Last week Joe Biden warned progressive Democrats that free college probably isn’t going to make the final cut of their spending bill. Now they are cutting other items from the bill.
They’re trying very hard to get Sinema and Manchin on board, but it’s still not clear if it’ll work.
Michael Lee reports at FOX News:
Senate Democrats cut paid family and medical leave from spending package: reportSenate Democrats have dropped the paid family and medical leave proposals from the social spending package after negotiations with moderate Democrats failed to reach a compromise on a pared-down version of the proposals, according to a report.Democrats decided to drop the proposals on Wednesday despite that they were a key campaign promise of President Biden, according to reporting from Politico. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., one the senate’s leading advocates for the benefits, had tried to reach a last-minute deal with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who has resisted the overall cost of the package.But Gillibrand told Fox News Wednesday that reports about the benefits being dropped are “premature,” signaling hope that some sort of pared-down version could still be in play.Manchin has argued that the cost of the proposals is too high when some social programs are already in jeopardy of running low on funds.”I’m talking to everybody, but I’ve been very clear: to expand social programs, when you have trust funds that aren’t solvent — they’re going insolvent — I can’t explain that … It doesn’t make sense to me … I just can’t do it,” Manchin said Wednesday.
Some people on the left are starting to think the bill has been gutted beyond the point of even passing it.
There’s been so much infighting among Democrats over this. They keep putting out the message that they’re so close to a deal, but it keeps falling apart.
Politico reports:
Liberal frustration imperils quick Dem social spending dealA flurry of cuts to Democrats’ domestic priorities endangered a quick deal on President Joe Biden’s agenda on Wednesday after a frenetic 24 hours of negotiating between the president and two moderate senators.An axed paid leave program and a proposed elimination of a tax on billionaires, as well as the tenuous state of prescription drug reform and Medicare expansion, slowed down progress between Biden and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). After meeting with Biden on Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said there’s “no way” a deal is reached before Thursday.“The problem is not with the president, the problem is with members here who, although they are very few in number … that think they have a right to determine what the rest of the Congress should be doing. And I strongly disagree,” Sanders said. “It’s not conceivable to me that we’re going to have a deal today.”
If this stretches beyond November 2nd, and it looks like it will, and if Youngkin defeats McAuliffe, which he could, Biden’s political capital will be severely diminished.
What happens then? Would Democrats pass a massively scaled back version of the bill or scrap it and start all over again?
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