Biden open to cutting length of programs in spending bill
President expects proposed $3.5T package to shrink
President Joe Biden said Friday he would prefer to cut the duration of programs in his big social services and climate change package rather than eliminate some entirely, as Democrats struggle to win support from moderates by trimming what had been a $3.5 trillion proposal.
Biden’s comments, reassuring progressives on what he hopes will be a landmark piece of his legacy, marked his clearest comments 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, 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 told reporters before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from a trip to Connecticut. “It matters to establish it.”
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.
“We’re not going to get $3.5 trillion. We’ll get less than that, but we’re gonna get it. And we’re going to come back and get the rest,” Biden said during remarks at a child care center in Connecticut.
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 everything from free child care and community college to 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.
With slim margins in the House and the Senate, Democrats have no votes to spare on the bill.
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 by name 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.
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 health care initiatives to benefit only lower-earning people.
Biden has openly acknowledged 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.
At the center, Biden promoted his proposal to make such care free for lower-income families, and ensure that families making up to 150 percent of their state’s median income pay less than 7 percent of their salaries on child care.
“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.