President Joe Biden said his $2 trillion economic agenda will have to be broken up so that a scaled-back version can pass Congress in the face of resistance in his own party that’s stalled the expansive package.
“It is clear to me that we are probably going to have to break it up,” Biden said Wednesday at a White House press conference. Democrats will have to “get as much as we can now and come back and fight for the rest later.”
Still, the president disputed the idea that his agenda has to be scaled down in its ambition and said he will be making the case to pass it all through road trips around the country this year. “We just have to make the case what we are for,” he said.
The package of tax, climate and social safety net legislation has been held up in the Senate because of objections from Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a pivotal vote in the evenly divided chamber.
It had already been scaled back from the version first proposed in the House to meet demands from Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Passing some version of the tax and spending bill in the coming weeks would give Biden a key achievement to tout when he makes his first State of the Union address to Congress on March 1. But getting the 50 votes needed for the bill to clear the Senate under special budget rules could involve jettisoning popular aspects of the bill like renewing an expanded child tax credit that expired in December.
House progressives are increasingly resigned to the Biden agenda being pared down to win Manchin’s support even as moderate Democrats, eyeing the midterm elections, have urged the White House to cut a deal soon.
Biden conceded that he may not be able to get an expanded child tax credit in the package, as well as a free community college which was already dropped from the plan.
Before Biden spoke, House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth said, “My understanding is they they are going to use the next few weeks after this to negotiate and try to pass something before the State of the Union.”
In a glimmer of hope for the administration, Manchin said this month he could see reaching a deal with the White House on climate change provisions in the bill. Outstanding issues include the electric vehicle tax credit, which Manchin wants reduced, and a fee on methane, which the senator opposes.
Biden said that he sees a path for a deal on the climate provisions as well as elements like early childhood education as well as on taxes.
Manchin said Dec. 20 he would only support a $1.75 trillion bill that truly overhauls the U.S. tax code and lowers the costs of a broader array of prescription drugs than the current bill does.
But Sinema, another pivotal vote, has opposed higher corporate and individual tax rates as well as wider efforts to lower prescription drug prices, adding to Democrats’ challenge in reaching a consensus.
Biden, in his news conference addressed, another major concern of Manchin’s — additional federal spending fueling inflation and adding to the national debt. Annual consumer prices jumped 7% in December, a 40-year high.
The president said the provisions to lower prescription drug prices, to provide childcare and support for the elderly would make the economy more productive and cut costs for Americans.
“If price increases are what you are worried about, the best answer is my Build Back Better plan,” he said.
Biden claimed that the Build Back Better bill cuts the budget deficit, something at odds with the official score of the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO found that the House-passed bill would add $367 billion to deficits over 10 years, while pointing out that the deficit increase could be $207 billion smaller because of increased tax enforcement called for in the plan.
Biden said another major piece of his agenda, election legislation aimed at increasing ballot access and restoring the Justice Department’s ability to review voting law changes for some states, also might need to be split into smaller pieces.
Republicans are poised to block the legislation in the Senate, and Manchin and Sinema oppose an attempt by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to change the chamber’s filibuster rule to force it through.
“There are a number of things we can do, but I also think we will be able to get significant pieces of legislation if we don’t get it all now,” Biden said. He predicted that he can work with Republicans to reform the nation’s electoral count law.
— With assistance from Jennifer Epstein and Jennifer Jacobs
