Biden Orders Government to Get Smarter, Faster

DC: U.S. Congress, Senators Arrive
Graeme Sloan
By Yuval Rosenberg

Happy Monday, and a very happy
birthday to readers who are celebrating today! Here's what's going
on:

Manchin Again Raises Red Flags About Biden Bill

It’s Joe Time. That’s Joe as in Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is
once again the center of attention on Capitol Hill as Democrats
hope to pass their Build Back Better plan of social and climate
programs before Christmas. Manchin’s continued objections to the
plan, which he raised again on Monday ahead of a planned
conversation about the legislation with President Joe Biden, likely
mean it’s not yet go time for Democrats.

"We have basically 49 of us in agreement to move forward. So we
have one colleague we're continuing to work with, and he's been
successful at making a number of changes. And so hopefully he'll be
joining us," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), according to

NBC News.

Manchin on Monday didn’t close the door on passing the bill this
month, but he suggested that Congress can improve the legislation
and raised a slew of concerns about its content and possible
effects. Manchin said he’s increasingly worried about fueling
inflation and raising the national debt, adding that lawmakers
should also consider the potential need for resources to counter
Russia and China.

“Inflation is real,” Manchin told reporters. “It’s not
transitory. It’s alarming. It’s going up, not down. And I think we
should be more concerned about geopolitical fallout.” A government
report last week showed inflation reached a 39-year high in
November.

Manchin also said he’s worried about the way Democrats have
structured the bill, lowering costs by making some programs
temporary. Manchin said that “whatever Congress is considering
doing we should do it within the limits of what we can afford. …
Whatever we raise, I want to ensure there’s money going towards
paying down debt, we have to start taking care of our debt and be
responsible.”

Republicans and budget hawks have been hammering what they decry
as budget gimmicks used in the bill, and the Congressional Budget
Office last week said in an analysis requested by Sen. Lindsey
Graham (R-SC) that making temporary programs in the package
permanent would add $3 trillion to deficits if lawmakers don’t also
raise new revenue. The White House and top Democrats have called
that CBO report a “fake score” since it doesn’t reflect the
legislation as written, and they insist that any extension of
sunsetting programs would be fully financed and won’t add to the
debt. Manchin, however, called the CBO’s latest analysis “very
sobering."

Machin said he’d be talking with Biden later in the afternoon or
evening. “We’re going to talk about exactly what happened on Friday
with the CBO score and inflation reports and things of that sort,”
he said.

After the conversation, he told reporters that the two
talked about “different iterations” of the bill.

Biden and Machin reportedly also spoke last week, with the
president telling the West Virginia senator he needs his vote. “But
Manchin conveyed to the President that he was not there yet and
expressed deep concerns about the size and scope of the
legislation,” CNN
reports. Ahead of their expected call on Monday,
Biden declined to lay out what he would tell Manchin this time, but
he told reporters that his general approach when speaking to
lawmakers is to “convince them that what I’m proposing makes sense
and it’s not inconsistent with what they believe.”

Manchin up until now has resisted that message.

Changes coming: As the Senate works on changes to the
House version of the bill, a provision guaranteeing four weeks of
paid family and medical leave is reportedly likely to be cut
because Manchin opposes it. Democrats also have to decide how to
modify the House’s $80,000 cap on the deductibility of state and
local taxes. They’re reportedly looking at changing their 15%
corporate minimum tax to ensure it doesn’t undercut tax incentives
elsewhere in the bill. And a tax on nicotine and vaping products
will reportedly be cut due to opposition from Sen. Catherine Cortez
Masto (D-NV) and others who say it’s regressive.

The expanded monthly child tax credit of $250 to $300 per child
enacted in March as part of the American Rescue Plan is set to end
this month unless lawmakers extend it. The Democratic bill would
keep the payments going for one more year.

What’s next: Democrats have less than two weeks to meet
their Christmas deadline, and several important aspects of the bill
are still being negotiated and the Senate parliamentarian is still
reviewing some parts of the package. Lawmakers also have to lift
the debt ceiling, which they plan to do this week, and pass the
annual defense policy bill. That all means Democrats don’t have
much time to reach agreement on some contentious issues and ensure
they can get the 50 votes they need in the Senate.

The bottom line: Some Senate Democrats reportedly expect
the bill will be delayed until next year. “Even Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer privately acknowledges passing the bill before
January is a very ambitious goal,” one senior Senate aide told

Axios. A more realistic timeframe may be early
February, ahead of Biden’s first State of the Union address.

Biden Orders Government to Get Smarter and Faster

President Biden signed an executive order Monday that aims to
improve the delivery of government services, including everything
from the way Americans get passports and move through airport
security to how they sign up for Social Security and Medicare
benefits.

The executive order directs 17 agencies to focus on 36 “customer
experiences” provided by the government that need to be improved.
In comments at the White House, Biden said the goal is “to ensure
that the federal government puts you, the American people, at the
front of the line.”

“You’ll see better technology to speed the security lines and
wait times at our national airports, make filing and refunds with
the IRS more rapid,” Biden said at the White House. “And for
disaster aid … and to student loans — the list goes on. The bottom
line is we’re going to make the government work more effectively
for the American citizens so it’s not as confusing.”

Modernizing access and delivery of popular services will help
rebuild confidence in the government, Biden said. “The bottom line
is we're going to make the government work more effectively ... so
it's not as confusing and it's straightforward,” he said. “This
will go a long way to restoring faith in government, and I know it
sounds like a simple thing, but I think it's pretty
consequential.”

Some details: The streamlining effort, which will be run
by the Office of Management and Budget, sets out specific goals,
including:

* the ability to claim Social Security benefits online;

* online tools for Medicare beneficiaries to help manage
individual health care spending;

* the ability to schedule call-backs from the IRS;

* better online tools for filing taxes and receiving
refunds;

* streamlined and centralized applications for disaster
relief;

* online passport renewal;

* better technology to speed screening at airports;

* centralizing student loan payments at a single portal,
StudentAid.gov;

* reducing paperwork for student loan forgiveness;

* centralized benefit management for military veterans;

* centralized signup for federal benefits for low-income
families;

* the use of USA.gov as a centralized and streamlined
“digital Federal front door” for all benefits and
programs.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that
the actions will take six to 12 months to implement.

Number of the Day: 1 in 100

As the U.S. closes in on 800,000 deaths from Covid-19, here’s a
sobering statistic: The pandemic has killed 1% of all Americans
aged 65 and over.

Older people account for 75% of Covid deaths, a total of about
600,000,
The New York Times reports. Currently, about 1,200
people are dying from Covid every day, and the majority are over
65. The virus is now the third biggest killer of those of
retirement age, behind only heart disease and cancer.

Also on Monday, we learned that the U.S. has passed 50 million
recorded cases of Covid-19, according to widely used tracking data
at Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has one of the highest
per-capita rates of recorded Covid-19 in the world, and cases are
once again rising, with about 120,000 new cases per day.

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