Democrats trim Biden’s social spending plan as they rush to strike a deal this week

R&I – FS

WASHINGTON – As President Joe Biden prepares to depart on Thursday for a week of summits in Europe, the White House and congressional Democrats are scrambling to finalize a deal on their signature domestic spending package.

If they can accomplish this, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to bring a companion bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor for a vote before the president leaves for Rome. That bill has already been passed in the Senate. If it is approved in the House, Biden could sign it into law this week.

Biden visited New Jersey on Monday to promote the infrastructure piece of his two-part plan.

“This is going to be good union jobs for a prevailing wage that you can raise a family on, jobs that can’t be outsourced,” he said of the bill’s rail and transportation funding. “We’ll make the largest investment in public transportation in the history of America.”

Until Democrats can agree on the terms of the social safety net expansion bill, progressives in the House will not approve the infrastructure bill.

But in the Senate, two centrist Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — are refusing to endorse the spending plan until their specific demands are met.

In order to satisfy Manchin, the topline cost of the spending bill is being slashed from $3.5 trillion to between $1.5 and $2 trillion. To win over Sinema, Democrats must rework their original plan to tax the highest earners and corporations to pay for the safety net expansion.