How Rep Josh Gottheimer was outmatched by the CPC

Late Friday, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, DN.J., released a statement expressing dismay that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has again delayed the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and accused a “faction of extreme left ”to endanger President Joe Biden’s agenda. Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus had threatened to withhold their vote for the infrastructure bill if it was not preceded by a broader reconciliation bill, a plan that had been in place since the summer.

“We were elected to achieve reasonable, common-sense solutions for the American people – not to obstruct from distant wings,” Gottheimer wrote.

Never mind that Gottheimer himself led a small group of House members to obstruct the larger reconciliation spending bill, which contains many key priorities of the Biden administration’s agenda. And that Biden went to Capitol Hill and, in a private meeting with Democrats, endorsed the progressive strategy of passing both bills at the same time – and encouraged both wings to find a number on which they came to an agreement and to move forward.

In late August, Gottheimer and a gang of eight other House members used their influence to force Pelosi to schedule a vote on the infrastructure bill that had already passed the Senate with a bipartisan majority. The conservative Democratic group hoped to separate it from the broader reconciliation package, which includes big tax hikes on rich and robust social spending.

But on Friday, Gottheimer was the only name on the statement after, according to Politico’s Heather Caygle, no one else of her “Unbreakable Nine” would sign. Later that evening, a Republican representative said an angry democrat called Pelosi a “fucking liar” for not tabling the bill, and the identity of this angry Democrat was little in doubt.

The goal of Gottheimer’s group had been to pass the infrastructure bill and then shoot the bigger bill. Free the hostage, then detonate the insurgents. Their demand ran counter to the Democrats’ two-way strategy, but Pelosi conceded by giving them a date for the vote on the infrastructure floor: September 27.

Gottheimer and some of his allies then banded together with the black money group No Labels, which funds their campaigns and has been instrumental in organizing the opposition. “You should be so proud, I can’t explain it to you, this is the culmination of all your work.” It wouldn’t have happened without what you’ve built, ”Gotthheimer told them, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by The Intercept. “It just wouldn’t have happened – abrupt stop. You should just feel so proud. It is your victory as much as my victory.

Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., Former chairman of the right-wing Blue Dog coalition, celebrated that the victory would allow them to then focus on fighting the reconciliation plan, which he told the group to which he s ‘opposed. “Let’s talk about reconciliation later. Let’s embrace this infrastructure package now, and don’t hope that we’re going to spend billions more of our children’s and grandchildren’s money than we really have at this point, ”Schrader said.

But House progressives reacted quickly, promising to block the bill – to maintain the line – if it came under consideration without the larger spending bill. Gottheimer remained confident over the following weeks, saying privately that he was sure the Progressives would back down. By September 27, it was clear there weren’t enough votes to pass the bill, and Pelosi pulled it off the floor, postponing it for a September 30 showdown.

On CNN Thursday, Gottheimer gave the bill a “1,000%” chance of passing that day. He never approached and the bill was withdrawn again, leaving Gottheimer to humbly argue that the House had not technically been adjourned. Friday would still be the same “legislative day,” he tweeted, and negotiations were underway and he was catch Red Bull and Gatorade and – hey, where is everyone going?

So Gottheimer, notoriously abusive of his staff revolving door, had no one around to warn him that his Red Bull-fueled statement could backfire.

The journey of The progressive congressional caucus, from punchline to counterpuncher, has involved decades in the wilderness, followed by a rapid consolidation of power that took Congress by surprise this week.
The roots can be traced back to the 2009 and 2010 struggle over the Affordable Care Act, when an overwhelmed CPC was forced to swallow a bill that did not match the red lines it had drawn. More than 50 caucus members had signed a letter pledging not to support any health care reform bill that did not include a “strong public option,” but all ultimately did just that.

Two things were clear: The House and Senate needed more progressive Democrats, and these progressives needed to be better organized. A few new organizations have sprung up to make this happen. One was called the Campaign Committee for Progressive Change, or PCCC – its abbreviation for a troll of the DCCC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which it was designed to counterbalance. Separately, then bloggers Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald organized a political action committee to support progressive challengers in the primaries.

After the mid-term erasure of 2010, many electoral battles took place with little media coverage. Two of the first progressive battles of the new era took place in 2012, when a coalition of groups, including the PCCC, intervened in open primaries for House seats in San Diego and New Mexico.

In San Diego, Progressives backed Lori Saldaña against right-wing businessman Scott Peters. In New Mexico, they were for Eric Griego against conservative Michelle Lujan Grisham. They both narrowly lost, and the losses reverberated. Earlier this month, Peters cast one of three votes against a committee measure allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs. Lujan Grisham is now governor of New Mexico, where she fights the progressives from her perch statewide.

But, thanks in no small part to organizing around Griego’s campaign, which turned into a statewide effort, Deb Haaland ran for the vacant Lujan Grisham seat and won. as a progressive. When Haaland was elevated to Home Secretary earlier this year, the main campaign for his seat was not left-to-center or left-to-right, but rather who was more progressive. Even in a race dominated by party insiders, it went to Melanie Stansbury, a progressive state lawmaker.

This week, the newly sworn-in Stansbury publicly pledged that she would maintain the line with the Progressive Caucus and block the bipartisan bill unless the two move together. Adding grassroots members like Stansbury to the public caucus list was in some ways more valuable than putting together a list of the usual suspects, showing Pelosi that the opposition was not only deep, but also broad.

Throughout the 2010s, Democrats ‘ability to raise small dollars gradually expanded, driven by Elizabeth Warren’s senatorial campaign in 2012, and then Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016. Although Sanders failed, he showed that there was a major base of support for his democratic socialist agenda, both in terms of people and money. That same year, Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state anti-war organizer whose inspiration to enter electoral politics was Representative Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Was elected to the House.

She and Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin set out to transform the progressive caucus from what former co-chair Raúl Grijalva had described as a “Noam Chomsky book club” into a cohesive unit capable of exerting influence. The caucus established an internal agenda but had no membership requirements. In 2018, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez upset New York Rep. Joe Crowley, her suggestion of a “sub-caucus” that could be more nimble as a bloc was seen internally both as a sign of hope and as a challenge. If the caucus did not organize, it would be supplanted by something else.

At the next Congress, Progressives withheld their votes in committee in a fight to strengthen HR 3, the bill that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Donald Trump was president, so little that the House made was going to become law, but it was kind of a preseason victory that showed the tactic could work. Prior to this Congress, the CCP tightened its ideological requirements for membership and shifted to one chair to become more nimble. In early 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer used the intransigence of the CCP to persuade Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., not to push too hard on deep cuts in unemployment benefits. saying progressives would bring down the US bailout in the House. if he did. At the same time, Jayapal avoided a confrontation over the $ 15 minimum wage after just 42 Democrats voted to override the parliamentarian.

Over the summer, the number of progressives ready to hold the line on the infrastructure bill continued to rise, especially as recalcitrant senators refused to even expose what they were for. and against. But it was not a certainty until this week that the Progressive Bloc could hold out.

Ocasio-Cortez said she doesn’t blame Gottheimer for miscalculating. “Honestly, I see why he was so certain CPC had never stood up like this until this week,” she told The Intercept. “Until this week, the maximum we could muster for a showdown was around 14 members.”