Biden wants Republicans to back a $1.9 trillion relief package but some Democrats happy to go alone
Source: New York Times
Democrats are preparing to bypass Republican objections to speed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic aid package through Congress, rather than pare it back significantly to attract Republican votes, even as administration officials and congressional moderates hold out hopes of passing a bill with significant bipartisan support.
“You have to act now. There is no time to delay,” Mr. Biden said Friday when he and Vice President Kamala Harris met with their economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “The risk is not doing too much. The risk is not doing enough.” Ms. Yellen also emphasized the urgency and the need for a large infusion into the economy. Yet there are early signs that Mr. Biden will need to at least partly trim his ambitions in order to secure even the full support of his party in the Senate — which he almost certainly needs to pass any bill.
On Thursday, when new data from the Commerce Department showed that the economic recovery decelerated at the end of last year, Democratic leaders in Congress and administration officials said publicly and privately that they were committed to a large-scale relief bill and would move next week to start a process that would allow it to pass with only Democratic votes, if necessary. Behind closed doors, congressional committees are already writing legislative text to turn Mr. Biden’s plans into law.
Party leaders remain hopeful that Mr. Biden can sign his so-called American Rescue Plan into law by mid-March at the latest. “We want it to be bipartisan always, but we can’t surrender if they are not going to be doing that,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said at a news conference on Capitol Hill. Officials across the administration are engaged in a whirlwind series of virtual conversations with lawmakers, governors, mayors, civil rights leaders and a wide range of lobbying groups to build as much support as possible for the aid package. It includes $1,400 checks to many individual Americans, extensions of supplemental safety net benefits through the fall, and hundreds of billions of dollars for vaccine deployment and other efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/29/us/biden-trump-impeachment/biden-wants-republicans-to-back-a-1-9-trillion-relief-package-but-some-democrats-are-happy-to-go-it-alone
Full headline: Biden wants Republicans to back a $1.9 trillion relief package, but some Democrats are happy to go it alone.
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would need to happen under a different budget reconciliation bill (would love to see the repeal of that 2017 tax cuts for the rich atrocity that the GOP themselves shoved through with budget reconciliation). 
