President Joe Biden emphatically dismissed the idea of scaling back his roughly $2 trillion social welfare and climate spending agenda to ensure its passage through a recalcitrant Senate.
“No,” Biden told reporters Wednesday during his second stand-alone White House press conference.
Recommended Stories
BIDEN FACES QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCESS AND TRANSPARENCY AHEAD OF PRESS CONFERENCE
But he added he was “confident we can get pieces, big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law,” adamant he had not overpromised.
“I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now, and come back and fight for the rest later,” he said.
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin thwarted Biden’s spending proposal, a version of which was cleared by the House, when he declined to support it last month. Biden then pivoted to voting and election reforms, which were separately killed by Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who does not endorse changing Senate rules so that lawmakers can deliver the legislation to Biden’s desk.
Biden opened his press conference with a 10-minute speech, in which he referred to “a year of challenges but also a year of enormous progress.” He particularly spoke of the “frustration and fatigue” regarding the pandemic.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Some people may call what’s happening right now the new normal. I call it a job not yet finished,” he said. “It will get better. We’re moving toward a time when COVID-19 won’t disrupt our daily lives.”
