Biden Backs Broad-Range Economic Plan With No 10-Year Guarantees
Biden Says He Wants ‘Whole Range’ of Programs in Spending Bill
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said he’d like to see his economic plan address a “whole range of issues,” even if funding for individual provisions must be pared back or timed to expire to keep the legislation’s cost down.
“The question is how much of what is important can we get in the legislation,” Biden told reporters in Connecticut, after earlier conceding the bill would cost less than the $3.5 trillion over a decade that House progressives want.
“I’m of the view that it’s important to establish the principles on a whole range of issues without guaranteeing we get the whole 10 years,” he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to House Democrats on Monday that the consensus among them “is to do fewer things well, so that we can still have a transformative impact on families in the workplace and responsibly address the climate crisis.”
Pelosi and her leadership team scheduled a closed-door caucus meeting of House Democrats for Wednesday to discuss the work on Biden’s plan, according to an email sent to members on Saturday.
The White House and Democratic congressional leaders are discussing how to scale back the social-spending measure to win the votes of two holdout Senate Democrats, Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.
Biden, speaking at the White House Friday evening, was asked what his message would be to Manchin and Sinema. “I’m about to deliver it,” he said. He declined to specify if that meant he’d speak to them later Friday.
Asked if there was a deadline for negotiations, he replied: “No.”
“I’m working hard to try to get it moving as quickly as I can,” he added.
Manchin has said he wants a top line of no more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years for the legislation, though Biden has said he thinks a compromise might be found around $2 trillion.
Sanders and Manchin
Manchin sparred verbally on Friday with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who used an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail to call for passage of the full $3.5 billion package and singled out Manchin as an obstacle.
Manchin called Sanders “an out-of-stater” who’s trying to tell West Virginians what is best for them. He reiterated his stance that Congress should “proceed with caution” on additional spending and he wouldn’t vote for “a reckless expansion of government programs.”
“No op-ed from a self-declared Independent socialist is going to change that,” Manchin said in an emailed statement late Friday.
House progressives have vowed to block the Senate-passed, bipartisan $550 billion infrastructure bill until Manchin and Sinema commit to support a version of the larger measure, which would carry many liberal priorities into law.
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