Racing the clock, Democrats grasp for deal
Manchin objects to tax on billionaires’ capital gains
Democrats struggled Wednesday to cobble together an expansive social policy, climate change and tax increase plan, reaching for an elusive compromise on President Joe Biden’s agenda even as centrist holdouts in the Senate refused to embrace key components.
House Democrats held out hope of a breakthrough on the domestic policy measure that could also put a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on track for a vote as soon as Thursday. But as they ran short on time, party members were haggling over which programs should be included and how to pay for the plan.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia objected to a leading proposal to finance the measure by levying huge taxes on the unrealized capital gains of billionaires, an idea that has also raised concerns with other Democrats who question its feasibility. His opposition prompted negotiators to concede privately late Wednesday that a plan to establish a federal paid family and medical leave program would most likely be jettisoned, infuriating proponents who said they would fight to salvage the benefit.
And leading progressives demanded to see the legislative text of the bill before they would support a vote on the infrastructure measure, which has been stalled for months as Democrats have searched — so far in vain — for a compromise on their broader social policy plan.
“We’ve got a struggle on our hands,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., who leads the Senate Budget Committee, after meeting with Biden at the White House.
The effort unfolded as Biden was set to leave Thursday morning for a trip to Europe and on to Scotland for a climate summit Sunday, where he had hoped to point to a deal on his marquee legislation as evidence of the United States’ commitment to tackling climate change. Democrats were also eager to see action on the infrastructure measure
by next week, to bolster Terry Mcauliffe in Virginia’s tight governor’s race Tuesday.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California privately instructed top committee leaders to wrap up work on whatever could be agreed upon in the social policy measure and have legislative language ready for a meeting of the House Rules Committee on Thursday. Democratic leaders also scheduled a morning caucus meeting, as they sought to rally their frustrated and weary rank-and-file members behind the plan.
“An agreement is within arm’s length,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said as he continued to prod his members toward what he called the “legislative sweet spot” that has been elusive over weeks of feverish negotiations.
Because of united Republican opposition, Democrats are pushing the social policy plan through Congress using a special budget process known as reconciliation, which shields tax and spending legislation from a filibuster. But Democrats were having a hard time cobbling together a bare majority to pass the bill given their slim margins of control, which will require the backing of all 50 of their caucus members in the Senate and all but a few in the House.
Much of the attention focused on Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, another centrist who has objected to key elements of the bill. The pair huddled for more
than an hour Wednesday on Capitol Hill with senior White House aides and later could be seen on the Senate floor being buttonholed by a succession of colleagues lobbying them on various aspects of the package.
Lawmakers were petitioning Manchin in particular over his concerns with the leave program and the billionaires tax, which top Senate Democrats unveiled Wednesday.
“I don’t like the connotation that we’re targeting different people,” Manchin said of the proposed tax.
Rep. Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the top tax-writer in the House, warned reporters that there was “a lot of angst” over the proposal.
Manchin’s objections to the leave program could be a final blow for the plan, which had already been whittled down to four weeks from a dozen as Democrats trimmed the package.
Proponents vowed to keep pressing Manchin to accept some version of the program.
“We are not going to let one man tell millions of women in this country that they can’t have paid leave,” declared Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of Democratic leadership.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, the provision’s biggest champion in the Senate, said Manchin had assured her that he was keeping an open mind.
But Manchin’s concerns could prove insurmountable.
“I’m looking at everything,” Manchin said Wednesday evening. “But to put this into a reconciliation bill — it’s a major policy — is not the place to do it.”
The grueling negotiations against a calendar crunch mirrored the situation Democrats faced just a month ago as they tried and failed to make progress on both major bills that are carrying Biden’s domestic agenda. In late September, House leaders planned a vote on the infrastructure bill in line with a promise to moderates who had demanded it, but encountered a blockade by progressives, who refused to vote for that measure without a vote on the social policy plan.
A frenzied week of negotiation yielded some narrowing of differences, but no breakthrough, and Democrats agreed to set a new deadline of Oct. 31 for action.
That date is days away, and while Democrats are much closer to a compromise on the reconciliation package, it was clear Wednesday that they had not made sufficient progress to guarantee a vote on either measure.
Without passage of the infrastructure bill by Sunday, lawmakers will have to take up a stopgap bill to avoid the expiration of federal transportation programs that are set to lapse.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a leading progressive, said Wednesday that liberals in the House must see the legislative text of the social policy bill before they would vote for the public works measure, saying the two should move in tandem.
“I just don’t want to see us make the mistake of not having the legislative text,” she added. “Let’s do them both together. Let’s get it right. Let’s make sure there are no misunderstandings, because there have been too many misunderstandings.”
Democrats are coalescing around a measure that would extend monthly tax credit payments to families with children, create a federally guaranteed prekindergarten program and expand financial assistance for child care, home health care and worker training and housing.
But a number of provisions remain in flux.