Biden: ‘Everybody is frustrated’

WASHINGTON » President Joe Biden on Saturday acknowledged frustrations as Democrats strain to rescue a scaled-back version of his $3.5 trillion governmentoverhaul plan and salvage a related public works bill after frantic negotiations failed to produce a deal.

Everybody’s frustrated, it’s part of being in government, being frustrated,” Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for a weekend stay at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He pledged to ”work like hell” to get the two pillars of his domestic agenda passed into law, but refrained from laying out a new deadline.

The president had gone to Capitol Hill on Friday for a private meeting with House Democrats that was partly a morale booster for the disjointed caucus of lawmakers.

According to lawmakers in the room, he discussed a $1.9 trillion to $2 trillionplus price tag for the larger package that would expand the country’s social safety net.