Before leaving for Rome on Friday, where he met with Pope Francis and held bilateral meetings with Italian President Mario Draghi, Democratic leaders in Congress announced a “framework” of $ 1.75 trillion (1.85 trillion if you include $ 100 billion for immigration) to advance the party’s reconciliation bill with great fanfare.
The White House occupant, on the other hand, will attend the G20 meetings this Saturday and Sunday, despite the fact that his economic programme remains in limbo. Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both moderate Democrats, saw Biden’s amended plan as progress, but did not entirely accept it.
Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), a progressive, said the president’s initiatives and proposals “need to be improved” and urged progressives in the House of Representatives to hijack votes on the bipartisan $550 billion infrastructure bill. They hope to maintain pressure on Congress to make adjustments to the budget reconciliation package so that Biden’s social and environmental projects are included.
No vote in sight
Progressives in the House of Representatives support many of these programmes, but do not believe they are comprehensive enough to approve the infrastructure investment plan, which should have been adopted earlier this month regardless of the budget reconciliation process.
Progressives may be ready to vote on both the budget reconciliation and the bipartisan infrastructure package next week, according to House Progressive Caucus Leader Pramila Jayapal. Nonetheless, given the facts, this seemed doubtful, especially because several issues were still being negotiated.
At this time, Democratic legislators were seeking to have Medicare, the health-care system for individuals over 65, bargain with pharmaceutical corporations in order to lower prescription costs.
It’s worth noting that Biden chose to leave this concept out of the $1.85 trillion spending package he unveiled this week. In these conditions, the self-imposed deadline of October 31 for passing both bills is unlikely to be met.
The date of December 3 is now being discussed as a pivotal day.
If the spending authority is not renewed or the budget resolution is not fully enacted by then, the debt limit extension would expire again, and a new government shutdown will be possible.
This raises the prospect of all of these issues being resolved legislatively by the end of November, with a debt limit rise possibly included in the reconciliation measure.
Biden requires a legislative triumph in the aftermath of the Afghanistan disaster.
Image Credit: Getty
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