ANOTHER ‘BETTER’ BATTLE LOOMS

Senate Dems’ knives out for $2T bill

The fight over President Biden’s Build Back Better social-spending bill has only just begun.

After months of wrangling, the $2 trillion budget-buster passed the House on Friday with a 220-213 vote.

But in the Senate, Democrats are bracing for a bruising battle over a bill that some members of the party have hailed as a 21stcentury New Deal that will spend billions of dollars on education, the environment, housing and health care.

“The House bill will most likely take a haircut in the Senate,” a Capitol Hill insider told The Post. “Negotiations are now laser-focused, with members discussing the things they want, the things they want to tweak and those things they just want out.”

Democrats are expecting to go it alone in the evenly divided 50-50 Senate, the insider said, as the GOP stands solidly opposed.

“Not a single Republican will vote for this bill,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House minority whip, told Fox News on Saturday.

Normally, bills need 60 votes to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule that ends debate on a measure.

With no support from the GOP, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) will have to rely on a process known as reconciliation, a special exception for budget-related legislation that permits passage with a simple Senate majority.

But the strict rules of the reconciliation process mean that the House’s version of Build Back Better will be coming in for major changes.

Reconciliation can be used only on budgetneutral bills — or those that will not increase the federal deficit over a 10-year period.

That’s why Build Back Better includes $80 billion for heavier enforcement by the IRS — and why the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that it would add $367 billion to the debt will force the Senate to do a major editing job.

Likely on the chopping block: the steep increase in the state and local taxes (SALT) cap, allowing wealthy taxpayers to deduct more from their federal returns — at an estimated cost of $285 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — along with paid family leave and universal preschool.

Moreover, the Senate’s Byrd rule means no “extraneous matter” is permitted in a bill that passes under reconciliation rules — only spending and revenue items are allowed.

That could remove some of the House’s most cherished provisions — like an immigration overhaul that would grant a 10-year parole to millions of illegal immigrants.

The Senate parliamentarian will ultimately decide which parts of the House’s bill can remain.

The debate will take weeks, with all of Congress off on a weeklong Thanksgiving break.

“Christmas might be the 5-yard line,” the insider predicted, with a final vote due by the time the ball drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

“It’s the Waterford ball or bust,” he said.