Senate To Vote On Fictitious Gang Of Twenty ‘Bipartisan’ Infrastructure Bill On Wednesday

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is basically telling the bipartisan Gang of Twenty senators that they have wasted enough of everyone’s time with their endless “bipartisan” negotiations on their fictitious infrastructure “agreement,” and it is time for them to either put up or shut up. Shoulda done this long ago, Chuck.

The Hill reports, Schumer sets up key vote on bipartisan deal:

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday said the Senate will vote to open debate on the bipartisan infrastructure deal Wednesday, setting up a key test vote on the legislation.

“Today I’m announcing that I intend to file cloture on the vehicle for the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday of next week,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.

Because the bipartisan group [hasn’t actually bothered to write the details into a bill], Schumer will file cloture on a shell bill that senators will later swap the bipartisan legislation into. The bill will need 60 votes to get over Wednesday’s initial hurdle. If every Democrat votes to advance it, something that isn’t certain, that means Democrats would need at least 10 GOP votes.

I guess we are about to find out whether prima donna diva Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema actually have any influence with 10 Republican senators, or if they are just full o’ crap (as I strongly suspect). Maybe now we can finally stop pretending that this fictitious “bipartisan” agreement actually exists and move on to actually getting shit done.

“Senators will have until Wednesday of next week before the initial vote on cloture on the motion to proceed. Everyone has been having productive conversations and it’s important to keep the two-track process moving. All parties involved in the bipartisan infrastructure bill talks must now finalize their agreement so that the Senate can begin considering that legislation next week,” Schumer said.

Wednesday is also the deadline Schumer has set for Democrats to be ready to “move forward” on a separate budget resolution that tees up $3.5 trillion in spending. The party hopes to pass its budget and the budget reconciliation package with just Democratic votes.

Schumer’s strategy, announced on the Senate floor, is a hardball strategy to try to force agreement on advancing Democrats biggest legislative priority before Congress recesses in August.

Grade school children get recess. You dilatory Senators need to stay and get the work done for which the taxpayers pay you a salary. Chuck Schumer Warns He May Need To Cut Senate’s August Recess Short.

Schumer is pushing the bipartisan group to finalize their deal on a bill worth $1.2 trillion over eight years as they continue to work through final hurdles.

And because the bipartisan bill is linked to Democrats’ separate reconciliation plan — which will allow them to bypass the 60-vote filibuster on the $3.5 trillion legislation — Schumer’s decision is also aimed at forcing Democrats to coalesce behind the budget resolution, which needs all 50 Democratic senators and Vice President Harris to break a tie in order to pass.

“I am setting the same deadline next Wednesday for the entire Senate Democratic Caucus to agree to move forward on the budget resolution with reconciliation instructions. The time has come to make progress,” he said.

The bipartisan group is still [farting around] trying to finalize its infrastructure deal, and GOP members of the gang appeared skeptical their caucus would agree to advance even a shell bill that would allow debate to get started.

Members of the bipartisan group are hoping to untangle their remaining sticking points by the end of Thursday, but acknowledged that deadline is fluid and they would still need to finish drafting and get a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of their legislation.

“I think there’s a lot of drafting that has to be done, and there are still a number of outstanding issues that have to be resolved,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a member of the bipartisan group. “I would think it would be a dereliction of duty to vote for a bill that hasn’t been drafted yet.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) indicated that his goal was to have the bipartisan bill finished before the end of the July work period, which runs through early August. [And then go on August recess, to push it into September. I see what you are doing].

And Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) warned against enforcing arbitrary deadlines. “You can’t just say, ‘OK, deadline.’” Cassidy said.

You obviously have no idea how the Senate works. You all have gotten lazy under “do nothing” Mitch MCConnell. The Senate Majority Leader has the power to do whatever he wants, when he wants. He controls the agenda and the calendar. Playtime is over. You bad faith Republican obstructionists don’t get to run out the clock with your foolishness.

Damn insurrectionist Republican crybabies! GOP fumes over Schumer hardball strategy:

Republicans are bristling over Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) hardball strategy to try to force them to finalize a bipartisan infrastructure deal in a matter of days.

Republican negotiators and members of leadership believe Schumer is trying to jam them and warn that they won’t vote to start debate Wednesday even on a shell bill that the Democratic leader is intending to use as a vehicle for the bipartisan deal once it’s finalized.

This is just a ready-made excuse for voting against the fictitious “bipartisan” infrastructure agreement that they were always going to vote against anyway.

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, predicted that there could be 10 Republican senators or more [B.S.] who would vote to advance the bipartisan bill, “but you’ve got to see what the bill looks like.”

Maybe the Gang of Twenty should have, oh I don’t know, actually bothered to write the bill. Sen Bernie Sanders’ committee has put together the most complicated budget resolution, with multiple moving parts, that I have ever seen. All you Gang of Twenty senators do is TV interviews with the lamestream media and whine about “bipartisanship.”

Several of his most likely “yes” votes, the Republicans helping negotiate the bipartisan bill, were frustrated by Schumer’s strategy, which his office acknowledged was a hardball move aimed at providing the bipartisan group with a deadline to finalize their bill and prevent talks from dragging on.

What did I just say? You don’t get to run out the clock.

The mythical moderate from Maine, Wendy Whiner, er, Susan Collins, characterized Schumer as trying to “jam the bill.”

You want some cheese with that whine, Suzy?

“We’re still working very hard. We’re making good progress, and he ought to respect that,” Collins said of Schumer.

No, they are not working hard or they would have circulated a draft bill by now. And most Americans have come not to have any respect for Susan Collins, because she has sold us out so many times. Who gives a shit what she thinks.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has helped spearhead the bipartisan negotiations, warned that his group wouldn’t be pushed into meeting the deadline. “We’re not going to rush this,” he said.

Just to be clear, Sen. Portman is a former Director of the Office of Management and Budget. And yet this loser hasn’t even drafted a bill. Like I explained before, this is Mitch McConnell’s rope-a-dope strategy. These Republicans aren’t negotiating in good faith, they are just leading so-called “moderate” Democrats around by the nose down a blind alley, hoping to run out the clock on the Biden agenda. We’ve all seen this movie before.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), another member of the group, said that there were still several issues that need to be resolved.

“I think there’s a lot of drafting that has to be done, and there are still a number of outstanding issues that have to be resolved,” Romney said. “I would think it would be a dereliction of duty to vote for a bill that hasn’t been drafted yet.”

Then I suggest you set aside this weekend and get busy drafting this fictitious “bipartisan” bill, and quitcherbitchin, Mittens.

And what about this Gang of Twenty? Do you mean to tell me that twenty senators are incapable of writing a bill? Split up the work between yourselves, and get it done!

The group, which now consists of 22 members, announced late last month that they had reached a deal on a framework for a bill that would cost $1.2 trillion over eight years.

Since then, they have been working behind the scenes to try to flesh out the legislation.

They’ve got an informal deadline to have their remaining issues resolved by the end of Thursday, something some members have suggested is more of a goal as they still try to iron out how to pay for bill’s spending.

Oh, sweet Jesus! An aspirational goal? We all work on hard deadlines, what makes senators exempt from hard deadlines? You prima donna divas make me sick.

Prediction: The fictitious “bipartisan” infrastructure agreement fails the cloture vote on Wednesday. Then we can all stop pretending. Chuck Schumer can direct Bernie Sanders to take the elements of this fictitious “bipartisan” agreement that he thinks he has the votes for and fold them into his larger budget reconciliation bill, which is drafted.

And I bet that Bernie Sanders’ committee will be able to draft the new provisions within a week. Hell, he probably already has rough draft language ready to go.

Then Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer needs to take these 11 Democrats who have been part of this group to the woodshed for a “come to Jesus” discussion about how he expects them  to vote to get this deal done. If Democrats do not deliver on their campaign promises, they will lose control of Congress, and then American democracy will fail.

As Chuck Schumer said earlier this year, “failure is not an option.”