Biden, top Dems strategize; Pelosi says deal ‘very possible’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Congress’ top two Democrats labored to wrap up their giant domestic legislation Friday as the party continued scaling back the measure and determining ways to pay for it ahead of new deadlines.
Biden had breakfast at the White House with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined in a call from New York. The leaders have been working with party moderates and progressives to shrink the once-$3.5 trillion, 10-year package of social services and climate change strategies to around $2 trillion, pushing for an agreement.
Pelosi said a deal was “very possible.”
She told reporters back at the Capitol that more than 90% of the package was agreed to — the climate change components of the bill “are resolved,” but outstanding questions remain on health care provisions.
Pelosi said she hoped the House could start voting as soon as next week, but no schedule was set.
“Much of what we need to do has been written. Just a few decisions now,” Pelosi said.
Democrats have set an informal goal of agreeing to an outline of the plan by the end of this week. A broad compromise between the party’s progressives and moderates on the measure’s price tag, revenue sources and basic components could lay the groundwork for final agreements on detailed legislation, leaders hope.
Democrats want to reach an accord on the legislation before Biden departs for a trip to Europe late next week.
At the White House, the president has “rolled up his sleeves and is deep in the details of spreadsheets and numbers,” press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Psaki compared the work to starting Social Security and other major federal programs decades ago, and then building on them in following years.
“Progress here is a historic package that will put in place systems and programs that have never existed in our society before,” she said, noting the effort to expand child care and provide free pre-kindergarten for all youngsters.
Negotiations proceed as Biden more forcefully appeals to the American public, including in a televised town hall Thursday, for what he says are the middle-class values at the heart of his proposal.
In a Senate that is evenly divided between the Democrats and firmly opposed Republicans, Biden can’t afford to lose a single vote. He is navigating his own party’s factions — progressives, who want major investments in social services, and centrists, who prefer to see the overall price tag go down.
“When you’re president of the United States, you have 50 Democrats — every one is a president. Every single one. So you gotta work things out,” he said during a CNN town hall.
Still, he expressed optimism about the process. “It’s all about compromise. Compromise has become a dirty word, but bipartisanship and compromise still has to be possible,” he said.
Biden said the discussions are “down to four or five issues.”
On one issue — the taxes to pay for the package — the White House idea seemed to be making headway with a new strategy of abandoning plans for reversing Trumpera tax cuts in favor of an approach that would involve taxing the investment incomes of billionaires to help finance the deal.
Biden has faced resistance from key holdouts, in particular Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who has not been on board with her party’s plan to undo President Donald Trump’s tax breaks for big corporations or individuals earning more than $400,000 a year.