Budget clash pits moderate Dems against Biden, Pelosi

Confronting their party’s most powerful leaders, moderate Democrats are tapping the brakes on President Joe Biden’s multitrilliondollar domestic program and insisting on their own priorities first in a smaller infrastructure deal. The interparty showdown is headed for a test vote Monday evening in the House.

The band of moderates has threatened to oppose a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint unless the House first approves a $1 trillion package of road, power grid, broadband and other infrastructure projects that’s already passed the Senate.

With most of Biden’s domestic agenda at stake, it’s unimaginable that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would let her own party’s centrists deal him an embarrassing defeat. That’s especially true with the president already under criticism over his handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and with Democrats’ prospects uncertain in the 2022 elections for control of Congress.

Pelosi implored lawmakers Monday afternoon to come together, saying there is no time to waste. “We must not squander our Congressional Democratic Majorities and jeopardize the once-in-a-generation opportunity to create historic change to meet the needs of working families,” she said in a letter to colleagues.