President Joe Biden could stomach means testing some of the programs packed into his multitrillion-dollar social welfare and climate spending proposal to make the bill more palatable to centrist Democrats.
Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus package imposed income limits on the expanded, extended child tax credit, according to White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
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“We are open to targeting other programs as well,” she told reporters Tuesday on Air Force One en route to Michigan as part of a Biden push to promote his agenda.
But Jean-Pierre declined to specify which policies could be cut after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin indicated earlier Tuesday he could agree to Biden’s suggestion of between $1.9 trillion to $2.2 trillion over 10 years.
Manchin had told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this summer that his top-line figure was $1.5 trillion. But while the latest numbers are higher, they fall well short of opening offers from liberals such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who originally hoped to spend $6 trillion, not including the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Congressional Progressive Caucus chairwoman Pramila Jayapal was adamant last weekend that a $1.5 trillion arrangement was “not going to happen.”
“That’s too small to get our priorities in,” she said. “Remember, what we want to deliver is child care, paid leave, climate change, housing.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki conceded last week only that Biden was focused on “ensuring that these plans are targeted toward the middle class” to “help middle-class families prosper, give them breathing room.”
Jean-Pierre did not disclose Tuesday when Biden last spoke with Manchin or Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, whose votes he will need to pass his agenda in their evenly divided chamber. And Biden has not spoken with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding the looming debt ceiling crisis, she added.
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But Jean-Pierre did underscore Biden’s confidence in Federal Reserve Board of Governors Chairman Jerome Powell, despite criticism from Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a staunch Wall Street critic. Powell’s four-year term expires next February, and Senate Republicans would prefer that Biden reappoint him.
