Republicans are entering a months-long stretch of legislating with their smallest House majority in decades. And the margin is about to tighten even more.
Departures from the House have whittled down the Republican caucus from 222 to 219, meaning the party can only afford to lose two members and still pass legislation when everyone is attending and voting.
Another Republican, Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), announced Tuesday that he would vacate his seat at the end of next week.
Meanwhile, Congress is staring down a deadline next Friday to fund about 70 percent of the government — including the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments. It could further complicate a stalled border security bill and aid package for Ukraine and Israel.
Democrats are likely to add another lawmaker to their ranks after a special election in a deep-blue, Buffalo-area district in late April. The next special election in a red district isn’t until May 21.
Democrats have had a trifecta capable of passing any legislation for like 5 of the last 40 years IIRC, and for most of those it was the Bill Clinton Era Dems who think pulling back a bloody stump isn’t any reason to stop reaching across the aisle ever.
The past trifecta was the first time since Johnson where we had even a modicum of progressive ambition in a position to make some change, and out of it we got the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, and the reason we didn’t get more is because of two senators who aren’t coming back anymore, and the archaic accidental rule they were defending with exactly zero actually good reason.
Like seriously, the white left will try to deride “just keep voting” as if 1) voting is some Herculean labor they should be patted on the back for instead of the bare minimum to be called an ally instead of an ally aesthetic chaser, and 2) voting isn’t something that has to be done regularly to keep momentum behind any gains made.
Basically, liberals have not controlled all 3 in a very long time.
Paraphrasing Manchin, if you want a progressive, vote for a progressive.
The only way we’re going to make any progress is by voting more (liberal) Democrats in.
And also by running as more progressive and leftist Democrats, AOC lit the way for us, if the few oldies who are with us can’t make it, then we should go and do it ourselves.