Biden aims to keep all new programs, even if shortened
Biden’s comments Friday, reassuring progressives on what he hopes will be a landmark piece of his legacy, marked his clearest indication yet on how he hopes negotiations over the bill will play out. Appearing to side with a strategy preferred by progressive lawmakers, it marked at least a subtle break with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who has suggested that most Democrats prefer to focus on establishing a few enduring programs.
He also said there is no deadline for a deal.
“I’m of the view that it’s important to establish the principle on a whole range of issues without guaranteeing to get the whole 10 years,” Biden said. “It matters to establish it.”
“So what happens is, you pass the principle and you build on it,” he added. “You look back, and either it works or it doesn’t work.”
Pelosi, however, in a Monday note to fellow Democratic lawmakers, said, “Overwhelmingly, the guidance I am receiving from members is to do fewer things well.”
Biden said Friday that although he expects the package to shrink, “we’re going to come back and get the rest” after it’s passed.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are working to reduce the sweeping package to about $2 trillion in spending, which would be paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy. The proposal includes free child care and community college; dental, vision and hearing aid benefits for seniors; and a number of significant provisions meant to combat climate change. They’re all key items for progressives, but moderates have balked at the original $3.5-trillion price tag.
One almost certain reduction would be in the proposal for free community college.
“I doubt whether we will get the entire funding for community colleges, but I’m not going to give up on community colleges as long as I’m president,” Biden said. His wife, Jill, is a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College.
With slim margins in the House and the Senate, Democrats have no votes to spare on the bill. The whittling process has sparked concern from some progressives.
The party’s internal debate was apparent as Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote an opinion column for a West Virginia newspaper calling out that state’s Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III for blocking the domestic package so far.
Sanders named Manchin as one of only two Democratic senators who “remain in opposition” to the measure, thwarting the unanimous support the party needs in the 50-50 Senate to approve the legislation.
“This is a pivotal moment in modern American history. We now have a historic opportunity to support the working families of West Virginia, Vermont and the entire country and create policy which works for all, not just the few,” Sanders wrote in a piece scheduled to appear in Sunday’s Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Manchin shot back in a statement late Friday, saying: “It isn’t the first time an out-of-stater has tried to tell West Virginians what is best for them.”
Manchin has proposed holding the measure’s overall 10-year cost to $1.5 trillion and has said he wants to limit some healthcare initiatives to benefit only lower-earning people.
Sanders and Manchin stand, respectively, as among the Democrats’ most progressive and conservative senators.
Biden has openly acknowledged that the price tag of his package will have to come down. On Friday, he visited a child development center in Hartford to speak about a need for investments in child care and other social safety net programs, arguing they’re imperative to keep America competitive in the global economy.
At the center, Biden promoted his proposal to make such care free for lower-income families, and ensure that families making up to 150% of their state’s median income pay less than 7% of their salaries on child care. It’s part of a massive expansion of the social safety net that Biden has championed and is aiming to pass with just Democratic votes in Congress.
“Too many folks in Washington still don’t realize it isn’t enough just to invest in our physical infrastructure. We also have to invest in our people,” he said.
The president’s sales pitch comes as his Democratic allies have raised concerns that the American public does not understand the benefits of his package. There is renewed urgency among Democrats to push it through before an end-of-month deadline on transportation funding, Biden’s upcoming foreign trip, and a closer-than-expected race to be Virginia’s governor.
The fate of the legislation, branded “Build Back Better” by Biden, is also holding up a more than $1-trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate this summer. House progressives are balking at supporting that roads-and-bridges bill until agreement is reached on a path forward for the social safety net package.
