Pelosi Plows Ahead With Plan to Break
Dem Stalemate
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are plowing ahead with
plans to vote on both a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill
and a broader, multitrillion-dollar package to expand the social
safety net, rushing to show progress on President Joe Biden’s
economic agenda even as key elements of it are still being
negotiated.
The urgency is driven by Pelosi’s promise to a renegade group of
centrist Democrats that she’d hold a vote by September 27 on the
“hard infrastructure” legislation passed by the Senate six weeks
ago — a deadline complicated by progressive demands that Congress
act first on the still unfinished “reconciliation” package of
social spending, climate programs and tax hikes on the wealthy and
corporations.
Pelosi said Friday that she will indeed bring up the
infrastructure package as promised. “It will come up on Monday,"
she
told reporters.
Progressives aren’t backing down, though. “It cannot pass,” Rep.
Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive
Caucus, said Friday. “I don't bluff, I don't grandstand. We just
don't have the votes for it.”
Pelosi is looking to change that and win over recalcitrant
progressives by pressing to advance the reconciliation package.
House Democrats on Friday released the full, 2,465-page
legislative text of the package, which the Budget
Committee is set to consider on Saturday. And Pelosi announced that
she’s hoping to bring the legislation to the floor sometime next
week. “Have a little patience. Follow it. See it unfold,” she said
at a Friday press conference. “We’re very encouraged.”
Biden, though, acknowledged to reporters Friday that Democrats
are at a “stalemate” on the bill, saying that while he still
expects to sign both bills into law, they would take time to get
done. "This is a process and it's going to be up and down," Biden
said.
Biden says cost of his Build Back Better plan will be
‘zero’: Both Biden and Pelosi have sought to center discussion
on the substance of that package rather than its price tag, trying
to clarify which elements Democrats can unite behind and which
will have to be cut to ensure the support of their
more conservative members.
“Every element of my economic plan is overwhelmingly popular —
overwhelmingly popular,” Biden told reporters Friday, adding that
he’s urged lawmakers to forget the topline number and focus on the
plans they think should be pursued.
He also emphasized that the new spending in the reconciliation
bill would be fully paid for. “We’re going to pay for everything we
spend,” he said, adding, “Every time I hear, ‘This is going to cost
A, B, C, or D,’ the truth is, based on the commitment that I made,
it’s going to cost nothing because we’re going to raise the revenue
to pay for the things we’re talking about.”
But getting Democratic consensus on the substance of the bill
may not be any easier than reaching agreement on a topline number.
One example: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Thursday that Democrats
“need to stabilize” Medicare’s finances before they look to expand
it.
“By 2026, you understand the trust fund is going to be
insolvent,” Manchin said Thursday, according to
The Hill. “I want to make sure we are stabilizing
what we have before we start going down this expansion role.” That
again puts Manchin at odds with Senate Budget Committee Chair
Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has pushed to add dental, vision and
hearing coverage to the health care plan for older Americans.
While health care provisions in the budget package are a major
area of disagreement for Democrats, they are far from the only
sticking point. Those differences will be hard, if not impossible,
to resolve before next week, meaning that any budget reconciliation
package that’s brought to a vote in the House would still be
subject to significant modifications. “As negotiations continue,
there may be changes,” Pelosi told colleagues in a letter
Friday.
That, in turn, will make progressives less likely to buy into
the speaker’s plan. "It's not going to give us any comfort to pass
a bill that then the Senate [defeats]," Jayapal
said. "That doesn't satisfy our requirements." And
moderates reportedly may not support a vote on the reconciliation
bill until it’s clear what can get through the Senate.
The bottom line: Democrats, as Biden said, are still at a
stalemate, and it’s far from clear if they can break it by next
week.
Biden Says He Backs Tax on Billionaires’ Wealth
In what would be a major change in the U.S. tax code, which
typically does not impose taxes on investment gains until the
underlying assets are sold, President Biden said Friday that he
supports a proposal to tax billionaires’ unrealized capital gains
on an annual basis.
Asked about Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden’s (D-OR)
plan to levy a “billionaire’s income tax” on the wealthiest
American households, Biden told reporters at the White House that
he backs such a tax as part of his effort to offset the cost of his
ambitious social spending plans. “I support a lot of these
proposals,” Biden said. “We don’t need all of the things I support
to pay for this, but I do support that.”
On Thursday, after the White House released an analysis showing
that the wealthiest 400 households in the U.S. paid an effective
federal income tax rate of about 8.2% if unrealized capital gains
are treated as income, Wyden spoke in favor of his tax
proposal.
“Instituting a Billionaire’s Income Tax would go a long way
toward creating one fair tax code, rather than one that’s mandatory
for working people and another that’s optional for the fortunate
few,” Wyden said in a statement.
Wyden and other Democratic tax reformers point out that billions
of dollars in capital wealth goes untaxed in the U.S. thanks to the
absence of taxes on unrealized gains and the step-up in basis for
inheritances, which eliminates capital gains as assets are
transferred to heirs.
The wealth tax proposal is not currently part of the House tax
plan, but it is on the “menu” of options Democrats are choosing
from as they look for ways to pay for Biden’s social spending plan,
which could amount to as much as $3.5 trillion over 10 years.
According to Bloomberg News Friday, the 100 richest Americans
have gained $469 billion in wealth so far this year, and now have a
total net worth of roughly $3 trillion.
Debt Limit ‘X-Date’ Could Be as Early as
October 15: Analysis
Unless Congress raises or suspends the debt ceiling beforehand,
the ‘X Date’ — the day on which the U.S. Treasury will be unable to
meet all of its obligations — is expected to arrive between October
15 and November 4, according to the latest analysis from the
Bipartisan Policy Center.
“No one can be certain of the X Date, but we know it’s coming
within a matter of weeks,” Shai Akabas, BPC’s director of economic
policy, said in a statement. “The U.S. government risks missing or
delaying critical bills that will come due in mid- and late-October
that millions of Americans rely on, from military paychecks and
retirement benefits to advanced child tax credit payments.”
After the X Date, the Treasury would be unable to pay about 40%
of its bills, BPC said, based on an
analysis of daily cash flows. “Crossing the X Date
would be unprecedented,” Akabas said. “At that point, Treasury
would be left with an array of highly unattractive and risk-filled
options.”
The BPC estimate aligns with the projections provided by
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who warned earlier this month that
the Treasury would run out of sufficient funds at some point in
October if Congress fails to act.
Chart of the Day
From
The Washington Post:
Number of the Day: $425,000
The Republican-led recount of more than 2 million presidential
votes in Arizona has cost taxpayers at least $425,000, according to
Arizona Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl. The final cost is expected
to be significantly higher once all the expenses are in, and some
reports say the cost has already climbed over $3 million. The
accounting is a little tricky though, since private groups aligned
with former President Donald Trump have raised over $5 million to
help pay for some of the recount process.
Whatever the final financial cost, the results are clear enough.
Despite the best efforts of Trump’s supporters to bring the
election into question, the recount shows that Joe Biden won
Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, by 45,469 votes
— which is 360 more votes than recorded during the
first tally.