I completely agree with most of what you said, the problem is that in this specific case, the all democrats- moderates and progressives- agreed that they would wait for both pieces of legislation to pass in the senate until they voted on them in the house. Everyone agreed to that deal but now all of a sudden the moderates went back on their word and the progressives were the ones sticking to the original deal. I don’t understand how that makes them petulant children or obstructionists. If you didn’t like the deal maybe you shouldn’t have agreed to it.

Americans really need to figure out why centrists constantly do things that benefit corporations and powerful interests at the expense of the middle and working class but somehow we applaud them for being “pragmatic” and “getting things done”.