Former President Barack Obama told House Democrats it “doesn’t help to whine about the stuff you can’t change” and instead advised them to “take the wins you can get.” According to Punchbowl News, the conversation happened on a Zoom call during a messaging summit for House Democrats.
“Democrats have a tendency to complain about what we didn’t get done rather than talking about what we did get done,” Obama said, urging Members to focus on the positive.
Obama told the group that he had to keep this in mind as he was compromising on what would be included in his Affordable Care Act.
“If we can get some stuff done, some major domestic initiative, some progress on climate…there will come a point where you decide if you are getting nothing or getting that,” Obama said.
Congressional Democrats did this in 2021, as they split President’ Biden’s proposed physical and human infrastructure bills into two parts so the legislation could pass. President Biden has indicated he believes Democrats will narrow down his Build Back Better bill so that it will pass through Congress.
