Biden can’t budge fellow Dems so far with overhaul at stake
WASHINGTON » His government overhaul plans at stake, President Joe Biden appeared unable Wednesday night to strike swift agreement with two wavering Democratic senators trying to trim back his potentially historic $3.5 trillion measure that will collapse without their support.
With Republicans solidly opposed and no Democratic votes to spare, Biden canceled a trip to Chicago that was to focus on COVID-19 vaccinations so he could dig in for a full day of intense negotiations ahead of crucial votes. Aides made their way to Capitol Hill for talks, and late in the day supportive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Biden at the White House.
The risks were clear, but so was the potential reward as Biden and his party reach for a giant legislative accomplishment — promising a vast rewrite of the nation’s balance sheet with an ever-slim majority in Congress. His idea is to essentially raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy and use that money to expand government health care, education and other programs — an impact that would be felt in countless American lives.
“We take it one step at a time,” Pelosi, told reporters.
Attention is focused on Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, centrist Democrats. They share a concern that the overall size of Biden’s plan is too big, but have infuriated colleagues by not making any counter-proposals public.
In a possibly ominous sign, Manchin sent out a fiery
statement late Wednesday, decrying the broad spending as “fiscal insanity” and warning it would not get his vote without adjustments. “I cannot — and will not — support trillions in spending or an all-ornothing approach,” he said.
Together, the two senators hold the keys to unlocking the stalemate over Biden’s sweeping vision, the heart of his campaign pledges. While neither has said no to a deal, they have yet to signal yes — but they part ways on specifics, according to a person familiar with the private talks and granted anonymity to discuss them.
Manchin appears to have fewer questions about the revenue side of the equation — the higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy — than the spending plans and particular policies, especially those related to climate change that are important to his coal-centric state. He wants any expansion of aid programs to Americans to be based on
income needs, not simply for everyone.
Though Sinema is less publicly open in her views, she focuses her questions on the menu of tax options, including the increased corporate rate that some in the business community argue could make the U.S. less competitive overseas and the individual rate that others warn could snare small business owners.
With Democrats’ campaign promises on the line, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state said of Manchin: “He needs to either give us an offer or this whole thing is not going to happen.”
Trouble ahead, Pelosi suggested she might postpone Thursday’s vote on a related $1 trillion public works measure that Manchin, Sinema and other centrists want but that progressives are threatening to defeat unless there’s movement on Biden’s broader package.
Thursday’s vote has been seen as a pressure point on the senators and other centrist lawmakers to strike an agreement with Biden. But with Manchin and Sinema dug, in that seemed unlikely.
At the same time, Congress is starting to resolve a more immediate crisis that arose after Republicans refused to approve legislation to keep the government funded past Thursday’s fiscal yearend and raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a dangerous default on borrowing.
Democrats are separating the government funding and debt ceiling vote into two bills, stripping out the more-heated debate over the debt limit for another day, closer to a separate October deadline.
The Senate is poised to vote Thursday to provide government funding to avoid a federal shutdown, keeping operations going temporarily to Dec. 3. The House is expected to quickly follow.