President Joe Biden’s push to see his agenda succeed has Democrats wondering whether days of painful negotiations will win both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the broader, Democrats-only social welfare spending proposal.
Asked about the fate of the negotiations, a Democratic aide likened the intraparty wrangling to the winding saga of a ship sinking quickly.
“Another great American drama,” a Democratic aide said. “So was the Titanic.”
Biden’s sweeping proposals are now taking on water as Democratic leaders attempt to bring their caucus in line.
“Busy!” was how one White House official characterized the day shortly before 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
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By 6 p.m., Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key centrist Democratic vote, slashed the party’s hopes of earning his support for the $3.5 trillion social welfare proposals that “spend for the sake of spending.”
On Tuesday, Biden met at the White House with Manchin and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to rally them. The mission apparently failed.
Biden met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hours before Manchin’s rebuke. Pelosi has worked to tamp down a revolt by far-left House Democrats who said they would block the infrastructure deal unless both packages are voted on at the same time. Manchin’s objection makes a planned infrastructure vote on Thursday unlikely to pass.
The reconciliation proposal requires approval from all 50 senators in the evenly divided upper chamber, but Manchin and Sinema have advocated for a lower cost. So far, they have declined to share a top-line number they could accept. Manchin also wants Democrats to amend the bill’s planned tax hikes, which he argues could hurt small businesses and stifle the country’s economic growth.
Some Democrats have urged the president to take a more forceful stance with the holdouts on either side.
Running in 2020 to unseat then-President Donald Trump, Biden billed himself as a master negotiator — a Senate whisperer who could bridge partisan divides. He spent 36 years in the upper chamber, plus eight years as vice president. As the son of a car salesman, Biden has cast himself as a pragmatic solution-driver who knows the art of a deal. The headlines wrote themselves.
How Biden delivers the deal isn’t clear, but veterans of Senate negotiations said they have faith.
“There’s no one better at doing this than Biden,” said Jim Kessler, Third Way’s executive vice president for policy and the former legislative and policy director to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader.
His advisers said he’s lobbying “LBJ-style,” according to Axios, “making his case on merits, loyalty, politics — and arm twisting.”
There’s scant evidence of Biden wielding the harshest tactics.
“Let me know when either Sens. Manchin and or Sinema are seen walking around the Capitol with their arm in a cast,” said Jim Manley, a veteran Democratic strategist and former top aide to Sens. Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid.
Speaking to the Washington Examiner earlier this week, Manley argued in favor of a velvet-glove approach — broken bones would yield nothing, he said.
“If there was a time when Lyndon Johnson-style tactics worked, that time has long come and gone,” he said on Monday. “They’d be rebuffed.”
But, he argued, “Everyone’s still in the process of taking hostages, and it’s got to stop.”
A gentler approach could still prove fruitful, Democrats said.
“I wouldn’t know the level of physical contact and the torque-per-square-foot on the elbow, but Lyndon did a lot of listening and cajoling as well,” Kessler said. “This is Biden’s strong suit.”
He has leaned heavily on senior White House aides. Among them is “secret-weapon” Louisa Terrell, whom admirers have used to compare with the last Democratic administration.
“People felt like [Obama] didn’t respect the Senate, like he also looked down on senators and the process here and didn’t do the work that, frankly, Louisa is extraordinary at, which is centering senators in what’s going on and listening to them and making them feel heard,” an anonymous Democratic senator told the Guardian last month.
Biden is also closely guided on the Hill by Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, and Brian Deese, national economic council director. White House senior adviser and former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond joined members for baseball warm-ups early on Wednesday.
But the president has a track record of success with fraught negotiations, including during his first months in Barack Obama’s White House, shepherding through Congress the former president’s economic stimulus bill.
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The Democratic aide said he was faithful that Biden’s plan would prevail but that the numbers in the caucus were rocky.
The senate veterans agreed.
“Ultimately, I expect Biden will land all of the planes,” Kessler said. “The date they land and the cargo inside is up for negotiations.”
