Jayapal: ‘Not True’ to Say Democrats in Disarray, ‘Terrible Disagreement’

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) pushed back against the belief that the Democrats are in disarray as different wings of the party remain at odds over a reconciliation bill.

According to Jayapal, the notion that Democrats are in disarray or in “terrible disagreement” is “not true.” She argued that 98% of Democrats agree with President Joe Biden’s agenda, and they are just waiting on two members of Congress to come to an agreement regarding the package.

“We keep talking about some top-line number,” Jayapal outlined. “The top-line number is kind of incidental in my view. And, of course, I don’t mean that naively. There’s a number. It’s associated, but it depends on what programs you put in. And for us, we’ve been very clear that 98% of all Democrats agree. So, this idea that somehow Democrats are in disarray and there’s terrible disagreement, it’s not true. We’re waiting for two people to tell us what they agree on, first of all, because they don’t agree with each other, and then we’d like them to tell us what they want us to consider that is different from the act that is on the table that the president agrees with, that 98% of Democrats agree with, that 70% of the American people agree with if they know what’s in it. So, that’s how I think about this, and I think it’s just important to recognize that there is a very specific agenda here that we’re talking about, and we need people to understand it’s 12 weeks of paid leave so that we can finally get the United States back up to the standards that other peer countries are at.”

She continued, “It’s universal childcare, so no one has to pay more than 7% of their income. It’s housing for everybody across the country to ease the numbers of unhoused that are here in the richest country in the world. It is making sure that seniors have access to dental, vision, and hearing benefits at the very time when they need it the most. It’s real action on climate change. And by that, I mean reducing carbon emissions so that the president can go to COP26 in a couple of weeks and say we are leaders on climate. And, of course, it’s lifting up immigrants. That’s the agenda. We want people to know that’s what we’re fighting for. We’re fighting for them to have transformation in their lives.”

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