Ocasio-Cortez argues that dismantling the Senate filibuster is crucial to enacting progressive policies — and showing who's willing to fight for them.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is arguing that the Senate's 60-vote filibuster rule plays a central role in masking the party's internal divisions over certain progressive priorities — and that dismantling the rule should be a "precursor" to any future fight for universal health care.
In an appearance this week on David Sirota's progressive podcast "Lever Time," Ocasio-Cortez argued that a significant number of Democrats have rhetorically embraced Medicare for All — the preferred progressive plan to enact single-payer healthcare — but don't sincerely support it because they know the prospects of enacting it into law are slim, even under full Democratic control of the government.
"I do believe that when push comes to shove, the number of people that are willing to really fight for Medicare for All is probably less than the number of co-sponsors on that bill," she said. "Frankly, even if we had a floor vote on it, because of the lack of prospects in the Senate, I also think there would be a lot of disingenuous votes for it, when people know that it's going to a graveyard."
The most recent House version of the bill, introduced in 2021, garnered 123 co-sponsorships — more than half of the House Democratic Caucus at the time.
But with the Senate's "filibuster" rule, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation, those who support the bill have been insulated from having to strongly advocate for Medicare for All — along with other major progressive priorities.
"I actually do think that providing and mounting a really strong fight to dismantle the filibuster in the Senate is the only it has to be a precursor to any fight for universal health care and for guaranteed health care," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We... need to be real about the actual tactical reality of how we make it happen."
The filibuster stymied Democrats during the first two years of the Biden administration when they held slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
Democrats attempted to remove the rule in January 2022 in order to pass voting rights legislation, but failed due to the opposition of Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Even as House Democrats were able to pass major pieces of legislation with a simple majority, including voting rights legislation and a bill to codify abortion rights nationwide, Senate Democrats were unable to get those bills across the finish line because of the filibuster.
While Senate Democrats were ultimately able to pass bills like the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act through a special process known as budget reconciliation — which only required 50 votes — other bills like the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Respect for Marriage Act required the support of at least 10 Republicans.
Some activists have argued that progressives in Congress should refuse to vote for party leadership unless they commit to holding a vote on Medicare for All — a campaign known as "Force the Vote."
But progressives have yet to do so, and Ocasio-Cortez expressed frustration during the podcast with some voices on the left who she said were incentivized to stoke conflict for personal gain, ignoring political realities.
"I do believe that there are folks and leaders in this space that know better, and they fan flames that they know are disingenuous for personal gain," she said. "There's a lot of incentive in that when there is kind of an economy that has developed that is based on clicks, views, and attention."
