Democrats' $2 trillion spending plan in political peril as talks between Biden, Manchin stall

[iemanja]

A push by Senate Democrats to pass a roughly $2 trillion tax-and-spending measure before Christmas appeared in new political peril on Wednesday, as talks soured between President Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over the size and scope of the package.

The gaps between the two sides remain immense, with Biden seeking to safeguard his economic agenda from significant cuts while Manchin continues to insist on steep spending reductions, according to three people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to describe the sensitive negotiations. The sticking points include the fate of the expanded child tax credit, one of the sources said, given the moderate senator’s broader concerns about the overall price tag.

Under the current proposal, party lawmakers have proposed extending a federal program that pays out monthly aid to roughly 35 million families with young children. Once a smaller, yearly benefit, Democrats broadly have touted the expansion as a critical endeavor toward combating child poverty, helping low-income Americans afford expenses including education and food.

The plussed-up payments are set to expire at the end of this year unless lawmakers reauthorize it as part of their broader package, known as the Build Back Better Act. The looming deadline has prompted Democrats across the Capitol this week to call for swift action to prevent a lapse in benefits starting in January. But their urgent requests do not appear to have budged Manchin, who previously has expressed general skepticism about approving aid that sends more checks directly to Americans.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/12/15/biden-manchin-spending-democrats/

No paywall story from AP: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ap-source-biden-manchin-talks-on-242t-dem-bill-going-poorly/ar-AARQQIT?ocid=BingNewsSearch

Manchin wants a bill that is no more than $1.75 trillion, and he wants all the spending to occur within the ten years. The child tax credit alone would cost $1.4 trillion.

If they can get Manchin to sign on to the rest of the bill without again moving the goal posts, I say let the child tax credit go. We need a win.

Preparing for incoming.

[ColinC]

1. "tax and spending measure"

Is propoganda used to label the democratic party in the 70s and 80s...

[iemanja]

2. Is it not accurate?

Isn't that what this bill does?

[radius777]

11. 'Tax and spend liberal' is a racist and classist narrative

likely created by Lee Atwater, that implies that liberals tax white people and the middle class to the benefit of the poor and minorities.

The fact is FDR created the middle class by taxing the rich and corporations to the benefit of regular people. So it literally is taxing and spending but not in the way the 'tax and spend' epithet implies.

[ColinC]

12. I just wonder why they felt the need to call it by it's funding source

If not to bring back the epithet. If that weren't the case, every other bill that didn't use taxes should have been called a deficit spending bill, as most of these funding sources were spending without any revenue.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Manchin repeatedly said in the past that he didn't think such a bill should be passed "this year"...

so none of this should be a surprise.

[Celerity]

9. It is not to me, I predicted this, and also the ever more real possibility Manchin kills it all off

or he further guts the living hell out of it (I said that a $1.0 trillion to $1.2 trillion topline number might be in that range, as Manchin already claimed that $1.5 trillion (let alone $1.75 or $2 trillion) for him was a huge 'compromise' as he really wanted it in the 1 trillion usd max range).

[LW1977]

4. What a selfish POS!

I don’t care if he has a “D” in front of his name, he a jerk!

[tirebiter]

5. I thought that $1.75trillion was already the working number.

And 10 years is a generation fer krissake. Move On. Sounds like success

[Celerity]

8. The House version added back some programmes that were cut out of that $1.75 trillion topline

number.

To be honest, it is almost impossible to figure out what is in and what is out once you start talking about the Senate version. We have no clue what the final bill (IF there even is one) will be.

That also (and this is one of the true damaging things that Machinema are doing) makes it REALLY hard to go out and sell it, as you do not want to hype up a programme that ends up on the cutting room floor.

[jalan48]

6. Will he or won't he? Stay tuned for late breaking news after this commercial break.

[LonePirate]

7. Surely I am not the only person who is not surprised by this?

The progressives in the House should have held firm and waited until BBB passed the Senate before passing BIF in the House.

[Celerity]

10. Biden and Pelosi were with them for all but the last 36 days (36 days is the actual length that the

BIF was held up, as the first actual date that final vote could have been passed was September 30th, and it was passed the first week of November). I have see outrageous exaggerations that the progs (and only the progs, of course, given the small group lobbing this bollocks' utter antipathy towards them) held it up for 4, 5 , even 6 months, lol. I went into further detail on multiple older posts on all this.

All that said, once Biden and Pelosi said that it (BIF) WILL be finally and for sure decoupled from the BBB, the die was cast, unfortunately, and they lost the traction, IMHO. I am NOT blaming Biden or Pelosi at all btw, they did about as much as was politically possible.

There are, in reality, only two people to actually assign real, substantive blame to, atm, in regards to the BBB. First, to a point, Sinema, and then, (as Sinema has compromised a bit now), the main one, Manchin. Do not even get me started on the voter rights/protection bills.