“I’m not going to start breaking a promise to the American people,” he added about direct payments.
Biden’s message to the caucus comes because the Democrats want to deliver the president’s first legislative priority, a far-reaching plan to grant the coronavirus that has so far had no Republican support in Congress. One of the major bottlenecks so far has been stimulus controls, with some centric Democrats – and many GOP lawmakers – calling for stricter revenue limits for direct payments.
“We can better target the number, that’s fine with me,” Biden said according to Huisgenoot.
But Biden also made it clear that he would not reduce the overall size of his package to meet GOP demands. After a lengthy meeting Monday with GOP senators who drew up a $ 618 billion plan, Biden told the Democrats that the offer “was not even on the map.”
Biden acknowledged that some lawmakers would be “hung up” on the price if the country is already facing a federal deficit and rising debt. Congress has provided nearly $ 4 billion in aid since the start of the pandemic.
The economy is expected to bounce back over the next few months, even without more stimulus assistance from Congress, Congress’s budget office said earlier this week. It is likely that employment levels will not fully recover until 2024.
“We have to do it. I’m not married to a specific, absolute number, ‘Biden said of the overall cost, pointing out that Democrats’ could compromise on various programs. ‘
These estimates are ‘important’, Biden said of the congressional budget’s scores determining the total price, ‘but what I’m thinking is, who’s helping us?’
The House will vote later Wednesday on a budget measure that marks the critical first step toward Biden’s package by Congress without GOP votes. Democrats are confident that they have the votes to pass the budget, although there is some anxiety among several moderate Blue Dog Democrats that the party should push for other smaller relief bills while in the more thorny process known as reconciliation, walk-in.
At one point during the call before Biden joined, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee interrupted the broader policy discussion to ask about redistribution. Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi herself intervened and sent the conversation back to the coronavirus bill, urging the caucus to ‘pass the budget bill in full unity’, according to several people.
Later Wednesday, Biden will speak privately with a group of Senate Democrats summoned to the White House as the Senate prepares to adopt its own budget this week.
Democrats are largely united behind Biden’s bidding proposal, which would provide much-needed funding for the distribution of vaccines, small businesses and schools – in addition to raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour and creating a nationally paid family leave program.
But the top and Senate Democrats are still confronted in the party over their party line approach, especially from centralists who are worried about passing a divisive bill through an already divided Congress. With no margin for error, a single Democratic senator or just a handful of House Democrats can force the party to change tactics.
Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) – a moderate insistence on dual talks rather than the Democrats’ own approach through reconciliation – said Biden told him Democrats could not afford to waste time negotiating for months on end, only to eventually pass their own package without GOP support.
“If it’s $ 1.9 billion, then so be it,” Manchin told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday. ‘If it’s a little smaller than that and we find a purposeful need, then that’s what we’re going to do. But I want it to be twofold, so if they think we’re basically going to throw all warning against the wind and just push it down people’s throats, it’s not going to happen. ”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans would wait with a “number of amendments” to the budget measure, including provisions on whether “taxpayers should fund checks for illegal immigrants” and whether “Democrats should raise taxes on small businesses” . “
The House and Senate budget measure, which passes this week, commands a dozen committees to compile Biden’s plan for pandemic assistance over the next two weeks, including $ 1,400 stimulus tests, $ 350 billion in state and local government assistance and more controversial provisions, such as $ 15 minimum wage increase.
The Congress Budget Office will soon, at the request of incoming budget chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Release a convincing case for the inclusion of the minimum wage increase in the conciliation legislation – all of which have a significant impact on the federal budget.
But it is unclear whether that will be enough to encourage centric legislators like Manchin, who oppose the $ 15-hour wage increase.