Progressives are infuriated that President Joe Biden did not use his bully pulpit to try and pass a voting rights bill expected to die in the Senate on Tuesday, Politico reported.
Republicans easily will filibuster the “For the People Act,” killing the sweeping elections proposal, Politicosaid.
Political activist Ezra Levin, co-founder of the progressive nonprofit group Indivisible, took to Twitter on Monday afternoon to blast Biden for not doing more to try to pass the voting rights legislation.
“I have reached my WTF moment with Biden on this,” tweeted Levin, who later in the thread said:
“This is what legislatively successful presidents do! [Barack] Obama did a live debate with House GOP on the ACA. [Bill] Clinton gave 18 speeches on NAFTA and deputized [Al] Gore to debate Ross Perot on it. [Donald] Trump and GW Bush were all tax cuts all the time. Where is Biden on saving our democracy??”
More than 480 state legislators from all 50 states signed a letter Monday calling for the bill’s passage, Politico said. Progressives in Congress are warning that Democrats will suffer as a result of not passing the legislation.
“We are going to lose the opportunity to basically enact legislation for the people for a decade, or decades, to come,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told thousands of activists on a Monday night Zoom call, according to Politico.
“It’s very, very, very bleak. It’s policy and political Armageddon.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., likely will offer their respective side’s rhetoric about the bill on the floor Tuesday.
Schumer will condemn Republicans for refusing to allow a simple debate, and McConnell will call the bill a Democrat “power grab,” according to Politico. Of course, each leader has promoted the other’s stance with other issues.