Biden Plays Mother Hen
In an attempt to appease the Progressives, Biden Says Democrats Should Delay Infrastructure Vote Until Deal Reached
President Biden called on House Democrats to hold off on voting on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill until after they reach an agreement on a separate social-policy and climate bill, moving to again delay final passage of a central piece of his own agenda in a bid to unify restive Democrats.
Even as Mr. Biden endorsed progressives’ push to hold up a vote on the infrastructure bill, however, he acknowledged in a closed-door meeting with House Democrats on Friday that the price tag of the social-policy and climate bill would need to drop substantially below $3.5 trillion to closer to roughly $2 trillion, according to lawmakers and aides.
Democrats initially had set the social-policy and climate bill at $3.5 trillion, though Mr. Biden told House Democrats that negotiations with centrists would likely bring its cost in the range of roughly $2 trillion, according to lawmakers and aides. Lawmakers said Mr. Biden mentioned possible toplines from the bill ranging from $1.9 trillion to $2.3 trillion.
“Even a smaller bill can make historic investments,” Mr. Biden told House Democrats, according to two people familiar with his remarks.
Mother Hen
The whole reconciliation process started to unravel this week with moderates insisting infrastructure pass first and Progressives talking an all or nothing stance on price and the order of passage.
Biden tried to appeal to both groups. He sided with Progressives in that infrastructure will not pass stand alone.
He sided with the moderates dropping spending from $3.5 trillion to
What About Manchin?
Bernie Sanders wanted $6 trillion and Biden targeted 3.5 Trillion.
Senator Joe Manchin said he would support $1.5 trillion. Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema is still a budgetary unknown.
Bear in mind these amounts are in addition to $1 trillion on infrastructure.
Biden is pressing Manchin for an additional $0.4 to $0.8 trillion over his long-stated $1.5 trillion.
Will Manchin Go Along? The Progressives?
My best guess is yes to both in the range of about $1.95 trillion.
It will be a huge waste of money and inflationary at least initially.
But even if we assume something like that will pass, the nature of the climate deal and how fast clean energy demands phase in will determine the nature of the stagflation/recession outcome.
Nothing Beats Nothing
None of the packages being debated are better than doing nothing at all. And as long as the Progressives and Manchin hold firm, nothing will get done.
Yesterday I commented: Unfortunately, I suspect there will be a compromise by Manchin and a package closer to $2 trillion will get passed with Sanders and AOC screaming every step of the way, until something is approved.
Mother hen has now given up on the whole hog, so here we are.
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Both the Bush and Trump administrations argued that “tax cuts pay for themselves” as each passed significant tax cuts soon after taking office. The https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/briefing-book/taxes_and_the_economy_1.pdf suggests that this logic is faulty, as tax rates in the U.S. aren’t high enough to produce significant behavioral changes when they are reduced, and typical reductions aren’t large enough to have immediate impacts. Instead of spurring economic growth and thus more revenues, tax cuts simply increase budget deficits.
The discussion surrounding taxes and budget deficits tends to re-open every election season, as Republicans and even some https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/pete-buttigieg-calls-deficit-reduction-swiping-bernie-sanders-n1133206 worry about large deficits and a growing national debt.
ANyone have a link?
Because it’s just true.
However, big business has no problem with the bipartisan infrastructure bill because it is almost entirely filled with goodies for them. That is why 10 or so Republicans voted for it and made it bipartisan.