Biden meets Dems to firm up support for spending
WASHINGTON >> President Joe Biden stepped up his bid to push his multitrillion-dollar domestic plans through Congress on Wednesday, lunching with Senate Democrats a day after party leaders announced a compromise for pouring federal resources into climate change, health care and family service programs.
“It is great to be home,” Biden told reporters as he left the building where he spent 36 years as a Delaware senator. “It is great to be with my colleagues, and I think we are going to get a lot done.”
The closed-door midday session, which lasted just under an hour, was Biden’s first working meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol since becoming president. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said the president urged them to consider whether their plan would help people in his blue-collar hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“His point was that we need to be thinking about folks who have given up on democracy,” Murphy said.
Biden received three standing ovations from his fellow Democrats, said Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
The meeting was the start of Biden’s efforts to firm up support for forthcoming legislation embodying his priorities among Democrats, whose skinny congressional majorities leave him with virtually no votes to lose.
Late Tuesday, top Democrats announced an agreement among themselves on plans to spend a mammoth $3.5 trillion over the coming decade on a wide range of domestic programs, an expansion Biden has proposed financing with tax boosts on the rich and big corporations. Included in the proposal would be a top priority for progressives — an expansion of Medicare, the health insurance program for older Americans, to include vision, dental and hearing coverage. According to a senior Democratic aide, the party will also propose extensions of tax credits for children, child care and some low-income people; money for environmentally friendly energy technologies and a federal standard aimed at encouraging a shift to clean energy. The plan would also fund prekindergarten for toddlers and paid family leave and a pathway to citizenship for many immigrants, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The initial plans fall short of even bolder progressive goals, like extending overall Medicare coverage to people as young as 60. Biden and party leaders face a tricky task of winning over moderates wary about tax boosts and further ballooning budget deficits, and progressives demanding even more spending.