Thread by @l78lancer

I listened to @AOC on @maddow talking about the size of Biden's Infrastructure proposal and, in many ways, I agree with her that it may be too small. Her rationale is totally sound. And as it it is congress' prerogative to write the bill, they can make it larger if they choose.

But I wanted to listen to Rachel's show again to make sure I heard AOC correctly. One thing she did several times was include and conflate health care with the infrastructure discussion. I didn't and still don't get that.

We all know that health care continues to be lacking and definitely needs to be addressed. But, it is completely unrealistic to discuss health care in the context of infrastructure. First and foremost, it will never get through reconciliation.

And, if a kitchen sink bill gets proposed in congress, it will do exactly the opposite of what she intends, because most conservative democrats will walk away, and it will create a political problem that fuels the rightwing.

She said herself that even Manchin would support a $4 trillion infrastructure bill, so why include other stuff that will undermine it? If the bill is for infrastructure, focus and do infrastructure.

In addition, the administration already stated that they will be making and additional proposal in a couple of weeks that specifically addresses health care and education. That bill may actually go even further towards meeting those other expectations.

So it sounds fair to at least allow the administration to get their proposals out, and then determine if they are inadequate.

But, the issue boils down to what's actually doable, and getting out ahead of the administration may actually be more problematic than helpful.

I give her a lot of credit for truly representing the needs of her people. Her explanation for why housing was underfunded was on point. But whatever we do, we need to do it as a party because we know we won't get ANY help to get it done.

@threadreaderapp unroll...