Mean Girls: Squad Rips Sinema For Opposition To $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Package

Two members of the progressive House group known as the squad criticized Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Wednesday for voicing her opposition to a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

“Time for the White House to play hardball. We didn’t elect Sinema as President and we won’t let her obstruction put a Republican in the Oval Office in 2024,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan tweeted. “It’s the reconciliation bill or GOP controlling every level of government again, period.”

“Good luck tanking your own party’s investment on childcare, climate action, and infrastructure while presuming you’ll survive a 3 vote House margin – especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations and calling that a ‘bipartisan accomplishment,’” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in another tweet.

Sinema told the Arizona Republic that while she supported beginning the process for the reconciliation bill, she believed its current price was too high. “In the coming months, I will work in good faith to develop this legislation with my colleagues and the administration to strengthen Arizona’s economy and help Arizona’s everyday families get ahead,” Sinema said in a written statement to the Arizona Republic.

The announcement came as a bipartisan group of senators, of which Sinema is a lead negotiator, said they had come to an agreement on the bipartisan infrastructure deal and that it could receive a vote on cloture as early as Wednesday night.

“Sinema seems not to care that her own state is flooding, the west is burning, and infrastructure around the country is crumbling,” Tlaib said in a subsequent tweet Wednesday. “Sinema is more interested in gaining GOP friends and blocking much needed resources, than fighting for her residents’ future.”

Fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is also a Democrat, said he would vote to advance the reconciliation bill, but also had concerns around the cost, while moderate Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said his focus at the moment was the bipartisan bill.

“This is the first one we have to get done. This is the most important thing to do. And I’ve told them I’m very open to the whole thing,” Manchin said Wednesday.