Biden meets with Dems as $3.5T plan faces party split
WASHINGTON » Time growing shorter, President Joe Biden labored to thrash out stubborn final issues with fellow Democrats on his “build back better” agenda Wednesday, working to bridge intraparty divisions in Congress ahead of crucial voting deadlines.
Biden and Democratic House and Senate lawmakers met in hours of back-toback-to-back private White House sessions stretching into the evening, called at a pivotal juncture for Biden’s $3.5 trillion package as lawmakers struggle to draft the ambitious effort. With Republicans solidly opposed, Democratic leaders are counting on the president to galvanize consensus between progressives and centrists in their party.
Biden first conferred with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, while the White House’s communications team headed to Capitol Hill to huddle with other House Democrats. Biden listened intently, lawmakers said, but also indicated he wanted progress soon, even by next week.
“We’re in good shape,” Pelosi told reporters back at the Capitol after the hourplus meeting.
The White House’s intense focus on Biden’s expansive domestic proposal showcases how much is at stake politically for the president and his party in Congress. The administration has suffered setbacks elsewhere, notably with the Afghanistan withdrawal and prolonged COVID-19 crisis, and Democrats are running short of time, anxious to make good on campaign promises.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate are at a standstill over a separate package to keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 fiscal yearend and to suspend the federal debt limit to avert a shutdown and a devastating U.S. default on payments. Senate Republicans are refusing the Housepassed bill, sparking a fiscal standoff.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said at a press conference Tuesday that failing to extend the debt limit is “just not something we can contemplate or we should contemplate.”
As for Biden’s build-back plans, the House faces a deadline Monday to vote on the first part of Biden’s plan — a nearly $1 trillion public works measure that was already approved by the Senate but has become tangled in disputes over the broader package.
Centrist Democrats support the slimmer bill but have raised concerns about the price tag of Biden’s broader vision — which entails revamping federal taxes and spending to make what the president views as overdue investments in health care, family services and efforts to fight climate change.
The $3.5 trillion package would impose tax hikes on corporations and wealthy Americans earning beyond $400,000 a year and plow that money back into federal programs for young and old, along with investments to tackle climate change.