Biden heats up an accelerated stimulus after liberal pressure

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg

President Joe Biden and White House officials are on the side of the Liberal Democrats, driven by past efforts to reach a compromise with Republicans and refuse to heed Republican Party appeals to reduce the stimulus of the Republican Party. administration of $ 1.9 trillion.

Biden began talks last week with a group of Republican senators who proposed a bill just one-third the size of his pandemic relief package. They were the first legislators to invite the White House as president, and worried the left so that it could seriously entertain its counter-proposal.

But on Monday, after an effort of pressure from lawmakers and Democratic activists trying to keep Biden committed to his own plan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the stimulus is likely to move forward under a procedure that it only requires the support of the simple majority in the Senate.

“I don’t think Americans are particularly concerned about the way direct relief” comes into their hands, he told reporters. “The most likely path right now is through a conciliation process.”

Biden’s talks with ten Senate Republicans had reminded some Liberal allies of his role in negotiating the 2009 recovery bill as vice president. That effort was kept at less than $ 1 trillion to appease a handful of Republican supporters, a concession that is now seen on the left as a misstep.

“We can’t let the same thing happen again,” more than 200 former Obama administration officials, including Valerie Jarrett and John Podesta, said in an open letter to Congress released Friday.

“Obama got very handy and had a clenched fist instead of an open hand too often,” South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third Democrat in the House, said in an interview last week. “He came to the Senate, Obama decided to try to be bipartisan and it was reduced by more than $ 200 billion. Now everyone knows that such a low number gave us a small recovery.”

Biden has indicated that he also considers the 2009 negotiations to be a precautionary tale.

The $ 787 billion stimulus that helped negotiate twelve years ago “was not enough,” he told the White House on Friday. “It stopped the crisis, but the recovery could have been faster and even bigger.”

He said he warned his new negotiating partners that “if I have to choose between getting help right now from Americans who are suffering so badly and sinking into a long negotiation or committing to a bill that is – that’s Until the crisis, is an easy option. I’m going to help the Americans who are hurting now. “

Democrats laid the groundwork last week for a bill to go to reconciliation by passing budget resolutions in both houses. According to the process, much of Biden’s stimulus could go to the Senate with just 51 votes, instead of the 60 normally required to end a filibuster, presumably the 50 Democrats plus Vice President Kamala Harris. House committees began publishing legislative text on Monday.

Republican complaints

Republicans used reconciliation under former President Donald Trump to pass the 2017 tax review and to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act. But Giden de Biden’s negotiating partners say they are dismayed that he may abandon a bipartisan approach to stimulus.

“We passed five bipartite Covid packages. It’s not a good sign that he’s taking an approach to take it or leave it right after the president delivers an inaugural speech based on unity, ”said Todd Young, an Indiana Republican who is among the top 10 senators. involved in the conversations last week.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican also in the group, said Monday, “It was a mistake for the Democratic leader to go to reconciliation immediately, less than 24 hours after having a constructive and cordial meeting of 10 Republican senators in the White House. “

Some on the left have it pointed out that the granting of stimulus by former President Barack Obama in 2009 entailed political costs. The former president was haunted by Republican criticism that the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis was not solid enough. Trump even tried to use the complaint against Biden in the campaign last year.

“Sucker Punch”

“It was a punch in the Obama years in this case – you say ‘we don’t want a big stimulus, we don’t want a big stimulus,'” then two years later you accused the administration of not leading the economy. back, said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans. “It’s called snooker.”

Clyburn, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other Congressional Democrats met with Biden and Harris in the White House on Feb. 5 to discuss the stimulus. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Pelosi and Clyburn said they are confident a bill can be passed in mid-March, when the increased benefit is expected to expire.

So far, Biden’s liberal allies say they are encouraged by the president’s stance and believe he is not inclined to cede too much ground to Republicans.

“The key question underlying the whole struggle is: Did Democrats learn the proper lesson from the Obama years?” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Going bold is always popular and ideas that go slowly are always a bad idea.”

– With the assistance of Daniel Flatley