“Pelosi and Schumer have enormously difficult jobs – they really do – and it’s easy to denigrate, criticize, but they have no leeway to deal with,” Sanders said in an interview. “It’s not a job that I envy, a job that I could do for three minutes.”
Mr. Sanders has decided that the best way to advance his vision is to reach Republican voters, including face-to-face meetings in Republican counties in Indiana and Iowa. After enjoying his previous campaign interactions with voters, he was back in his element, far from the staid corridors of Capitol Hill.
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Aug. 24, 2021, 4:52 p.m. ET
“This is way outside of what normal household committees do, but then again, I feel very lucky to be in this position right now,” said Sanders, drinking iced tea on the terrace of Midtown Station, a restaurant near the fire station. after his question-and-answer session. “Indeed, if I weren’t so busy with the reconciliation package and dealing with congressmen, etc., etc.”
“We should do that,” he added. “We have to explain to the Americans what we’re doing for them here, and it can’t just be a process within the Belt.”
But whether in Washington or Iowa, Sanders has little patience to discuss the procedural details of the reconciliation package and instead focuses on the political ideas, which he writes in large italics. In an opening speech in a nearby park to a crowd of hundreds spreading on lounge chairs and picnic blankets, Mr. Sanders warned shortly that Senate rules “could get you to sleep in about three seconds.”
“It’s complicated, it’s boring, and so on,” he told them.
But these numbing details will be crucial. The need for Democrats to be virtually unanimous in support will drive the process forward and determine which policies can be included and which must be thrown overboard. And the Senate MP as arbitrator of the Chamber’s rules may advise dropping certain provisions as they do not directly affect taxes and expenses, a requirement for items included in voting bills.
Mr. Sanders glossed over these details and assured the crowd – largely a gathering of his acolytes from across the state – that his vision would become law despite opposition from the likes of Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema.
