For the past two months, the White House and congressional Democrats have talked optimistically about approving a sweeping tax and spending plan to follow through on a series of major campaign promises from President Joe Biden.
But things have gotten very sticky for Democrats in recent weeks.
Short on votes for the $3.5 trillion package proposed in the House, Democrats are now trying to figure out how best to trim back the details — and not lose votes in the process.
“I’m very disappointed that we’re not going with the original $3.5 trillion,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.
Pelosi’s original plan was for a House vote on a budget reconciliation bill by the end of September. That didn’t happen. Now, Halloween is the new target date. Frankly, even that may be difficult.
Waiting on the sidelines for a deal, Georgia Democrats in recent weeks have continued to make the case for what’s known as the ”Build Back Better” plan, which calls for middle-class tax relief, two years of free community college, universal pre-k, paid family leave, expanded child care and much more.
“If parents don’t have access to quality child care, they can’t go to work,” said U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta.
“This is our moment to prove to American families that their government works for them,” said U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta.
But while Democrats agree on the goals, they’ve had trouble nailing down the details of how the plan would be paid for through higher taxes on the wealthy and big businesses.
Three weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer declared that there was a deal on funding — but no details were ever released.
The final price tag still remains unclear, and until that’s hammered out, it’s hard to fill in the blanks.
One way to shape the package — and reduce the cost — is to phase in or out different provisions after a certain period of time.
Republicans did exactly that with the Trump tax cuts, as most of the individual tax cuts will expire in 2025.
With pressure coming from Pelosi to scale back the size of the bill, one concern for more liberal Democrats is that in any final compromise, they might lose ideas that they strongly support.
“A lot of people have asked, isn’t something better than nothing?” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who has emerged as the leader of liberal Democrats in the House. “The answer, quite simply, is no.”
We’ve already seen liberals delay action on an infrastructure bill. In coming weeks, the test for liberals in Congress will be whether they stick with ideological purity or embrace compromise on a smaller measure.
“These decisions have to be made,” Pelosi said.
It’s mid-October. Democrats are on the clock.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com.
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