“Look at the millennials in my neighborhood, who can’t afford a house, who can’t afford to pay off their student loans, who can’t even dream of living their parents’ lives,” Representative John B. Larson of Connecticut, a veteran Democrat, said. “You can’t tell people that they are doing better than them. “

And as society has changed, so has the Democratic Party. Representative Jamaal Bowman’s New York neighborhood stretches from the affluent suburb of Scarsdale to the harshest streets of Mount Vernon, and for 32 years was represented by a white establishment Democrat, Eliot L. Engel.

Mr Bowman, a progressive black man who defeated Mr Engel in a Democratic primary last year, said his constituents recognize the wealth inequality and income stagnation within them – in part because he wouldn’t let them deny it.

“If they try to look away, they really can’t,” Mr. Bowman said. “And they know whether it’s through government or private industry, or both, we need to do more to bridge the inequality gap.”

Republicans always bet voters will focus on the spectacle of a Democratic president struggling for months to unite his divided majority around his agenda. They argue that the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, rising inflation and unstable economic growth have only added to the feeling that the country is adrift, and say they are not on the point to allow Democrats to use the social safety net bill to distract from those concerns. .

“We have a supply chain crisis that continues to rage, exacerbating soaring prices and the scarcity of goods our citizens are experiencing,” Republican House Leader McCarthy said Thursday. “And ask yourself this: What has this chamber done, especially this week, to alleviate one of this pressure on our fellow citizens, the people we have been sent here to represent? The answer is absolutely nothing.

Passage of the bill, Republicans say, will only fuel inflation, force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and create “stagflation,” the combination of stagnant economic growth and stagnation. a price hike that doomed Jimmy Carter’s presidency.