Biden Scales Back His Agenda in Hopes of Bringing Moderates Onboard

The cuts represent a blow to Mr. Biden’s agenda, but the remaining plans would still deliver significant benefits to a wide range of Americans. Mr. Biden and his aides have known for months that they would most likely need to reduce the size and scope of his plans to satisfy moderates in his party. But the president has stressed, in public and in private conversations with Democrats, that even a smaller bill could shift the landscape of the American economy and help the party hold power in midterm elections next year.

“These bills are about competitiveness versus complacency,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday in Michigan, where he spoke at a union hall to promote not only the policies in his spending bill, but a smaller, bipartisan infrastructure bill that has passed the Senate but not the House. “They’re about opportunity versus decay.”

The president acknowledged in private meetings on Monday and Tuesday with House Democrats that he was now negotiating a plan to spend no more than $2.3 trillion, and possibly less, in a concession to two Democratic centrist holdouts, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Their votes are must-haves: Mr. Biden will need support from every Democrat in the Senate, and virtually every one in the House, to secure passage of the bill. Mr. Manchin has said he would support a $1.5 trillion package under certain conditions.

Progressives are still pushing for more. In a private meeting between Mr. Biden and progressive lawmakers on Monday, Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, pushed back at the range Mr. Biden offered and instead suggested a price tag of at least $2.5 trillion, and up to $2.9 trillion, according to a person familiar with the comments. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a closed-door meeting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/business/biden-agenda-congress-democrats.html