In a recent conference call with Democrats, President Joe Biden joked that putting liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders in the same room as centrist Sen. Joe Manchin to negotiate a massive social welfare spending bill could result in “homicide.”
While Democrats laughed at the comments, the growing animosity between the party’s divided factions is no joke — and now it threatens to sideline Biden’s entire economic agenda.
Manchin, a West Virginia centrist, told reporters last week he is not budging from a $1.5 trillion cap on the spending measure Democrats hope to pass in the coming weeks.
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In addition to slashing the cost, Manchin opposes some of the green energy policies to end fossil fuels. He also opposes a move by liberals to end a decades-old ban on taxpayer-funded abortions.
“My number has been $1.5 (trillion),” Manchin told reporters last week. “I’ve been very clear.”
Manchin’s limit is $2 trillion below the price tag Democrats initially sought, and it’s nowhere near where liberals are willing to compromise. It’s also $1.5 trillion less than a $2 trillion compromise figure Biden recently recommended to Democrats in a private meeting.
“I want to keep it as close as I can to at least $3 trillion because we have a lot of things we want to do,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat who heads the 95-member House Progressive Caucus, told CNN.
Meanwhile, Democrats face an Oct. 31 deadline to strike an agreement and advance the measure. The party has linked the bill to a critical infrastructure measure that makes up the second half of Biden’s economic agenda. That infrastructure bill includes highway funding authorization that must be renewed by Halloween.
With no deal in sight on the social welfare spending bill, the infrastructure measure’s fate is uncertain.
The liberal wing of the party, making up most of the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate, is becoming increasingly angry with Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat who also opposes the $3.5 trillion package and some of its policies.
In a recent interview on CBS, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez characterized the opposition from Manchin and Sinema as “hard-line tactics” from “a very tiny cadre of conservative Democrats.”
Sanders, a socialist, called an impromptu press conference last week to rail against Manchin and Sinema, who he said are standing in the way of passing a $3.5 trillion package everyone else in the party supports.
“Two people do not have the right to sabotage what 48 want and the president of the United States wants,” Sanders said. “To me, that is wrong.”
Manchin fired back at lawmakers who have publicly attacked him for opposing the bill, telling reporters outside the Capitol last week that Democrats should “elect more liberals” if they want enough votes to pass their agenda.
Biden is in the middle, trying to salvage his agenda and sinking poll numbers.
The latest Quinnipiac poll issued last week found Biden underwater on job approval, with only 38% in favor of his performance and 53% disapproving.
Among independents, an increasingly critical voter group, 60% disapproved of his performance and only 32% approved.
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Biden and Democrats are eager for a legislative victory, which would help the president and House and Senate party lawmakers struggling to hang on to their seats in what is poised to be a brutal midterm election.
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and top Biden ally in Congress, said he believes Biden will prevail and lawmakers will end up agreeing to the compromise number the president presented to Democrats at a recent closed-door meeting.
“I think the ultimate price will be around $2 trillion,” Coons told Fox News Sunday. “But it’s the policies that really matter. And as a caucus, we agree on those.”
