tournament, survive and advance. you saw speaker pelosi cutting deals, making moves, trying to find some way to move this bigger bill forward one step, one vote at a time. we know it s going to get changed in the senate, but they felt they had to get these votes done today before the house is scheduled to be out for the whole next week. garrett, joe manchin obviously got a little heated earlier this week. told progressives to stop holding bipartisan infrastructure bill hostage. and has been saying all along, vote on that bill, joe biden and i have a $1.75 trillion agreement. we re going to figure this out. is that where it is, in fact, going to be going, first of all? and, secondly, will joe biden, and i ll ask jonathan lemire this next, will joe biden have a
republicans lost the senate. so look at what s happening now. democrats are pursuing an ambitious agenda. unilaterally using reconciliation, locking republicans out, and you re seeing voters starting to react to that. i think, craig, what democrats may want to do, and a lot of democrats don t want to hear this. listen to people like sinema and manchin trying to keep the party sober so they can avoid a repeat of 2010 in 2022. you don t subscribe to the notion that had democrats actually passed this ambitious spending plan, actually passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, you don t think that would have helped them in virginia or new jersey? you think that would have hurt them? well, half. i think half of that is accurate. if the progressives had been not held the infrastructure bill hostage and democrats could have taken something, not just to their base but also to the centrist voters who end up