Mod Squad

 

Mods with modified scooters, Peckham, South London, May 1964, Daily Mirror via All That's Interesting.

This is making me crazy, on the subject of the push in the House, back early from August recess to deal with the double infrastructure package, the trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure proper, and the $3.5-trillion "human infrastructure" including the universal pre-K, universal two-year college, permanent child tax credit, expanded Medicare and Medicaid, and all the global warming initiatives that got cut out of the first one, to be passed by Democrats alone if necessary in the form of "instructions" to be carried out in the Senate.

As you've probably heard, the second part is threatened by a rump group of nine representatives who used to call themselves "Problem Solvers", led by New Jersey's Josh Gottheimer—now they're billed as "the Mod Squad"—insisting that they'd like to just vote on the first part for starters, in opposition to the 95 Rockers of the House Progressive Caucus, who have demanded starting with the second part, to forestall any cheating on the part of the Mods. Speaker Pelosi (who is solidly on the "progressive" side of the issue, contrary to some reports portraying her as in the middle) is said to have been working out a plan to do both of them more or less simultaneously.

So last night the nine issued a curious statement in the Washington Post—

we are firmly opposed to holding the president’s infrastructure legislation hostage to reconciliation, risking its passage and the bipartisan support behind it.

We can walk and chew gum, just as the Senate did. We can pass the infrastructure measure now, and then quickly consider reconciliation and the policies from climate to health care to universal pre-K that we believe are critical.

—suggesting that they'd prefer not to walk and chew gum at the same time. But Gottheimer assured CNN this morning that that didn't mean both bills wouldn't get passed:

"I believe both will move forward and get done," he said, "I don't think anyone is going to vote against that," Gottheimer added, referring to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. 

Also, yesterday afternoon David Dayen reported that The American Prospect was going to report that the nine were experiencing desertions and likely to cave to the Speaker altogether very soon

Among the possibilities under discussion is a vote on two separate rules (one for the budget resolution and one for the bipartisan bill)

— David Dayen (@ddayen) August 22, 2021

but the Prospect still hasn't actually reported it, only reported that they intend to report it, so who knows?

One helpful thing the Prospect does manage to do is remind us, on the subject of the political consequences of the disturbing scenes at the Kabul airport,

The odds are still that Americans will go to the polls in 2022 with the state of the pandemic and the economy as their foremost considerations.

The horrible film of the American embassy's helipad in Saigon in 1975 wasn't a key issue in 1976 either: Ford did lose reelection, but it was basically over his failure with domestic issues: the Watergate corruption and inflation-without-growth. If Congress is concerned about the 2022 midterms, where it's Congress and not the presidency that's at stake,  they need to get behind these "human infrastructure" programs, as overwhelmingly popular in Gottheimer's Bergen County as they are everywhere else—

One of the ones who flipped should be Rep. Gottheimer if he has any sense.https://t.co/y04QcYTM66

— Mark (Vaxxed and Masked) Mucci (@MLMucci) August 23, 2021

—and make sure the public knows they're doing it.