White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted Thursday that the Democratic Party’s infighting over a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package is democracy at work.
Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked Psaki during her daily press briefing whether President Biden had "lost control of his party," given the reality that Democrats could fail to deliver on two major pieces of legislation furthering his domestic agenda if moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., cannot agree on the price tag.
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"This is how democracy works," Psaki responded.
"I know it feels foreign because there wasn’t much that happened over the last couple of years," she continued, taking a dig at former President Donald Trump. "But how it works is the American people elect their elected officials, the president of the United States puts forward a bold and ambitious proposal, and then everybody negotiates about it."
"They have different points of view," she added. "That’s how democracy should work We’re in the midst of it right now. We’re not trying to paint over how messy it looks from the outside."
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Progressive House Democrats have vowed to oppose the infrastructure bill, which already passed the Senate, unless it moves in tandem with the party’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Manchin, who supports the infrastructure bill, said he would not support the reconciliation bill due to its price tag.
The House joined the Senate on Thursday to approve a bill to fund the government through Dec. 3 and avert a government shutdown for now.