LEFT ‘TIES’ PREZ’S HANDS

Forced to pitch $4.7T twin bill

President Biden on Friday caved in to his party’s progressives and told warring House Democrats that his two signature spending bills were “tied together” — as the White House said he would hit the road next week to try once again to sell his $4.7 trillion plan to the American public.

Biden spent less than 30 minutes meeting with the deeply divided House Democratic caucus inside the US Capitol before emerging to angrily tell reporters it “doesn’t matter” when the contentious legislation passes.

“I’m tellin’ ya, we’re gonna get this done,” he claimed.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We’re gonna get it done.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that during the meeting, Biden acquiesced to her group’s demand that his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill remain stalled in the House until Senate Democrats strike a deal over his larger, social spending plan.

“He was very clear, the two are tied together,” Jayapal (inset) said.

Thursday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) delayed a planned vote on the infrastructure package — which earlier passed the Senate with bipartisan support — when it became clear that progressives would be able to kill it.

But Jayapal also acknowledged that “we’re gonna have to come down” from the $3.5 trillion price tag on the budget reconciliation bill that contains Biden’s slew of proposed new spending on various social programs.

“We need to get his reconciliation bill, and, you know, it’s going to be tough,” she said.

On Thursday, it was revealed that Sen.

Joe Manchin

(D-W.Va.) — who, along with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), is blocking Senate passage of the reconciliation bill — demanded that its price tag be slashed to $1.5 trillion, a top-line figure that he had made known to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) back in July.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a moderate, said that during Friday’s meeting, Biden “sort of threw out the $2 trillionish number a couple of times, and so that’s some certainty we haven’t heard before.”

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), another moderate, told The Post that he expected the figure would wind up closer to $2 trillion than $3.5 trillion.

Earlier, the White House revealed that Biden was hedging his bets on his foundering spending plans by preparing to barnstorm across the country next week.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would “make the case for his Build Back Better agenda” directly to the American people.

“These are his proposals. These are his bold ideas. This is his plan that he’s outlined,” Psaki said.

Psaki said the trip would involve “at least one day, maybe two days of travel” but added that details about what cities and states Biden would visit had yet to be finalized.

When asked whether the travel plan amounted to a “concession” that the legislation wouldn’t get passed over the weekend, Psaki didn’t deny it.

“It’s a conveying that the president is going to have to continue to go out there and make the case to the public about what is in these packages, no matter when it passes,” she said.

Psaki also didn’t deny reports that Biden had been privately telling progressives and moderate Democrats to “hold their ground” on their respective positions on the spending plans. “I can assure you there is no moment in time where any senior member of this White House was arguing for anyone to vote against a piece of the president’s agenda,” Psaki said.

“What is also true is that we have been communicating with such a broad range of members from across the caucus that often we know where different parts of the caucus stand.”

Psaki added: “And so we have been in many ways liaisons, along with leadership, to convey [that] this is where this group stands, this is where that group may stand and conveying [that] so that

I’m tellin’ ya, we’re gonna get this done. Doesn’t matter if it’s in six minutes, six days, or six weeks.

— President Biden

we can help reach a unifying point and get across the finish line.”

Biden’s visit to Capitol Hill capped several days of scrambling to try to salvage his agenda, including canceling a planned trip to Chicago so he could deal with the crisis.

His arrival at the Capitol was marked by shouts of “Hold the line!” from protesters gathered outside the complex, and he was greeted at the entrance by an anxious-looking Pelosi, who on Thursday night called a recess that technically extended the day’s legislative session into Friday.

That move was apparently intended to try to let her claim that a Friday vote on the infrastructure bill would have still taken place as planned.

Applause was heard in the hallway outside the room where Biden met with the Democratic caucus.

But when it emptied out afterward, the progressives appeared to be in a much better mood than the moderates.

Earlier in the day, Jayapal told reporters that she had spoken to Biden several times since the Thursday-night recess, saying he was “deeply engaged in trying to iron out these differences” dividing the Democrats.

But she also expressed frustration that it took so long for him to get directly involved.

“Would I have preferred that he, you know, engage sooner on the reconciliation bill? Sure,” she said.

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens/Bronx) also took an oblique shot at Biden, saying, “I think that the president has been playing a convening role, and he’s exploring the contours of the positive contribution he can make.”