President Joe Biden unveiled a shrunken reconciliation package on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to get Congress to pass his domestic agenda. It will fail for the same reason it hasn’t passed already: It is still too far to the left for the likes of Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona but not far left enough for progressives.
Biden’s new “framework” for $1.75 trillion, half of the $3.5 trillion Democrats wanted to spend, is an attempt to meet both sides of the Democratic Party in its middle. The bill would include investments in child care and universal preschool, Obamacare credits, affordable housing expansions, higher education, and clean energy. Notably, the bill does not include paid family and medical leave, free community college, expansions of other Medicare benefits, such as dental and vision, and the ability to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
It’s still $1.75 trillion the government shouldn’t spend. Democrats might disagree on that point, but there’s no guarantee they will be able to reconcile their differences long enough to actually write the check. Sinema and Manchin have not committed to voting for it, according to The New York Times, and the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate admitted on Thursday morning he’s not sure whether he’ll be able to get all 50 Democrats behind it.
Meanwhile, in the House, top progressives are vowing to tank Biden’s other domestic proposal, a bipartisan infrastructure bill that already has the backing of the Senate, if Manchin and Sinema don’t come around on reconciliation.
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1453713412404432903?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1453707549916778497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/christianjhall/status/1453712311881977860?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThere is no deal here. Perhaps Manchin and Sinema will agree to Biden’s terms, but that seems unlikely since his framework still includes massive tax hikes on corporations, which Sinema has vowed to oppose. And if they refuse to budge, there’s a good chance progressives in the House kill the rest of Biden’s agenda out of spite.
Can you hear that? That’s the sound of Biden’s dream of becoming the next Franklin D. Roosevelt or Lyndon B. Johnson going up in flames.
