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| AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite |
Manchin again on the spot as reconciliation battle looms in Senate
Congressional Democrats are eyeing a repeal of former President Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts to pay for a party-line social spending package, a package loaded up with liberal priorities such as funding for racial justice programs and Medicare expansion.
Fully or partially scaling back the 2017 tax cuts is a topic on which both progressive and moderate Democrats agree as they debate a multi-trillion “human infrastructure” package. The consensus is both political and practical.
Since Democrats have no hope of attracting Republican support for a major social welfare deal, they will have to rely on the budget reconciliation process to get a repeal of the tax cuts through the Senate. The process allows spending bills to avert the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation in the evenly split Senate and pass by a simple majority of 51 votes.
But for the reconciliation strategy to succeed, Democrats have to remain united. At the moment, the feat may be impossible unless the package is paid for without borrowing new money and increasing the federal deficit.
“Everything should be paid for. How much more debt can y’all handle?” said Sen. Joe Manchin III the West Virginia Democrat who is often the key swing vote in the chamber. “I think we’ve incurred over $28.5 trillion of debt and I’d like to start paying for things.” --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI |
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders met Monday with President Biden about an upcoming budget reconciliation bill that Democrats hope to ram through Congress alongside a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Sanders (I-Vt.), who recently outlined a massive $6 trillion reconciliation blueprint, gave away few details about his talk with Biden but told reporters at the White House, “the majority of the Democratic caucus wants to go as big as possible.”
The self-declared democratic socialist said “what we are trying to do is transformative. Legislation that the president and I are supporting would go further to improve the lives of working people than any legislation since the 1930s.”
But Democrats face a mathematical challenge in the evenly divided Senate where centrist Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia have expressed concern about a gigantic bill that would include many items left out of the bipartisan deal. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Republicans slam brakes on speedy passage of bipartisan infrastructure deal
Why Infrastructure Isn’t The Big Political Winner Democrats Think It Is
Why the GOP Has to Resist the 'Infrastructure' and 'Bipartisan' Magical Thinking
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