President Joe Biden acknowledged Friday that Congress is heading to the "hard point" in negotiations over his massive social spending plan, as Democrats navigate a deep divide between their moderate and progressive wings, CBS News reported.
Progressive Democrats want to postpone Monday's House vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, so they can first vote on the $3.5 trillion measure, which aims to create jobs, raise taxes on the wealthy and tackle climate change. Facilitating the financial burden on low and middle income families.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the infrastructure vote will take place on Monday, while the federal government faces the prospect of a partial shutdown, likely a few weeks after the US defaults, which has never happened before.
Today, while speaking to reporters at length about his legislative agenda, the president had a clear message for lawmakers in his party, and said, "Now, we're in this predicament right now, and we're going to have to pass these two pieces of legislation, both of which need to be passed."
A majority of the 96-seat Progressive bloc in the House says they will vote against the bipartisan bill that passed in the Senate if the reconciliation bill does not pass first, while moderate Democrats insist that infrastructure must be passed first At least two Democrats.
Senators withheld their support for the $3.5 trillion settlement bill because it's too expensive, and some moderate Republicans may vote for the infrastructure bill, but it's unclear if there are enough of them to offset whether the progressives make good on their threat.
House Republican leaders are encouraging members to vote "no" on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, and Biden met with key Democratic lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday to try to resolve some of their differences.
“One of the things that I think is important, and I try to get people to focus on, is what do you like?” Biden said, referring to Democratic lawmakers, and continued, “What do you think? What do you think we should do?” Many of them when they go through with their priorities it adds up to a higher number than they said they are for, people now have to go in and research in detail exactly what purpose they are working for.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who stands alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Pelosi, announced Thursday that the White House and congressional Democrats have reached agreement on a revenue framework to support a massive reconciliation bill.
But he, Pelosi, and the White House said a little more than that framework actually entails, and Pelosi didn't provide any numbers on how large the reconciliation bill would ultimately be, and it's not even clear who within the Democratic Party signed on to the revenue framework.
for its part; "It's not about the price, it's about the values, not the dollar," Pelosi said Thursday. She also did not say whether she thought she had enough votes to go ahead with the scheduled bipartisan vote on the infrastructure bill next Monday.
Negotiations over infrastructure and reconciliation bills come as Congress struggles to avoid defaulting on the country's debt. The debt ceiling is the maximum amount the United States is allowed to borrow to pay its debts, and if Congress does not vote to raise it sometime during October, it is impossible to predict precisely when the Treasury's cash balance will fall to an insufficient level, and the federal government will not be able to pay its bills. According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.
Republicans refuse to help raise the debt ceiling, arguing that the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Biden administration are spending recklessly, so they alone should vote to raise the debt limit.
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