Biden deal in ‘pretty good shape,’ but no breakthrough yet
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Wednesday that Democrats are in “pretty good shape” on President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic plan, but hopes for a breakthrough quickly faded when a pivotal Democratic senator panned a new billionaires’ tax to help pay for the $1.75 trillion package.
Biden and Democrats are racing to wrap up talks before the president departs this week for overseas global summits. Besides pressing for important party priorities, he’s hoping to show foreign leaders the U.S. is getting things done under his still-new administration.
A signature package of proposals in the balance, the president could yet visit Capitol Hill before traveling abroad Thursday. The administration is assessing the situation “hour by hour,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
“We are on track now to move forward once we get an agreement,” Psaki said.
But Biden’s big proposal of social services and climate change programs ran into stubborn new setbacks, chief among them how to pay for it all.
just-proposed tax on billionaires could be scrapped after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia objected, according to a senior party aide, who requested anonymity to discuss the private talks.
The billionaires’ tax proposal had been designed to win over another Democratic holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, but Manchin panned it as unfairly targeting the wealthy, leaving Democrats at odds.
“People in the stratosphere, rather than trying to penalize, we ought to be pleased that this country is able to produce the wealth,” Manchin told reporters.
Manchin said he prefers a minimum 15 percent flat “patriotic tax” to ensure the wealthiest Americans don’t skip out on paying any taxes.
The quickening pace of negotiations came as Biden pressed to have a deal in hand ahead of the global summits. There’s also a Sunday deadline to approve a smaller, bipartisan roads-and-bridges infrastructure bill or risk allowing funds for routine transportation programs to expire.