By Todd Lassa
Before coronavirus relief programs by the Trump and Biden administrations made “trillions of dollars” a household term, the $2 trillion “final offer” ceiling that moderate Democrats have placed on the budget reconciliation bill that was due for a self-imposed deadline of the end of October almost seems modest. Happy Halloween.
When the Biden White House first introduced its $3.5-trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation plan, progressives led by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-VT and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, wanted a bigger program, more on the order of $6 trillion. As a 10-year budget program, the progressives’ demands would still be less costly than the federal government’s annual defense budget.
But Republicans and Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, have the leverage, and object to its potential as a federal debt-buster, and as a recipe for runaway inflation at a time when supply shortages from the pandemic are already pushing skyrocketing prices.
The seemingly intractable differences between the two major Democratic Party factions has held up a final vote to send the $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill -- $550 billion of it new spending – to President Biden’s desk for signature for two months. Finally, facing falling poll ratings for Biden as congressional Democrats slide toward a very likely loss of power in both chambers from the November 2022 mid-terms, the progressives and moderates appear close to a deal. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, intends to bring both the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation budget framework to the floor the week of October 25, “if they’re ready,” Politico reports.
Biden was loose-lipped about the deal-making in his Town Hall on CNN Thursday night. Key compromises …
•Sinema “will not raise a single penny in taxes on the corporate side, and/or wealthy people, period,” Biden said, though the Arizona senator would approve some proposals targeting those groups.
•Two years of free community college is off the table.
•Paid family leave would be funded for up to four weeks, not 12 as proposed in Build Back Better.
•Both Sinema and Manchin oppose extending Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing care.
•Two major pieces of the bill’s climate change remedies have been removed in order to meet Manchin’s demands; the clean electricity performance program paying utility powerplants to switch to renewable fuels, and a carbon tax, though it appears that programs to mitigate climate control will make up the largest portion of the budget reconciliation bill, at $500- to $555 billion.
If and when budget reconciliation and the infrastructure plan move on into November, the question is who, if anyone beside President Biden, is satisfied with the result. And speaking of Biden, will these packages do anything for Biden’s standing with the American public? We asked a couple of pundits to tell us what they think.