Its become a veritable article of faith that the Dem’s hair-thin majorities in the House and Senate mean we have to cater to the (often-insanely-counterproductive) whims of our problematic “moderates”. I will agree a fair amount of strategic haggling is required to get legislation finished, but the perennial issue of corralling our problem children to actually vote “Yes” on objectively good legislation seems to consume much of our discussions and thinking.
I believe, however, there is a mechanism that hasn’t been used as effectively as it might: Roll Call Votes.
Getting each member of the House and/or Senate to actually stand there and declare their support or opposition to the bill under consideration, both on the record and perhaps even before the cameras, strikes as a source of powerful psychological pressure, brought to bear upon an individual who may well have spent the majority of their career finding excuses not to be known for how they voted or why, and thus they potentially lack the emotional wherewithal to own that vote.
Perhaps I’m doing our Congresscritters and Senators, particularly on the GOP side, a serious injustice. But then again, maybe I’m not.
Here’s what I’d suggest Senator Schumer does the day the Reconciliation Package is brought to a vote:
Step 1: introduce the bill.
Step 2: announce that voting will be done by Roll Call.
Step 3: call each of the 50 Republican Senators — and only the GOP Senators — by name to vote. Yes, they will all vote “No”, and they will all be on record for that vote.
Step 4: call each of the remaining Senators by name to vote, BUT LEAVE MANCHIN AND SINEMA FOR LAST!
Step 3 and 4 must be done in this sequence and in that way, as it will (a) make clear we have no friends or moderates to work with in the GOP Senate, and (b) put what will surely be crushing pressure on Manchin and Sinema to not become the deciding votes that sink the package (especially if/when the GOP show themselves entirely united against it).
Now, if the package gets one or two “yes” votes from the GOP, fine. That will allow Manchin and Sinema to carry on with their charade until the mid-terms. Even it gets just one vote from the GOP, the pressure on Manchin and Sinema will remain to not be the ones to tank it.
Will this work? Who knows! I’m just suggesting a relatively cost-free strategy that could, potentially, save President Biden’s signature achievement and quite possibly the country as a whole.
Here’s hoping someone has already thought of it and is suggesting it to the Dem leadership in Congress.