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This is a new era of American Innovation. Find out more at g.co slash American Innovation. Good morning. I'm Jake Sherman and

welcome to the Daily Punch Brought to you by Punch Bowl News. It's Monday, August 23, 2021.

Let's get into the mix. Here are your Washington headlines for the day. Number one, Democrats two dilemmas, Afghanistan and the

$3.5 trillion budget. And number two, the National Republican Senatorial Committee planned some

posh fall retreats. Let's get into the mix. There is a real stare-down this

morning in House Democratic circles over the budget and infrastructure. Let's review this really

quickly. Democratic moderates led by Josh Gottheimer are saying they will not vote for a budget

resolution until House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi

puts an infrastructure bill on the floor for a vote. Now, Nancy Pelosi says the opposite. She says

she won't put an infrastructure bill on the floor until the budget is passed. Now, the budget is the

key to Joe Biden's agenda, the key to the Democratic agenda, the key to most

everything that Joe Biden wants to do. The budget unlocks the $3.5 trillion spending package

that Joe Biden wants to do on a 51 vote threshold in the Senate. So it's key to Joe Biden's

agenda. But Josh Gottheimer and the Democratic moderates, which include Ed Case of Hawaii,

Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Carolyn Bordeaux of Georgia, really does, they really have gotten

themselves in a tough position because anything short of getting a vote on the infrastructure

bill would hold up the budget. And progressives say they won't vote on the infrastructure bill would hold up the the budget and progressives say they

won't vote for the infrastructure bill until the budget is passed so it's really a stare down and

we really don't see how Democrats get out of this position here and and listen, it's Monday morning by Tuesday morning.

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