yesterday to sell his big back better plan. he has emphasized how it will help working class americans, but the bill may end up being a shadow of what was originally proposed with democrats scaling back their agenda. i m joined now by karine jean-pierre,uous principal deputy press secretary. i love saying that it so-so good to see you. it s good. it s good to see you. in person. in person. it s been so long. on set. it s going to be doing. this thank you. this is a wonderful reunion. before we just do girl talk, which i could easily do for the rest of the hour, and then i d be in so much trouble. let s talk shop. okay. the elephant in the room, it feels like democrats have been real nice to manchin and sinema today. they re in there trying to work out. that feels like we re getting towards the end of the negotiation or y all are worried they re going completely off the rails, they re going to tank everything. there has even been reporting
budget bill go through a going to be that much greater than if they get, say, 2 or $2.5 trillion versus the political down sides of creating chaos in their caucus in the house and the senate and not letting president biden, you know, throw a clear victory symbol up and say he s moving his agenda forward. we are not that far from 2022 and election year. so, margaret, this is also a major test for house speaker pelosi if she s able to appease or bring together moderates and progressives and help them see exactly what david was saying. do you want to tank everything, you know, to stay in your corner or, you know, how do you measure what s going to be most beneficial for party or for policy? fred, i think that is the messaging challenge for speaker pelosi because the truth is there are some members of the house democratic caucus in the progressive wing who actually think that it would be the better thing for the democratic
party to tank everything, have it go down in a ball of flames and try to have elections where more progressive democrats are elected to the caucus. this is not popular to talk about out loud, but it is an undercurrent that runs through some of the strategy of some of the discussions. i would say the majority of the democratic caucus doesn t feel that way and biden has made clear that in order for not just he and the white house, but for the democratic party in congress to really have a chance in the midterm elections next year he has to be able to dlfr that $1.2 trillion. when we period biden talk the other day, maybe yesterday, the time sort of blurs together how it could take a year, there s going to be ups and downs, how i read that, that sounded to me like offering an alternative off ramp in case if case they can t quite pull it together right now to say if somehow a deal can t be cobbled together
whining perhaps when he shouldn t have given the numbers the democrats had in the senate? well, i understand the frustration. his frustration is moderate democrats and there are moderate democrats in the country have been ignored by this administration. president obama is forgetting how won the election and how anyone wins elections in the united states. which is you win elections by appealing to the common sense middle and you do not win elections by endlessly getting the two-word memo that democrats send out to everybody which is blame bush. fifteen months president obama has been there in the white house since his election and at some point or another he has to own what is going on in congress and the country. oh, my god. mike malloy? that is such a specious argument. they had eight years. the republican administration had eight years to tank everything about the united states. don t forget it goes back before eight years. it started back in the reagan administration. let s