Been waiting for this for a LONG while…
There NEVER was gonna be a $3.5 Trillion thing….
It was a starting point on negotiations that got out of hand and never should have….
Joe Biden IS an experienced legislator that happens to be President…
Like any salesman he started high…
Progressives, environmentalist ‘s and just about everybody who could got on the train….
Come On?
Biden, Pelosi ands Schumer KNEW this was about their own members….
Senate Minority leader McConnell just watched all this from the sidelines….
In about a year Midterm elections are happening….
Progressive’s in safe districts can say all they want….
They’re safe…
But those Democrats in swing districts , that are still around , after their numbers where cut in last November’s election KNOW that a historically BIG agenda , looking for BIG Tax increases is NOT to be….
Furthermore?
As this whole thing has played out in the media?
Americans, on the whole have gotten worried….
A mushy economy….
Coming off a pandemic….
BIG Government spending?
In the end?
President Biden IS gonna a good amount of what he ‘actually’ wants…
What he ‘actually’ wants is gonna more to the centre then the left of the political and economic spectrum …
It will be up to Democrats in the end to make their future…
Coming together inn the coming weeks to give their party leader, the President something that will help rebuild America, help the climate in some small way, provide some of social safety net and hopefully add a little voting rights help WILL BE a GREAT accomplishment in this trying times….
It IS up to them to finally row together….
Or go down with the ship…..
The early outline — shared at least with liberal lawmakers in the House — appeared to offer one potential avenue for the White House to broker a truce among Democrats’ warring left-leaning and moderate factions. Four people familiar with Biden’s comments confirmed the early details, requesting anonymity to describe the negotiations.
The potential new price range marks a significant reduction from the $3.5 trillion that some Democrats initially pursued under a budget agreement chiefly brokered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) earlier this year. But it is closer to the number that centrists, especially Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), had outlined in recent months as they sought steep cuts to Democrats’ spending plans. Manchin and Sanders met Tuesday for the second time in two days after the two sparred with each other over the weekend.
By the White House’s calculations, a package up to $1.9 trillion would allow them to accomplish some of their most significant priorities. That includes at least some expansion of Medicare to offer new benefits to seniors, the introduction of universal prekindergarten, and billions of dollars to address climate change, the sources said, cautioning that many of the details must still be worked out.
But slimming down the package also is sure to force Democrats to make some sacrifices. The path put forward by the White House could extend new, expanded child tax credit payments recently adopted by Congress, but perhaps for only one additional year, three of the sources said. It would offer new money to make housing more affordable, yet far less than Democrats once envisioned. And it would provide paid leave, except only four weeks of benefits, rather than the 12 weeks some had once proposed, according to one of the people in the room….
Progressives begin to compromise on the Biden package putting the President back in a familiar place….
In a further sign of progress, liberals said they’re ready to accept the elimination of certain benefits they’d championed in the initial $3.5 trillion package.
Khanna said the Clean Electricity Performance Program, which is designed to slash utility emissions, is out of the package. He also indicated that liberals are ready to accept means-testing on the child tax credit — though the $60,000 threshold floated by Manchin is a “non-starter,” he said. And Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) confirmed that Biden’s push for free community college would also be cut from the bill, though “there will be something for higher education.”
A Democratic source familiar with the progressives meeting confirmed that Biden was working off a piece of paper in the Oval Office meeting, rattling off specific dollar amounts for different parts of his Build Back Better package. For example, Biden said he was eyeing $350 billion for child care and universal pre-kindergarten, two of progressives’ top priorities….
More…
President Biden’s signature piece of domestic legislation is going to be much smaller than initially envisioned — and that’s vexing Democrats who worry that vital proposals will be whittled down or erased entirely.
The final bill is likely to come in at around half the original $3.5 trillion projected, according to multiple reports. The huge sum being cleaved off the top line means that some cherished progressive priorities are sure to fall by the wayside.
Progressives have run into the unyielding math of the Senate, where two more-conservative Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), hold enormous leverage….
More…