“Senator Manchin has been a straight shooter. You know exactly where he stands. I disagree with areas, but I respect that.”
So said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a leading House progressive, on Sunday. Indeed, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been up front from the start about what level of spending he can accept in a Democratic social spending bill. Manchin told Senate Majority Leader Schumer in July that he would support $1.5 trillion at most — but Schumer kept that information from Speaker Pelosi for two months.
President Biden and Pelosi are linking that one-party spending bill to the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and they want both bills done by the end of the month. Pelosi has set a Halloween deadline for passage of the infrastructure bill, and Biden wants it done before he departs for Europe at the end of the week. A vote could come Wednesday or Thursday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “With a series of deadlines approaching, President Biden’s increased involvement in talks over his sweeping social-policy agenda shows the line he is walking between being a pragmatic deal maker, with hopes of delivering tangible political wins, and his desire to enact transformative, long-term progressive policies.”
To that end, Biden met Sunday with both Manchin and Schumer. Politico says key differences remain, with Biden and party leaders “aiming to go as high as $2 trillion” while Manchin holds firm on a $1.5 trillion top line. But we’re closer than ever to getting infrastructure to the finish line.
If the Democrats cared about global warming they would pay for this bill by raising tariffs on China. Assign each manufacturing sector a pollution-tarriff and divide that by $3.5T. Anyone think that would make China crack down on global warming gas emissions?