Democrats now in control of Congress and the White House face a string of spending challenges that could shut down the government, tank their agenda, and damage their political prospects in the critical midterm elections.
Party leaders this week juggled an end-of-year funding deadline, expired federal borrowing authority, and their inability to pass a massive social welfare and infrastructure spending package. At the same time, the Biden administration struggles with alarmingly low approval numbers related to the border crisis, COVID-19, inflation, and other factors.
Democrats hoped to advance all of their gridlocked measures by Sept. 30 and provide legislative victories for their party and the Biden administration. However, as of this week, party leaders seemed to have no certain path forward on any of it despite the looming deadline.
Republicans are watching on the sidelines with visions of winning back the majority in 2022 from voters who determine the Democratic Party can’t govern.
“The only people that will get any blame for this is the Democrats and their management,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, told reporters on Thursday.
Democrats hope to pull it all together at the last minute, beginning with a vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
The measure would provide Biden and Democrats with a desperately needed legislative victory. The president negotiated the package with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, where it passed with bipartisan support earlier this summer. The bill provides funding to fix roads, bridges, and crumbling water pipes and would also expand broadband and build new electrical vehicle charging stations.
Biden has touted the bill as a job creator.
House Democrats promised their centrist faction they would bring up the infrastructure bill for a vote next week, but that plan has run into a roadblock: Liberals say they’ll vote against it unless Congress first passes legislation that would provide up to $3.5 trillion in new social welfare spending.
Democratic leaders are trying to appease liberals with at least a framework agreement on the social welfare package but have run into opposition from their centrist wing, who say the $3.5 trillion price tag is far too high.
The timing of the infrastructure vote is now uncertain.
“We take it one day at a time,” Pelosi told a reporter who asked about the plan to bring up the bill next week.
Democrats face two more critical deadlines.
On Sept. 30, the fiscal year ends, and unless Congress passes a stopgap funding bill, the government will have to shut down at least partially.
Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, elected to pair the funding bill with a provision to raise the Treasury Department’s expired borrowing authority.
The two Democrats linked the provisions to pressure Republicans to back down on their opposition to raising the debt limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress the nation would default on loans unless it receives new borrowing authority by early October.
Republicans, however, have vowed to vote against raising the debt limit to protest the $3.5 trillion social welfare spending bill Democrats plan to pass using a budgetary tactic that won’t require any GOP votes.
Republicans say the measure is fiscally reckless and would damage the economy and further raise the nation’s staggering deficit and debt. The GOP also opposes plans to pay for the bill by hiking taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Linking the debt limit with government spending has so far failed to win any Republican votes, and now, Pelosi and Schumer face a potential government shutdown on Oct. 1.
“If they want to tax, borrow, and spend historic sums of money without our input, they’ll have to raise the debt limit without our help,” Minority Leader and Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell said.
Democrats hope to spin the message differently by blaming Republicans for the threatened shutdown and looming default.
Democrats said this week that Republicans would be to blame for the dire economic consequences if government funding stalls and the debt limit is not increased.
The measure also includes money to help parts of the country recover from wildfires and summer storms that affected many red states.
“If they vote no, the Republican Party will be solidifying itself as the party of default, and the American people, unfortunately, are going to be the ones footing the bill,” Schumer said Thursday. “A high cost to pay for Republican games, political games.”
The public has historically blamed the GOP for spending gridlock and subsequent shutdowns, but only when the Republican Party controls at least one branch of government.
In a Washington Post-ABC News poll that followed the spending impasse and government shutdown in 2019, 53% blamed then-President Donald Trump and the GOP, 29% blamed Democrats, and 13% said both parties were responsible.
This time, Democrats control all of elected government.
Party lawmakers will likely have to figure out a way to raise the debt ceiling without the GOP, perhaps by attaching it to the social welfare spending package or taking other unilateral action.
Pelosi is hoping the GOP will cave into fears they’ll be blamed again for the spending impasse, which, if prolonged, could result in delayed Social Security checks, care for veterans, and gaps in other critical government programs, she warned Thursday.
“Public sentiment is everything,” Pelosi said.
