Democrats Strike a Deal, Pass $3.5 Trillion Budget Blueprint

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Democrats got it done Tuesday,
striking a deal that cleared the way for passage of their $3.5
trillion budget resolution and set up an infrastructure vote —
along with some possible further infighting — next
month. It’s also a sad day, as we note the death of Rolling Stones
drumming great Charlie Watts. Here's what's going
on.

House Passes $3.5 Trillion Budget After Pelosi, Centrists
Strike a Deal

The House on Tuesday adopted a $3.5 trillion budget
resolution, taking a major step toward enacting President Biden’s
ambitious economic agenda that calls for increased spending on
education, health care and renewable energy.

The 220-212 vote along partisan lines followed days of
negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and a group of
centrist Democrats who threatened to withhold their support unless
the House voted first on a different piece of legislation, the $1
trillion infrastructure package passed on a bipartisan basis in the
Senate earlier this month.

Pelosi struck a deal with the centrist holdouts, led by
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), to allow the vote on the budget
resolution to proceed, agreeing to hold a House vote on the
bipartisan infrastructure bill on or before September 27 in
exchange for the moderate’s support of the budget
resolution.

The deadline is technically non-binding, but Pelosi said
she plans to stick to it. “I am committing to pass the bipartisan
infrastructure bill by September 27,” Pelosi said Tuesday. “I do so
with a commitment to rally House Democratic support for its
passage.”

Unlocking reconciliation – and potential
headaches: The passage of the budget resolution
unlocks the reconciliation process, which Democrats plan to use to
pass Biden’s agenda with simple majorities, bypassing a Senate
filibuster that could kill the bill.

But the agreement threatens to break the “two-track” link
Pelosi has established between the bipartisan infrastructure bill,
which has relatively broad support, and the reconciliation bill,
which faces a more difficult path, with Democrats needing to
resolve internal disagreements over the size of the
package.

Although Pelosi wants to advance the two bills together in
order to maximize internal unity and minimize dissent, Democrats
will have a tough time completing the sprawling reconciliation bill
before September 27. If the bipartisan infrastructure bill passes
on that date, Democrats could then face potentially crippling
infighting over the size of the reconciliation bill, with moderates
pushing for substantial reductions in spending.

Progressives send a message: On the
heels of Tuesday’s successful vote, a group of liberal Democrats
signaled their intention to stick to Pelosi’s plan, with a focus on
passing the larger — and in their eyes, more important —
reconciliation bill first.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus, which has nearly 100 members, released a
statement saying, “Our position remains unchanged: we will work to
first pass the Build Back Better reconciliation bill so we can
deliver these once-in-a-generation, popular, and urgently needed
investments to poor and working families, and then pass the
infrastructure bill to invest in our roads, bridges, and
waterways.”

The bottom line: Democrats took a big
step toward passing Biden’s agenda Tuesday, but the process leading
up to the vote suggests there could be more conflict ahead, and a
very difficult path to negotiate for Democratic leaders this
fall.

Poll of the Day: Covid Is Once Again Americans’ Top
Concern

The Covid-19 pandemic is once again Americans’ top
concern, according to a new Gallup poll. Just over a quarter of
those surveyed (26%) cited the coronavirus or diseases as the
nation’s most important problem, up from 8% in June and 12% in July
but well below the 45% in April 2020.

The poll also found that satisfaction with the way things
are going in the country has fallen 7 percentage points since July
to 23%, the lowest since President Joe Biden took office. “Not long
ago, Americans largely thought the worst of the pandemic was behind
them, and they were more satisfied with the direction of the
country than they had been at any time since March 2020 when the
pandemic began,” Gallup’s Megan Brenan
writes. “Now, as the delta variant continues to
spread and COVID-19 cases are surging, Americans' satisfaction has
declined.”

One note: The survey of 1,006 adults was conducted from August 2
to 17, largely prior to the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from
Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power there, meaning that
satisfaction with the way things are going may have already fallen
even lower.

Vaccination rates climbing too: The daily number of
people getting their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine has risen by
more than 70% since mid-July, climbing from about 260,000 to about
450,000, the White House said Tuesday.

Doctor group calls for vaccine mandates: Also on
Tuesday, the American Medical Association called for the public and
private sectors to mandate vaccination. Their statement comes a day
after the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer
vaccine. “The simple fact is unless a significant percentage of our
population is vaccinated against COVID-19 – we could be stuck
fighting this virus for many more months or even years to come,"
AMA President Gerald Harmon said in a statement. "Now is the time
for the public and private sectors to come together, listen to the
science, and mandate vaccination."

Quote of the Day

“Delta came along, and it's almost like we have a new
pandemic now. Everything we thought we knew about covid-19 has to
be revised. … I think we're in a world of trouble for at least the
next couple of months, but exactly what the shape of that trouble
looks like, I can’t tell you.”

– Francis Collins, director of the National
Institutes of Health, in an interview with
The Washington Post.

Number of the Day: 38%

The Department of Housing and Urban Development says that the
monthly Child Tax Credit payments being delivered to millions of
families through the end of the year will increase the average
monthly income for families receiving its housing aid by almost
38%, according to an analysis obtained by
The Hill.

“The average monthly income for HUD-assisted families with
children is approximately $1,460, or $8,760 over six months. On
average, Advance Child Tax Credit payments will increase monthly
income by $550 among these families,” the report by analysts
Veronica Helms Garrison and Janet Li says, according to The
Hill.

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